Flower Fairy

I hesitated to post this one because it is a little more tossed-off than the stuff I usually like to share, but I am sick of looking at that Supergirl cover with its predominance of red, blue, and yellow. Superheroes sure seem to like those colors for their little outfits.

This is just a very quick sketch I used to experiment with in Painter and Photoshop. It was drawn in blue pencil quite roughly on printer paper, inked with 0.3 and 0.45 Pigma markers to clean it up, and colored in Painter. I used Photoshop for clean-up, overall adjustments, and to create the background design.

That's all for now.

Joshua

Supergirl 40

Here is the Supergirl 40 cover. It seems an identity will be revealed. Gasp!

I skipped over issue 39 due to some deadline troubles which made me work out of order, but I will be providing the cover for that issue as well. I'll be sure to post it here as soon as it is finished.

To those of you who have been waiting patiently for me to make available more original art, I apologize for the delay. I will try to get everything online soon.

All the best,

Joshua

Bugs and Horns

While organizing some folders this evening I stumbled upon the bats and bugs file seen here. Some of you might recall the Metamorphose poster I worked on with the inimitable Barbara Canepa a while back. I drew most of the elements separately and composited them together in Photoshop, or in the case of these bugs, sent the individual images to Barbara who then arranged them as she saw fit (making a much better poster than I was managing on my own, truth be told). In the final illustration, the bugs and bats were quite small, so I thought I would show them here.

Along with the bugs is another horned weirdo I found laying around. I don't recall when I sketched him, but I more than likely needed something quick to experiment on with some color. I don't think I learned anything on this particular session.

That's all for now.

Joshua

Faerie

It occurred to me that most if not all of my recent posts have been job-related, so here is a faerie I sketched out the other night for fun.

And there you have it.

Joshua

City of Fire

I was happily asked to provide a wraparound cover for "City of Fire", an upcoming YA fantasy novel from Tor books. Here it is, along with a couple of detail shots. Once again, it was created using a combination of hand-drawn artwork and digital painting, utilizing both Corel Painter and Abobe Photoshop.

I had to break some rules to allow each section of the cover- front, back, spine, and flaps- to work on its own while hopefully holding together for the most part, and including all of the requested elements. I also attempted to restrain myself from overworking the art, especially the background, as I often find fantasy book covers oppressively dark and excessively detailed. I tried to keep this one distinctly colorful and fairly open so that it looks best wrapped around a book with a title across the plume of smoke, and the image and colors can be read at a distance. Most importantly, I hope it captures the feel of the story and reaches the intended audience.

I have to thank the illustrious Irene Gallo for this assignment. Be sure to stop by her great blog, The Art Department, where you will undoubtedly discover many great artists.

As always, thanks for stopping by.

Joshua