The 1st National Bank of Lannisport

A quick Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones cartoon, poking fun at Tywin Lannister:

Friends Don't Let Friends Draw Friends

Friends don't let friends draw friends, or they will end up...

...as a faux magazine cover of their awesome self!  The wonderful magazine ImagineFX  released a template for their covers awhile back, so I had to take advantage of this windfall to honor the woman that got me into digital art!

...as comic strip caricatures of their awesome selves!

...as not-quite-watercolor, possibly-muddy-sponge-like, versions of their awesome selves!  This one was outside of my comfort zone by a good bit, so I appreciate them bearing with me on this.

...as faux graffiti art of their awesome former co-worker self!  You know how you mention liking something one time, in passing, to your parents and you are doomed to received that very thing as a gift for the next 5 years?  This is sort of what happened here...

(Thanks again to these understanding friends, and others, who must realize by now that they could end up inspiring an embarrassing digital version of themselves at any point, often with no warning, rhyme or reason.)

The Other 12

Being very experienced at unintentionally embarrassing myself, I thought I'd take the initiative and do it on purpose for once....  A number of years ago, I was focused on the idea of a comic/graphic novel series on the signs of the Zodiac, both Western and Eastern.  The poor Western signs have been beaten to death in no small amount as C-list villains in various comic book series.  Of course, that didn't stop me from fooling around with the ideas.  The most interesting thing that came out of it was the character, personality and story ideas for the Eastern signs.  For some reason, back then I attempted to immortalize my ideas as incredibly amateurish, manga-like representations of the characters - ugh, I still literally cringe each time I look at the images.  About a year or two ago, in an attempt to salvage some internal self-respect, I took a quick re-try at each concept in an attempt to do some of the characters (sketchbook) justice.

To punish myself, I threw in the original concept for the characters below next to the updated quick sketches.  If there is a lesson here it is that just by continuing to work through it, you'll probably get better without realizing (lesson two would be that sometimes it takes a long bit of stepping away and then coming back with fresh eyes to realize this).

Comic hair never looks right once you start thinking about things such as realism and gravity.  Any resemblance Dog may have to Henry Rollins is purely intentional. 

If I ever get around to a full concept, balancing her size and strength with her feminine appearance is going to be a challenge.   

Any resemblance to Im Ji Hye is, also, purely intentional (in fact, I think I may have even looked up a number of pictures to help sketch this out - I wanted a rounder, fuller face instead of a thinner, sharper one like the original idea).

This probably is my favorite sketch.  Ram wasn't a character I had a lot of ideas for story-wise, but due to this sketch he probably  ends up as the first story if they ever get created.

Rat didn't come out as androgynous as needed.  It also bothers me that in this sketch he resembles someone I have met in real life (which is surely unfair to Rat)!

Now that another year or so has gone by, it is probably time for another look at the original idea and to work on a few more updated sketches hopefully.

Sketchbook Pages

A few random sketchbook pages from a while back:

(Quick sketch from photo reference...well, obviously!)

(Sketch at bottom left from photo reference, the hands are mine and everything else is random imaginings!)

Fantasy Headshots

The sheer amount of characters you deal with in fantasy games (offline and on) is a great source of inspiration for sketching portraits and scenes.  I find myself constantly trying to convince my D&D players or potential DMs that they "need a visual to really get a sense of the character", which of course means "I am going to use this as an excuse to sketch you a digital portrait in Photoshop whether you want it or not...".

A less-than-stereotypical Half-Orc Wizard

A very stereotypical Halfling Rogue

A crazy wildling girl

A beardless female dwarf (poor girl, imagine the stigma!)

A lecherous Elf

A Mysterious Monk

Warforged Runepriest avatar for the 4th Ed. character builder*
(*The reference was a little 98x130 image of a grey-metal robot face found on the web, which I cannot for the life of me find a link to anymore)

The Last Tent-Bender Sketches

Back in the Spring of 2009, I had the interesting experience of being an extra on the film the Last Airbender while it was shooting at the Philadelphia Naval Yard.  Sometimes, you were called to gloriously run around on a huge sound stage carrying large weapons, but other times the day consisted of a 5am call time followed by 10 hours of waiting in an outdoor tent.  To pass the time, armed with a ball point pen and a partially blank call sheet, I would sketch the props that we were assigned each day.  Here are a few select samples:

Northern Water Tribe Helmet

Northern Water Tribe Belt Buckle

A somewhat troublesome Fire Nation Helmet