Zealousy, Deflections, Justice, and Interview!

I'll be posting pics of my artwork from Magic: the Gathering's recently wrapped up gothic horror-themed expansion set: Innistrad - for which I also did concept work on (I'll show that stuff eventually over on my draw-blog!).  The piece above is probably the fan-fave of my crop from the Innistrad block - called "ZEALOUS CONSCRIPTS".  That's probably because it's a really great card to play with - but I like to think the image is pretty good, too.  Actually, it's one of my favorites that I did for Innistrad in that it has some bold painting and I got a bit frisky with a palette knife on the lower half of the piece.  I don't often find good opportunities to let fly with a palette knife but this one worked out well.  Side note:  the rough drawing for this piece is over on my Draw-Blog!

This one (called "DIVINE DEFLECTION") is s rare successful rescue of a potential disaster.  The assignment was a complicated action - well, a none-too-complicated action made complicated by having to show a thrown axe being sent back to its thrower.  Showing a whirling axe without trite motion-blur is difficult let alone showing it change direction, too!  Ugh.  So at first, I had the axe deflecting in front of the guy but in mid-color-rough stage  I decided it looked dumb as all get-out.  So I switched the position of the axe and made it whirling around behind him - which compositionally and visually looked much better.  I also had all sorts of kinks to work out on-the-fly whilst painting.  In the end, I actually like this piece and can even deal with the axe looking like it is just flying rigidly and not rotating like a thrown axe probably would.

Not too much to say about "VIGILANT JUSTICE" other than it was fun to play with what is almost entirely a two-color palette.  Plus, I feel pretty good about the gothy manor in the background - architecture ain't my strong suit so when it comes out looking none-too-shabby, I give myself a pat on the back!

I'd also like to mention a pretty good interview I did for GeekNation.com a few months back.  This interview covers a lot of old territory for those of you that have talked to me or read any previous interviews - but it also adds a bit more flavor, too.  I talk in some detail about being intimidated by fellow artists, taking advice from art school professors, what it takes to keep getting work in fantasy illustration (outside of making pretty pictures!) and even the ridiculous cross-section of music I like to listen to!  It's an excellent website and a good interview - check it out!

INTERVIEW PART ONE

INTERVIEW PART TWO