Between projects

Well, this marks the last of the illustrations for Sons of Liberty, which means I'm officially between projects once Joshua rubber stamps this one. I've got a few in the lurch, but in the mean time I'm kind of at a loss for what to apply my artistic energies to next.

At any rate, the last illustration is of Francis Marion, aka "Swamp Fox". Apparently there was a Disney show about him that I completely missed either because I was oblivious or because I'm too young. Whichever.

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, even if I loathe doing one point perspective.

CLICK TO SEE LARGER IMAGE

I figured since I have time to work on my own projects, I might as well finish that illustration for Thou Art But A Warrior that I've had kicking around for a Dog's Age. All that was really left was to finish putting in yummy patterns.

I didn't go as hog-wild as I would have liked to, but only because I plan on putting in a background that will probably have tile work. I'm beginning to think illustrating my own book isn't so much about achieving high production values cheaply as it is about getting a chance to draw pretty Islamic patterns.

But hey, it's all good.

I'm happy with how it's turning out, even if I'm kind of angsting that she might be too white. Hmm.

Wrapping up some projects

So things have been busy the past few weeks. Things have been wrapping up with the script-writing committee that I'm on for the play come February - we have to be done by Christmas. But I've still been getting some work done here and there.

There was a bit of a lapse, but I did get the second to last Sons of Liberty piece done. I wound up being happy with the result, despite the crazy challenge of perspective that Joshua's description entailed.

CLICK TO SEE LARGER IMAGE

The following two images were the last two revised images done for Ben Lehman's upcoming game Drifter's Escape - which, incidentally looks like it will be a super-interesting game.

I've got a few more potential projects in the wings, but after I get Sons of Liberty and Drifter's Escape lined up, look to see more art from that webcomic I might do someday and from Thou Art But A Warrior. Now that I've gotten people to play some playtests, I have fodder for illustrations.

June has been quiet, but productive

Well, it's been a busy month, but I've managed to keep abreast of art-production, even if updates here have been somewhat lax. Work on the Sons of Liberty project is coming to a close; I'll be finishing the last piece in July if everything continues to proceed according to plan.

Also, I'll be starting to post artwork that I'm working on for a game by Ben Lehman within the next little while. And I've got a piece of camera equipment on order, which once I get it will enable me to go photographing again. So all in all, increasing art production is on the horizon.

I'll start things with the finished "revision" of the Four of Diamonds - Abigail Adams confronting some Quakers. It's new and improved!

This one is pretty interesting; The Martin women were a pair of women who married two brothers who were killed in the war. They then proceeded to lead a misinformation campaign that was completely overlooked by history. (Apologies if my history is a bit fuzzy, I didn't know about this until Joshua explained this to me.) So here we see the Martin women misleading an alderman. Cool stuff. I like how it turned out.



This one is a bit strange. I definitely had deja vu doing another court room... Anyhow. This is John Adams impressing a judge in Canada. (You can tell it's Canada by the snow. The snow is hiding the caribou. And yurts. *snicker*)


So there we are. I'm in the middle of one last piece, which I should have finished by the end of the week to put me in good shape for the final stretch. Here's hoping I continue to have work to do once this is done!

The beginning of a new month.

So it's been a busy week for me. Last weekend I drove to Ohio to photograph a wedding and have been busy since then with editting and such of the photographs since it was shot digitally. I'm also struggling to catch up with various freelance projects, which hasn't been easy since I haven't been home the last several weekends and weeknights just aren't as productive.

But June is a new month, and I've been working very hard and don't intend to slack off, so I should be caught up by the middle of the month. It will mean working around two hours a night for the next couple of weeks, which is a lot on top of my boring, stressful 9-5 job. But at the same time, it's a good thing - because this is forcing me to put my money where my mouth is in terms of establishing an active career as a freelance artist of various genres and mediums.

Hopefully I won't have to stay at my job more than a few years before I have enough business going that I can quit my job. Let's keep our fingers crossed on that one. For now, I'm happy with the start that I'm making, and very grateful to Vincent Baker for helping me get started. (Vincent! If you're reading this, thanks for posting that drawing! I'm eternally grateful!)

Anyway! Creative stuff! If you want to see lots, and lots of wedding photos that I shot last weekend, head over to http://www.browserbeware.com/Noel_and_Kristy/ - it'll redirect to a Flickr account with the photos. (Only around 2000 or so!)

My other creative pursuit right now is, of course, Sons of Liberty. I'm redoing one of last month's since I was totally unhappy with it. I banged out most of it tonight and should be able to finish it tomorrow.

So far so good. I just have to keep up the pace!

Trying to be productive...

May hates me in terms of productivity. Oh well.

Here's the latest SoL piece. Yadda. I don't have much to say about it other than I like it and I hope I can beat the previous one into a similar state of non-suckitude.

I will work on non-SoL stuff come June. Promise.

Taking advantage of the long weekend

The long weekend in Canada is this weekend, rather than next, so I'm taking advantage of the three days off to get some stuff. done.

Not much to say about this one, really, other than that it's the finished version of what I posted a few days ago. It's sad, but I've been too stressed out to really enjoy doing this one. Hopefully I can get back into the groove with subsequent pieces.


EDIT: I'm having trouble with my web host the past few days. If you get an error, try again in a little bit.

Sweating the deadlines...

It's been a tough month. I pretty much took a week off to go to Camp Nerdly, and came back to a funeral. Between Nerdly, the funeral, and a wedding I'm going to have to shoot (long story) I've lost more than half my month. Which means I'm really behind the eight ball in terms of producing three Sons of Liberty pieces this month.

But I have only myself to blame for bad planning. Next month is going to be just as bad, what with the summer travel season and all. So I have to just buckle down and get it done.

Here's what I've got done on the next piece so far - Abigail Adams confronting some Quakers. It's in a pretty rough state, being only about one half to one thirds finished, but I went from non-finished lineart to this in one evening - so I'm pretty happy with the pace that I'm setting for myself. And I'm happy with how I think this is going to turn out. I think this is going to be just as awesome as the others.

(Of course, I could be wrong and it could suck. Who knows?)

Anyway. Enough of my rambling. Enjoy!

Finished!

More Sons of Liberty Art! This one was restful after the craziness of beer wagons and revolutionaries on moose - although the Masonic rings were a bit of a task.

I wound up procrastinating a little too much, which is why I had to stay up very late to meet a self-imposed deadline. But such is life. I'm very happy with how this turned out, and it does seem that I'm getting quicker at these too - which is good.


Alexander Hamilton turned out to be very hard to draw, owing to the fact that he had crazy hair and a bizarre nose. So I cheated and drew him in profile. Heh.

I've got a couple of prospects for new projects on the horizon too - which is both heartening and daunting. Sons of Liberty is keeping me pretty busy, but not so busy that I can't do other things too if I manage my time well. Besides, this new project is going to be *so much fun* that I couldn't resist. I'll say more about it when I know more, and when I know how much I can and can't say about it.

That's all for now! I'm off to bed. I've got to rest up for Nerdly this weekend.

Sons of Liberty

A few months ago, Joshua BishopRay took me on as an artist for an upcoming project of his called Sons of Liberty - a very, very, very alternate universe take on the American Revolutionary War. I'm to do a total of thirteen pieces over the next few months, though these three are all I've completed so far.

It's been a very strange and amusing project to work on. I can't wait to tackle some of these pieces head on.

More will be coming shortly as I continue to work on and finish new pieces.