Facebook Fantasy

 A couple months back, I received a FB message from Mark A. Nelson (legendary comic and SF&F illustrator) telling me a student of his brought Fantasy Genesis into his class for a drawing assignment.  Mark and I exchanged books, he gave me this brilliant chiaroscuro drawing of a beetle that will remain a treasure to me beyond words, but I gave his student a silly little sketch for bringing Mark and I together, for a potential tutorial book project.  In any case, Mark's student, Vi Nguyen not only rolled and sketched these beautiful couple of Creatures from Fantasy Genesis, but she took that silly sketch of mine and did a Brilliant digital piece from it!!

Gracious thanks Vi, so glad you were able to have fun with my Drawing Game, and with Maestro Nelson as your Professor, the world would do well to look out for you when graduation day comes around.. =) Stay Tuned !!

A good days Creating..

There are days when I'm sketching or painting, that I'm so caught up in the work, there's little that can distract me.  I'll look up at the clock, it's nearing 4am, and even though I'm desperate in wanting to finish alla prima (or alla weeka), I'll look down at the piece and reluctantly sigh at putting in a good day of creating..  Now that I'm teaching, it's a bit different, and a bit of the same..  Most of the sessions when I'm working with students interactively on their projects, things need to be done in that session, in order to give them enough time for final execution.  The other day after getting back to the apartment, shedding all the apparatus of modern life, thankful that I'm paying rent, and looking down at my day, I noticed the two Tombow pencils I'd brought with me staring up; Reliable, Trusty and blunted stubs.. I sighed at a good days creating, before I re-sharpened to start again..  and  no, "Trusty and Blunted" isn't a name I danced under.. =)  Stay tuned..

Shadowcore Illustration

Opportunity is an odd thing.. Rare, wonderful, but can hold a shock to it that takes a while to dissipate. This element of surprising opportunity has been crawling up the sides of me wig lately.  We're never quite sure when or if certain opportunities will be flipped our way, or whether or not we'll be able to flip them back to others, but there seems to be a constant of surprise when it does come around?  I like to think of this somewhat familiar sensation, a combo of both fear and joy, as Shunryu Suzuki's "Beginner's mind", like the very first time you ever experienced something..

There's yet another constant in that opportunity can snowball in sequence like big clumps of snowflakes that collect as they fall, Opportunity snowflakes.? Well, in any case, that's what has been happening this week!  Along with passing an opportunity from the PNCA on to my buddy Arkady Roytman, I've started contributing to a new Illustration Blog!  Mr. Craig Spearing; excellent digital SF&F illustrator, good friend, and creator of this wickedly rendered creature (influenced through Fantasy Genesis) has recently formed a team of illustrators for a blog called SHADOWCORE.  I'm proudly part of this wild group of talent, and encourage you all to check it on out !! Stay Tuned !!