Temporarily Faceless

WARNING: Rant.

**The following rant is based on recent false and totally unfair claims made by an anonymous person regarding my artwork on Facebook, which subsequently resulted in said Facebook account being disabled.  Reader discretion is advised.

Apparently someone had an issue with some of the artwork I've posted on my Facebook account, and so... without checking the claims for validity, giving me fair warning, or any notification at all, they have disabled my account.  I only found out when I tried to log on.  Yeah... rude.  So... I am in the process of disputing this, and hope to have it back up asap.

*heavy sigh*

It seems that if someone/anyone makes a claim that artwork is obscene or offensive... which violates the 'Rules & Standards' of Facebook, it gets the chopping block without question and apparently, without even investigating the claim.  I would laugh at all this if I wasn't so frustrated and pissed off with them.  It doesn't seem right that any person could make such a claim as this, without Facebook at least first checking for themselves, but that's the way it is, I s'pose.  Anyone who has seen my work knows that this claim is complete bogus.  I just hope this headache will be resolved quickly.  Until then...  you can still follow my art posts here.

Sorry 'bout this.

Untitled

Just a touch up on a painting I did a while back... because I felt like it.  ;)

16" x 20" oil on masonite.

Whoa!

 Here's my finished painting for the Frazetta Tribute Exhibition being held at Gallery Provocateur scheduled for March in Chicago, IL.  Now I shall commence with the nail-biting wait to find out from a jury of awesome people in the world of fantasy art (of which I very much wish to be a part of) to see if I'm in.  Did I mention they are AWESOME?  hehehe 

Jury panel consists of:

Jon Schindehette, Creative Art Director of Wizards of the Coast

Simon Bisley, Master Artist

Paul Hellard, Editor CG Society & Assistant Editor Ballistic Publishing

Gerald Brom, Master Artist

Arnie & Cathy Fenner, Publishers of Spectrum Fantastic Art Books

Veronica Kotlajic, Curator of Gallery Provocateur & Art Muse

Art page now on Facebook!

Here's the linky dink!

The dragon is in the details...

Hello, my peeps!  So here's a close up of one of the head studies I made of a dragon I've been working on.  This version is a detailed sketch done in pencil.  The finished piece is being inked on hot press illustration board, and will be posted as soon as it's finished.

Frazetta Tribute submission piece - painting begins...

Phase 1 (approx. an hour's worth at this point) of my painting submission for the Frazetta Tribute Exhibition.  16" x 20" oil on masonite.  Actually, before I started sorta blocking things in, I primed my board with gesso (this seals the board), then I laid down a ground of burnt sienna, yellow ochre and some white over that.  (A ground color gives you a nice middle value to start with, and gets rid of all that daunting white space... an Old Master's technique.)  After the ground was down and semi-dry, I began laying things out... so I guess this is more like phase 3.  :P

Below is a pic of it next to the sketch.  I tried getting a decent photo, but you know.. when things are wet, tis a difficult thing to do.



Frazetta Tribute Exhibition submission - sketch

So this is what I'm working on for my submission for the Frank Frazetta Tribute Exhibition, held in December at the Gallery Provocateur in Chicago, IL.  This was just a quick snapshot to give a general peep at what I'm doing. I'll be sure to post more as it progresses. Anyhoo... any artists out there who are interested in participating, as well, should click on the link I've provided to get all the details on submitting.

Frank Frazetta was an amazing illustrator whose work captured my imagination as a young girl, and still inspires me to this day. Frazetta's talent set the bar for contemporary fantasy art. He passed away on May 10th of this year at the age of 82 after suffering a stroke the night before.

I got some art in Sci-Fi Magazine!

 

Today an issue of Sci-Fi Magazine came out with an article on the Museum of Mythical History featuring a drawing by yours truly!  Unfortunately, for some strange reason, Sci-Fi decided to purposely remove the names of the contributing artists... self included.  However, steps are being taken to rectify this situation, as the image is not public domain.  I'll keep ya posted as things progress.  In the mean time...  go see it for yourself!  Page 11  :)

Octopus sketch

Wowza!  Guess it's been longer than I realized since my last post.  Time sure flies when you have a lot going on in a short window of time, I s'pose.  Anywho... here's another sketch for your perusing pleasure.  Or not.

Summertime = water.  Water = octopus.  Right?  Right.

PS - Forgive the poor cropping job and small size.  I kinda posted this in a hurry.

Face sketcherdoodle

A quick late night sketch... or early morning sketch... depends on what you consider 4:30am.

Random doodle

A quick doodle I did today on the back of a scrap piece of paper (didn't have my sketchbook on me - gasp!).  Oh, well... it was only about 8-10 minutes worth of drawing so...  

This is one of those random moments when something just needed to come out and say hi, so I found the nearest piece of paper and started playing.  Capricorn is not my sign, but who cares... it was fun to sketch out.

Elf sketcheroo

Yeah, one eye is pale on purpose.  ;)

Horse thingy

Hey all, I've been keeping busy, but have been bad at posting lately.  Here's a WIP of a recent composite creature.  More as progress continues.  I'll get some color on here soon, as well.  ;)

As with all my posts... they can be enlarged with just a clicky-click of the mouse.

Birthdays are sweet!

For my great friend, Pete, Happy Birthday!!!!!

CHEERS!

My Mythical Magical Historical Minotaur

Here's a critter concept that will soon be used by the Museum of Mythical History to promote it's new online virtual museum.  Plans are in the works for an actual, physical museum in the future.  Special thanks to its creator, William Hammock, for the opportunity to have my art contribute towards promoting his vision.

Note:  Although the site is up now, at this time it is still undergoing construction.

Demon Assassin Girl - color

So, because I really wanted to participate in this weeks ArtOrder character challenge, but was incredibly limited in time, (boooo!) I decided to add a little color to my Demon Assassin girl with watercolor.  I'm leaving for LA tomorrow morning (provided I don't have to swim there due to the massive storm both LA and Tucson are experiencing right now) and won't be back until late Sunday night, so I've submitted her early.

Demon Assassin Girl

This is my sketch of a female Assassin Devil for the next challenge on ArtOrder.  There are a few minor adjustments I plan to make in order to have this character fit the description more accurately... (i.e. making the cloak more cloak-like and posing the face so that I can switch the mask to the other side of the face - oops!).  At the time I sketched this out I didn't have the description in front of me.  I initially just wanted to layout what was coming to me - sort of like artistic brainstorming.

Here's the actual art description:

• 6' tall
• Devilish humanoid
• Female
• Indigo skin
• Unappealing face w/ left half covered by frightening iron mask that looks like a demonic face
• 2 horns
• Lithe but muscular
• Wears dark leather armor w/ iron parts that resemble demonic body parts (iron pauldrom w/ iron horns sprouting from it)
• Wears a cloak made of shadows and darkness
• Wields a black longsword made of shadowstuff
• Has devil feet (reference provided on ArtOrder)
• Has a dour look on her face
• Holds sword at the ready
• Vignette image on white background

The finished piece is due this Sunday by noon, so check back to see it then.

Best of ArtOrder submission

Here he is, your friendly neighborhood Krampus critter... well, maybe not so friendly.  When he's finished, I'll be submitting him as a candidate for inclusion to the Best of ArtOrder book challenge.  The book is being organized and published via Senior Art Director, Jon Schindehette, of Dungeons and Dragons - Wizards of the Coast.  I hope Krampus makes a positive and lasting impression on the powers that be.  *crosses fingers*

This painting is also being submitted to the Spectrum fantasy art annual jury, which I hope will also bring good results.  Spectrum is an art annual that provides a showcase for contemporary fantasy artists.  I would be ever so happy if I could see Krampus on the pages of either of these books.  I have such a fire and drive for this stuff, and I LOVE coming up with creatures! I'm just hoping someone will give me that break I need to prove my mettle.  So for now, I'll be waiting with bated breath.  :)

Now it's on to my ArtOrder Assassin demon-girl and Beautiful Grim projects.

Beautiful Grim WIP

So here is the sketched pose I decided to go with for my Beautiful Grim contribution, as well as the WIP (graphite and charcoal on grey Canson paper).  And it's definitely still a WIP, as you can see.

To find out more about this wonderful fundraiser, please click on here.  The Beautiful Grim event is being organized by Mythic Entertainment concept artist/illustrator Daarken and Dreamworks animator Leif Jeffers.

I'll be posting more as the work progresses.  The deadline for this is February 1st, 2010.  This is one of several different pieces I'm working on right now (as mentioned in my previous post).  I tend to rotate between pieces when I'm working on several at a time.  This not only helps keep me from getting bored or frustrated with working on the same piece, but it also helps me to keep a fresh eye on the work in front of me.  When I work on the same piece continually, I seem to be more prone to get artist's block.  I've found that rotating helps me to avoid that.

Happy New Year!

I've sorta been on hiatus for the holidays, but as of today I've resumed working to finish up several projects I've got lined up, (which are all due this month).

1. Best of ArtOrder - Annual art book.

2. Spectrum - Fantasy art annual.

3. Beautiful Grim - Art fundraiser.

4. Museum of Mythical History

Keep an eye out for new work to be posted soon.  In the meantime, I'll do my best to put up sketches when I can.

Cheers!

=)