The Hunter and the Hunted

But which is which?

Sketches of Some Old Guys

Mugshot

Sam Nielson once pointed me in the direction of using mugshots for facial reference.  I've been in his debt ever since (and not just for that, he's one of the best art teachers around in case you're looking for one).

Viking (with horns on his helmet, which apparently they didn't have, but they look too cool to omit)

I bought a Cintiq Companion 2 a few months ago, which is what I painted this with.  It's taken me a while to get used to but I'm completely in love with it.

The Frontier Lawman and the Deputized Dinosaur

Chalk the Block 2014!

This has become something I look forward to all year.  So much fun!  Thanks to my old man, my little brother, and his wife for being such great collaborators!

Ezekeele

American frontiersman, conqueror, inventor, pioneer, demigod (don't worry if you don't get it, it's an inside joke with my brothers).  Special thanks to my bro. Jake for reminding us of his greatness through a fireside ballad.

Chalk the Block!

I participated in the Chalk the Block event at the Riverwoods in Orem. It was totally awesome.  My little brother, his wife, my dad, and I worked together to create the piece.  It was tons of fun and a lot of work, I'm excited to do it again next year!

3D Dino

My sketch on the left, Shane's model on the right.

How cool is this?!  My friend and Zbrush extraordinaire, Shane Olson did a digital sculpt based on my dino sketch from the previous post and it turned out crazy awesome!  Check out this post from his blog to watch a time lapse video of him building it.

Influence Map

I have only just been introduced to these though they seem really popular.  The idea is to fill the space with various things that have influenced your art style.  The more space they take up the greater the influence.  There's a number of ways to interpret this, and influences are constantly shifting.  I tried to get a good mix of those artists and things that influenced me at a younger more developmental stage and ones that are influencing me now.  In a few cases it's more about the specific image than the artist.  In others it's really broad, like a movie or company.  I cheated a little too when it comes to my dad.  He's an artist, and my dad, easily my biggest influence growing up, but I'd feel weird making him the biggest thing since obviously parents are a huge influence regardless, but I couldn't leave him off completely.  This was a fun thing to think about, to realize how the things influencing my art have changed over the years, dramatically in some cases, not at all in others.  I'd totally suggest doing this if you're at all interested, and let me know when you do so I can check it out, it's really fun to see what makes a persons creativity tick.

Leia the Slaya!

This is my 200th post!  And it's the first of the year so I wanted to do something cool.  I've been wanting to do a Frazetta inspired Princess Leia for a while and thought it a good way to kick off 2012.

My kid has really gotten into Star Wars lately but I've only let him watch the good ones (episodes 4,5, and 6).  He has no idea the other three even exist.  As a parent, what do I do?  Let him find out on his own someday?  Will he feel like I lied to him?  Is it better to expose him to them at an early age?  What if he actually likes them?  Can I deal with that as a parent?  I'll love him no matter what but how can I let him know they're wrong, without being too controlling?  The things you don't consider when becoming a parent...

Watercolor Santa

Just a quick watercolor sketch I did of Santa imparting some insightful words of wisdom.

Spectre Vesper

My latest oil painting.

Color Boot Camp

A few weeks ago I took part in Bill Perkin's Color Boot Camp workshop.  It was an intense 3 days of basically nonstop painting and learning.  I think I retained about .08% of what he was teaching but it was definitely worth the time and money.  Above is a composite image of the more than 19 color studies we did at a size which I'm fairly comfortable they be viewed in.  Even so, don't look too close and keep in mind that these were mostly all done in 40 minutes or less and intended as fast color studies, not finished pieces.

Sketch-Trade with Joe Olson

Joe gave me the incredible 'Possom Monster about a year and a half ago or something and I just traded him the Old Bolo Tie Guy today.  Sorry Joe, better late than never I guess.

Interesting Fact: Joe Olson is awesome.

Heather

My beautiful wife has been asking me to paint her an avatar.  The first one I did she felt was too literal so I tried this approach, which isn't my usual style, but was a lot of fun and she seems to like it.

Should I Be Flattered?

Check out this post on my good friend Sam Nielson's blog for an interesting story concerning the vacant-eyed red-headed kid in this painting of mine.  I'm never sure how to feel about stuff like this.  I've seen images of mine replicated before and I usually don't care and am genuinely flattered, but when it's in an actual commercial product...I don't know.  Sam's image was obviously used a lot more than mine (this "artist" who used our pictures has good taste at least :) so he's got more to be annoyed with, but I still find myself a little ambivalent about it all.  If nothing else, it's a little weird.

Botanical Burden

Play Ball!

I've been crazy busy at work and have thus had less time for art (at least any art not for the Cars 2 video game).  I did manage to finish this 50's style pinup girl I've been working on for a while.  No, I don't think she'll be able to run the bases very well in high heels.

Drizzt

A friend of mine is a big Drizzt fan and asked me ages ago to draw a picture of the heroic dark elf.  He's been doing me a lot of favors lately so I figured I owed him.