Balance

This piece was created for the "What If..." exhibition at Gallery Nucleus, which wraps up this week. I really enjoy the shows they have, so it was an honor to be asked to contribute. Hopefully some more opportunities like this one arise in the not too distant future.

(watercolor on 140lb. cold press paper)

Kickstarter Rewards

(watercolor on 140lb. cold press paper)

These paintings were made for people who backed our kickstarter project. The originals of the first two were given to our most generous backers, and the third was available as a print. I wanted to wait until the kickstarter packages had been mailed out to their respective new owners before posting the scans. All of the images were inspired by a sequence in my comic from the newest book, which is painted in a similar style.

Frazetta Study

(click to enlarge)

This is a study of Frazetta's cover for Conan the Adventurer. It was painted with photoshop but other than applying a canvas texture at the end there were no shortcuts. I'm not sure how color accurate the image I was referencing was, but I have a feeling this might be a bit more saturated than the original. Inaccuracies aside, I still feel like these sorts of studies are the best way to wrap my head around how someone else works. I always feel like I've learned more from retracing a master's brushstrokes than I do from looking at their art or listening to them explain their process. I highly recommend giving this a try, if you haven't already. Check out my Leyendecker study from a while back too, if you haven't seen it.

Overdue

This is the longest I've let my blog sit without an update in the five years I've been maintaining it. What's been keeping me so busy? The Anthology Project Volume 2!

(click here for more images)

Thankfully I've been working side by (virtual) side with two great friends and collaborators, Joy and Nick. V2 is finally a real book - we've just received our first preview copies. The bulk of the books will be available for folks to see and purchase by May. If you contributed to our Kickstarter you can expect your copy and the rest of your goodies and trinkets around the same time. If you'd like to make a preorder, keep an eye on our website. And, finally, if you'd like to meet some of the artists involved with the book and pick one up in person, c'mon out to MoCCA (NYC), Stumptown (Portland), or TCAF (Toronto). The Anthology Project will be at those shows in the near future. There'll be more conventions throughout the year too - we'll update our website with details as they approach.

Aside from finishing off the book I've also been maintaining a tumblr to explore the process work of the artists involved. You can see step by step examples of their work over at theanthologyproject.tumblr.com. Definitely make sure to check it out. Currently I'm updating it once or twice a week with new content.

I'm also figure drawing on a regular basis and though I stopped posting figures on my blog ages ago, you can see the occasional drawing on my twitter, @abysmalred. It's been an outlet for my less finished work for a while now, so feel free to follow if you're wondering what I'm up to between blog posts.

As well as finishing up production work on V2, I'm also wrapping up the last bits of location design on the fourth season of Total Drama. 2011 is going to be a year full of new jobs and projects - I'm excited to share them!

Death-Day

I recently had the opportunity to meet Sam Hiti and read his excellent story, Death-Day. It's a solid ongoing piece of work that i'd recommend folks check out. As well as having just released volume one in print, he's also conveniently got the whole thing online for free. Navigate over to his website and have a look. The work speaks for itself.

Here's some art inspired by the story. This first showed up on Fanart Friday (a cleverly devised response to twitter's Follow Friday trend) created by my friend Katie. I'm not sure if I'll be able to contribute every week, but I think it's a great idea so I'll definitely be adding more to Fanart Friday in the coming months.

(Click to enlarge. Red and black ink on 9x12" bristol.)