LYCANTHROPES!!! pt 1

Silverfangs

As I alluded to with my Werewolf:The Apocalypse 20th Anniversary post over on my Draw-Blog, Here are some of the final portraits I did for the series. Eight of 16 to be exact. This was a fun revisiting with the company and game that opened the door to the world of fantasy gaming illustration for me. Rendering werewolves became second nature to me for a good 6, 7, 8 years of my early career.

Red Talons

The muscle memory for drawing anthropomorphized wolves doesn't get rusty for long - even when I'm NOT doing work for White Wolf. I have had to apply that skill to Magic:The Gathering (Innistrad) as well as to World of Warcraft and Dungeons and Dragons.  Given, I draw and paint plenty of other stuff in between, but I haven't gotten tired of illustrating werewolves or creatures that have werewolf-like features like gnolls n' such.

Speaking of gnolls, I may have to post a Dragon Magazine Online piece I did featuring the demon Yeenoghu.  Maybe after these.....

Silent Striders

White Howlers

This was an interesting project in that the art director was posting the sketches as I turned them in to get fans excited and also to get feedback from the fans.  At first, that was kind of off-putting to me.  I listen to my art director but suddenly there was a slew of non-artists and non-art directors chiming in.  It took a little bit to swallow but then I realized that almost all of the comments were very constructive and I actually found myself enthusiastic about the responses and the input.  In several cases, somebody with some otherwise trivial knowledge of something would chime in and I'd apply that little detail. Other times, the comment would be understandable but mostly attributed to that person's personal taste and as we all know, art can never please everyone.  

Wendigo

(Ooooo!  A chance to ape Pacific Northwest Indian design! Score!)

Shadowlords

StarGazers

(My daughter's favorite one!)

Uktena

(Can't resist the chance to use traditional Hopi hairstyle when I can!)