July 20th, 2010
Illustration for The Zoo
Yup…all the way back in ’06. I can’t remember the premise behind the story, but I remember putting the piece together, and wondering if it was up to the caliber they were looking for. That’s always the case with a new client. I’m left wondering if they’ll really like what they paid for until I receive a positive response. I guess it doesn’t matter who you are, or how long you’ve been in the industry; you’ll never stop being less than enthused about your own work. I spoke with another couple of illustrators a while ago and they expressed the same feelings about their work. It was stated then that the instant we gave up that feeling and felt that we were truly accomplished…well, that was when we were through.
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May 8th, 2010
More fun and excitement! This piece was again commissioned by Mystic Media for their algadon.com game. I had fun with colors on this one, working with various Photoshop brushes to get the mix. Demons being demons…a female with nails like that would truly be a heart-rending experience. Enjoy.
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April 17th, 2010
You’ll never find so many inspirational bits for art than in legend. Fantasy art allows me to interpret these creatures as I see them. It helps to have a patron who wants to have the pieces you wouldn’t normally find yourself drawing asking after them. It provides you with a unique subject, a challenge, that is always a welcome turn for an artist.
…very like the teui, the small teui dog; small and smooth, shiny. It has small, pointed ears, just like a small dog. It is black, like rubber; smooth, slippery, very smooth, longtailed. And its tail is provided with a hand at the end; just like a human hand is the point of its tail. And its hands are like a raccoon’s hands or like a monkey’s hands. It lives, it is a dweller in watery caverns, in watery depths. And if anyone arrives there at its entrance, or there in the water where it is, it then grabs him there. It is said that it sinks him, it plunges him into the water; it carries him to its home, it introduces him to the depths; so its tail goes holding him, so it goes seizing him … [When the body is retrieved] the one it has drowned no longer has his eyes, his teeth, and his nails; it has taken them all from him. But his body is completely unblemished, his skin uninjured. Only his body comes out all slippery-wet; as if one had pounded it with a stone; as if it had inflicted small bruises … When it was annoyed – had caught no one, had drowned none of us commoners – then was heard as if a small child wept. And he who heard it thought perhaps a child wept, perhaps a baby, perhaps an abandoned one. Moved by this, he went there to look for it. So there he fell into the hands of the auítzotl [sic], there it drowned him…
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April 6th, 2010
For example: this creature was actually a legend in three different cultures. The Afanc would climb out of the boggy waters and devour poor wayfarers. It’s only weakness was a pretty woman (go figure). One such legend has it that King Arthur faced the beast down. The locals of that region even have a hoof print that they claim is from King Arthur’s horse when Arthur used it to drag the beast away to its death. While illuminations and illustrations depict this creature in a different light than I have, I found the written description of it to be much more along the lines of what I’ve rendered. It was a fun piece to draw, using a picture of a regular toad as a model I then pronounced the monstrous aspects as depicted by the legend’s description. The entire thing was done using Photoshop.
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March 28th, 2010
There’s the eternal struggle between good and evil in just about every mythology. People are enthralled by the very idea of them, and I suppose I can see the reason. Immensely beautiful,endowed with the divine power of God, there’s something to be said for the raw appeal inherent within them. I’ve been asked before to draw angels, but I have to admit that this is one of my favorites. Commissioned by Mystic Media for their online game, this piece was done entirely in Photoshop.
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March 8th, 2010
Evil Barbarian Woman
The drawing was done entirely in Photoshop. The concept was to create a “boss” for their online game that was unique and dangerous looking. So, I went tribal. Enjoy!
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February 24th, 2010
Mystic Media is a return customer of mine, and for this entry we’re posting one of their bosses. This was done in Photoshop.
There’s a certain freedom that the folks at Mystic Media allow with the creation of their art. They have, in the past, just asked for an end boss character, or presented me with a name and let me have free rein with the creative side. It is a pleasure working for them, and I look forward to every new project due to the amount of freedom they allow.
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February 9th, 2010
Strom's Tower
Sewer Tunnel
We ran the convention circuit for a while teaching people how to play the game, and playing the part of celebrities signing cards, etc. It was a lot of fun, and even though the game did well with those we showcased it to, even being nominated as a player’s choice game at GenCon, it didn’t make enough money for us to continue. There were big plans, and the group of guys I worked with were top notch.
In any case, these pieces were drawn and colored using Photoshop. At the time, under the deadline I was under, I was producing between three to five of these a day, and managing the incoming art flow from the multitude of artists around the globe that were kind enough to contribute. As trying as that was, I can’t complain. I was doing what I loved to do, drawing fantasy pieces and working in the game industry.
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January 26th, 2010
Illustration for Mystic Media's Algadon.com
When creating such a piece I usually would prefer to draw large and scale down afterward, thereby keeping more detail and allowing me greater freedom with the “brush.” However, due to the requests made by Mystic Media I have been creating these pieces at scale. So, they ask for a particular pixel size and that’s what I deliver. It’s made it both challenging, and quick work at the same time (relatively speaking). I’m still spending roughly an hour on the more detailed pieces, working from scratch in Photoshop all the way through to the final rendering as a transparent PNG.
I begin the piece by creating a sketch layer over the background. Since it is to be a transparent PNG, I don’t want the finished piece to show a background, but I need the background in place to provide me with a canvas to sketch and paint upon. So, I create another layer titled “Background” and fill it with white. Then, on the sketch layer I produce the black and white sketch as I would a standard pencil drawing. Once I have what I want in place, I add another layer titled “Color” and place it below the sketch layer. I apply the color, then merge the sketch layer with the color layer, and clean up the image. To present it to the client, I remove the background layer, and save.
Tags: Card, Creature, Demon, Design, Drawing, Fantasy Art, Illustration, Lance, Lance W. Card, Photoshop
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January 18th, 2010
In any field where you interact with people, you’ll need to exhibit a certain amount of patience and perseverance. Whether it is in retail where you’re face-to-face with customers, or you’re providing a service/product over the Internet, you are going to be faced with the Challenge of Priority.
Your priority is to fulfill the customer’s purchase. In my case, that’s usually providing the customer with illustrated work, a website, or the written word. However, the customer–while interested in the service they’ve purchased–won’t always consider it their highest priority. So, while you’re involved in quickly fulfilling their order and delivering it to them by the fastest possible route, they might be involved with a more pressing matter, and your work is the last thing on their mind. This, of course, can be frustrating for you when trying to reach the customer for confirmation of project completion, or even payment, as they don’t answer your communication attempts and you’re left holding the proverbial bag. In some cases, it can even escalate as the customer forgets (or never received) your communication and after a time realize, “Hey! I paid money for that…” and when all is said and done, they want to find blame for the delays that lie somewhere other than in your hands.
This is where persistence comes into play. I used to oversee the work flow of a design team whose duties included contacting the customer on a regular basis to provide updates as to the progress of their sites, notify the customer of ideas they’ve had in the development of the site to improve on the site’s presentation, and ultimately seek the customer’s sign off on the completion of the project. Not surprisingly for that particular ilk (designers and programmers tend to like to be left to their craft), there was much resistance. But this wasn’t the only problem. Often times, when they would contact a client in search of an approval, the client wouldn’t answer, or would be unavailable to speak with them at that time. This could (and did) delay project approvals by weeks to months since the designers would then sketch in a new time to call the customer two days later, not wanting to bother them only to run into the same scenario. Unfortunately, it also wound up with plenty of customer complaints over the time frame for completion. All of this could have been avoided had the designers been persistent in their pursuit of communication.
Communication is doomed to failure when the attempt to communicate isn’t persistently and doggedly pursued.
Tags: Advice, Card, Challenges, Copywriting, Design, Illustration, Lance, Lance W. Card, Talented Cards, Website Design
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