"I knew much and I have learned much"

 "I knew much and I have learned much"

red pencil and white chalk on toned paper 11" x 14"

I'd like to first wish everyone a Happy New Year. One of my resolutions is to not let two months go by between posts. Another is to try to draw more. Not just drawing for preliminaries in service of an eventual painting, but drawings as finished pieces of art.  We'll see how that works out. 

I did this one as a Christmas gift for my dad. He posed for my earlier painting of Gandalf, so I thought he'd like it. The title is a quote of Gandalf to Frodo, referring to his investigation of Bilbo's magic ring. It shows the old wizard in the archives of Minas Tirith.

I find the sanguine color on brown paper isn't as stark as a graphite line on white paper, so it is a little softer touch, allowing one to be more aggressive with one's lines. The white also adds a feeling of form that makes it closer to a painting than a pure line drawing. The red pencils also can't be made as sharp as a graphite pencil, so it forces one not to noodle as much, and make more declarative lines. And erasing isn't as easy, so it's harder to make a lot of changes. I have experimented with it before, and hope to do more in the future.

There isn't much reference used here either. I just sat down and let the pencil do the work and waited for what would happen. The exceptions are Gandalf's hands. I took a quick photo with the photo booth application on my iMac for a little help. The other exception is the candle. I drew an earlier candle out of my head, but we had one in our house that I thought looked cooler, so I redrew it.

Gandalf: A Light in the Dark

Gandalf: A Light in the Dark

oil on board, 20" x 24"

"The last thing that Pippin saw, as sleep took him, was a glimpse of the old wizard huddled on the floor, shielding a glowing chip in his gnarled hands between his knees. The flicker for a moment showed a sharp nose, and a puff of smoke."

A Journey in the Dark, The Fellowship of the Ring

J.R.R. Tolkien 

This painting is my offering in a trade with a friend and fellow artist Raoul Vitale. I asked for a painting of Bilbo in front of Bag End. You can see his piece on his blog here. Raoul has sent me a picture of the finish, and it's spectacular.

From me, Raoul requested a painting of Gandalf. I chose a moment during the Fellowship of the Ring's trek through the mines of Moria. Unsure of the way, and weary from the long journey through the dark, they have stopped to rest. The fate of the mission rests on his ability to remember the way and lead them safely through. In his anxiety, and perhaps troubled by a prescience of the challenge he will soon face, Gandalf needs a smoke.

Though the wizard is an immortal spirit of unfathomable power, in Middle Earth he is bound to clad himself in the body of an old man, subject to the pains, the cares and fears, and the weariness of an earthly existence.

On a side note, The passage from Tolkien that begins this post mentions a "glowing chip". The only thing I knew about how those in Middle Earth would light their pipes is that they didn't use zippos. Tinder boxes are sometimes mentioned (maybe that's from my D&D days, I'm not sure).  Either way, I had no idea how they actually work. I found this video on youtube that answered the question for me.

Dynacharge

Dynacharge

oil on paper mounted to board, 12" x 16"

©Wizards of the Coast

Dynacharge is the fourth of four cards I illustrated for the Return to Ravnica expansion set. Here we see Izzet guild soldiers protected by surging electricity. I remember using Christmas ornament ballsto determine the color of reflections in the armor. Also, this piece also gave me a chance to use a cool looking visor-ed burgonet helmet I had wanted to use since I saw it in the Philadelphia Museum of Art.  

There's no substitute for seeing the real thing

The other thing I remember about this piece is that, ironically, this is what I was working on when my computer was damaged by a surge of bad, or "dirty" electricity as it was described to me. I have my computer positioned next to my easel so I can use it to look at my reference, studies, and all that. I don't print it out anymore. I get up to refresh my ever present cup of coffee, and when I return my computer is off. I try to turn it back on, and nothing. Not another outlet, not after 10 minutes, nothing. Completely dead. To make matters worse, it just so happened to be the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving. I'd have to wait a day, and then trek to the Apple store in the Cherry Hill Mall on what ominously known as "Black Friday". To anybody reading this who might be unaware, it's regarded as the opening day of the Christmas shopping season. The stores are packed. I remember handling it about as well as George Costanza would.

It actually turned out to not be as bad a I feared. I got lucky, it only took me a half hour to find a parking spot, and I had kept the box, so the computer was safe as it was bumped around as I lugged through the crowds.  After about another half hour or so,  it was looked at and it turned out that only some sort of internal battery had to be replaced. The afore mentioned "dirty" power shorted it out, preventing it from turning on. Nothing else was lost or damaged, and everything was still under warranty. 

My wife and I also decided to get back-up batteries (Uninterruptible Power Supplies) for both computers as well. If the power goes out, the computer will stay on, allowing you enough time to power down safely.

Fall of the Gavel

Fall of the Gavel

oil on paper mounted on board, 12" x 16"

©Wizards of the Coast

Initially my idea for this piece was to have the accused, a Golgari elf, in the scene. I liked the idea and felt it worked for the card. Showing the judge banging the gavel should take priority though, and this would be more difficult to emphasize when reduced to card size. 

Or at least that's what I convinced myself.  Concentrating on the judge alone also allowed me to indulge myself in all those cool details of costume. In this case the silken robes, the silver metal and the blue orbs, and runes of legal code that decorate the garb of the Azorius guild. 

Giving the gavel some motion wasn't something I thought to do until the finish. He might have just been holding the gavel, but some blur and a few sparks seemed to do the trick.

Another thing I remember about this piece was being uncertain about vedalken anatomy (the vedalken are a blue skinned race of humanoids that appear in many of the settings in Magic). Some of the concept art had them with very long necks, while others had necks closer of human length.  As it turned out, either one was fine and the only concern for the art director, Jeremy Jarvis, was that the face not look like an alien. So I kept the longer neck. More room for more detail.

Knightly Valor

Knightly Valor

oil on paper on board, 12" x 16"

©Wizards of the Coast

In Knightly Valor, we see the same knight pictured in the token card from the last post. Here he is escorting an elderly woman through a the neighborhood he patrols. She is appreciative of the safety he provides in what is probably a rough neighborhood. Beware Ravnican purse-snatchers!

I rarely do complete character designs for two dimensional images. Rather, the design is tailored to work within the a specific abstract composition.  So it was a little odd to be constrained by making the knight exactly the same, but work in two different compositions.

An early attempt. Notice the conical helmet. This was deemed too medieval looking and changed.

Although this is a depiction of a chivalry, it couldn't come off as too sentimental. I didn't want this guy to look too much like a Boy Scout.  This was is the flaw in the sketch above. 

 

The sketch

Knight Token

 Knight of Ravnica

Oil on paper mounted to board, 13" x 14 1/2" 

©Wizards of the Coast

This is the first card to be revealed that I illustrated for the upcoming Magic:The Gathering set, Return to Ravnica. The story with this character is that he is a local knight who protects the inhabitants of his neighborhood. Unaffiliated with any guild, his armor and clothing are unadorned with any device and are of a somewhat utilitarian design.

Chesley Award!

The winners of the 2012 Chesley Awards were announced at Chicago World Con Friday night, and The Cloud Roads was honored with the award for the best paperback cover illustration. The Chesleys, named for renowned artist Chesley Bonestell, are given by the Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists for excellence in sci-fi/fantasy art. It's a tremendous honor in this field, given the high quality of the work considered. Thank you to ASFA and all that voted and participated, and Congratulations to all the winners and nominees! Check out this Tor.com post to see all the nominees and winners.