Making Cthuhlu part 2

"Awakening in R'lyeh" 2014 Jacob Walker

Mr Squid face is complete. Like most paintings, this one felt like a roller coaster ride. Started strong, going up the tracks and them free fall, I lost sight of where it was going and threw my hands up, aaaahhhh. I've been painting long enough to know how to handle this, just hand on tight and you'll make it through. Only this time I wanted to be a little more in control, and faster. 

This is one of my working shots. I was losing focus on where and how to proceed so I took a pic and dropped it in photoshop. I would show that but seem to have deleted it. I painted over it and pushed and pulled value and hue for about an hour. This gave me a road map. I felt in control and shaved hours off the painting. This is a new practice (at least for me) that I think will be handy.

Also along the way I threw the image up for a quick crit got some good feedback from Jeremy McHugh. If I had taken a little more time to step back away from the piece I think I would have seen the lighting issues that Jeremy pointed out in his supper fast paint over (right). Big thanks sir. I always helps to have art friends look at your work, especially when they are better artist than you are. I should also thank Mr. Steve Prescott for some pointers on how to seal a printed image and your paper. For this painting, I printed my sketch on art paper and used some clear gesso to seal it and the paper. Easy!

Here is the art in the final card layout that I designed. The project should be hitting kickstarter in March. Thats all for this time.

Valentines Day

Last friday was Valentines Day and a good reminder about what makes being self employed worth it. Besides the joys (and pitfalls) of owning your own business, you can have a somewhat flexible schedule. This means getting to go visit my boys at school for their Valentine's Day party, giving me a better glimpse into their daily life (the part that happens while Im at home drawing monsters and such). It made them happy and made my day. I was also able to spare a couple hours and make the boys valentines. New Super Mario Bros 3D World Land something or other cat power for the win. I will save you all the sappy love stuff and just say that my wife has been great, helpful and patient as I started my freelance career. She is the best.

Since we are talking about V-Day, you should check out the Month of Love blog. Carly Janine Mazur is one of my favorite new artist finds from Illuxcon last year and she has a few pieces on there. Check it out.

I am the Overlord!

It is always fun to get a book or game in the mail that you contributed work on. Having samples are great. But when those samples happen to be beer from one of your favorite breweries, it can't get any better. Today my buddy and collaborator Matt Wagner (wgnrdsgn.com) was in town. He brought these…

Matt and another longtime friend and colleague, Aaron Tanner (melodicvirtue.com) have won numerous awards for their branding and design work for Tin Man Brewing Company. I have to say, I truly love the beer. Their Alloy IPA is one of my all time favorites. When Matt asked if I would like to help make the Overlord can, I had to say yes. Its a robot. Its called overlord. Its beer. All winners in my book. 

Here are two of the half dozen sketches that I started with. I recreated it in Adobe Illustrator using a scan of the sketch that Matt and I felt worked best with the can's vertical constraints. These are tall ones! Once I had a good start on it I sent it to Matt who worked on it a bit and then returned it. Back and forth it went several times till we felt we had it. I have always enjoyed working with Matt on creative projects like these. The next flavor may still be under and NDA but I can say it is already off to the printers and I can wait to see it. Matt and both feel its better than the first.

If your in Evansville, stop by Tin Man and give their food and beer a try. Don't forget to say hi to the life sized robot too. 

Now, time to open one of these fellas up… Cheers!