Peasant Burning, Part Deux

After getting some feedback, I've decided to go with the "A Clockwork Orange" style cards for the upcoming 20th Anniversary Edition of Pettyland. I've also decided to increase the card size to 3"x3" (from the original 2"x2") after printing out the other prototypes and seeing how TINY they were. I must be over compensating for something.

I also redid the Peasant Burning illustration. I'm not used to working in such a small format, and I have to keep reminding myself to keep them simple. So, this version is simpler and reads better when printed out. Plus, it has a mushroom cloud of sorts, which was clearly missing from the last version.

More PettyLand Cards!

I've decided to stick with the 2"x2" format, because otherwise the board would be huge. For the moment, I'm sticking with the AC/DC card theme. Here are a few more card illustrations. Also worth noting is that the "Mangeboy" companion card (sorry, Jordan) below is a genderless companion, which is to say, he is both male and female. In addition to being rather humorous, this has specific gameplay implications. I decided to use the transgender symbol to indicate that (since I'm using the male and female symbols on the more more standard genders).

New Fairy Hell Series

Two posts in one day? WTF! I must be on vacation.

This painting is the first in a new set called "Fairy Hell". This piece is called "Little Red Riding Dog", featuring Humpty Dumpty as one of the ring leaders of Hell.

This is an acrylic painting on board. Probably the first 100% acrylic painting I've done in about a decade. My brushes had practically turned to dust.

PettyLand Card Style

I mocked up two PettyLand card styles, each with a different influence of mine from the late '80's (and as found throughout the game). One is based on kind of an AC/DC feel, the other modeled a bit after the movie A Clockwork Orange. I'm trying to keep them pretty simple and graphic, as each card is only 2"x2".

What do you think? Which one do you like better?

More Vikings and CalTrain Peeps

Some more sketches on the train. Viking sketches were done with colored pencil in a little notebook. Caltrain peeps were done on my tablet pc in Sketchbook Pro.

I'm off work for a few weeks, so hopefully I can do something of more substance and without my drawing surface bouncing around.

Pettyland: The Confederacy of Grotesques

Another little sketch of a Pettyland Creature Card. This creature is a member of C.O.G. - The Confederacy of Grotesques. A charming group of individuals born from the threat of nuclear holocaust, Reganomics, and my affinity for Orwell and Huxley. This one has a crucifix spine!

Pettyland Illustrations

A long time ago, between '89 and '91, I created an eight player board game called Pettyland. It was a satirical little snapshot on my real and imagined life at the time. In the game, you play one of eight fragments of Petty's brain attempting to gain dominance over the unfortunate sod and steer him towards the correct path in life.

I haven't played the game in almost ten years, until a long time friend requested it at his birthday a number of weeks ago. Playing it made me think about illustrating the game's hundreds of cards, which is something I never got around to. Here are some doodles along those lines, showing some of the type of cards from the game.

I haven't settled on a look for the game yet, but it would be some combination of my late '80's interests - namely Heavy Metal, A Clockwork Orange, genital references, and the subconscious mind.

Humpty & Red Riding Dog

Lately I've been obsessed with drawing Humpty Dumpty in some sort of Fairy Tell Hell committing all sorts of cruel acts. In this sketch (doing on my tablet PC rockin' the CalTrain), Humpty is riding a three-headed Little Red Riding Dog.

Humpty the Impaler

Another train sketch on my laptop, continuing along with Boschian Fairy Tale characters doing unpleasant things to each other. Our old friend Humpty is at it again. Beheading other egg people and riding around on his egg mount. That also has eyeballs on it.

Blast Off

I got time to finish something that's been sitting on my drawing board for months. Its another piece in the on-going Terrorists Gone Wild series. I'm moving away from flashing, and more towards incorporating the female form with missiles. Yea, I know how that sounds.

Ink and colored pencil on paper.

It's been a long time

I've been busy trying to ship Brütal Legend lately, so not much time to sketch! But I managed to squeeze in a few quick ones. First, is a Boschian Fairy Tale scene with Humpty Dumpty riding a princess with a golden yarn spinner on her backside.
Second, is a Viking with an ambitious hat.

Both sketched on the train with my tablet PC.

Demons?

Yea, I'm not exactly sure these are other than sketches I did on Caltrain on my laptop.

Gorrila

I don't draw gorillas much, but here's one with goggles. And chains. This was a quick Photoshop sketch I did with my cintiq.

Thor, A Mummy, and Some Dude on CalTrain

What do these all have in common? They are all quick sketches I did on the train on the way home last week.

One From the Archives: "Caged" Comic.

I dug out something really old to post. This is a little comic I did, somewhere during 1998 - 2000. All of the panels were done in ink and water color, scanned in, and composed in Photoshop.

VIKINGS!

A few viking head doodles, done on the train commute home on my tablet PC.

First Post of 2009 is the last Picture of 2008

I finished this piece on Dec 31 at about 11:30 pm, just in time. This piece is titled "Madonna and Child". Its pen and ink, mainly brush, but also a healthy amount of crow quill pen, and is 23" wide x 15" tall. Since this is the second image in what is probably going to be a new body of work, I thought it might be interesting to post some images of the process I'm using. I usually don't take the time to keep records of the image in progress, but I did this time. The following images are various steps in the process, with notes for those who are interested.

1. Initial Sketches. A few months ago, I churned out a bunch of sketches on these themes. I taped them all up around my drawing desk. Here's a shot of some of the images around my desk as well as the specific image I used as the starting point for this piece.


2. Digital Layout. I decided that I wanted to do a more elaborate image than my original sketch, so I did a rough layout in Photoshop, sketched on a Wacom tablet. This allowed me to quickly experiment with combining elements from multiple sketches and refine the composition. I printed this image out when I was done and taped it on my desk for reference as I worked on the final piece. I did not want to trace the image or follow it exactly, but just use it as a reference.

3. Pencil. Next I created the pencils for the final image. I used a red colored pencil on smooth bristol paper. My intention was the for the red lines to show through in the final image, so the pencil lines were pretty dark. I also didn't use an eraser at all, as I wanted a record of all of the lines I made in the final image.

4. Final Ink. This is the same image that is at the top of the post. After finishing the pencils, I used a brush (Series 7, size 1) and a crowquill pen (hunt 102 nib) to work on top of the drawing. I did some spattering with a larger brush as well, and used a bit of white acylic at the very end to carve some shapes out of some of the bigger black areas.