Merry Christmas Everybody!!!

Season's greetings folks! It must be that time of year again as I have found myself doing something art related for the local infants school Christmas Fayre.

This time I was asked to do a Christmas themed cut out face board, like those you see at the seaside, where you put your face through the hole and it joins on to an amusing body.

So a 4ft by 4ft board was procured and the fruits of my festive labour were as thus, modelled by my three little urchins.

Happy Christmas!

Environmrnt No. 5: River Delta

Despite the fact my nose is streaming like a tap, I've finished the last enviro of the week. I guess all those walks in the snow lowered my resistance to the cold germs going around. Nevermind, must soldier on.
So this was another green one, I didn't want to go for a tree themed piece again, as I stared at it I could see little islands surrounded by water emerge.

I worked in some sand coloured paint for where the little rivers would flow and gave a little more definition to the islands.

Then it was just a matter of putting in the water, adding a few highlights for reflected sun and voila, a river delta. I like this one, the fact that it has a different perspective to the others is a plus as well. In review, I think it was a worthwhile exercise this week. It has given the blog a focus and made me write each day, so it is something I will keep doing. I think for the next weekly project I will come up with a creature that would live in each of the five environments presented this week.

Environment No. 4: It's bleak up north.

Just a quick one today folks. No more than a few minutes on this one. The snow has been falling steadily all day and night and we now have a lovely blanket of white.
Did I mention I like the snow? Might have something to do with the fact I don't have to travel to work and there is a sizeable shop just round the corner so I don't have to venture far for provisions.
The kids were off school today and have seized control of the computer and my attention for various projects and homework, so not much chance of any work getting done.


Anyway, this was the yellowy one and as snow was on my mind I went for a snowscape. (By the way,"Never eat the yellow snow.") A tree lined pathway to a snowbound city.

Enviornment No.3 : When all hope is lost.

Well, we did get some snow, had a good snowball fight with my son Robin after school yesterday. The kids were a bit miffed that they had to go to school this morning though.
So, on to day three of the enviros. No process shots for this one as it took shape really quickly.
Starting from the green/blue texture I could see waves, really big waves. The darker marks on the left I thought could be a ship caught in the storm.
So I just darkened the swell of the waves and highlighted their crests. The ship was laid on with the brush tool set to multiply (incidentally, all these pieces have been done in Photoshop elements two.) The little lifeboat in the centre was put in to add some pathos to the scene, the brave souls have escaped the stricken liner but have little chance in the wrath of the sea, hence the title, "When all hope is lost." As regards time spent painting for atmosphere gained, I am pretty happy with this one.

Environment No. 2: The Forest Road.

Oooh, the snow has finally made it to Essex today, so far though it is kind of wet and lame, hoping for some of the good stuff overnight. On to todays enviro. This was the purple green one and it stirred in me images of Mirkwood from the Hobbit so I started off in that vein.

I started putting in some shadows to create the forms of the trees, and lighter areas for the grassy bank over to the right.

Continued building up the forms and the contrast.
Then I added a road in to lead viewers into the picture, the sunlight streaming through the leaves was added last. I think the final result is a little more friendly than what I was originally going for. More like the Night Elf lands in World of Warcraft, but still quite pleased with its atmosphere.

Environment No.1 : Lake Castle.

So, to kick off environment week I started with this texture and it said to me trees and mist and water. I wanted to try and keep a watercolour feel to the piece and so worked on building up the trees quite subtley. I felt it needed a focal point and so put the castle in the lake.

I was pretty happy with the feel of the piece and didn't want to be to precious about it, so to finish off, I adjusted the contrast to give it a little boost and enlarged the castle, as I felt it looked a little puny before.

After I had finished, I was playing about trying to make it look more misty and after having whacked the contrast right down this night time version sort of evolved from it. Changed the season from Autumn to Winter, added a mysterious light to the top castle window and voila same piece different mood. Check back in tomorrow for the next one.

Next week is Environment week.

From Monday I am going to try and do an environment each day till Friday. I want these to be loose, quick environments, as sometimes I can get bogged down in the details and lose the feel of the piece. I have taken a basic texture and am going to see what comes out of each as the mood takes me. The textures you can see here:

So, check back in next week and see what I come up with.

Tha Work Thang #23: A few pieces.

As promised, here are a few pieces from some of the books I have worked on recently. In descending order. We have three equipment pieces from the DeathWatch RPG by Fantasy Flight Games; the Relic Blade, Tri flame vambrace and Skapulan Bolter. Images are copyright Games Workshop 2010.

And two pieces from Cults of the Young Kindoms from Mongoose Publishing, an Elric of Melnibone adventure showing an Evil Temple and Elric conversing with a water elemental. Images are copyright Mongoose Publishing 2010.

Tha Work Thang #22: Where have you been?

Hello all! or to paraphrase Jack Nicholson in the Shining, "Really sorry for neglecting my blog. My bad." (I think that line is in the movie, either that or, "All play and no blogging makes Jack a dull boy.")

Anyhoo.... just an update on what i have been working on recently. I will put up some images from these books when they are released, a couple of them are out now. I had a nice browse through the Deathwatch R.P.G. in Waterstones the other day, very nice book. (cough....comp. copy...cough.)

This has nearly all been interior black and white work, there was a colour piece in there somewhere.

So, in no particular order we have, "Blood of the Martys", "Edge of the Abyss", "Rites of Battle",

"DeathWatch", "The Frozen Reaches", all for Fantasy Flight Games.

Then we have, "Cults of the Young Kingdoms" and "The Abiding Book" for Mongoose Publishing.

Well, I must say, it's nice to be back. We must do this again sometime soon!

Tha Work Thang #21: And whilst we are on the subject...

Here are a few pieces from recently released products. Firstly some starship designs from "Lure of the Expanse" a supplement for the Rogue Trader R.P.G.
We have "The Ordained Destiny." "The Wotan."

and "The Nihontu" an oriental inspired ship.

Images are the copyright of Games Workshop 2010.

Another piece for Rogue Trader, this time from the "Ascension" supplement showing Kasrkin power armour.Again copyright Games Workshop 2010.

On to some pieces from Goodman Games, first two are from Level Up Issue 3, showing the Knave class, and some bad dude servants of Amon.

The last piece is from "Azagar's Book of Rituals" and is called Consort Paradox.

Copyright Goodman Games 2010.

Tha Work Thang #20: Caves of the Crawling Lord

As promised, here is the cover art for Goodman Games' Dungeon Crawl Classics adventure,"Caves of the Crawling Lord". You can see here the initial sketch as well.

Image is the copyright of Goodman Games 2010.

Tha Work Thang #19: Tzzzzzzzt.... computer online

Bzzzzzt.....hypersleep reanimation sequence initiated.......subject now online.......resuming normal service....bzzzt.

Wow! Has it really been that long? A blog with no blogging, disgraceful I tell you!

Well contrary to popular opinion I have not fallen off the face of the planet and have indeed been working away on this and that. So a little update is in order.

For Fantasy Flight Games I have been doing interior art for the new "Deathwatch R.P.G.", also,"Winds of Magic" for the Warhammer Fantasy R.P.G.

Some space ship profiles for "Lure of the Expanse", a supplement for the Rogue Trader R.P.G.

and some equipment pieces for "Ascension", a supplement for the Dark Heresy R.P.G.

As well as work on a couple more unannounced books.

For Goodman Games I have some pieces in the latest "Level Up" magazine, Issue 3.

And my cover art for, "Caves of the Crawling Lord" a Dungeon Crawl Classics adventure, has just been previewed on their site. ( I will upload a proper picture of it, need to get it off my old hard-drive.)Cheerio for now!