Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Eberron art wants a home!


Most people are inspired to go make artwork like crazy when they get back from a face-meltingly awesome visual feast like IlluxCon.  I guess I am, too - however, I was much more inspired to straighten up the epic chaos of my messy studio and reorganize a lot of the storage dilemmas I had going on in there.

My biggest problem with storage has become where to put all my artwork. Sure, I sell art now and again, but not nearly as fast as I am creating it.  The stuff is piling up quick.  This inspired me to maybe try and find a good home for some of my older stuff that I unearthed in the process.

Buried amidst a bargeload of artwork that had long since been retired from my GenCon convention array was a box of mostly artwork that I did for the D&D tangent world: Eberron. Back in 2003, I was invited out to Wizards of the Coast to work on conceptualizing this new world along with Dana Knutsen and Mark Tedin. When the Eberron books started getting commissioned out, I began doing a bunch of interior spot illustrations for them.

In a handful of years setting up shop at GenCon I have sold quite a few, but I still have some remaining.  Mind you, these are pretty old - from like 2004 and 2005, maybe as late as 2006. I paint differently now, much more confidently and with more seasoned results.  But these are still fun pieces - and if you're an Eberron fan or have any nostalgia for my mid-aughties interior art, perhaps you can provide a better home for some of these pieces than I can (which is a dusty file box in a dark corner of my studio!) Well, except for the big "Dragons of Eberron" wrap-around cover painting - that one hangs in our hallway but is nonetheless also for sale.

If you want to purchase anything you see here, send me an e-mail at: steve2@rottface.com
Price list key for everything you see here is below the pics.

Any purchases over $300 and I'll throw in an original Eberron sketch much like the one found HERE on my draw-blog!


A - The Forge (Where the warforged are born/created)  $150
B - Lhazaar Prince  $150
C - SOLD
D - SOLD

Warforged Pieces
E - Lord of Blades. Probably my fave of my Eberron interior spots. $350
F - Warforged paladin strikes! $200
G - SOLD
H - Warforged stops a charge. $250

Sarlona Pieces
I - SOLD
J - SOLD
K - Cloaked Sarlonan. $100

Black-n-White Pieces from the book: Dragons: World Afire:
L - SOLD
M - SOLD
N - SOLD

O - Dragons of Eberron book cover: $7000
This painting was reworked a few years after it was published because I needed a big piece in my booth at GenCon. The original version was nice enough but there was just a few little things that started to stick in my craw as it sat around my studio getting scrutinized daily so I touched up the dragon fortress, added the bronze dragon and changed a few other little details. The painting is acrylic 39.5x17 in a plain wood frame (would probably look nice in a better frame for sure). You buy this and I'll pay shipping and throw in a personalized copy of my book AGGREGATE for free.











Thursday, September 19, 2013

THEROS ART


Soon the first set in the Theros block will be released - so it's time to release a post about it on my blog here. Theros is Magic: the Gathering's Ancient Greece-inspired set for which Todd Lockwood, Eric Deschamps, Adam Paquette, Pete Morbacher, Richard Whitters, and I worked on the concept design phase.  I have a a nice chunk of cards coming out in Theros and the subsequent sets so here are the first in line along with the pencil roughs for each.

Above is probably my favorite out of all of them: "Prognostic Sphinx". Being a fan of planetariums and  the old representational drawings of constellations, this was a treat to work on. 
Below is an artifact card called: "Fleetfeather Sandals".  I don't often do artifact cards but I enjoyed this one.  The set specifically calls for bright colors and sun-drenched scenes so it forced me to play with bright sunlight and sharp shadows. I used a palette knife to texture that rock she's standing on there.


Next we have "Nessian Courser" - a centaur patrolling the forests of Theros. Pretty straight forward here. You'll notice I changed the tree behind the horse-dude from drawing to painting.  That's because at the time I had painted a lot of gnarly, crooked trees and I wanted to break out of that a little.  Yeah, in hindsight maybe the gnarly tree would have been a little more dynamic but I switched to a tree more representative of the set at least.


Lastly, we have another one I'm pretty pleased with: "Warrior's Lesson". You can read a little bit about some of my concept design tasks in one of the previous posts here but one of my jobs was to develop the looks of the humans in the three regions of Theros.  In regard to this card, I had to come up with a "green" tribe of Amazons and give them appropriate armor and design elements. I gave them bold, leather armor with thick straps and a sweeping forward crest on their helmets which ended with loose leather straps dangling down the neck and back.  I was quite pleased I got to focus some finished detail on the outfits of these ferocious ladies of the forest.


You'll notice the switch in arm position of the lead warrior.  I fussed with that for hours trying to find a position for her sword arm that fit the frame best. Some days there is a lot of erasing. Ugh.

Speaking of Theros, I'll be making a card-signing appearance for the Theros Prerelease Saturday September 21st at a store called "Fog of Dusk" on Bethel road right here in Columbus, Ohio.  I'll be there from 3:00 to at least 7:00 (8:00 at the latest). I'll be selling artist proofs, prints, and playmats. For anyone that likes to spend money, I'll also bring a few original paintings and maybe even a set or two of some special black-on-black planeswalker cards I've heard so much about. See you there!








Tuesday, September 10, 2013

SEPTEMBER APPEARANCES!


I'll be making two appearances in the next 11 days.  First and foremost, I'll be in Allentown, PA this weekend for IlluxCon.  I'll be there, yes, but so will a big fat barge load of other artists that will melt your face and brain with their spectacular artwork.  If you like fantasy art or incredibly well-crafted paintings - or incredibly well-crafted fantasy artwork, this is the place to be.  The convention starts this wednesday (September 11) for the main IlluxCon show - then Saturday and Sunday another wave of artists rolls in (I'm part of that wave). I'll be showin' and sellin' original artwork, prints, and books.


Second appearance will be a short signing stint at the Theros prerelease at the "Fog of War"game store on Bethel rd here in Columbus, Ohio.  It'll be your very first opportunity to get your brand new Theros cards signed by me!  I'll be there Saturday September 21 from 3:00 to 8:00.  I'll be selling books, prints, artist proofs, and playmats. See you there!