One Day to Go!

Just a reminder that you've only got one day left to enter the draw for an original Bruno the Bandit drawing. Tomorrow midnight is the deadline for entries, and a winner will be announced the following morning.
This contest got off to a slow start, but it's picked up speed in the last few days. Like any contest, you can't win if you don't play, so fire off those emails and get your name in the hat!

The Virtue of Elfishness

Here's another recent commission piece; probably the most interesting subject to date. The person who requested it wanted a portrait of Sananda Maitreya (formerly known as Terence Trent D'Arby) drawn as an elf in the style of Barry "Elflord" Blair. Fortunately, the subject has features that lend well to such adaptation. I'm not sure that I could have done as well if they'd wanted, say, Jean Reno or Robert de Niro. Just a reminder that if you want your own favorite celebrity rendered as a mythical creature, or any other subject, just click the link to your right to send me a $10 donation and put my meagre talents at your disposal.
Also, a reminder that the Bruno the Bandit art giveaway contest is still open; to qualify to win a free piece of art (see previous post), you only have to send me an email to be entered for a draw at month end.

Unicorns...Who Doesn't Love Unicorns?

Here's another recent sketch. I experimented a bit with textures on this and had a bit of fun with drybrush. The lady turned out a bit more elfin than I would have liked, but otherwise I'm pleased with it.

1 of 100!

Here's a piece I completed recently for the 100 Artists Project. This is a project set up to collect various art pieces into a volume to benefit the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and the Hero Initiative. The project is a two stage one, stage one being a mail-in of single page drawings to be collected, and stage two being a sketchbook that's being mailed around the world to 100 artists. So far, I've gotten in on the mailer part of it, but I don't know if the sketchbook will make its way around to me. If you want to learn more about the project, or maybe get in on it yourself, or just see some work from the other participants, visit them at The 100 Artists Project.



Just for reference, this piece is based on an old Charles Biro cover for "Crime Does Not Pay. The logos on the walls are from the CBLDF, Creative Commons, and my own "No Small Minds" emblem.

Time for a Contest!

I think it's time to show my appreciation of my readers, especially those of you who have come here by way of "Bruno the Bandit", by giving away some artwork.
Below is a scan of a Frazetta homage I did as a present for Ian McDonald, creator of the afore- and oft- mentioned "Bruno the Bandit" webcomic. There's a color version of this floating around someplace, although I naturally cannot find it when I need it (I have really GOT to organize my files). The color version was done for the possibility of doing this as a Bruno T-shirt, but that never came to fruition (yeah...wassup with that, Ian?). If I can ever find it, I will post that as well.
As a "thank you" to readers, subscribers, and those who have ordered sketches, I am going to give away the original art for this piece to one lucky person. The original is on heavy illustration board, about 10x15, and is a sharp little piece if I do say so myself.
It seems to me I tried to give this one away before by asking readers to identify all the comic characters referenced in the drawing, but nobody was able to name them all. This time, I'm going to make it easier. Just send me your name in an email (paladinfreelance@gmail.com) and you will be entered for a draw for the contest. On 31 July, I will draw a name from a hat...or a fishbowl, or a bucket, or whatever I can find to hold all your names, and post the winner's name on this blog. Email addresses and other contact information will not be sold, rented, loaned, given away, or otherwise maltreated or given the cold shoulder.
So what are you waiting for? Send me an email and get your entry in to win a piece of original Bruno the Bandit art!
(Only one entry per email address, natch!)

Early Promo Material

Back in 2000, when I was still actively working on "The Journals of Simon Pariah", trying to get it distributed by Diamond or picked up by another publisher, I took a trip to the Canadian Comic Book Expo in Toronto. The excuse for this trip was that I was going to promote my book and art to other industry pros. The main reason was that I wanted to buy scads of comics, ogle Stacy Walker and be all fanboyish over Barry Windsor Smith.
To prepare for this trip, I put together a slideshow on disk, showcasing some of my art from Simon Pariah. The pages were put together into an .exe file with Carmina Burana as background music (this was before I completely understood the danger and paranoia of distributing .exe files on disk). Following are the images that were compiled into that early promo piece.



This first image was a non-specific shot of Simon. I also designed a web banner using this image, but it never got used, and now it's lost amongst my files somewhere.



This image is from the as yet unfinished story "Angeline". At the time, I'd only just begun writing the story, but I knew that this scene would occur in a later chapter.



This page is from a story I have not written yet. It's more of a scene I'd like to see...Simon Pariah vs. a whole mess of C.H.U.D.'s.



I have no story behind this one at all; I just wanted a "Challengers of the Unknown" kind of shot to establish that the book was about more than just dark fantasy. The intent is to touch on all genres in some way, eventually.



A variation on the same image. I really do try to avoid straight on vertical compositions when I can; they're easy to draw, but not as interesting to look at in the end.
Interestingly, if this story ever gets written, I don't think Simon will be the main character. I'd like to do a number of stories in which he is only a member of the supporting cast.



A climactic image from the first Simon Pariah story, "God of the Cave". This was a very thinly veiled Conan pastiche, with the intent being that the old genre icons had played themselves out and the narrative torch was being handed to a new generation of characters.



This is a takeoff on a scene from "Anthem". I'd like to get Simon involved in this kind of dystopian story, and now that "Anthem" has passed into public domain, I may be able to do something with this. It's no secret that Ayn Rand's work has been a strong influence on me, and I would love to do a derivative work set in one of the worlds that she created.

Of course, all that assumed that I will get back to Simon Pariah someday. Right now, the site has been dormant for a couple of years. I found that I was putting a lot of time and effort into it, but getting absolutely nothing back, not even comments. People were reading, but I had no idea what they thought of any of the work, and nothing good exists in a vacuum. Maybe if I can get this web marketing thing figured out, I can finally dedicate myself to telling the stories again. It's not that I expect to get rich off the idea, but I'd like to at least know that people are paying attention.

I've been doing a lot more scans from my files, so expect a few more updates this week as soon as I get the entries written.

Thanks to All My Readers!

Wow, where'd June go?
It's been a slow month on the ol' sketchblog, but a busy month in every other respect. I've got projects to keep me busy for a while, and sketch requests keep coming in. Time, I think, to send out a big "Thanks!" to everyone who's visited the site in the last couple of months, and especially to those who have donated and requested sketches. You're the folks who keep this blog moving, and your support (whether monetary or commentary) is making it all worthwhile.
Unfortunately, I can't post some of the projects I'm working on right now, at least until they're completed, so I'm going to have to dig back into the archives (i.e. my filing cabinet) for content for a while. I'll try to get some more new work up as soon as possible. Also, my time for doing paid sketches is going to be limited for the rest of the summer, so if you're thinking about getting one done, best do it soon, and be prepared for a little bit of a wait. (Although, I always say that a healthy infusion of cash will help anyone jump to the head of the line. Just so you know.)

Thanks again to everyone. Now, it's back to the drawing board...