Happy Halloween

Quick(-ish) piece done this evening.  After spending the last month working on game maps, really needed to get back to something more figure-oriented.

sketchbookin'

...and by "sketchbookin'", I mean actually making sketch-and-notebooks from scratch.

I've been having some personal challenges emerge lately, just life stuff.  One of the ways I claw my out is through making stuff, in this case learning how to make notebooks.  I could always use 'em, and learning this skill has sparked some interesting ideas.

So this was attempt #1, made over the course of an afternoon.  160 pages (ten 16-page signatures) stitched together, covers made from scrap plastic board and a big piece of scrap leather.  Cover was glued up with Barge adhesive.   Made a skull stencil on a whim, because me.  This one went into immediate and rough use...want to test its limits, see what needs to be corrected going forward.  Pages have already been ripped out, it's overstuffed with extra paper shoved in the back, etc.  Roughly 9"x6".

Trying something different...this was #5, I think.  After figuring out the arrangement of 90-some pages into book signatures (which was interesting), printed out smaller-size pages from my current fave gaming-related nerdery, Ken Writes About Stuff and put 'em into a book.  About 9 months of the first year, at any rate.  Machine-cut a stencil for the cover text.  Cover made from a cheap red fabric.  Kind of mixed results on this one.

Okay, this was #6.  By this point I had ordered and received actual book-making supplies, so this one was made proper.  312 5.5x8.5" pages, bookboard cover & spine, proper bookcloth covering, better pva glue used.  Charcoal endpapers.  I consider this a sucess.   Has the best stitching of the bunch.

Most recent one, #7.  Used the correct materials, but used a cheap green fabric I'd found for the cover material.  Has a fun texture and took the glue really well.  Cream endpapers,  168 pages, roughly 5.5"x8.5".  I really dig these last two.  The look and feel like "real" books to me, which I'm quite enjoying.

Also:  made a similar-sized notebook covered with a black vinyl material (questionable results with the vinyl; my daughter liked it so it's hers), and made a refillable sketchbook with full 8.5x11" pages and a cover that folds over and around the book...i love the utility of top-spiral-bound sketchbooks, except for the spiral part.  Always gets mashed & difficult to use, so I'm also stress-testing my design to see how it holds up.  More book stuff incoming soonish.

I turned Pro (I guess?)

First two pieces I did for Fantasy Flight Games were published a couple months ago, in the Force and Destiny Beginner Game.  Both are on the backside of the fold-out map included in the set, the taller piece is twice the size of the other(3 panels of a 4-panel folded poster).  I've done a handful of maps for the Star Wars RPG line in the last year or so, with a hilariously rough learning curve.  It's all stuff that's outside of my painting experience, and is therefore fantastic stuff for me to be working on.
Also, it's PRO WORK.  That PAYS MONEY.  I do like that part quite a bit.
...and a thank you to Matt Zeilinger, my buddy who got me the lead-in to literally all of my paying freelance work to date.  Thanks, man!  Incidentally, it's his art on the front side of the foldout map, as well as the single other back panel.

Goofin' off

So I made this one doodle, then I decided to paint it up quick, then I decided to give it some additional elements, then an x-wing helmet, and then it's days later and I've done 20+ variations.  Why is my brain wired for oddball serial projects?!

This is all in a single file; each element is on its own layer so they can be mix'n matched.  3 or 4 of the images above are just weird combinations of elements from different characters.

I know.  My brain is weird.

Practice

Just completed another rpg-map gig which means it's time to draw something other than terrain, if only to remind myself that I can.

Full Moon #30: Daughter Of Dr. Jekyll

Wolfman(?) from "Daughter Of Dr. Jekyll", 1957.

This particular wolfie IS the titular Dr, Jekyll, who is also explicitly stated to be a werewolf.  One could write a dissertation about how this movie mixes its monster lore.  

Full Moon #29: Orgy Of The Dead

Wolfman from "Orgy Of The Dead", 1965.


The quality was so poor on this one, I'm not even sure this is actually what the wolfman looked like.  Tried to give him the benefit of the doubt.  He was played for comedy as an idiotic redneck along with his partner-in-crime the Mummy.  Movie written by good ol' Ed Wood, stars Criswell and 9 or 10 topless dancers.  Yup, that's pretty much the whole movie.