Heroic Tier Ardent

Heroic Tier Ardent from Psionic Powers.

Awakened Visionary

Awakened Visionary from Psionic Powers. The concept was that she's striking the troll and then teleporting.

Unbound Nomad

An Unbound Nomad from the Psionic Powers book.

Storm Disciple

Another illustration for Psionic Powers. This is a Storm Disciple.

Psionic Powers

Released today was Psionic Powers for D&D which I did a few illustrations for. This one was called "Topaz Crusader". Done in Photoshop CS4. The sketch for this was much looser than I normally do for a client. I would prefer to always sketch this loose so I can do a little more invention on the finish. The tighter the sketch the more I find the finish to be like paint by numbers and a bit more tedious.
Here was the sketch:

This was the first sketch I did, which was rejected:

This was the art description:

This illustration depicts a female half-elf ardent, epic tier, in the Far Realm. The surrounding landscape should look warped and strange, with tentacles, horrific gaping mouths, unblinking eyes, and other horrific imagery.

The ardent wears PLATE ARMOR that looks to be made from bronze and almost dwarfs her body. She has a GREATSWORD in hand and a heavy HELMET on her head. The HELMET HAS ONE GAP and it’s over her FOREHEAD. Within, we see a TOPAZ GEMSTONE AFFIXED TO HER BROW. It glows with soft light. The ardent has a mix of ELVEN and EAST ASIAN FEATURES, with tan skin and black hair cascading over her shoulders.

Yeah, a chick in armor in a world of tentacles! Not an art description you get to work from everyday.

You can see in the rejected sketch I was confused how to show her face and a heavy helmet at the same time. Also I was following the direction for armor that dwarfs her body to the point it is hard to tell it's a she.

Half Orc Shaman

A Half Orc Shaman type guy. Looks like he's getting ready to rock da house on da mic.

Shadowrift Blade

"Make it glow with a black aura." Huh? Um, okay.

Armored Elf

No one has ever drawn an elven archer before. Ever. This is the first.

Phasing Arrow

An arrow that can phase through solid objects. This was for the new Adventurer's Vault 2 for 4th edition D&D coming out in a few days. Here is the article: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/4ex/20090807

Notice the little hints of splatter brush? I love splatter brushes.

Goliath vs. Gnoll

Establishing scale without any of the classic "scale symbols" such as a person, or doorway, or a car is hard to do. Here the main character is a "goliath". Not that you can tell it is any larger than an average person, or can you?

Deva

One of the coolest things in the Player's Handbook 2 is the new character race: the deva. I was fortunate to do an illustration of one.

PHB2 - Wild Elf

The Player's Handbook 2 was recently released, which I did a few illustrations for. This one called for a Wild Elf. My first version (the bottom one) wasn't quite "wild" enough, so I added some tattoos and animal pelts - because everyone knows that makes you wilder.

Tome of Treasures

Some stuff for Wizards.

Lodestone of Direction:

Pech's Belt (gives the dude enough strength to push a big boulder I guess):

Stormbolt Spear:

Missile Attraction armor:

And some crystal ball that supposed to enthrall your victim I guess:

More and more lately I've been using acrylic paint as part of my illustration process, going back and forth because I like the texture of real paint, and the speed and flexibility of digital tools.

Shadowmoor

Wizards has previewed some of the card art I did for the Shadowmoor set.
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/daily/db31

And this crazy illustration for the card "Tower Above"
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=magic/shadowmoor/spoiler

From the comments I've seen people are reading this as an enlarged goblin, but these are supposed to be spriggans. When enlarged their limbs and head remain original size - thus the weird proportions.

More Lorwyn: Boggart Mob

The Sketch, a pencil drawing done on plain copy paper:



Next I took the sketch into Photoshop to apply shading and turn into 2 variations:


After the art director chose a sketch (a combination of the best elements of the 2 sketches) I print it out on 13"x19" bristol board, tone it with acrylic matte medium and paint it in acrylics. After scanning it in I adjusted the levels a bit. The finish:


I recently put this illustration for sale on eBay: Boggart Mob

Nath's Buffoon

Sketch was done in pencil, then scanned in and values were blocked in with Photoshop


Finish was done in Photoshop

More Lorwyn

This illustration is from the Morningtide expansion.

Sketch for Notorious Throng:

And the finish, this time in acrylics on bristol paper:

Lorwyn

Here are some higher rez versions of the art I did for the Lorwyn Magic: the Gathering expansion. Also some sketches to show insight into my process for the illustrations.

Here are the sketches for Nectar Faerie. Jeremy, the art director, chose the 3rd one. And I painted the finish in photoshop.

Notorious Throng

Wizards of the Coast has previewed a card I illustrated for the Morning Tide expansion of Magic: the Gathering. This was painted 13" x 19" Acrylic on bristol. I think I punched up the glows a bit in photoshop, other then that it was all painted traditional.

More Gathering Magic

A couple more Magic: the Gathering cards have been revealed by Wizards of the Coast. Kinsbaile Skirmisher and the ridiculously-fun-to-illustrate Boggart Mob. Did these in acrylics, it felt good to have real paint under the fingernails. :)