Cover Sketches for Fantastique Unfettered 3

Back in April I finally finished the cover for Issue Three (Prolefeed) of Fantastique Unfettered, an excellent print magazine of SF&F stories. It was an awesome project, and I did a bunch of sketches before the editor finally settled on one for on the cover. Brandon is a great editor to work with, too; he had some neat ideas and is real easy going.

These sketches I did that weren't chosen... I still like a lot of them. I'd love to pursue some as finished paintings, even though they won't be printed in the magazine.

The final cover is a few posts down on the Fantastique Unfettered site. The issue should come out on or around August 31st! What a neat birthday present!

Broken Time Blues Announcement!

So Broken Time Blues is officially slated to release at Worldcon (Renovation) in August! Awesome publishing of art and stories. The stories, they rock. As an illustrator thereof, I can safely say that. Also, I can safely say that the artwork is sub-par, rife with allusion of the roughest sort, and probably a mortal sin.

I heard tell it releases for sale August 1st, but if Worldcon is the release party of the year for EDGE Publishing & Absolute XPress... well, get it online before, or buy it there in person if you're so lucky as to be attending.

For listening to me ramble excitedly, here's a cookie quick peek:

Interiors from 1920s anthology

The anthology '20Spec Broken Time Blues, a collection of SF stories set in the 1920s, had me illustrating six of their many tales for the past few months. These are some really great stories, and hopefully they'll only read better with some black and white artwork to accompany.

Here are two of the first pictures I did for the book. You should all buy the book when it comes out and see which tales they're for. The book will be published by EDGE Publications sometime later this year. More info to come as I have it!

Beholders

Some new sketches for the ArtOrder stuff coming up on the 19th.

D&D geekery for the win.

 

Human fighter in the woods with a beholder, armed with a longsword.

Katablépō!

Catoblepas for The Alphabeastiary. I'll probably keep posting these mythological critters pretty often. I've started using the biweekly challenges to do color/style experiments that I normally wouldn't be allowed to do in client work. Art Directors generally expect to get what they see from your portfolio (except when you're really lucky with a crazy AD). Not, yanno, some wacked-out, lurid neon digital painting over a pencil sketch from your moleskine that could send children into 70's discotech hallucinations.

So, enjoy your trip over the course of the alphabet.

Catoblepas at Sunset

One of creatures of myth I learned about earliest, when I must've been 6 or so. Had this awesome book that introduced me to a whole slew of fantastic animals from legends around the world (though to be fair, it was 80% Pliny's Histories source material). The Catoblepas always seems to be pictured as some sort of shaggy, depressed cow..

Black Dog That Isn't

The Alphabeastiary has posted the digital coloring of the Hellhound image I did the other day for their Letter H! Glad to finally have contributed to that most awesome of blog challenges. It's a hoot, and they have some supremely talented folks doodling away at it every couple weeks.

I started on an image for the Catoblepas back on Letter C, but never did get around to finishing the watercolors in the meantime. But I will! Soon!

For now, this entry is brought to you by the Letter H, the Numbers 42, 12, and 86^5, and the Color Chartreuse.

Emergence Art Show: Opens March 12th

Including work by Lisa and myself. Initially, it was the Talespinning paintings, but now it's hedgehogs. Lisa's is monsters.

If you can make it to Baltimore between the opening and closing, go take a gander. And when you're in B'more, eat brunch, lunch, or dinner at Woodberry Kitchen in Hampden. It's hands down the best food I've ever eaten. And I've done my share of diner chow to haute cuisine. This is comfort food, farm-to-table. And mind bogglingly awesome.

Hellhound

Working this large moleskine sketch up for The Alphabeastiary Challenge's newest topic - H. Gonna color it tomorrow.

New Work

The final (pending minor tweaks... whendoIstopworkingonit?) Elephants General. Definitely the longest span of time I've left between starting and finishing a piece. Six months of downtime when I didn't touch it at all, though it was hanging in a show for two months back in June.

I feel like I needed the interwoven practice I got between when I set this aside and a week ago when I finished the watercolor part, in order to really do it properly. The scan didn't turn out fantastically, so when I have some money, I'm going to get it properly done by a fine art imaging studio. And because of that, it was 6 hours of digital work on top of the painting to bring the vibrancy and colors somewhat back to life. It seems to be my usual way of working, though I keep fighting the intermarriage of watercolor with digital overlay... despite being a huge fan of Justin Gerard's work in that very mode.

The model for our green-skinned potentate is the superb Natalie Paquette. The elephants belong only to themselves and nature photographers everywhere. The hands are mine, my mate's, and probably someone else's, too. ...So. Many. Hands.

The Elephants General

The Horror! The Beastliness!

This is some big news: I'm finally able to sell prints of the Evolutionary Diversion paintings I did for 826DC's Museum of Unnatural History! So if you've been wanting a Warty Koala of your very own, or maybe you know someone special who'd enjoy the company of the Andean Rotor Penguin, then now it's possible. See the Etsy Store for prints. Further works from the 826DC Catalog of Evolutionary Diversions by Lisa Grabenstetter, Katie Schuler, and Oliver Uberti.

Spooky Hare

Andean Rotor Penguin

Insatiable Squid

Speigal's Hooved Marmoset

Warty, or Snaggle-tooth Koala

I think everyone needs nature's mutants.

Jaques James Tissot

What an amazing painting by JJ Tissot. Values are amazing.

Via The Vintage Dress

Sketchery and Hello!

After working all weekend on it, yesterday I finally finished the painting of the Elephants' General that I put away for six months. Since I've yet to get the finished painting scanned, have some sketches from 2008. These were interior work for Leading Edge SF/F Journal.

Been sketching some more random stuff, which I'll share if I get around to scanning it anytime soon. : )

Lots has happened in the month or more since I last posted, but really... I twitter more these days than I ever blogged, so if you're on there, come on by. Lots of great creative folks huddling about the 140-character bonfire these days. One really awesome commission was working on a pair of matched, custom SF/F bookplates for a fellow in Australia. It was such great fun, and so glad he and his friend (for whom one of the pair was a gift) were happy with the final run... of 100 hand-pulled prints.

Worked on laying out my folio tonight; will probably send out some mailers in the morning. There was also a horrendous experiment with a recipe for pumpkin spice latte in a crockpot, but no more will be said on that score...

Lisa Blogs About the Mural

So my mate got to it before I did:
Blogging about the three-week mural-painting-bender we went on in September, from a Distinguished Bird.

Me, I just blog about the trip and the cool shops in SF. Seattle notes to come, if I feel so inclined. Or mayhaps my thoughts on the Rally to Restore Sanity (which was awesomefuntime). But you see, I haven't slept yet and sleep is tempting.

In the sere deserts of Somewhere Nextdoor...

Back from our trip, and three weeks since we worked on the mural at 826DC (They have a new website! Snazzy!) but we have yet to go check out the publicly-open storefront! Alas!

On the other hand, we did get to go see the original 826 Valencia storefront in San Francisco while we were out West. They have had 8 more years to get their store in prime shape... and let me just say, it's veritably ship-shape in perfection. Signage in epic numbers, beautiful props and furniture. It's a really awesome place. If you're in SF, please check it out. You'll be glad you did. It's only a couple shops down from Paxton's Gate:

The whole place is rife with mounted animals. It's a bit morbid, but if you dig archaic display cabinets and beautifully mounted insects, this is it. They also have a greenhouse and floral shop in the back. It goes surprisingly well with the "natural history museum" front space. Some great local metal artists on display here, too. And classes on all sorts of related things.

And now that I'm back, I want to share with you what we were working on for 826 prior to murals and vacations-cum-home-browsing. This is the first whole look at one of the final illustrations for the Catalog of Evolutionary Diversions anyone gets (unless you've been to 826DC since it opened, of course).

 

Zebu Constrictor. Dangerous. Starving. Watch out.

Been a while, but news!

Hey, so StarShipSofa Stories Vol. II is for sale! That's the anthology with an illustration of mine accompanying Tides, a Tobias Buckell story.

You can go buy it here. Or there's always watching the book trailer.

Really enjoyed working with these folks, and creating the artwork they commissioned. Superb fellows.

I'm back from our vacation in Seattle and SF now, so hopefully more posts will follow.

Art for StarShipSofa Stories Volume II

So I did an illustration back in May for StarShipSofa Stories Volume II. These guys have a Hugo Award-winning spec fic podcast every week, and they issue anthologies like the one linked above every year or so? I guess? Anyway, they have two now. Composed of new illustrations and reprint stories from some amazing authors (Neil Gaiman, China Miéville, Tobias Buckell, Pat Cadigan, etc.)

Well, they're revealed a new promo video for the book, and it has some neat music accompanying a nice "vast depths of extrasolar space" animation by Dee Cunniffe.

The art I did for the book was for Tobias Buckell's story, Tides.

Brief glimpse of the Unnatural History Museum

So this blog had someone come by and snap some cool photos of the space where we're painting the mural in DC: http://tiny.cc/uwq6j (via @newcolumbiahts)

I have to say though, it may look horselike... but that is far more bizarre than a horse. Just wait till the skeleton is complete and everything put together!

The mural wall is to the left of the skeleton and ladder in that first picture they have.

He Who Shall Not Be Named 2012

I got to be Lord Voldemort for a while today. I was tasked with getting into Voldy's head, scriptorium-like, and doing some calligraphy in whatever his style should be. This was a "thank you" letter. It'll be mailed to Brent Spiner. But it's not me thanking Data. It's He Who Shall Not Be Named. On behalf of the Palin/Voldemort 2012 ticket.

And yes, it was in green ink on parchment. With a serpent sigil in green wax.

...I have a really weird job, sometimes.

Stuff that does the goings on in the what.

Or, what Evan has on his plate pending upcoming and about-to-occur.

So, with the 826DC images handed off to our AD, and Lisa's latest commission winding to a close, we find ourselves at the mercy of Looking for More Work. The great part is, we still have work to do between now and the future when we have more work to... do... well, you get the point.

• Personally, I have to put the finishing touches on the Elephants' General, now that it's been back with me for a while.
• Then, there's some more final touches to a couple other pieces waiting for their last dabs.
• And of course, Illustration Friday's topic is "Proverb" this week. Maybe I'll actually DO it on time. : )
• Maga Design might hand me more work next week at my new REALLY WELL PAYING rate. Might, though.
• Our onsite design contract has us in, on and off, all month.
• 826DC is going to have Lisa and I paint some of our animals into their museum mural in a week or so. Woo!
• I should do another Steampunk Hedgehog painting and plot out a decent story arc to write up and make them into a book. Shop it around.
• Probably need to work on some more Etsy Shop bookplate designs when I have a sketching moment.
• My participation in the Sketchbook Project is also needed... I've got a few pages in, now, thanks to 826DC.
• I'd really like to find some new work and do that, too. 'Cause I'm a masochist of scheduling. Seriously, though--deadlines keep me working, and force me to actually get shit done instead of procrastinating... or doing laundry... or taking a walk... or browsing the interwebs.

And of course, in October, Lisa and I are heading out to SF and Seattle for 11 days... so much needs doing before then.

Though in terms of having relax-time, we went to a really nice going away party for a friend last night in Georgetown. She'll be in Chapel Hill, NC for 6 months and we will miss her. Speaking of, if you know anyone renting down there... here housing fell through, and she could really use a place to sublet or rent. Contact me if you have any info!