Sunday, February 28, 2010

A Princess of Mars


This was one of the assignments for the Illustration Masters Class I attended last Summer.  It is a cover for the Edgar Rice Burroughs science fiction novel A Princess of Mars.  The first of his famous Barsoom series. It is also Burroughs' first novel, predating his Tarzan stories.  The story is considered a classic example of 20th century pulp fiction or more specifically the planetary romance genre.  You can check out a larger version in the portfolio section here.

IMC is a fantasy and science fiction illustration week long workshop created and run by Rebecca Guay in Amherst Massachusetts.  It is an intense week of learning and Attendees benefit from a full schedule of classes in figure drawing, use of reference, drawing from the imagination, digital and traditional painting technique, as well as live demos and lectures.  We were assigned a project and expected to have finished sketches when we arrived. We then spent the week working with some of the best in the industry on our pieces.  This coming years faculty include:

Julie Bell
Dan Dos Santos
Scott Fischer
Irene Gallo
Donato Giancola
Rebecca Guay
James Gurney
Greg Manchess
Boris Vallejo

Many of the nights went on into the wee hours of the morning and the collective art boost that everyone provided was just awesome!  I cant wait for this years.

-Dom

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Bighorn


I painted this piece as a challenge after getting back in touch with fellow U-Arts Alumn and friend Will Spear.  He paints all sorts of great wildlife and landscapes avoiding the figure at all costs.  I on the other hand like to paint more narrative figure work.  We flipped this on its head and I painted the wildlife while he painted... lets just say... a not so flattering swashbuckling portrait of myself.

All in all I really enjoyed painting this.  It was a fun departure from my usual subject matter.  I think Ill try something similar soon.

*Here is a link to Will’s facebook page because he doesn't have his website up yet.  Go connect with him and check out his really great Plein Air paintings.  Make sure you let him know where you heard of him.

-Dom