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mrlich: (dragonbones)
 So I’m thinking about trying my hand at illustrating children’s books. I want to create my version of some classic fairy tales in an art nouveau influenced style. My style is already pretty heavily Nouveau influenced, but I want to push it a little further for this project.

I’d also like to accomplish a few other things with this project:
1. Have finished products that I could actually sell more than once.
2. Include under represented groups in my telling.*
3. Possibly even produce prints of individual pages for sale at shows?
4. In my more ambitious moments, I like the idea of telling fairy tales from under represented groups / regions. *

* - As a middle aged CIS white male, I won’t lie that this makes me nervous. I feel it’s EVERYONE’s job to lift others up, but I wonder at how such efforts will be received by the world at large. ie - how many times will I hear “Why didn’t you hire someone from those same groups to write or illustrate your book?!”
mrlich: (dragonbones)


I'm working on the image for the next Battle Nodes* card. Help me decide which card to do now!

 

The options are:
[ ] Goblin Assassin
[ ] Mage Alchemist
[ ] Horn of Allies (treasure)

 

Thanks!

 

*Battle Nodes is the current 'project name' for the card game I'm co-creating. Get more details here: http://dragonbones.net/dragonbones-net-the-card-game

mrlich: (dragonbones)
I'm very behind on my normal life blogging here, but I just wanted to point folks to my most recent Dragonbones post. Last night I wanted to get warmed up so I did some 5 minute portraits of some of the crew from True Blood. Check it out here: http://dragonbones.net/2012/06/12/true-blood-5-minute-portraits/ - and as always - I welcome all feedback.
mrlich: Photo with great thanks to Joe del Tufo - http://www.deltufophotography.com (Default)
Just wanted to post something real quick to let everyone know that I'm participating in NanoWriMo again this year along with [livejournal.com profile] kar0na. I'm doing things a little differently though - I'm writing posts that I will later convert into a book about drawing/illustration. I've wanted to write such a book for years, and I'm using Nano as the kick in the pants to get the content created. Well - the writing content. I would imagine I'm going to have a lot of drawing to do to 'flesh out' the articles and I'm assuming that I won't have nearly enough time to do all that plus the writing in a single month. We'll see what I can get done and I'll keep you updated here.

I'd love to get your help! If there's any art related topic you would like to know more about, please feel free to comment and let me know - either here or over at Dragonbones. Please note: it doesn't even have to be a topic that you think I'm personally good at/know much about. I'm looking forward to learning a lot from this exercise, and I won't be upset if you help me stretch my mental/artistic muscles.

Lastly - please understand that Nano is a huge time killer, so please - if I seem a bit 'absent' this month - do not take it personally. I promise that I'm going to be a bit on the quiet side with my nose buried in my keyboard.

Here we go...

Edited to add: I've got my first post up for NaNo over at Dragonbones here.
mrlich: (dragonbones)
So a while back, I did some 3 minute portraits for fun. I have an idea for a project / exercise that would have me doing a lot more of them. I love doing these partly because it appeals to my ADD nature by changing the subject matter (at least) every three minutes.

As I want to improve my portraiture skills as fast as I can during this exercise, I was thinking that I would start out with the most recognizable subjects. I also would like to get people involved with the project on some level right from the get-go.

So here we are.

Who among the public figures that you are familiar with, do you think has the most recognizable physical traits? Or put a bit more simply - who do you think I should start drawing first? Feel free to leave more than one response. :)
mrlich: (dragonbones)
There's a rather interesting discussion going on over at Mule Abides about the nuances of Contemporary Art and RPG Illustration. I know of at least a few of you who might find it an interesting read.
mrlich: (dragonbones)
I've had the chat with many of you before about how I draw things. Well, today starts a new feature over on Dragonbones - Ask Me How to Draw!
mrlich: (dragonbones)
Just a supah quick post to let you guys know that there's a new post up over at Nevermet Press with some new artwork of mine - including a video that shows the process. As always, I welcome comments / critiques.  
mrlich: Photo with great thanks to Joe del Tufo - http://www.deltufophotography.com (Default)
The Incredible HulkCaptain AmericaI did a couple of marker renderings this afternoon for fun. Hope you enjoy them!

[2-16-2009 : edited to update thumbnails/links]
mrlich: Photo with great thanks to Joe del Tufo - http://www.deltufophotography.com (Default)
Ok - time for my year in review. (Past time, actually, but I've been a busy boy.)

Cut for lengthiness and art (which is all SFW)... )
mrlich: (dragonbones)
So anyone who knows anything about my web browsing habits has heard me talk about the ConceptArt.org forums. It's an amazing place chock full with some of the very best artists alive today. Thing is, that's not really what makes it amazing to me. What really makes it rawk is the willingness of a large number of those artists to be helpful and give constructive critiques to... well... to guys like me. They do this free of charge (so long as you show genuine effort) and are doing an amazing job of building a community of artists who bolster one another.

It's often a wonder to behold.

Okay, now that I've brought those of you who aren't familiar with the forums up to date, I would like to introduce one of the members. Phuzion has long been one of my personal favorites. I've probably not said more than a couple of words to him online, but there's a simple enough reason for that. I don't want to be 'that fanboi'. I make it a rule on the rare occasion that I get to meet someone that is reaaally talented to not say "Geee... ur work is like teh HAWESOME!". They get that all the time. I want it to mean something to  them. I want to show that I was paying attention. Problem is that when I see most of his work - even the 'sketchbook stuff' (note - some artistic images may NOT be safe for work), I'm really struck dumb. (As a side note: he's not the only one that this happens with on ConceptArt, which speaks volumes about the caliber of their artists.) All I can think to say is "Wow."

And like I said - I don't want to be that guy.

In a recent post (which regrettably you may not be able to see without the creation of an account) he talks about how he learned to draw like he does now. He talks of art school and a 90 page per week sketchbook schedule. This only becomes vaguely possible when you take into account that "3/4 of that had to be from life in the form of gestures". I don't know about you, but that still sounds like a shit-ton of drawing to me.

It's more like what I should be doing.

I would love to quote more of his post, but I'll wait until I have explicit permission to do so. In the meantime, go check out his gallery site, sign up for the forums and meet some of the other amazing artists, and just generally enjoy all the amazing art.

Just remember that's only the surface. It's artists like Phuzion that make it important.
mrlich: Photo with great thanks to Joe del Tufo - http://www.deltufophotography.com (Default)
*Edit: I started this last night, and had to finish this morning.*

I had a minor epiphany in the shower tonight. I have this tendancy of thinking of a million one things that I wish I'd accomplished during the day. Tonight I thought: "Why not write them down before bed so you don't forget about them tomorrow until it's too late?"

For tonight, my thoughts turned to artwork. I have a ton of pokers in the proverbial fire - all of which seem stalled outside of my control (though I know that I could push some of them forward a bit).

Here's the abrieviated list:

1. Children's book - for the bank.
2. Children's book - with an old colleague.
3. Art for a flash based game for a popular social networking site (more when the details are hammered out).
4. More 1100 strips (I have a ton of ideas to add to the small collection there.)
5. Another comic idea that's still in the planning stages with another old colleague.

I really need to start pushing some of these forward - otherwise they're likely to all come to a head at the same time. Then everyone will be upset as I scramble to get everything done in less time than any one of them deserves. (Not to mention the burn out I would likely feel in a short span of time.)
mrlich: (dragonbones)
Wow. Nothing like the last damn minute. I took an extra day off work to have a three day weekend. How was I productive in that time? Well... not in an art way. That's for sure. It's ok though - I've got a beautiful woman who's able to be in town for a change, and we had a lot of fun (and got to hang with [profile] kar0na to boot!) so I'm really not complaining.

But here I am... at just before midnight - when I have to be back at the office at the crack of ass o'clock tomorrow - trying to cram a long weekend's worth of art in before I go to bed. Uh huh.

I fixed the dragonbones.net crest that I did a while back. I hadn't realized that it was b0rked until I looked at it again this weekend. Can you tell what I changed? Here's the old version and the new version. 10 points if you see it.

Why fix it? Well, I wanted the crest to be a decent example of the sort of thing that I was trying to describe in my last post about custom crests. [personal profile] xtingu  pointed out that it was a little confusing what I am offering, so here's an attempt at a better description:

I want to offer custom crests as an option for my creative services. What could these custom crests be used for?
  • tattoo flash
  • corporate identity / logo
  • website graphics
  • other?
I want to make them fun and fresh, which (for me at least) leads me away from the old standards (pun intended of course). I want to add something of a modern feel to these things. An example might be tribal designs instead of ivy. Golf clubs instead of swords (ok - so that's a little bit sad, but you get the idea).

So what's next? Well, to those of you who've jumped to the call, please post a response here with a description of a crest with your wildest ideas. Go nuts and assume that nothing is impossible. That's not to say that I'm going to do them all to the exact specifications, but this is an experiment. One minor stipulation for this stage - black and white only. I will likely add the option for color later, but for now I'm working on black and white concepts.

Step 2Next up? The Little Warriors. Nope - I haven't forgotten about the little buggers. It's just tough to find more than a couple minutes in front of my PC. As some of you may note, I've made some adjustments to the Little Viking. I moved his shield and rolling pin to mimic those of the warrior behind him. I think that it adds a huge level of 'bond' between them. It now looks (to my eyes at least) as though the two are linked. I've also been doing a bit of work on the little one's face as I've been told he looked a little too Chucky to be cute. We're  getting there folks. Unfortunately, that will have to be it for tonight as I have to get some sleep for work tomorrow.
mrlich: (dragonbones)
Little Warriors - the VikingStarting a new project - the Little Warriors. I'm going to be doing a series of images of kids in costume with the archetype they're dressed at behind them.

There's a couple of things I would love some feedback on:

1. I'm not sure yet whether I want to make the background figure 'ghostly' or 'tangible'. Right now I'm leaning a little more towards ghostly - with a slight shift. I was thinking about making them look more tangible the closer they are to the kid in the foreground. Any thoughts?

2. "Little Warriors" or "Lil Warriors"? Again - I have a direction that I'm leaning towards, but I don't want to sway anyone. I want all of your gut reactions.

I selected viking as the first archetype as a sorta advance fan art for [livejournal.com profile] gdg's Wolves of Odin. (I really can't wait.)

Oh, and no - this one is not done - not by a long shot - but it's late and I need sleep.
mrlich: Photo with great thanks to Joe del Tufo - http://www.deltufophotography.com (Default)
This seems like a really great idea. I'm posting about it more as a note to myself to check it out more later, but I thought that some of my artistic friends might appreciate knowing about it.
mrlich: Photo with great thanks to Joe del Tufo - http://www.deltufophotography.com (Default)
Well, for those of you who don't already know, my main desktop PC has taken a big fat turd and is done. I'm pretty sure that I can fix it.

But I refuse.

The poor beast is a frankensteined collection of probably 4-6 generations of hardware. It's time to put the poor thing down. She's been good and faithful, but I think that I make enough money that it will be a better use of my time to buy a new machine off the shelf of some big box company, strip it of all the crap they load on it for 'Joe-Home-User' and have it... well... just work. Obviously that doesn't mean that I won't ever hack or mod the thing, but at least for a time, I want a machine that just does what it's supposed to do without me holding its virtual hand and stroking the case sweetly while saying prayers to long dead gods in the hopes that it might get through the night.

Clearly I'm putting too much thought into this.

Anyway. The point is that I am not without my ability to surf teh intarwebs or post to LJ, but it does vastly restrict my ability to do digital art. Both of my laptops are not exactly what one would call 'gaming rigs' This means that anything I do digitally will not likely be anything I could use for prints - even when using software with as few system requirements as Open Canvas 1.x (which I am still amazed would fit on a 1.44 floppy unzipped!).

I want to wait until [personal profile] xtingu and I are in our new place before I go buying a new desktop. We're so close to move in day that I don't want to buy a machine just to transport twice.

But I was getting the digital art itch. I've been doing more with traditional media. (See crappy camera phone 'scans' here and here.) As usual, I found myself learning at a rapid rate when I forced myself to shift gears back to traditional, but it just doesn't satisfy me the way that digital stuff does. Especially with OC's ability to replay the process, I find that I learn a lot from digital as well, I can work (muuuuch) faster and it more readily translates to the net (I don't have my scanner hooked up to either of my laptops and wouldn't want to really).

AnyMcWhoozles, I tell you all this to let you know that I finally installed the driver for my wacom and did a quick sketch self portrait -
As always, I'm more than a little interested in everyone's thoughts - so comment away.
mrlich: Photo with great thanks to Joe del Tufo - http://www.deltufophotography.com (Default)
Boutell's TattooI've again been honored by a friend who deems what I do worthy of embedding in their flesh for all time. [personal profile] boutell went out and got inked. The concept and original roughs were designed by him alone, but he came to me for the finished design. He posted about it here, including some detail shots if you would like to see them.

My friends are likely to inflate my ego.

Looks good bro.
mrlich: Photo with great thanks to Joe del Tufo - http://www.deltufophotography.com (Default)
For those of you who where there on the 4th when we discussed whether I was a ninja, a pirate, or a robot. I present Patch - the robotic ninja pirate! (Sorry for the crappy image - I had to use my camera phone to take it.)

0721070949.jpg

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