Star Wars Galaxy 7 Coming in February

Hey, everyone -- I'm back from my honeymoon! I had an amazing wedding. :) Now comes the task of slipping back into work mode.

I did want to announce that I recently finished two base cards for the upcoming Star Wars Galaxy Series 7 set from Topps -- I can't show the art yet, but I can tell you that one card features Ahsoka and one card features Han Solo. At this point, I don't know 100% if I'll be doing any sketch cards or not. I've got a lot on my plate (including moving into a new place), so we'll see... If I do end up doing sketches, it'll be a very small amount. I'll keep you posted as we get closer to February.

Thanks! I'll be back soon with more updates and artwork.

I do.

My attempt at illustrating the beautiful and wonderful Gina Murilla, soon to be Mrs. Gina Gould. (I didn't do her justice, of course. She's just too cute!) ♥

I'm gettin' married this week, folks! And I am now officially on vacation until the 27th. I may occasionally check email, but for the most part, I'll be spending time with my new wife, my family and friends, enjoying the honeymoon, and trying my best not to think about work or bills or any of that. :) See you in a little over a week!

Baron Karza

Here's an 11"x17" pencil & ink piece of Baron Karza that I drew for art collector Andrew Allen earlier this year at the MN SpringCon show. You can check out Andrew's entire collection over here. Pretty awesome gallery (Battlestar stuff too!). :)

Dragonborn Sketch

A quick behind-the-scenes look at next month's No Assembly Required creature feature. I'll post the final version once the article goes live during the first week of November.

Coolness from Fan Days

Unfortunately, I'm not at Fan Days this weekend, but I just got an email from a guy named Bart McLeroy. He brought a copy of my Thrawn Legacy 2011 sketchbook with him to the show and had it signed by Timothy Zahn (author of the Thrawn Trilogy) then sent me this pic. :) I thought that was really cool -- just wanted to share. I wish I could be there in Texas right now to be part of the fun!

Thank You, Steve Jobs

Everyone's posting tributes today and I'm no exception. Not only am I a lifelong Mac guy (aah, high school "Mac Lab"), but the creative world has lost one of its brightest and most influential supporters. The guy was a technological pioneer that our grandkids will be reading about in history books (on iPads or some similar device).

I encourage you all to take 15 minutes to check out the above video: Steve Jobs' 2005 Stanford Commencement Address. He gives some valuable, encouraging life lessons. It's very much worth watching.

"Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish."

No Assembly Required: Aurora Izel

The second "NO ASSEMBLY REQUIRED" feature is now online -- Be sure to share the link with all of your gamer/RPG-lovin' friends. It's written by Michael Mallen, the man behind the popular gaming blog The Id DM. Each month Mike focuses on a new monster or villain, and I do the illustrations for each one.

Here's the link:
No Assembly Required: Aurora Izel

And I like to show a little behind-the-scenes for the artwork, too, so here's some of that for ya (click for larger version) --

(1) I started with a rough thumbnail doodle, then blew that up to pencil over (I can't find my pencil scan, so we move straight to:) (2) Inks, done with Faber-Castell artist brush pens. (3) Image is scanned into Photoshop and I create flat colors on a "Multiply" layer. And then (4) I add some shading and FX (play around with blurs, opacities, etc.)... And finally, at some point, I end up with the artwork you see at the top of this post. :)