Tapped Out Games - 2011 Championship Flier

Here's the flier the local store's Championship event that I designed & sketched. Based on Pete Venter's Flametongue Kavu illustration for Magic the Gathering it incorporates some figures of pro wrestling.

October's Pauper Game Day Flier!

Here's the flier for next month's Pauper Game Day. Normally this isn't something I'd post but given the specialness of October's event I decided it would be worth sharing. With Halloween the following week I thought it only fitting that the tokens and the flier for the event be fitting of the season. I'm a big fan of the B-movies from the 50s, 60s, & 70s that MST3k would always make fun of and I wanted to mimic some of the movie posters from that era. Enjoy!

Artifact Creature Token - WIP Update

Here's an updated image of the latest Pauper token I've been working on. I wanted to get as far as I could on it before heading out on vacation so I wouldn't have too much to do other than tweaking colors and the printing itself to deal with when I got back. As you can see I went with the inked version instead of the more painted version I alluded to in my previous post. I worked on that for a few days and was finding it difficult to really push the colors I wanted. Because of the grayscale underpainting I developed, most of the colors were coming out muddy and I opted to go with this for now and try to revisit that approach at a later point when I have more time to explore it. I'm probably about 85% done with this one and I've got one main element I want to add in as a finishing touch so I should be able to knock that out fairly easily when I return. Enjoy!

Artifact Creature Token - WIP

Working on the next token for this month's Pauper event. With Scars of Mirrodin coming up I wanted to have something that fit into that heavy metallic realm. Like my recent entry to MTG Salvation art contest, this piece is going to be a bit more painted than my normal inked cartoon work. I'm enjoying working in this style and hope I can continue to explore it with future pieces.

In some respects this is very much like some of the work I did in college with charcoal. I had an awesome professor by the name of Kell Black who did amazing large scale pieces with charcoal and conte crayon. Working this way in Photoshop is very similar minus the charcoal saturated boogers you'd ultimately have after a project. :)

Godzilla vs Eldrazi

Here's my entry for this month's art contest on MTG Salvation.com. It came together fairly quickly. Rather than ink and color the piece in my traditional cartoon fashion I wanted to explore the more rendered technique I've been experimenting with lately. It's more in line with how I worked traditionally before I made the move to digital and it's something I'd like to do more of but maybe on a smaller scale until I have a better grasp of it overall. Big thanks to Brandon Dayton as some of his custom brushes that were very helpful in making this piece.

Here are a few in progress screen caps I took while working on the piece:

Rough Pencils

Mid-way through the colors.

Wookies vs Ewoks - WIP

Here's something I started yesterday and am still developing the color on. I just think the concept is funny. It can be really challenging when you've got something you want to share. This started out as a quick little doodle in a notebook and as I was inking it more ideas came to me on how to make it better. More elaborate. There are still things I want to explore but it entails a lot more work and I wanted to post something as a starting point just to get it out there. Enjoy!

Bear of a Day

What a day! Heading home with my head held high from a day of conquered errands my car dies. At a very busy intersection during rush hour. Then it rained. And rained. And rained some more. Roads flooded and by the time I got home from dropping off my car at the dealership we had lost power. No cable. No internet. Not even enough power in the laptop to last through a DVD. It was like living in the 1700's. Now I know why they went to bed so early. Suffice to say I'm sure the car can be fixed and I'm really glad I was able to get everything I needed to done early.

So in light of all this when power came back I fired up my favorite digital coloring book, cranked some tunes, and started doodling. Here are a few of the fruits of my therapy. They're not going to wow anyone. They are more exercises in a more painterly approach I am attempting. I'm happy with how that aspect came out at least. Until next time!