Family Vacation has a game board.

Family Vacation board (complete I think)

Family Vacation game board is nearly complete and looking good. I'll be starting the cover later this week and we'll be off to kickstarter in a month or so.

The Arts Council of Doom art show, "Space Madness" was a huge success from what I hear. Wish I could have made it there for the opening. I was at Gen-Con gawking at art so I was doing more or less the same thing. Still, my first show with the "Doom" and I was missing. Maybe next time, aye.

Also found out that the Return to Valhalla book by Mike Whicker (with my cover I might add) should he hitting Barns & Noble in October. Its already out on Kindle if you cant wait but if your like me, nothing beats having the actual book... with my cover on it : )

Gen-Con 2012

GenCon was great. Its always great getting to catch up (non-facebook) with old friends. I was attending with some friends who were showing off their game Zombie High and had a blast playing that numerous times over the weekend. I also was able to meet a lot of the artist whose podcast and blogs I have recently found and been following (Ninjas, Awesome Horse). Lucky me, I snagged a Ralph Horsely WOW piece and a few prints from Aaron Miller, Christopher Burdett(.com), Jeremy McHugh. All these guys were kind enough to look over my work and talk shop with me.

I bought this Ralph Horsely World of Warcraft art!

Its safe to say I was there more for art than games this year. And with every year it feels like new years (artistically). I come away inspired and reflective each time. One common theme that I have seen run through many illustrators is, "the year I got serious". This year feels like that year for me. Over the past several months I have been approaching things differently or at least trying to. Here are a few things I've learned/am learning.
Do less work, better work and focus on improving your craft. I have been very guilty of taking on more than I have time for and rushing things thought. Shame shame, that ends now.
Focus on your chosen direction and don't take every job that comes along. I have a day job and family so time is limited. I can afford to be picky about what jobs I take.
Build the portfolio that I want, not the one that I have. In other words, only show the kind of work that I want to get from clients. And also have several portfolios that cater to individual companies when hitting the cons or sending out solicitations.
Find time to work on your weaknesses. There are basic problems that I have seen in my work for years but have not made an effort to correct them between projects. Its time to start using reference photos and doing little color studies before painting the image and as always work on human figure.
Community - Im starting to get plugged into the community in a way that I had not before. I have been an observer in the past but this year I have been actively seeking advise and building friendship with other artist and people in the business. The fantasy/sci-fi art community is incredible! Everyone wants to help and share with little thought of helping "potential future competition" for that prized job.
Enough yapping. Happy labor day everyone!

Just saw one of my books, GURPS Horror (has a hand full of my illustrations inside) is up for "Product of the Year" ENnie award among others. Go vote over at, www.ennie-awards.com/vote/.

For anyone in the Evansville area, I have Parsec books at Comic Quest and Comics Unlimited. I've only heard positive feedback on it so Im pretty happy. I should be starting the next book by end of summer.

In the middle of working on a gameboard with a little help from a little helper named Leo. No AC and its over 100˚ outside. Fun day.

Back from another great year at Origins. This year I was able to stay for three days and spent a good deal of time in the Jolly Roger booth meeting with game designers, other publishers and gamers. Lots of stuff coming down the pipes from JRG and Im doing a good deal of it. Parsec is at the printers right now and the next TWO supliments are about ready for me to start doing art and layout. Im also ruffly 1/4 of the way into Philip duBarry's Family vacation board game. It will be going on Kickstarter in the coming months. If it does well, I'll be adding a second board on the back of the first... it it goes really well then we will be adding another two sided board.

And the image above was something I did at the hotel room and fiddled with on lunch today. Nasty grub wurm!

Cover for Return to Valhalla

I recently finished the cover to Return to Valhalla, by Mike Whicker. Im super excited to read it (and re-read Invitation to Valhalla and Blood of the Reich). This is great stuff! Im very happy to have worked with Mike again. He is a very nice guy and good at his craft.

Parsec is 99% complete. Mostly just waiting for the Kickstarter campaigne to be complete. If you haven't seen it yet go to kickstarter. Go!
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2072399402/the-parsec-rpg?ref=users

Also working on the "Family Vacation" board game by Philip duBarry. This thing is fun. Im eager to post some pics and get the prototype to a decent stage.

Well now. Back to it.

Oh the neglect!
Big dry spell here as most blogs go through. Its a new year and Im already covered up with projects that Im eager to start. Im wrapping up the last bit of the Parsec RPGs core book (images above). Below is a link to the Parsec blog which is loading on the content in anticipation of its launch and kickstarter campaign. As with any project the end is the most fun as all the parts fall together. The first expansion is already written and should hit my inbox soon. Yeah, no rest for the wicked... or illustrators either (thats the unspoken part, right). Well, off for more sci-fi goodness.

jrg-parsec.blogspot.com/

Aside from the worlds of Parsec I have a fun board game that Im getting started on right now. Its a good cross-country adventure as families compete to have the best vacation. Having a family now, I can really see the humor/horror of selecting a destination and being in the car with hours with restless kids. This game looks like it will be lots of fun to play and create.

Breaking away from gaming, I have a book cover lined up for Mike Wicker, and author and fellow Evansville resident. The cover will be for his third book about Erika Lehmann, a German spy during WW2. I met Mike back when he was publishing his first book, Invitation to Valhalla (truly awesome book). Im super excited to get a chance to work with him again. Who know, maybe I can do new covers for the first two books when they are up for their next printing. Well thats just wishful thinking.

Lots to do, better get to it. This is going to be a good year!

Wow, what a crazy Gen-Con it was this time around. Dead alternator in the truck... police pat down... bums... lots of bums - shout out to all my new peeps at Garfeild Park shelter house... window broken and plates stolen off the truck... friends bag stolen next day... cab ride with a drunk... oh I spent some time at the convention too. Im just glad I had family in Indy that was able to give me a hand with the automotive problems that set this movie like plot in motion. Aside from my Judgement Night adventure I had a good time visiting with all the friends I've met and collaborated with over the past few years. As always the art show was amazing and very inspiring.

Next year, Im not leaving the convention center... for my own safety : )

Im back from another year at Origins. Always good to run into some old friends and make new ones. I was able to meet with both creators of Parsec face to face to discuss progress and how to best advance with a Kickstarter presentation. Cover is getting near to being finished. A few tweaks left, like dropping Jupiter in place of the random planet seen here and tightening up some of the details. A better scan wil do it wonders too.

New postcards (just barely) in time for conventions season. Also starting to revamp my old site by giving it a new domain, Inkplow.com and inkplow.blogspot.com. InkPlow, cultivating creativity or some such nonsense.
Off to Origins tomorrow.

And now, dungeon monsters for Steve Jackson Games. Another group of images I did prior to taking on the Parsec book (big update on that coming soon). These were very fun and it was nice to get back to tradition media for shading.

After sitting on these images for months, sounds like they got them selves published at Steve Jackson Games. Guess its safe to show these nasty buggers to the world. Wee.

The Space Race

Rough sketch for Parsec has been approved. Plan on getting it on the board this weekend along with another piece. Lots of stuff in the works and Im getting excited about Origins and Gen-Con.

Clipboard Mario and... were did Leo's Luigi go?

I was looking at a book that Ramon Perez did for Rifts and it got me in the mood for sketching one of the signature elements from Rifts, the lay line walker. Ramon's book was lots of fun and very well done.
Bla bla bla, sketch sketch sketch. back to work on the paying gigs.