Rust Drawing

This is the drawing for the "Rust" challenge.  I am on vacation this week so I'm movin along with this piece pretty quickly.  I will be staring this piece later today.  I can't wait to start. I'm doing this painting 13" x 14".

Becca's "Rust" Thumbs

Well, this turned out to be more of a mind-bender than I'd anticipated. I've got a whole bunch of thumbnails (click to view larger). The first couple seem like sort of cliche ideas - a guy with a sword with vines growing over him...meh. But I like my idea for an industrious gnome/dwarf character, who has taken an old sword and used it to fashion a spade (#5). My other faves are the last two, where the King of Spades is plotting to invade the other card suites' territories. Thoughts?

Scott's Rust Thumbs

Here's my lame attempt at creating lots of interesting thumbs for this project. Haha. But actually I've had quite a few other projects hop onto my table recently so in between drawings for those, this is what i've come up with for our current "Rust" assignment. I Liked the thumb on the top right with the lone armored figure and his trusty companion trudging through the aftermath of a snow covered battlefield. I am thinking of doing this in a very limited palette of black, white, and burnt umber, with hints of crimson. I've been wanting to do a piece with this color combination for a while after seeing it used in some of Howard Pyle's magnificent paintings. Feel free to give comments crits whathaveyou... 

Rust Thumbs

These are my thumbnails for the "Rust" challenge.  The girl will be covered in rust.  I have already taken pictures for the 4th one.  Thats the one I will be going with so I guess I am not taking suggestions at this stage... Sorry but I am really excited about the 4th one, the thumbnail doesn't look that interesting but her hand and the flower will be the only things in focus and the rest of her will be all fuzzy.  And by having the hand really close I can make some really nice rust texture.

New Year, New Challenge

Happy New Year everyone! As you may have noticed, it's been a while since we posted. We have all been quite busy over the last few months - two of us were working in Egypt for the Metropolitan Museum, and one of us had a book cover job and a number of exciting personal projects. But now it's a brand new year and we're going to kick it off with a super-cool challenge from ArtOrder, an awesome blog by John Schindehette, Senior Art Director at Dungeons & Dragons!

Title: "Rust"

Details: Illustrate the following quote using visual narrative to communicate the concept of the quote. Try not to be too literal.

Quote: "A Sword, a spade, and a thought should never be allowed to rust" - James Stephens

See the official challenge information here.

It's good to be back! Stay tuned for updates!

UPDATE: At Scott's request - Due dates!
Thumbs: Tuesday, 1/26/2010
Sketch: Tuesday, 2/2/2010
Final: Saturday 2/13/2010 (Final due to ArtOrder on the 14th - Valentine's Day!)

Two in One!

Well I've been a bit crazed this past week finishing up these two images and getting everything ready for San Diego Comicon this weekend. But they're done now! I had a lot of fun painting my Mother Nature piece, and I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. Let me know what you guys think!

And here's my final "Berserker Lord" painting from the Illustration Master Class!

Mother Nature

So here is my Mother Nature piece. It is supposed to depict human's instinct to explore all facets of mother nature, and how she provides for us. How discovery only fuels the mystery of who mother nature is and how we can coexist.

Mother Nature, 18" x 12", Oil on Paper on Masonite, 2009.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Here is my final for the Illustration Master class.

Becca's IMC Lady of the Lake Final

Here it is at long last, the final Lady of the Lake, begun at the Illustration Master Class, polished up at home. It was such a luxury to paint all day every day for a whole week! This beautiful weather has us all running around outside like happy little squirrels - that, combined with Comic-Con preparations has put other painting progress on hold. More updates are in the works, and Comic-Con is next week!

Owen's Mother Nature Sketch

So I've changed up the composition so it's a lot less static. The trees will be covered in leaves and moss, I just like to define the form now and wait for the paint to make the textures.