Life drawings

So I finally got myself back to doing some life drawing last week. Unfortunately the sessions end this week for winter break so I'll be looking for alternatives until February (Dr. Sketchy's is on my list though, and I ought to finally get to investigating the Alumni Association life drawing sessions at PAFA, plus I hear they have a student group that I might be able to sneak in to). Anyhow, a few drawings from the two sessions I managed to catch. I'll be back soon with some paintings, right now everything is either in progress or top secret...

Buckaroo Banzai

Things have been a little slow, blogwise. My current projects are NDA and I don't think they'll be released for about a year, but I'm getting on some new cover work soon so that's coming up. In the meantime, here's a comic cover that I did a couple months back for a Buckaroo Banzai miniseries. Oils, 12x18

3rd piece for Small Works

So here's the third and final piece I'm putting into the Small Works show next week. I'd have liked to do one more but I just don't have the time for it. Besides, the clock is ticking on LMS3 and I've barely even begun my piece! Time to get cracking! Oil on illustration board, 6x15:

Forty Miles of Bad Road

Happy Thanksgiving! Here are some Autumn colors for you :) Another of the pieces for the Small Works show (yikes, in less than two weeks!) at Artists House. Oil on board, 9.5x13

Doc Savage - the Eye of Terror

Here's a brand new piece just finished for a private commission of Doc Savage. I had alot of fun with this one, I hope that it shows :)

Oil on board, 16x24

New cover for Nightshade Books, new drawing

I just got home from the World Fantsy Convention in Saratoga, NY today and it was probably the most relaxing convention that I've ever been to. The whole thing had a very sleepy atmosphere. Moebius was the guest of honor and I was able to meet him (nicest guy you could imagine) and get a little sketch in my moleskine which was crazy exciting for me!

We spent most of Saturday just hanging out in the art show room and drawing. It was nice to just chill like that and fool about with the other artists (my folks, my brother Tony, Charles Vess, Donato, John Picacio, and some others). I ended up doing some physical pen and ink (as oppose to digi) for the first time in maybe a year or two:

Asside from that it was mostly the typical activities, being lots of hanging out, drinking at the bar, catching up with non-local friends, and meeting awesome people. Not a bad way to spend the weekend at all :)

Also, I just turned in this piece to Night Shade books for an upcomming Harry Turtledove novel which (I think) is called After the Downfall. It was probably the most fun I've had on a painting since this past spring. I mean, how often do you get the chance to paint a Nazi riding on a unicorn?:

Oil on board, 16x24, after Jacques-Louis David's Napoleon Bonaparte Crossing the Alps

The first of the Small Works pieces

I'm starting to feel the pressure of the clock on my Small Works paintings (for the December show at Artists House in Philly). Nothing I can't handle, but working them in with my other deadlines kind of means that their priority is low until... well, about nowish I guess because I have just about a month left. Most of the work that I've hung at the gallery over the past three or four years has been pretty different from my illustration, but I decided at my last show that I was going to do away with the dual persona and just paint the style and subjects that are the most fun for me. I tested the waters a little last spring when I showed "Fix" in a group show and it seemed to go over very well. All the same, I'm curious what the reaction is going to be with this little mini-series I'm preparing for December. All I can say is that I love the montage and I'll take any opportunity to kick one out. I won't be too heart broken if they end up coming back home with me afterwards ;)

Here is the first to be finished:


oil on board, 6x15

Zoo sketching

A few pages from my sketchbook after a nice relaxing afternoon at the zoo:

Oil sketch of Janette

NDAs and traveling have been making blog updates a little difficult, but I did find the time for a little oil sketch earlier today. 6x9 on illustration board, somewhere around 2 or 3 hours:

Four of Swords final

So about 80% of the way into my Four of Swords piece, I realized that I was not going to be happy with the end result. Image and concept wise, I felt that it was falling short of what I was after. I don't know why it took me as long as that to make up my mind, but I came to the conclusion that the best thing to do was to junk it and take things back to the sketch phase. I don't generally like to scrap a piece and start over at such a late stage, but sometimes it's really the best choice, and having the freedom to make that call (as I do on this set) is definately a good thing. Every once in a rare while you just need to make radical decisions at the 11th hour. So anyhow, it was back to square one on the Four of Swords. I decided to take a bolder and more graphic aproach to the piece and to get something that would give a stronger emotional punch.




















Also, I think that the first installment is in the new Heavy Metal that just came out. This (above) piece will be for the Nov/Dec issue.

New wallpapers uploaded

I just added some wallpapers to my site, go check them out and let me decorate your desktop: www.dvpalumbo.com/downloads

New digi line work

Been back into the digital pen and inks now that my computer is back online. A couple warm-ups:

Some new YA cover paintings

Let me tell you, when your computer contracts a serious virus, it becomes very difficult to update to your blog :(

So anyhow, sorry for the extended silence. Here is a series of YA covers that I completed recently, just some cute little vignettes. The bottom most piece is for the back cover image to be used on all four:

Four of Swords underpainting

An update to the Four of Swords tarot piece. Here's my acrylic underpainting. Once I've shot my refs and layed out the drawing, I transfer it to a gessoed board and do a quick tonal block in with acrylic washes. The next step from here is just to jump right in to the oils.

New oil sketch

I haven't done any loose/brushy oils in several months, so here's a little something I felt like knocking off this afternoon. 8x11 on board, say about 2 hours.

Dwarven Strategist

I got home early yesterday morning from a long weekend away from the studio. I had a great time, though not much to show for it artwise, so here's a little piece that I did a little while back and never got around to posting anyplace. Not for a job or anything, just some fooling about. Oils on board, 8x10

The Four of Swords sketch phase

So I'm currently involved in a somewhat long term project. Over the next three years, I'll be contributing 19 paintings for a Tarot set. It's a collaborative set between my parents and brother and myself, each taking as close to a quarter of the 78 cards as possible. Roughly, it'll be moving at a rate of one Tarot piece every two months worked in with my regular jobs. In the mean time, Heavy Metal is going to be running a few pieces each issue as they come along. The first piece that I did, The Queen of Swords, should be in the November issue I think (the bottom most painting in my post: Taking this First Step). Right now I'm working up my second contribution, the Four of Swords. The meaning of the card, more or less, is "rest after conflict, pause, reflection, gathering of strength, recovery". So here are a some of my thumbnails and the final sketch which I'll be working off of once I begin the painting.

Two new b&w

A couple more digitals, fooling about from over the weekend

Digital pen and inks

Though I'm still all traditional in my paintings, I've been having some fun with digital black and whites lately. It started with a recent offer to do some interiors for a few upcoming YA books. I hadn't done any pen/brush and inks in quite some time and figured I'd try some things out in Photoshop instead (been trying to get more tablet practice). Digitally speaking, I'm still finding my sea legs, but it's been really fun being able to experiment with a new medium. To be honest, I'm finding the process slightly addictive. These are some morning warm up experiments from this past week, just random subjects before I get my day started:

Taking this first step

So I've been thinking on starting an art blog for some time now, but I can never decide how to begin. It seems that the best thing to do is to just throw out some of my most recently finished paintings to get me over these first day nerves :)

Anyhow, these are some things that I've been working on this past summer. I'll have some actually new work coming very very soon


"Footsteps in the Dark"
16x24, Oil on board

















"Fix"
15x18, Oil on board















"Battle Mage"
12x18, Oil on board

















"Queen of Swords"
12x18, Oil on board