Thursday, December 27, 2012

LYCANTHROPES!!! pt 2

Fianna

And to close out 2012, here are the other 8 of my Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th Anniversary job.  All in all, I really enjoyed this revisit with my old garou tribe friends.  This was all familiar and comfortable territory for me but with the excitement of applying eight or nine more years of further-developed illustration skills. Here's hoping the book is a smashing success for my friends at WhiteWolf!

Notice in each piece (including the eight in the previous post) the totem animal or spirit on nature.  Shadowlords is Grandfather Thunder and Wendigo is a cold bitter northern wind spirit but otherwise, they all have specific-looking creatures as a totem animal.  Black Furies' totem animal was not included only because I seemed to have made a jpg out of the version that doesn't have the digitally inlaid pegasus.

Get of Fenris

Black Furies

Bone Gnawers
(I modeled the adidas high tops after my favorite pair from high school.  Sans the duct tape.)

Bunyip
(A forum commenter helped guide me to the right shape boomerang here - this one being more for hunting and killing)

Children of Gaia

Croatan
(This one had a couple reworks to keep her out of the stereotype "Pocahontas" look.  More difficult to do than you'd think!)

Glasswalkers

Thursday, December 13, 2012

LYCANTHROPES!!! pt 1

Silverfangs

As I alluded to with my Werewolf:The Apocalypse 20th Anniversary post over on my Draw-Blog, Here are some of the final portraits I did for the series. Eight of 16 to be exact. This was a fun revisiting with the company and game that opened the door to the world of fantasy gaming illustration for me. Rendering werewolves became second nature to me for a good 6, 7, 8 years of my early career.

Red Talons


The muscle memory for drawing anthropomorphized wolves doesn't get rusty for long - even when I'm NOT doing work for White Wolf. I have had to apply that skill to Magic:The Gathering (Innistrad) as well as to World of Warcraft and Dungeons and Dragons.  Given, I draw and paint plenty of other stuff in between, but I haven't gotten tired of illustrating werewolves or creatures that have werewolf-like features like gnolls n' such.


Speaking of gnolls, I may have to post a Dragon Magazine Online piece I did featuring the demon Yeenoghu.  Maybe after these.....


Silent Striders


White Howlers

This was an interesting project in that the art director was posting the sketches as I turned them in to get fans excited and also to get feedback from the fans.  At first, that was kind of off-putting to me.  I listen to my art director but suddenly there was a slew of non-artists and non-art directors chiming in.  It took a little bit to swallow but then I realized that almost all of the comments were very constructive and I actually found myself enthusiastic about the responses and the input.  In several cases, somebody with some otherwise trivial knowledge of something would chime in and I'd apply that little detail. Other times, the comment would be understandable but mostly attributed to that person's personal taste and as we all know, art can never please everyone.  

Wendigo
(Ooooo!  A chance to ape Pacific Northwest Indian design! Score!)

Shadowlords

StarGazers
(My daughter's favorite one!)

Uktena
(Can't resist the chance to use traditional Hopi hairstyle when I can!)




Thursday, December 6, 2012

Holiday Specials for you to buy!


Wondering what to get your significant other for Christmas?  How about the original Magic:the Gathering artwork for Kor Line-Slinger from the Zendikar set?  How about mom?  Wouldn't she love the original painting for Nearheath Stalker depicting a bloody-faced vampire sneaking out of a room in which he just slaughtered a half dozen unwilling hemoglobin donors? The answer, of course, is YES - and today is your lucky day!

I have four framed Magic:the Gathering paintings taking up space in my studio and they sure could use a good home.  Here's what they are:

Upper Left:  "Might of Alara"  9x12 acrylic on bristol paper  - $200
Upper Right:  "Kor Line-Slinger"  9x12 acrylic on bristol paper  - $300
Lower Left:  "Nearheath Stalker"  9x12 acrylic on bristol paper  - $400
Lower Right:  "Rampaging Baloths"  9x12 acrylic on bristol paper  - $400


With the purchase of any of the above framed original paintings you get for free a signed Magic: the Gathering Artist Proof of that piece and a copy of my art book: AGGREGATE along with a signed original pencil drawing of a Christmas elf on the title page!  How can you beat that?  Unless somewhere you can get Legos 80% off, you can't.


Contact me at steve2@rottface.com if you're interested in any of the paintings here - or if there are any you might be interested in that are NOT pictured here.  Or, of course, if you're just interested in getting a copy of the book only!  Happy Holidays, y'all!