New (experimental) piece in the works

I've been wanting to try my hand at something a bit more fun, stylistically-speaking. I think I've found the look I want so now I need to finish the piece!
I think this style could lend itself well to children's books and even caricatures.

Demon Queen

WIP
I've been playing around with the thought of this for a while (influenced in no small part by Frazetta's paintings, I'm sure) and finally got around to starting it between other work.
Here are the three earliest steps in the process:
1) Initial B&W rough
2) The throne, rendered out more thoroughly
3) The throne with stairs and background and a few characters roughed in
Hoping to get the model shot for the Demon Queen in the next week or so-
I'll post more as the piece progresses!

A Bestiary

I've been playing around with the idea of creating a Bestiary -

A bestiary, or Bestiarum vocabulum is a compendium of beasts. Bestiaries were made popular in the Middle Ages in illustrated volumes that described various animals, birds and even rocks. The natural history and illustration of each beast was usually accompanied by a moral lesson. This reflected the belief that the world itself was the Word of God, and that every living thing had its own special meaning. For example, the pelican, which was believed to tear open its breast to bring its young to life with its own blood, was a living representation of Jesus. The bestiary, then, is also a reference to the symbolic language of animals in Western Christian art and literature.

Mine, on the other hand, would be an alphabet version with somewhat darker creatures in it, things that inhabit the nightmares of children. I'll have to test out a few on my little ones!

An Experiment in Color & Value

I wanted to create a piece reminiscent of the old Universal Horror Films. While entertaining, the new "Underworld" films can be a bit tedious with all the latex & "Matrix"-style gymnastics and editing ("30 Days of Nights" was brilliant, though) and wanted to do something in the "Classic" vein, so to speak.
Started as a full color piece, about halfway through I began to wonder how it could look in black and white. Keeping that idea in the back of my mind I proceeded and finished the piece in glorious, if subdued, four color.
After a short break I removed all the color, tweaked a few areas by punching up the values and then punching up the contrast on a few others.
I was pleasantly surprised with the final result and decided to add them both to the website for a side-by-side comparison.

The New & Improved Site is Finally Up!

After several false starts the site is up. I'm very pleased with the quantity & quality of the illustrations I have on display. It's always tough to narrow down so many pieces into a very limited amount of space but I think I managed to get the right images in the right places.
I have a section each for Print Illustration, Film & Video Concept Illustration and Flotsam & Jetsam Illustration (which is a bit of a cheat as it's basically a catch-all for pieces I like but am not totally sure where to place them).
No doubt I'll be making some adjustments to the site over the next couple of weeks but overall it's good to go!

Site ready? Almost there...

So I've been spending the past ten days or so working on the new Illustration site.
I really haven't had a site devoted exclusively to "Illustration" and it was tough pulling the trigger on a few pieces. While many have special places in my heart, quite a few of those weren't appropriate for the site. I didn't fell they best represented my work.
It's tough to delete so many of the older pieces, too. I kept a couple in the "Flotsam and Jetsam" section (basically a catch-all for pieces too tough to categorize otherwise) but for the most part I left out anything older than six years or so.
It'll be going live by the end of the day today (I'll post the link when it's ready) so take a look when you get the chance and let me know what you think.

Been gone too long-

It's been a crazy -what? Year? 18 months?
Writing, illustrating and promoting two books (in addition to all my other, regular work) has kept me away for quite a while.
With the new year right around the corner I'll be turning a new leaf, putting on big-boy pants and start to add regular, proper posts to this site.
See you soon-
Jeff