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