Zodiac Scribblings

It's always fun to embark on new projects. The current one will be a zodiac series that Llewellyn has commissioned me for, for their 2011 astrological calendar. I've always wanted to do a zodiac series, so I'm eager to get going on this.

As with the tarot, the challenge is to try and find my own approach to images that have been rehashed over and over by so many artists. Maintaining the meaning and symbology while applying my own touch.

Some of the early designs I've got simmering in my sketchbook:

Offerings

"Offerings"
Size: 14x20 inches

Medium: watercolor

From the moment I saw this banyan tree while hiking in Hawaii I knew I had to paint it. It was tangled around an enormous boulder in the middle of a stream. The roots draped down around the curve to settle in a living curtain of verdant green and brown, and the canopy stretched out to fill the empty space of the sky.

I'm always drawn to the ancients of the woods, whether they are my own familiar oaks and redwoods, or denizens of stranger paths. When coming across these twisted elders in the wilds, it is easy to understand animism, for how could something so glorious and unique not have a spirit?

In progress shots:
Part 1
Part 2

Offerings in progress part 2

Snarled roots and figures hidden among the spirals of the foreground. The progess after one day's worth of painting. I've started to lay in the base colors for the upper areas too with a wide flat brush. It's a mixture basically of whatever greens and purples I had on my palette. I'm not too particular about the exact shade, as I'll be working up the layers on top of this to define the color. Mostly done with the lower areas, though need to paint the figure and lily pads still. I'll probably leave that til the end so I can figure out what color she needs to be. At this moment though I'm thinking bright monarch butterfly colors.



I continue to layer in green mixtures to to the upper corners to build up the color intensity. Also, the interaction of the layers helps to create textures even before I start to paint in leaves purposefully. It becomes a mixture of purpose and randomness.

I don't really work on any one specific area at a time. I kind of jump around in the canopy to wherever I feel like painting for a while, as the textures emerge.

Darkened the golden tones in the middle area as well, the better to pull out the contrast of the light around the figure and in the water.

Hope to finish this off tomorrow!

Offerings (i.e. "Big ole tree ball") in progress

Well I'm always of the mentality that my ink drawings are finished pieces. And I'm not breaking from them -- they are finished pieces in themselves. But sometimes (more and more lately) I find myself using them as springboards for paintings as well.

So here's a piece that will be based on the recent ink drawing "Offerings". It's a big tree full of twists and crooks and curves! I can never resist those!

Starting with the rough pencil sketch on my usual favorite, Strathmore's 500 series illustration board, about 20x14 inches. It takes quite some time to sketch this out on a larger scale. All the twisting roots of the banyan tree -- I want to maintain the freshness that the original drawing had, and it's an easy thing to lose when re-drawing many times over.

* * *

Two lazy days of sketching later (I figured I was entitled to distractions after having worked hard all of last week at Comic-con), I'm ready to start painting.

Sometimes an inspiration for a piece comes to mind complete with color and lighting. It's nice when that happens.


This is not one of those times. Scratching my head to figure out what colors I want to use for this, and the only thing I do know for sure is that I want the upper tree areas to be mostly monochrome. I'm torn between shadowy eldritch purples, or mossy mysterious greens.

Greens win out. Did I mention I'm stuck on Greens these days?

Besides, my palette is full of random green mixtures at this point, after my last couple of paintings, and it would be a shame to waste.

* * *

Moving along the foreground. Keeping a golden glow to the area around the figure, and down into the waters, but the rest will be deep greens. First layer of purple and viridian green on the lower right area, then once that dries, filling it in with abstract textures. I don't really bother to sketch it all in beforehand. That much pre-planning would make the painting phase itself boring. I like to see what just evolves under my brush as I go.

Lots o' Tarot Stuff

So first off, The Art of Shadowscapes Tarot is now available for pre-order. You can find that here.






Secondly, as if that wasn't enough Tarot yumminess, here's something that I did for White Wolf about a year and half ago, that they finally released (and thus I am released from holding the art secret). From the Mage Tarot, in which they had 5 different artists - one for the majors, and one each for the suits. I was assigned Cups.

I'll have these originals up for sale on Etsy. Probably after I return from Gencon.

Mage Tarot images copyright White Wolf.

Shadowscapes Tarot Major Arcana and Sketchbook

A little something that I had been working on the side with a few months ago (before convention-print-matting temporarily took over my life). The border drawings I did earlier this year were a bit of a sneak peak to this project. I was being secretive about it before because I wasn't quite sure if I'd manage to get it all pulled together. But the proof arrived from my printer (after yet another song and dance number fiasco with FedEx *growl*) yesterday and I'm quite happy with how it looks. I went with an offset printer (instead of digital on demand) for this because it's in full color and hardback.

Hardcover with dust jacket, 96 pages, full color, 8x11 inches. Each of the 22 trump cards, along with text to accompany the images and ink illustrations created especially for this book. Followed by sketches of the development of each piece and insights into the symbols depicted, inspirations, and the lore behind them.

I'm expecting the book to be available in about 6 weeks. This is a Shadowscapes exclusive, not available from anywhere else, and a nice companion to the deck that Llewellyn will be releasing next year. Which by the way they have started production on at last yay! I'll be sure to update when I hear more news about the official release date. Oh, another spot of good news on the deck though - Llewellyn has heard all the pleas (most especially from those at the Aeclectic Tarot forums, but I also conveyed the many comments regarding the issue that I got in emails) and will be going with absolute minimum borders for the cards. Only enough for the name of the card at the bottom was what I was told.

I'll start taking pre-orders for this book on the site in a couple of weeks. Price is still to be determined.

Here's a preview of a bit of it!

(Thanks Yeechi and John for proof-reading!)

Comic-con

Back from Comic-con! Happy to be home, but once again, I seem to have caught my yearly summer-convention-cold. Such large crowds of people seem to make it inevitable for me. It's a rather sniffly/sneezy homecoming as a result.

Shared booth space with my artist friend Sandra Santara. I have to say that the nice booth setup was entirely thanks to her, as she brought all the carpet panels for hanging our art up on, as well as all the lighting. My usual convention setup is more sparse than this. It was one of the few occasions I had to bring framed originals with me as well, since I drove the 8 hours south to San Diego with my brother this time, rather than flying as I normally do for Gencon and Dragoncon.

* * *

A snapshot of a quick drawing I did one evening in a friend's sketchbook while hanging out at the Westin. I had left my own notebooks and things back at the hotel room, and with a room full of artists sketching away, I needed something to do to keep my hands busy. And since Allen is a goober and takes 3 years ever to scan any drawings I ever give him at shows, I took a bad photo of it.

* * *

At every show, there's always busy times when I can't seem to pull prints out fast enough or answer the 4 questions that are shot my way at once; and then there are the quiet lulls where you wonder where everyone suddenly vanished off to and whether those garlic pita chips were perhaps perfuming the air around you.

I like to dig out my pens and work on ink drawings during the quiet spells. Once upon a time when I first started going to conventions I would actually bring paintings to work on, but I find now that those are too distracting to start and stop constantly. And having to worry about not spilling the water cup is an extra annoyance (especially so in a situation like Sandra and I had at this show where we were crowded so close we were practically in each others' laps!) Ink is nice and easy to pick up when I have the time, and set aside when necessary.

Inspired by a banyan tree I saw recently on my Maui trip whose roots were tangled around a large boulder (which we dubbed "the big ole' tree ball") I scribbled a quick sketch and worked on this for the first couple of days. There's almost a meditative quality about working on detailed line textures.

"Offerings"
7x11 inches
brown hi-tec-c gel pen on bristol board

* * *

And then when that was done and I got tired of twiddling my fingers, I pulled out another sheet and started with some random lines. They quickly resolved into nautiluses, a few photos of which I found floating in my digital camera, which conveniently was on hand. Perhaps a bit of Cthulu inspiration as well. Hard to go to a con and not see something Cthulu. Or perhaps it was just spirals on the mind.

"Nautilus"
7x11 inches
black hi-tec-c gel pen on bristol board