Las Cruces Newe Mexico

Dripping springs trail in the Organ mountains.  What a magical amazing location. Great history, Major Eugene Van Patten built this mountain camp in the late 1800's. A 2 story 14 room hotel.

Great painting inspiration. 

Fantasy and color

Shroud of Madness. Book cover

Parlainth Adventures. Book cover

Head Hunters. Book cover

Double Blind. Book cover

 

A few of my favorite Sci Fi and Fantasy illustrations, all painted in oils, no digital work.  The imagery for these covers come from visualizing the ideas of the writer, combined with the concepts and art of numerous other talented artists that work to create the visual world and flavor of a role playing game.  All my paintings, including landscapes and still lives, have an element of abstraction and fantasy.

Currently I'm working on a series of skyscapes with dramatic light.  With those, I'm exploring the power of color to simulate the strong light effects we observe in nature.  These book cover paintings use mostly complimentary colors to create the effect of dramatic light.

Various

 Here's 4 paintings that were painted at different times. With each one I was exploring various painting concepts.  Usually a slightly different approach to the brushwork, the color, materials, and the process.

Thunderhead

Another in my thunderstorm at sunset series.  18x24 Oil.

Here's a detail image of the painting in progress. The tress and field are under painted with mostly burnt sienna.

A few of the details.

Abstract beauty of clouds.

Lately I've been fascinated with the abstract beauty of clouds.  Form, color, pattern, shape, and design. I've painted multiple small pieces, 6"x 8" or 8"x 10" attempting to capture the elusive mood created at late afternoon, early evening, or just before sunrise. As I have mentioned, I shoot numerous photos when the sky is dramatic. I'm read that forest fires in Canada and out west this summer have had an influence on the color we have seen this year in Wisconsin. This is a larger painting 18"x 26". It has a split complimentary color scheme, although I didn't specifically plan it that way.

I don't have images of the process this time, but I may post some of the smaller paintings later.

Battle Tech Illustration

When I was freelancing a few years ago (20 is a few right?), I painted a number of covers for Fasa Corporation.  The artists and art directors at Fasa were great to work with and I enjoyed those assignments immensely.  This was a Battle Tech source book cover titled "Explorer Corps".

Mt Lemmon Drive

Mt Lemmon is located in the Coronado National Forest north of Tucson, Arizona.  At
9,159 feet, the drive up offers great views of the valley and mountain ridges below.

This is a private commission, painted from photo reference that was provided along with the aid of some research. I've hiked in the area and have taken photos but not of this specific view. I relied on the personal impressions from the client for inspiration.

 

After deciding the basic drawing and composition for this painting, I explored numerous color variations. The studies in the image above were all painted digitally in Photoshop. They allow me to think thru various directions relatively quickly, but I still prefer to create the final color study in oils.

I did 4 oil studies before I felt I was ready to move on to the final painting. The last image being the final study.  These are in my sketchbook and about 9" wide. I refer back and forth to them as I work on the final.

This is a photo of my drawing board with the painting in progress. At this stage the drawing is blocked in with acrylic paint. You can see the final color study on the left, along with various reference photos.

 

This shows the painting in progress. The plants in the foreground are partially blocked in, the background is in but not quite complete. I generally work from the background to the foreground although I don't finish one area completely before moving on. I make adjustments back and forth as the painting develops.

Mt Lemmon Drive 18x26