Arboreal Dreams: The Forest

“In Olden Times” Emily Fiegenschuh - Gouache

"Old Woman of the Wood"  Vinod Rams - Watercolor

If you happen to be in the Seattle area this weekend come by Krab Jab Studio for the opening of Arboreal Dreams group show on Saturday, February 12th. The show opening is from 6 to 9pm. Both Emily and I have pieces in the show. We’ll both be there for the opening.

More info here:
http://www.krabjabstudio.com/
https://www.facebook.com/events/970495559707584/

Arboreal Dreams: The Forest
Opens February 13th, 6 - 9 pm

Trees have entranced the minds and hearts of man since before our kind could trace time. They served us for food, shelter, clothing, and warmth. They delighted us in their marking of the seasons, their marking of fertile grounds in desolate lands, and the marking of our own fallen comrades (as a natural headstone). They are featured in every religion, every community, every social structure, mystifying us, strengthening us, nurturing us. And finally, they are often the unsung stars in our artistic endeavors, whether they set the scene for an epic battle of good and evil, or whether they themselves serve us, the artists, in the form of wood blocks, totems, painting panels, sculptures, or paper. Without the mighty tree, we would literally die.

In this group show, artists were asked to explore their own connection to the nature of trees. Whether they hail from the Pacific Northwest or as far as Belgium, these participating artists visually narrate an arboreal song that weaves together almost seamlessly. The result is as ethereal as it is solid, drawing into the depths of our communal consciousness.

This show will run through both February and March, opening February 13th at Krab Jab Studio.

Artists Featured: Braden Duncan, Stephanie Pui-Mun Law, Olivier Villoingt, Bastien Lecouffe Deharme, Iris Compiet, Virginie Ropars, Yuko Ishii, Mark Poole, Drew Tucker, Emily Fiegenschuh, Vinod Rams, Elijah Evenson, Greg Spalenka, Rovina Cai, Jeff Menges, Yvette Endrijautzki, David Gray, Tara Larsen Chang, and Dan Chudzinski.

(I'll be writing a larger post about my painting later)

Fury Road

A road warrior-ey sketch from 2010

Saw Fury Road this past weekend!
I’m a huge Mad Max/Road Warrior fan and while I think Road Warrior was a “tighter” movie overall, I think Fury Road is probably the best action movie to come along in years. I think the movie is a sci-fi/fantasy nerd’s dream since it opens up the world and gives you little glimpses  of story without explaining a ton. In that way it still feels like an 80′s fantasy movie as opposed to one of the current (boring) superhero blockbusters that seem to come out every other week.

Part of that may have come from the fact that one of the writers is also one of the artists! (Brendan McCarthy. His site’s down right now but here’s some of his work for Fury Road from 1997. (movie’s been in production for a loooong time) Here's some of his work for the movie:

Also I loved the character of “Furiosa”. She belongs up there with other amazing action movie women like Ripley and Sarah Connor!

The art direction for the movie was a healthy mix of Road Warrior, Brom and Heavy Metal (comic or music, pick one! Or both!) Furiosa’s makeup and the “War Boys” were very reminiscent of Brom’s paintings for the Dark Age RPG. Oh and throw in a little dash of Phil Hale’s pale jumping guys in there as well.

Here's some of Brom's work that reminded me of some of the imagery in Fury Road:

Anyway, I highly recommend it! It's a rare occurrence that a reboot/sequel of a series from 34 years ago is actually good!

Marriage is a work of art... Update!

I have a nice update from the Marriage show at Krab Jab last weekend. Emily and I both sold paintings!

The painting I sold was "The Green Man" and Emily sold her companion piece titled "Children of the Forest." They were bought by the same patron and it's nice to know that the two pieces made an impact on someone. I actually had some reservations with putting my painting up for sale. It was a personal piece and I was happy with the way it turned out. But beyond that, the painting actually meant something to me. Many of my freelance illustration paintings are fun or interesting but they don't have much long-lasting meaning for me. I'm still working on a post about "The Green Man," but the painting represented a feeling about nature, compassion, and happiness that is hard for me to describe. My only solace is that whoever bought our paintings felt a strong connection to them and just had to have them!

Our two sold paintings!

The show opening went really well. There was a steady crowd throughout and Emily, the other attending artists and I gave an interesting artist talk about living and working with our spouses. (I think Krab Jab recorded it but I'm not sure when it's going up on their youtube channel)

Our wall at the show.

Two of my "geezers of fantasy" paintings.

Our wall and us!

Here's a link to Krab Jab's online inventory of the other paintings in the show that are still available for purchase:
http://www.krabjabstudio.com/#!current/cnkj

Emily also wrote a nice post on her blog here, with some more pictures:
http://fabledearth.blogspot.com/2015/04/march-and-april-at-krab-jab.html

Marriage is a Work of Art

Emily and I will be showing some pieces in the upcoming show at KrabJab Studio this weekend! The show has a special theme featuring artist couples. It's a really great idea for a show since in our years of being professional artists we've come across many artist couples and it's always interesting to see how they work together.

Emily and I got to know each other because of art, and art is a huge part of our lives together. We'll be doing a talk during the show's opening night on Saturday April 11th from 6-9pm. I'm sure all the art-couples in attendance will have alot of interesting stories about the ups and downs of being with an artist. So if you're in the Seattle area this weekend please come by and check it out!
 We'll be a bit late to the opening because we're attending a workshop taught by Omar Rayyan that also takes place this weekend, but we do hope to arrive in time for the artist talk.




Here's some links about KrabJab and the event:
http://www.krabjabstudio.com/
https://www.facebook.com/events/1548905245371394/
 
Marriage is a Work of Art Opening Reception
Saturday, April 11th, 6 - 9 pm
Show runs through May 2nd

Location:
Krab Jab Studio
5628 Airport Way S, Ste 150
Seattle, WA  98108

Here's a few of the paintings I'll be bringing for our corner of the gallery:

My Green Man painting and one of my "Geezers of Fantasy" sketches all painted up!

Emily's drawing for the companion piece to my Green Man Painting.

I'll show much more art after the opening, including some WIP pictures that I finally remembered to take.

Hope to see you at the show!

Imagine FX Cover and Workshop!

More Gigantic news!
Gigantic is on the cover of an upcoming issue of the digital art magazine Imagine FX. The cover was dual painted by Devon and me.  It was an interesting process. I've never actually collaborated with someone on a piece of artwork but it was pretty fun, so I see no reason not to do more art-collaborations in the future! Emily and I have painted on each others paintings from time to time, and we've also helped each other out with drawings but those are more like un-official collaborations.

Anyways here's the cover! It definitely exceeded the quota for the number of characters on an IFX cover! (Usually they just have one character per cover.)

Tyto, Voden, and Knossos get ready to battle their most
fearsome foe... cover copy.

After the issue is actually out I'll get permission to post some process stuff and post the cover without the text.

There's also a "how we design a hero on Gigantic" workshop in the issue. I tried to put into words the interesting and collaborative design process at Motiga, using the elite sniper, Imani, as an example. I'd love to elaborate on this further but for now this is a nice peek into our process! Here's a really lo-res pic of that workshop... gotta get the issue if you want to read it!

AFRU Gallery Show in Portland September 5th - 27th

Just a quick heads up, Emily and I will have work at the AFRU Gallery in Portland this month. The show is entitled "Illustrator and Designer Appreciation" and it's associated with the Rose City Comic Con. (The AFRU Gallery is just a few blocks from the convention center)

I have three pieces in the show, two of which are for sale. The third is a personal piece that I have yet to properly feature on this blog, but I'll get to that soon. (you can see it on my website here though)
Here are the two "oldie but goody" dragon paintings for sale:

  

The galleries opening reception is Sept. 5th from 6pm till Midnight. Emily and I might not be able to make it out though, one of our pets is sick so we might be preoccupied with making him feel better. 

But if your a Portland native or you'll be in town please go check out the show!

I've Been Framed!

Got this nice photo of one of my paintings all framed up from it's proud new owners. I sold it to them last year at Gen Con. It's always nice and flattering to know that your painting is gracing the walls of a geek's gaming room. (or wherever they wanted to hang it, hopefully not the bathroom!)

My original Gouache painting for a Pathfinder Adventure

Thanks again for the patronage Jason and Tina!

Pygmy Triad - World of Warcraft TCG

 

Here's one of the most recent World of Warcraft cards I worked on. I did three cards for this set, and this one was my favorite out of the three.  I might post the other ones, but then again I might not! You know the old saying: Out of sight, out of portfolio.

 Card art is challenging, especially for a newbie like me. Some of my other illustrator friends do dozens of cards a year so they really understand how to push their composition, colors and contrast to create art that reads well when it's printed on a trading card. I, however am still getting the hang of it.

This particular card was interesting since the pygmy characters are supposed to be stacked on top of each other, which of course doesn't really work for a card with a horizontal picture plane. Here's how the characters appear in the game:

And here's my thumbnail. I took the basic idea but "squished" them so they fit into the card format. Which also let me breathe some life into the characters since they're supposed to be goofy.

 

And the drawing before I started my digital painting:

 Finally here's the art as it appears on the card. It still reads well in teeny tiny card format!