Illusionarium

This is an audiobook cover I illustrated for an awesome book by my awesome friend: Heather Dixon.  It was a ton of fun to do and I'm very happy with the way it turned out.  Check it out here.

Annabel Lee

For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams

Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;

And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes

Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;

And so all the night-tide, I lie down by the side

Of my darling-my darling-my life and my bride,

In her sepulchre there by the sea-

In her tomb by the surrounding sea.

-Edgar Allan Poe

Thorin Oakenshield and the Battle of Five Armies

Vin

I've been reading (and loving) the Mistborn Trilogy lately, so I drew the main character:

Also, if you like my sketches I'm featured in a book called Sketching from the Imagination: Fantasy.  I was sent a copy and it's pretty great, I'b buy it even if I weren't in there.  There are a lot of incredible artists and a wide variety of styles on display.  Check it out here.

Shadow of Mirkwood

This is my entry into the Hobbit Design Contest.  The Hobbit is one of my favorite books and I wanted to take the opportunity to do some fan art before the movie came out anyway so this gave me a good excuse.  Do me a favor and follow this link to rate it on their site, thanks!

Quoth the Raven...

"Nevermore."

Dracula

"What manner of man is this,

or what manner of creature is it in the semblence of man?"
-Bram Stoker

I love the original Dracula novel, but, as is almost always the case, none of the film adaptations have portrayed the spooky specter the way the book does. Bram Stoker provides the following details:

-Dracula has a full mustache, but is clean shaven everywhere else.
-He is an old man with aquiline features and slightly pointed ears.
-He has bushy eyebrows and a full head of hair but is balding around his temples.
-He has stubby fingers and hairy palms.
-He dresses in black and has a cruel look in his eyes.

This is a far cry from the suave gentleman many picture when they hear the name Dracula. I decided I wanted to paint the famous bloodsucker and stay fairly close to the original description. I found that it's hard to make a mustache scary. Some of my sketches look like a hook-nosed Borat with a mohawk. I was convinced it could be done, however and I eventually ended up with the sketch that turned into this painting. I'm quite pleased with it, and it sorta creeps me out a little.

Captain Ahab

"..the madness, the frenzy, the boiling blood and the smoking brow, with which, for a thousand lowerings old Ahab has furiously, foamingly chased his prey-more a demon than a man!"

-Herman Melville

The Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow

"What was to be done? To turn and fly was now too late; and besides, what chance was there of escaping Ghost or Goblin, if such it was, which could ride upon the wings of the wind?"

-Washington Irving

Jamaica Inn

Daphne DuMaurier is my favorite author. One of the things I love about her is the rich atmosphere she conjures when describing the locations in her books. Jamaica Inn is an old building perched on a cliff overlooking the ocean on one side and barren mashland on the other. It is the only building between two towns and was once a place of refuge when travelling the harsh landscape between. But not anymore. Mary Yellen's mother has died and she is going to stay with her aunt and uncle, the new owners of the inn. She is dropped off by the carraige at the foot of the road leading up to it, the driver won't go any nearer.
The new Art Challenge theme here at work is to draw an environment. When I heard the theme I had recently finished reading Jamaica Inn and the openning scene which I described above had really captured my imagination. I don't do environments often but I had a lot of fun doing this and want to do more.

Paradise Lost

I feel guilty that I haven't posted in a while. I'm amazed at people who do it so often. Work has kept me really busy, which is a lame excuse because all the frequent posters that I mentioned earlier have jobs too. Many of them work at the same place I do. I've decided to post more of my sketches and get less hung up on only posting more finished pieces.

Anyway, this is Gollum, if you couldn't tell (one of my co-workers thought it was Ghandi, I added the thought bubble to make it more obvious). I wanted to draw him at the depression stage of his withdrawal.