Before Nightwing

I'll only paint for an hour is a lie I often tell myself before bed.  However, this one only took 4 hours until I decided to stop so I have told myself worse lies.  I was wanting to knock out a quick anatomy study and figured making it into a superhero would make the process more entertaining for me.


You've got to respect a kid who wears bright yellow and green tights when his boss is all in black body armor.

After the Battle, Teela Girls of 80's animation part 2

This is the year for doing, so I am trying to wrap up old projects.  I started this painting a year ago when I was staying in a friends basement, discovered the work of Dave Rapoza and was 1500 miles away from home looking for work in a new city.

Then I barely touched it for 10 months.

While waiting for some visual effects to render out or to break up my day (and trying to get things done) I started putting more time into this piece.  The vast majority of its completion were done during late night pushes over the past few weeks.

 This is my second piece in the series called Girls of 80's animation. Teela always had a special place in my heart.  I am sure that all of those hours spent as a child playing with the action figures and watching He-Man planted the seed of the predilection towards red heads, nice hips and women wearing fur topped boots I suffer from as an adult.

I didnt realize how long it had been since my first piece, Janine from the Real Ghostbusters, was posted up here.  I promise the next in the series will be up sooner than a year and a half.  To refresh your memory, here is Janine.

The original intent was to create pin ups or each of these ladies.  However, after using several Gil Elvgens as my reference for Janine, I realized that copying an old school pinup was only creating a severely flat image.  Add to that a lack of experience with painting digitally and, well, there is a big jump in skill level between the two images.  I've been practicing.

For this I tried to focus more on realism and creating a portfolio piece that I could submit to gaming card companies.  I drifted away from the pinup angle and just tried to make her what her character was supposed to be.  A woman who, as the daughter of Man-At-Arms, never backed down from a fight and even bruised and bloody was as intimidating as she was attractive.

Let me know what you think!

Perodia Card 2

Here is a description of the project from one of the head honchos.


Perodia is a multi-media game universe in which humans and Elees (creatures based on the Periodic Table of Elements) live together in peace... most of the time...

MegaPickle Entertainment is a virtual studio which, since 2010, has been developing an RPG video game, alongside a supporting Trading Card Game which exists in both physical and virtual online forms. More than just fun and educational (thought it's both of those), Perodia inspires gamers to learn!

With no offense to Pokemon, imagine if all the Pokemon game stats that kids have memorized actually helped them improve their grades and ignited a passion for science, boys and girls alike!

Well that's what we've got, and we're trying to raise extra funding for additional priniting and marketing.

Perodia already has a US & Canada retail distribution deal with Canada's largest distributor of TCG games, with a target shipping date of September 2012 to coincide with the new school semester.

The following are links to our Youtube and Facebook pages :
a.YouTube: http://youtu.be/BKq9D1mcjKo
b. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PerodiaTCG

Please have a look at our project, and see if it moves you. We are very excited about it and would like to see it get the help that it needs.

Thank you very kindly!

Here is the second card I worked on, Frozeen.

Perodia Character art, Card 1

Here was my first assignment for the Perodia set, Helio.  He comes from a noble family.  Admittedly, he was designed by someone else in 3D, as I would never have come up with this design on my own.  I had been looking for an excuse to work on my digital painting abilities for years, and the chance to work on this card set with incredible ideals was perfect.  Although I have no kids yet, it seems that most of kids entertainment has strayed very far from the educational, moral instilling entertainment that I remembered as a kid (even GI Joe had 'knowledge is power' segment) and I wanted to bring it back. The entertaining way this card set easily teaches kids about chemistry was an remarkable idea, so I wanted to help out any way I could to see to its success.

Bear in mind, my paint skills are pretty rusty at the point I painted this guy.  Enjoy!

Also, check out the Perodia kickstarter to help this set make it through the final stages of production!
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mpe/perodia-trading-card-game

 I did cleanup effects on this flick and they finally put up a trailer. It looks good (although anything with Watson in it I am going to give the benefit of the doubt to). I was impressed with some of the subtle effects that some of my fellow compositors put into this. When you watch it, you wont know a frame of it was touched. Check out the trailer and lemme know what you think. The film stars Emma Watson (Harry Potter) and Logan Lerman (Percy Jackson), and it was directed by Stephen Chbosky who also wrote the 1999 novel that the film is based off of. The story follows a shy and unpopular naive outsider high school student "coping with first love (Watson), the suicide of his best friend, and his own mental illness while struggling to find a group of people with whom he belongs." It actually looks like a really good movie. It's also nice to see Watson in a role outside the world of Hogwarts. The movie also stars Nina Dobrev, Mae Whitman, Johnny Simmons, Sarah Ramos, Ezra Miller, Erin Wilhelmi, and Landon Pigg. The movie comes out on September 14th.

Also, the still frame they have as the holding frame in the video below looks way more provocative then the shot actually is. Swarmy.

Get More: Nina Dobrev, Logan Lerman, Emma Watson, 2012 Movie Awards, New Movies

NEIL GAIMAN: Make good art

50. NEIL GAIMAN: Make good art

If you are an uber nerd, and if are reading this you probably are (or are my mother), then you know Neil Gaiman so I wont bore you with a bio.  He spoke at a graduations commencement speech as he tends to do around this time of year every year.  It was inspiring.  Here is art that this gentleman felt inspired to do. Click, read, make art.

PS-Here is the original speech.

Perodia kickstarter

I warned you that this storm was coming.

A  year ago I was lucky enough to score a place on the art team for a collectible trading card game. This is a card game similar to Pokemon but with one significant difference, ITS EDUCATIONAL! Yeah, thats right, instead of knowing charizords combat strength you have monsters fighting using combo attacks that teach kids about the periodic table and chemical equations. I spent a year creating artwork with no payment up front because I believe so much in the quality and purpose of this game. They've put together a kickstarter campaign to help them over the final production hurdles. Check out the page and even if you dont want to contribute, check out some of the coolness of that artwork at the beginning of the video. ;)

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mpe/perodia-trading-card-game

To further promote this game (and to show off a bit of work I am terribly proud of) I will be showing some of the card art over the next couple of months.  First up is the splash page art.  The top is the final cropped and logo'd version, followed by the unlogo'd version and then below that an earlier draft featuring a couple of the children characters that will be featured in various aspects of the game and storyline.  Enjoy!