De Funked

 It's been roughly two years since I published here.  This site is effectively dead and is being kept online only for archive purposes.  Move along.

New Work Published: Maghikal Awakenings by David Brzezinski

Newly released is "Maghikal Awakenings" from David Brzezinsky, who is rapidly becoming the author for whom I have produced the most work.

From the Amazon description:



A majestic black flying ship arrives at Undina with mysterious creatures
called the Canus on board. Three friends, Dakken, Maggie, and Badriq,
are chosen to serve the Canus and find themselves forcibly taken from
their homes and brought to a special training center halfway around the
world. While there, they discover that what they thought they had known
their entire lives was a lie. There is powerful maghik in the world
waiting to be awakened, and Dakken and his friends will play a role that
none of them could have ever imagined. New friends will help them
discover the truth about themselves and the world in which they live,
and nothing will ever be the same again.



I did the cover illustration and full cover design for this one.  It was a fun fantasy novel to work with; a bit of an experiment in color tones for me.  If you're into high fantasy or good YA writing, you should go give it a try.  It's only a buck to buy, or FREE if you're on Kindle Unlimited.  Go! Now!

Available for Commissions!

The artist is IN!
I am currently available for commission work of just about any variety (artistically speaking).  Pencil drawings, ink, digital color, paintings, character design, book covers....what have you got?  Contact me at paladinfreelance at gmail dot com and let's work on something fun!

New Work on Society6

I've kind of been going nuts lately with postings on Society6, uploading both original work and designs made from public domain art.  I'm mainly doing it for the fun of it, but if sells a few T-shirts, who am I to complain?

Check out some cool shirts, prints, mugs and more here:

Art Prints by PaladinFreelance | Society6

Disaster Ahead is Best Thrash Metal Cover in November 2016 According to BDP Metal!

Heavy Metal blog bdpmetal.net has named my cover for Brain Dead's new release "Disaster Ahead",Best Thrash Metal Cover in November 2016! Thanks guys!

You can (and should!) get the album in physical or digital forms at the official Brain Dead Bandcamp page! Go there now!

A Slight Course Correction....

It used to be that going to www.paladinfreelance.com would lead you to this blog.  However, I've become so scattered around the net that I needed a way to organize it all, or myself and for people trying to find me and my work.  To that end, I've created a Weebly page with links to most of my various online and social media presences (at least those that I'm interested in owning up to publicly!).  It's a minor change, but now going to www.paladinfreelance.com will direct you to that page instead, where you'll see a link that will take you to this blog, or to any of a number of other sites. 
The Weebly page is still a work in progress, so pardon me if it's not too pretty yet.

 Here's to getting organized!

Painting Process - Brain Dead's Disaster Ahead

Hot off the drawing board is the latest album cover for L.A. thrash band Brain Dead.  Once again, I get the pleasure of illustrating the adventures of Billy Brains for these guys.  This one marks my fourth outing for their music, having done the label for their EP and the covers for Indoctrinator and their team-up with Six Pack of Doom.
Having rediscovered a taste for working in physical media lately, I wanted to do this one as a full-on painting, with as little computer work as possible.  I thought it might be interesting to post some of my process for this piece, so I tried to remember to photograph the piece at each stage of progress.  Click any of the images to see them at a larger size.

Seen below are the major inspirations for the painting, Alex Ross and Robert Williams.  I turned to Ross for technique, as he's one of the few artists I know who's not afraid to work with straight black, and because I wanted to experiment with his style of underpainting.  William, meanwhile, informed my sense of design and color choice.  Although they may seem like an odd pairing, when I got into it, I discovered they were more alike than you'd at first realize.  This is probably due to both having their roots firmly in the comic industry and bringing that perspective to their work.

The band sent me a fairly detailed description of what they wanted to see in this piece.  It was just up to me to tweak the design a bit, then execute it with detailed touches of my own.  My first step was actually to gather some photo reference for the piece and paste together a sort of digital collage, tweaking the elements until I got the composition I was looking for.

Working in Sketchbook Pro on my tablet PC, I turned that collage into a "pencil" drawing where I laid in some of the details I wanted to see in the finished piece.  This was roughed in color in Photoshop and sent to the band for approval and/or corrections.  There was only one critique to come from this; I had originally placed logos of other bands as stickers on the dashboard, intending them as a tribute to some of Brain Dead's musical influences.  They decided they didn't want them there, which makes sense in retrospect, as that might cause legal issues.  So even though I thought it would be a cool tribute, I removed them and later replaced them with parodied versions of L.A. area radio station logos.

Once the composition was nailed down, I chose my work surface for the finished painting.  A nice big (20 x 30") piece of cold press illustration board did the job.  It had a bit more tooth than I like on my boards, so I applied about half a dozen coats of gesso, with sanding in between.  When that was done, I had a nice bright, white, smooth surface on which to paint.  I blew up the color rough to size and had it printed in 11 x 17 sections that were taped together to make a full-sized print.  With this and a 6B pencil, the drawing was transferred to the board.

After each session at the drawing board, I will stand back for a few minutes and just study the piece to make sure I like the way it's working out.  After transferring the drawing, I decided that the composition seemed a little too stiff for my liking.  The solution was to change Billy's pose to something more dynamic.  I think this gave more energy and interest to the piece, while still maintaining the balance of the composition.

Once I was satisfied with the drawing once again, I started in on the underpainting.  This was done in two passes, one to just pick out the forms in black, with no concerns for shading at this point.

The second pass added grey tones that I hoped would show through in the final painting.  Alex Ross uses gouache for his color work, which is naturally more transparent, but I find that if I thin my acrylics enough and work quickly enough, I can achieve a satisfactory level of transparency as well.

Now I'm ready to start blocking in the color, starting with the background.  I'm pretty sloppy at this stage, as I'm not concerned about colors overlapping too much until I get into the detail work.  I've learned from studying the work of artists like Boris Vallejo that it can be a benefit to have some mingling of color to create subtlety in the finished work.

From that point, it's just a matter of laying down the color in several layers, working from "back to front" for the details.  The big challenge for me was to render the borealis behind Billy on the right, as this was something I had never attempted before.  I had actually rendered this in a completely different way before deciding I didn't like the results and painting over the whole area and starting again.

More detail work.  You can see that the thing is finally starting to come together.  Note the bands of black at both sides of the painting.  As this is for a CD cover, the painting had to be square, which meant that I had leftover space at each side of my board.  I coated these areas in black and tested out my borealis technique on them.  This leads to an interesting result later on.

Nearly there.  All the major colors are in place and most of the details picked out.  Here, I'm trying to work out things like light and shadow, plus tiny details like the photo CD's in the visors, and the faux radio station logos on the dashboard.

And done.  There's a few tweaks left to do once I have this thing scanned, but otherwise, it's complete.  There's still a few things I'm not entirely happy with, but I learned long ago that I'll never be completely happy with any piece of work, and there comes a time when you just have to put down the paintbrush and call it a day.  If I give in to the temptation to continue tweaking a piece, it will end up overworked and possibly just a big brown/grey mess.

You can also see now what I ended up doing with the empty space off to the sides.  I thought it would be fun to do quick, impressionist portraits of the band members (plus Billy!) from photos on their Facebook profiles.  These were executed in about 5 minutes each, using a square brush loaded with titanium white, with a bit of black to pull out some details.  I'm not much of a portraitist, but this was a quick bit of fun.

A closer look at the band portraits.

And, finally, the finished piece with all the digital work done and the band logo dropped in.  This is, more or less, how it will appear on the CD cover.  The sharp-eyed fans on Facebook seem to have been having fun picking out all the details and metal music references worked into the painting.  I won't spoil the fun by listing them all here, but there are quite a few in there.

This is one of the most fun pieces I've done in years, partly because of the subject matter, and partly because I really enjoyed getting back into acrylics to this depth.  It helps too that I actually enjoy Brain Dead's music (Indoctrinator was my soundtrack more than once while painting this) and the guys are great to work with.
While you're here (you are still here, right?) let me suggest you check out Brain Dead's music over at Bandcamp and on Facebook.  If you like your music on the heavy side, this will definitely please you.  These guys really bring the goods.  Watch for the new album, "Disaster Ahead" to drop there soon.

New Work Published: The Disremembered Word by Dr. David Brzezinski

Actually, I think this one's been out for a while, and it's been complete for even longer than that, but this is the first time I've actually seen the Amazon Listing for it.

 

I've done several projects for David Brzezinski (in fact I'm just starting out on another one), and he always presents me with a challenge. 

This book is a dystopian YA novel with a clearly Christian theme.  While I don't specifically do religious themed work, the description of the cover was interesting to me, and the idea of trying a different method to create the image allowed me to approach the project with a certain measure of objectivity.

For this one, I was inspired particularly by the work of John Picacio, and I wanted to experiment with creating the subtle tones he gets for some of his work.  A close up look at this cover would have you think it was done in pencil.  It was...sort of.  I drew the whole thing using the pencil tools in Sketchbook Pro, then colored it with a limited palette and minimal shading in Photoshop.  It was a surprisingly laborious process to get the pencil tones just right, but the control it gave me was fantastic, and I think the end result was worth it.

If you are, or know, a younger reader who would enjoy a Hunger Games-esque story, I recommend you give this one a try.  While you're at it, check out David's other work; you'll find a few more covers and such I did as well.

Now Available: The Journals of Simon Pariah #3!

Available now in print and download options is "The Journals of Simon Pariah" #3.  The story this time around is "Dust and Bones", in which Simon travels to the mountains of Tibet to attempt to rescue the inhabitants of a Buddhist monastery from the onrushing tide of Chinese Communism.  What will he find there, and will he be in time?  You will have to read it to find out.



Warning:  This issue is not for the squeamish.  Not for violence as such but for...well, you'll see.

Issue 3 is available at all the usual outlets.  Choose your option below to order your copy.  As always, comments and criticisms are tremendously welcome, either here or by email at info@aimcomics.com.


Get Simon Pariah in print at Amazon.com.

Get Simon Pariah in print at Amazon.ca.

Get Simon Pariah in digital download at DriveThruComics.

Click below to get buy issue 3 in pdf format right now!


Buy Issue 3 on Gumroad!

Now Available: Brutal Blade of Bruno the Bandit Vol. 6

The latest book from AIM Comics, "The Brutal Blade of Bruno the Bandit" Vol. 6, is now available via the usual suspects.  Head over to AIM Comics to get the skinny.

Also...just look at that cover, will you?  Ian kicked ass on that one, and it was a delight to color.  Some jobs are just too much fun.

If anyone's still reading this blog, they'll see that I've had a bit of a creative slump in recent months.  It's been hard to find a) inspiration, b) time and c) energy to work on anything worthwhile.  This has been for a number of reasons, chief among them being:

1) I've put aside my Fiverr gig and stopped doing free work for anyone.  As a result, it seems that fewer people want your work when you're not giving it away, or selling your time for a fraction of what it's worth.

2) The dreaded personal issues.  The bane of every blogger and creative person.  I won't drag out the details, and the issues are not resolved, but I think I'm handling them with a little more balance right now.

After waking up a little and realizing that I'm not getting any younger, while the projects I want to work on are only piling up, I am making an attempt to get a little bit of creative inertia going.  I'm basing my current efforts on the idea that it's better to do a little each day and move something...anything!...forward than to spend a lot of days doing nothing and try to be creative in bursts, or when inspiration strikes.  This way, I get to keep a sense of some kind of accomplishment while maintaining a balance with everything else in my life.

The result so far is that I've got several projects currently active (meaning they are on my drawing board and being worked on, as opposed to being something I'll get to "someday").  Those include:

1) Brutal Blade of Bruno the Bandit Vol. 6 for AIM Comics.  The book is nearly done and should be ready to go within a month.

2) The Journals of Simon Pariah issue 3.  You'd think since I'm still mainly scanning and cleaning up old work, I'd be faster with this...but I'm not.  Nevertheless, it is getting done.

3) New album cover for Brain Dead.  Yup.  Watch for it.

4) Supernatural Horror in Literature.  Years overdue, I'm finally making real (if tentative) progress on the illustrated version of H.P. Lovecraft's essay.  This is a labor of love, so it's not going to be done real soon, but it definitely running at a higher priority right now.

In addition, I'm adding new work to my Etsy store.  The originals I sell there are less demanding than some of my other work, but more fun to create.  Plus, it's a fun way to clear out some of my comic book collection.

So stay tuned....it will arrive slowly, but for anyone who's paying attention, there is definitely more work coming!

Coming Soon: Dread Streets

I've just turned in the cover for this project.  Check out their website to see the first miniatures made from my work, and watch for their Kickstarter project.  Lend them a hand if you can, and get in on the ground floor of a great new game!



Dread Streets



I'll post more of the work here as soon as it's available online.

Fear is the Mind Killer! - Dune Poster at Patreon

Recently completed and newly added to my Patreon feed, here's my tribute to Frank Herbert's "Dune" series of novels.  I can't believe it took me this long to get around to reading these books, but now that I have, I finally recognize what great works they are.  The first novel deserves its place as a masterpiece of science fiction, and the following novels are, for me, the kind of world building I like to see around a story of such scale.  This is the kind of approach that films such as Star Wars and Star Trek (and to a lesser degree the Marvel Cinematic Universe) have the potential to develop.

Core to the Dune series, and for me an important theme of the first novel, is the idea of overcoming fear through an effort of self-determination, as represented by the Bene Gesserit creed.  It was that idea that inspired this piece, a strong visual image of a single person against the vastness of the desert.  It is, I think, a subtle depiction of the kind of heroism I find echoed by many of my favorite authors - Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Ayn Rand, and now Frank Herbert.

As this is not an officially licensed work, I cannot make it commercially available, but a limited selection of prints will be available to my Patreon supporters.  You can find the link in the sidebar.

Click the image to see it at a larger size.

I'm Patreon-izing this Establishment!

After much dithering on the idea, I've finally decided to open a Patreon account! 

For those not familiar with the service, it's a way to support your favorite creators by making repeating or one time donations and receiving rewards for doing so.  It's a great way to keep creators creating, and earn some fantastic art in return.  From where I stand, it's a win/win situation.

In my case, I've set up my account on a subscription basis, with several different levels of support.  The rewards differ based on the subscription amount, starting with access to the private Patreon feed, and going (so far) up to delivery of actual physical prints of new art.  There will be more levels to come, depending on response, but I want to see how the very basic levels do first.

Patreon also lets creators define goals that their supporters can help them reach.  Right now, I've only got one goal, and that's to give up my other side gigs to concentrate my studio time on producing work to share with my supporters.  I have goals in mind, but they will depend on if and when I reach that first goal.  That's really up to you.

The idea behind Patreon is that the creator has to really get out there and sell their work.  I'm not much of a huckster, but I'm going to give it my best shot and see what happens.  Please do me a favor and check out my Patreon page and see what's happening over there.  Even better if you could sign up and help support the artist, even if it's just a buck a month.  I promise to do my level best to make it worth your while....

Now Available: The Journals of Simon Pariah #2

Reposeted from the AIM Comics blog, because I can...

"The Journals of Simon Pariah" #2 is available today in print from Amazon and in digital form from DriveThru Comics!
This issue is set in Scotland in the early 17th Century, as Simon has an encounter with ancient forces in the person of a strange red-haired woman and the powers at her command.  Simon Pariah must stand in the teeth of the wind and face "The Hounds of the Forest"!

This story is one of the original stories run at the old Comic Genesis website, wrapped in a redrawn cover and slightly edited for this version, along with a bibliography (!) and several pages of sketches and notes from the development of the story.  
 It was partly inspired by the film "Braveheart" and the legend of William Wallace, and partly from a dream told to me by a friend of mine, who did double duty as the inspiration for the female lead in the story.
It's weird, it's fantastic and it's Simon Pariah all the way!  Check it out today!

 

New Work Published: Angelina and the Egg! by David and Faith Brzezinski

Well, sort of new work.  I took a back seat on this one, working mainly as the book's designer.  David Brzezinski wrote the story and his talented daughter, Faith Brzezinski, provided the illustrations.  I (along with some help from assistant art monkey Cameron) added a few photographic elements to help unify the pictures and words, chose the fonts and generally tweaked the layout of the thing.
From the book's description on Amazon:

"Angelina is a dragon. There is a new egg in her house. A new egg means a new sister. Well, it should mean a new sister. What if it doesn't? What if the new egg isn't all it's cracked up to be?

I think the book will be a treat for younger readers, and I say that not just because of the role I had in it.  The intent of the design was to create the illusion that the pages of the book were actually created by the main character, and so the photos you see are actually photos from within that dragon's world.  Take a look at it and you'll see what I mean.  
The story itself is fun and entertaining, and will make a great bedtime or classroom story for any kid, but especially those who might have a sibling on the way.


 
 I've worked with David before and always enjoyed the experience and this time was no exception.  Check out the book for yourself, support a young artist, and be sure to let them know what you think!

Of a Wedding and a Return to Acrylics

Recently, I was commissioned to do an acrylic piece for my nephew's wedding.  I had done a piece for him when he was born, and this would make a nice companion piece.
This was a definite departure for me, in that the subject was worlds away from the fantasy/horror/comic and character design work I've been doing for the past few years, and more so because it's been at least a decade since I've done any actual painting.  My workflow has become almost entirely digital, and producing a finished product using more traditional materials was challenging and somewhat daunting.
Nevertheless, I invested in a good set of Liquitex paints and gave it my best shot.  The images that follow (shot rather poorly, I admit, with the camera on my Nexus 4; I'm an illustrator, not a photographer) are the results.

As always, we start with a sketch.  In this case, time was a consideration, so the sketch was done at the final size of 16 x 20 so that it could be worked up into a final line drawing and transferred to the board.

In thinking about this piece, I was inspired by the work of Amy Crehore, who seems to do some fantastic things with wood, so I decided to try working on a wood panel.  This turned out to be a good decision.  I tend to work my acrylics a LOT, and after a while, even the best illustration board gives up little bits of fibre that roll inseparably into the paint.  Meanwhile, canvas does not excite me, as I don't like the way the paint tends to settle into the valleys in the material; I like more control over my color.
At this point, able-bodied art assistant Cameron came in to apply several layers of gesso to the board to smooth out its surface.  After much priming and sanding, he also transferred the drawing to the board and did the underpainting (which I shamefacedly forgot to photograph).  I knew I was going to lean towards a blue-oriented palette for this painting, so I had the underpainting done in a dark green.  From there, I started laying down some paint. Here you can see the basic design and palette that I'll be carrying through the painting.

One of my problems with working in paint is that I tend to get bogged down in the details very quickly, and it takes me much longer than it should to finish a piece.  I knew I couldn't do that with this one, so I tried a different approach, drawing on lessons learned from my digital workflow.  Rather than start with my usual right to left, finishing an inch at a time method, I did the painting in layers, adding slightly more detail with each layer, working from back to front, with the intention of ending with the smallest details.

The mountain range turned out to be quite a challenge for me.  It was based largely on a tattoo design that had special significance, and I wanted to retain features of that design while adding more realism.  Working from dark to light, ending with white highlights and a sunrise on the left, I eventually achieved something close to what I was aiming for.

More details, with highlights added to the water and more features added to the plants.  The plant on the left is the dogwood of British Columbia, and the one on the right is the pitcher plant of Newfoundland, reflecting the bride and groom's heritage.

Another layer of detail brings out the features of the dogs and adds the fishing boats in the middle distance.  The boats represent the parents and grandparents of the couple, some of whom have passed on recently.

 

A lot more detail in this pass, bringing out the sunlight more and more features of the dogs. I should point out that at this stage, I'm mixing everything.  I don't use color straight from the tube often in painting, as unmixed colors tend to be overpowering.  Even the white of the dress sleeve has a small amount of blue mixed in.

In the final pass, I add final highlights with some unmixed white. And so on, until, finally, we're done, with about two days to spare.  My poor photography does not really do the colors justice.  I've always liked both the color and texture of Liquitex paints. My only complaint about this set was that the Burnt Umber had nearly no emulsion in it, and was just a tube of clay.  I had to improvise around it in the skin tones using sienna and pthalho orange.  

There's lots that I like about the final piece, but as always, there's lots I don't like as well.  I'm still not completely happy with the mountains, and the dog on the left ended up a little too large, amongst other things.  However, a hard deadline meant I did not have time to work this piece any more, so a splash of fixative and some wrapping and it's out the door.

The piece seems to have been well received, so I guess in the end it's all good.  The takeaway for me was that I kind of miss working in acrylic and should spend more time on it, as time allows.  Also, I really enjoyed working on a wood panel, and will definitely return to that.

Some final detail shots of the painting.  I took a bit of symbolist approach, so everything in it is meant to be in some way significant to the people involved.

As always, I'm happy to read or hear what you have to say about the work.  I've got no illusions about my talent in this area, so feel free to be critical in the comments, or in email, or by hitting me up on Facebook.

A is A, and I am I

I have a new print available in my Society 6 store, taken from Chapter 11 of Ayn Rand's novel "Anthem".  Anyone who knows me knows that I'm inordinately fond of Rand's philosophy, and a lot of it is summed up nicely in this short sample.  Now you can also proclaim your intellectual liberty with an eye-catching print, t-shirt, or what-have-you from the Society 6 store.  Take a look, and be sure to tell me what you think!

Brain Dead: A Work in Process

Recently, I was hired to create a poster for an upcoming tour by the thrash bands Brain Dead and Madrost.  I thought it would be fun for me, and possibly instructional for some, to show the steps I took to making the final image for what turned out to be a kickass piece of work.  Enjoy.

Preparatory notes:  I have a little bit of history with Brain Dead, having designed the art for their demo CD and their first studio album, and had created a mascot of sorts for them that they wanted to use on the poster.  I had no direct contact with Madrost for this project, but they had a mascot of their own that needed to share prominent space on the poster.  The notes I was given for the poster indicated that they wanted something that showed the two main figures doing violent things to the audience at a thrash metal concert.  From that, I got the idea that they would be brutalizing the crowd, but that the crowd was loving it, kind of the way a good metal concert will tear up your eardrums (at the least!), but is more enjoyable the more it does so.  The band liked the idea, so off to the drawing board I went!

At this stage, I really just wanted to nail down the concept and composition of the piece and make sure the major elements got enough room.  I was also asked to leave some room at top and bottom for text placement, so I avoided putting any important details in those areas.
Just for a personal touch, I looked up some photos of the members of Brain Dead and sketched them into the drawing.  I may have hidden a small self-portrait in there as well, but I ain't telling!

As I've mentioned here before, most of my ink work these days is done on a tablet PC.  I met cartoonist Mark Oakley a few years ago and he let me play with his Toshiba Portege, and I've been a tablet convert ever since.  I'm currently working on a Fujitsu Lifebook T5010, and it's the best art tool I've ever bought.  If there ever comes a day I can't get a tablet PC with pressure sensitive pen input, I think I'll be lost.
For this, I scanned the pencils in pieces using a nifty little hand scanner I found a while ago, and stiched the whole thing together.  Then I opened the piece in Sketchbook Pro and a couple of my favorite custom brushes to ink the piece.
When I'm working on a project like this, I'm always aware of where my influences are coming from, and they're always coming from somewhere.  Working on a piece like this, the work of Derek Riggs on Iron Maiden's album covers can't help coming to mind, but I was also aware of bringing in a little influence from such odd characters as Drew Friedman and Robert Crumb.  That's the kind of odd paths my mind takes at times.  Plus, if you'll take a close look at those clouds in the background, you'll see I've been toying with the style of Nico De Lort a little; his work has just been blowing me away lately.
Clearly, I tightened things up a lot here, and I must confess to one little cheat:  the buildings on either side in the background were photographs that were corrected for perspective, then converted to black and white using the Threshold tool and Gaussian Blur filter in Photoshop.  It saved me some time and gave me the raw kind of look I wanted for those areas.

Here, the color work begins.  For this I switch over to Photoshop, and follow a very comic book style process.  My first task here is to do flat colors for the whole piece.  This lets me get the overall color scheme in place and figure out where I need to balance or adjust colors.
I knew that the bands were going to want to add some text at the bottom, so I made the crowd nearly monochrome to create a good contrasting background for anything they might drop in there.  You can see that I'm leaning towards primary colors here to give the final image more impact, with just enough variation to allow me to establish depth and make the central figures pop.

Next, I add another layer set to multiply and brush in some shadows using a bluish shade of grey.  I realize a lot of colorists use channels for this sort of thing, as using layers increases file size significantly, but I'm more comfortable using layers, and my PC has plenty of RAM, so if it ain't broke, don't fix it, right?
Somewhere in there, I added the "Brain Dead" logo (also my design) to the band mascot's hat.  In earlier images, the hat says "Thrash", but we've changed it for this version for a bit of brand recognition.
Now we finally start to get some depth to the figures, even the monochrome ones, and this thing is starting to come together.

On top of that, I add yet another layer set to Lighten, and add some highlights.  Using the extra layer like this lets me adjust the intensity of the highlights much easier than if I were to paint them right onto the flat color.
Now this thing's getting much more life, and getting much closer to done.  Time for a few special effects.

For this (nearly) final stage, I added three special effects, one of which is very subtle.  First, the glow from the stage lights was created using the lasso tool and a gradient fill on a layer set to Screen mode.  Then, I selected the area around the trailing edge of the discs the robot creature is throwing, did a "Copy/Merged" in Photoshop, pasted the copied area as a new layer and ran a Motion Blur filter on the layer to add a slight sense of motion to the discs. 
Finally, I pulled a little trick that's sort of the artistic equivalent of backwards masking in music.  I found a large, good quality scan of Bruegel's "The Triumph of Death" and pasted it over the background layers (everything except the figures).  This is very subtle, but it lends a little bit of texture to the background plus it lends a little symbolist depth to the whole piece.  It's probably difficult to see at all in the online version.  If you happen to see a good print of this, look in the lighted areas of the background, especially right around the spotlights, and you'll catch a bit of it.  This is not the first time I've used this technique, but in prior attempts it was a little more obvious.

As I did not have to add the text areas myself, I guess we're done now, right?  Wrong.
Since this was going to be printed up for offline distribution, I wanted to be sure the colors would register properly and that the printed product would look good, so I had a test print done locally before sending it off.  In so doing, I found out that the Brain Dead character was turning out WAY too pink, and that the red tones overall were just way off.  So, I took it back to Photoshop for some color adjustments and tried it again.

 NOW we're done!  This final version doesn't come across quite as vibrant online, but it prints a whole lot better.  This is the one that shipped off to the band to add the final text to promote their tour.

And here's the poster with all the added text.  If you're in L.A., keep an eye out for this thing around town, and be sure to check out Brain Dead and Madrost when they roll through in May!

Happy 2015! What's Next?

Happy New Year to anyone still checking in here.  I will not address the lack of posts on this blog; it's all been due to an influx of work in the past few months that has prevented me from doing extraneous things like blog posts.  I consider that a good thing.
Unfortunately, most of it has been work that I cannot post here for one reason or another, and it doesn't look like that's going to change any time soon.

What will be changing is the simple fact that, for the foreseeable future, I will not producing any more work for free.  That too is a good thing.  I had read a couple of articles about this in 2014, but had not really had the courage to act on it as I believed the myth about doing work "for exposure".  I have produced a fair amount of work on that basis, but the exposure, so far, has been sorely lacking.  For now, I've got enough paying work either in progress, lined up, or on the way, that it would be counterproductive for me to try to squeeze in any free work on top of my schedule.  Financially, I cannot take time away from paid projects to work for nothing. Plus, I really need to take some time to focus on my personal projects like the books over at AIM Comics and the illustrated edition of "Supernatural Horror in Literature' that I want to produce.

So, for the time being, you won't be seeing any new work for (for example) Drabblecast, Lovecraft EZine or Sky Pirates of Valendor.  Especially that last one, but we won't get into that.  If any of my former free customers want to offer even token payment for work, I will try to fit them into my schedule, but doing work for free is really getting me nowhere, so it's got to stop.

I'm hoping to have more work to share here soon, starting with a kickass new poster I'm designing for the group Brain Dead.  I'm really kicking out the jams for this one, and looking forward to showing it off.  I'll also have a new issue of "The Journals of Simon Pariah" out soon, and will see if I can find a way to share some of the other work I've produced recently.

Here's to a happy and profitable 2015!

Check out this handy flowchart from http://shouldiworkforfree.com/! Ironically, it was produced for free!