Orpheus

Earlier this week I saw a color proof for my new piece from The Dialogue Project, which is a series of poems illustrated sequentially by a variety of artists and published as limited edition prints. I made a visit to the Transmission Atelier studio to check out the production and I have to say that I was incredibly impressed (again) at the quality that James Kay captures when capturing and printing artwork. At first glance I couldn't tell the original from the copy.

I've been excited about being a part of The Dialogue Project ever since the publisher, Cory Glaberson commissioned me to do "any poem" that I wanted! And I was equally thrilled that Robert Garcia was going to handle the design of the series as well as lettering the piece. "Orpheus" was finished in time for San Diego Comic-Con but the prints are just getting set to roll off the press. They are available now from the publisher or from the Reel Art booth at any major comic book/entertainment convention.

It all started with the poem from the play, "Henry VIII":

Orpheus with his lute made trees,
And the mountain tops that freeze,
Bow themselves, when he did sing.
To his music plants and flowers
Ever sprung; as sun and showers
There had made a lasting spring.

Everything that heard him play,
Even the billows of the sea,
Hung their heads, and then lay by.
In sweet music is such art,
Killing care and grief of heart
Fall asleep, or hearing, die.

-William Shakespeare


My rough sketch as I had originally envisioned.
And while I ended up reworking this rough sketch, it really shows elements of what I wanted it to be and where I eventually ended up.

Blocking in the drawing on the board.
More sketching and influences of Pre-Raphaelite imagery and art nouveau emerged as I began gathering my reference.

And then on to Bob Garcia to be lettered:

(Not Final Version)
Other artist's in the series so far: Michael Zulli, Rick Geary, Mark Nelson and Howard Chaykin. I may be missing somebody...
So, for updates and ordering information please go to their website:
www.thedialogueproject.co

Star Struck: Process

For my painting STAR STRUCK, I grabbed a rough thumbnail that was sitting in my sketchbook and quickly developed a concept and design influenced by the black and white illustrations from artist Virgil Finlay. I admire Finlay’s imagination, design and craftsmanship, especially with the female form.

My space heroine is so awe struck (or star struck) by the alien world around her that she has innocently fallen into danger - and without a ray gun at her side! While working on the composition and my drawing, I started to think about dramatic and effective color. That’s when a palette reminiscent of pulp covers by Hubert Rogers seemed like a good choice to me. Rogers has a wonderful sensibility of his subject matter with an attachment to art deco. My color choice made the image more romantic and dream like, which set a nice mood against the ensuing danger. Pulp covers are full of excitement with dramatic colors, pretty dames, cool costumes and ugly monsters. My alien world draws our victim close enough to be dragged into an unknown world or… to her doom.



SKETCH: After roughing out a design and composition on paper based on my thumbnail, I gathered my photo references and spent time focusing on my star struck girl, designing her art deco space suit and dramatic lighting from the stars that surround her. I then transfer the drawing and develop a tighter drawing directly on the illustration board.

In the past, I enjoyed the process of working out very finished pencil drawings where I was solving all obstacles, putting all my thoughts down on paper and spending an average of 3 -5 hours working on studies before even thinking about painting. Recently, I have decided to spend more time working and drawing directly on the board. I gain more time against a deadline and enjoying the immediacy of painting.



ON THE BOARD: Working on a gessoed illustration board, I developed a detailed drawing using color pencils; light umber, terra cotta, indigo blue and light violet. I start painting with Liquitex acrylics by blocking in darks (Payne’s Grey) with flat brushes and introduce some more color (Raw Umber and Burnt Sienna). Once I start usinig a #4 round for details I know I’m about to broadly apply glazes with the Iwata HP-C air brush. I quickly cut some acetate masks with an x-acto blade around the figure, the alien, the red planet above, and the planet below.





COLOR: I lay masks over the figure, the alien at her legs, the planet above and the planet below and paint the background of stars and outer space, which allows me to establish the overall darks and lights. I then move onto the alien world and tentacles. While applying the acrylics with the airbrush I play with watercolor texture effects using rags and sponges.




FINISH: Once I add the strong yellow dramatic light on the figure and paint her space suit with Payne’s Grey and Brilliant Purple, I set the mood for a warm red planet at the top by applying Indo Orange Red and then Naphthol Red Light with the air brush. I wrap everything up by painting her flesh tone on her face and tying details together with a little more color pencil work and opaque paint and brushes. I spent approximately three 10 hour days on this project. Another day and a half pulling the article together and selecting photos.




Cover art and color inspiration by Hubert Rogers

(The original concise article was featured in the January 2011 issue of ImagineFX magazine. This post adds more insight and more photos into the step-by-step process.)

Sci-Fi A-Z: Pulp

"Capture the essence of space pulp". That's the title given to the step by step feature written by me explaining the inspiration and process behind my new painting, "Starstruck". I owe a world of thanks to Ian Dean at ImagineFX magazine for contacting me back in October. I was able to pull a concept of mine out of my sketchbook and fine tune it to his needs and paint it for their upcoming Ultimate Guide To Sci-Fi Art issue. And now in the January 2011 issue sporting a TRON cover, there's a wonderful feature that is titled, "A-Z Of Sci-Fi Art". You'll find "Starstruck" under the letter "P" for Pulp on page 64. It's an incredible magazine filled with amazing images. As well as an interview with one of my favorite artists, Moebius. Run out and buy issue 65, available now. And check back later because I plan on posting the "director's cut" of my step by step process.

In issue 65:

Wizard World Chicago Comic-Con

It's that time of the year again! I will be in Artist Alley with my friends from General Jack Cosmo Productions at the Chicago Comic-Con presented by Wizard World. Please stop by my table (3110-3112) and say "hello". I'll tell you all about what I've been up to as well as showcasing my recent Sketchbook: A Fistful Of Lead. Plus, there is also an extremely limited edition introduction to "New Dreaming Men" created by me and writer Aaron Shaps (General Jack Cosmo, Zeroids, Phantom Detective). More on NDM later, but Aaron and I will be offering 100 signed and numbered copies of NDM with the first introductory prose story, and black and white character paintings all behind a brand new full color card stock cover. It's a rip roaring, all ages pulp adventure to be published by Olympian Publishing.

Sketchbook: Entry 2

This art deco inspired cityscape was originally imagined for my calendar illustration of Buck Rogers for The Adler Planetarium and Space Museum in Chicago. I used art deco elements and incorporated them into buildings from old 1930’s – 1940’s photographs and the film, Just Imagine. After working on the study I soon realized that it wasn’t going to work in the futuristic video monitor. The shape wasn’t fitting into the video screen as I had intended (partly because I decided to change the monitor’s shape into a much more “retro-futuristic” design). But, the buildings just weren’t foreboding enough either. So, I filed it away and resurrected it later on into a personal and experimental painting of Batman and named it Gotham City.



The illustration of Buck Rogers was imagined for the Adler’s 2001 calendar. When the project was presented to me, my subject for the given month was “Haley’s Comet”. I soon developed a sketch that represented my thoughts of the museum that I remembered from visiting many times as a young boy. The memories of my visits always filled my super charged imagination with epic space travel, planetary tales, stars and sci-fi heroes. This is what I wanted to illustrate and now I had my concept in mind. I placed my space hero from yesteryear in front of a video monitor (from the film Things To Come), alarmed by the foreboding meteor and ready for adventure with his dome helmet and raygun in his holster. I incorporated my admiration of pulp art and vintage sci-fi into the Haley’s Comet theme. And even more suiting was the tie-in with the Buck Rogers character frozen and awaken some 500 years later into the future world of New Chicago. I thought it was a very well rounded piece for a Chicago institution. The finished illustration was later accepted into the pages of Spectrum 8: The Best In Contemporary Fantastic Art and then re-used as a promotional poster and advertising for CF3: The Chicago Fantastic Film Festival.