Illustration Friday - "Tea"

Hey, all!

Whipped up a quick sketch-painting for Illustration Friday using Painter. Still only the third thing I've ever done with the program. Used the acrylics function. Worked alright. But, yeah, pretty rough and quick. I'm kinda loopy from cold medication right now. Trying to fight it. Airborne works nicely, but it's been pretty persistant.

When I think of tea, I think of my dad. Growing up, he used to always carry around an old Nestea jar with the label partially ripped off, filled with tea. I think his jar was even taller than the one shown here. It was like a liter of tea! ;o)

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Didn't have a reference or anything and I want to again remind you of my medicinal loopiness. ;o)

Also, tea is a hard color to pinpoint.

I'm going to see if I'm coherent enough to get some more work done ...

Thanks for lookin'!

~Ray

Best Mom Ever!!

Renae De Liz is the best mom ever! She puts so much work and passion into making things special for her son, Tycen. She built and painted him a cardboard castle for his room, made him a awesome Spider-man suit for Halloween, and now this for his birthday:

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She doesn't think it's all that big of a deal. No matter what, she thinks she could have done a better job or done more to make it even more special, but I (and everyone else that's seen what she does) find it absolutely amazing.

Click to see more of his birthday

I did the colors on the Incredi-Tycen piece that got printed on his cake and made the little sound fx bursts, which is why I'm posting about it here. You may have seen the previous post about it here.

I'm happy to say she will also be here in Kansas visiting next week. Can't wait!!!

Thanks for letting me help with all this, sweetie!! ;o)

*UPDATE* -- Here's the lucky little guy:



Wow. That is one happy boy. Ha! ;o)

~Ray

Lord of the Rings: Evolution Gallery!

Hey, all!

My entire gallery of 306 sketch cards is now up on the LOTR Sketch Cards Website. Just look down the list of artists on the left and click my name. I'm about the 10th person from the top. Here's a little sample of some of my favorites (they aren't all in that painted style, though):



Here are a few favorites in various styles:







Click here for full gallery: http://www.LOTRsketchcards.com

The cards are supposed to be in stores in February. They sell them just about everywhere. Look for them in the checkout lines at grocery stores, Wal-mart, Target, etc. Also in most gas stations. There's only one sketch card per box, but you might get lucky.

Thanks for checking them out, everyone! And your comments are very appreciated!

~Ray

Song ...

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Two posts in one day?!? Ohmigoodnesh!! ;o)

Today is Sunday and I've been workin' like a dog for the last several weeks, so I decided to take a little time to re-energize. Plus, I've really been wanting to get back into the Illustration Friday exercises.

This week's prompt was "SONG."

I've been listening to a lot of James Blunt and really loving it. Beautiful voice, romantic, powerful lyrics. But, most of his songs are reeeeeaaally sad. :o( Painfully, hauntingly sad, for a sap like me. One song in particular that gets me is "Goodbye, My Lover." It's a song about a relationship that ends too early and you feel like that really was the one for you.

Lyrics like "I saw the end before we'd begun..." - "I've seen you cry, I've seen you smile. I've watched you sleeping for a-while. I'd be the father of your child. I'd spend a lifetime with you." - "Goodbye, my lover. Goodbye, my friend. You have been the one. You have been the one for me."

Man, that's sad. :o(

So, that was on my mind. The sketch is of me (with current stage of beard, though, I kinda forgot the few hairs in my mustache) sitting in a chair in a lonely room, lookin' all sad, whistlin' that tune. Kinda goofy. Kinda melodramatic. Kinda true and kinda sarcastic.

As always, entirely Photoshop 7 and a Wacom tablet.

Thanks for stoppin' by.

~Ray

"I'm THIS many!"

Hi, all!

This is another collaboration between Renae De Liz and myself. This time an invitation to her son's third birthday. She did the drawing, I did the inking, coloring, and lettering.

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You can also view a poster version here.

Her plan is to have an Incredibles themed birthday party next Saturday. She'll have the poster, a balloon arch (which sounds awesome), and cut out sound fx hanging from the ceiling. I'm really happy and excited to be a part of such a cool thing for Tycen's birthday. She's gotta be the best mom ever. Wish I had parties like that growing up. ;o)

On other things, I'm almost done with one coloring project, so I can get on the other two. Got that new card project starting in a couple of days. Just not enough hours in the day... especially when I've piled too much on myself... back to work ...

Thanks for stoppin' by.

~Ray

Inks of "Love Letter"

Here are a couple of pages I inked over pencils by Renae De Liz, who's work I love; characters so dynamic and expressive. I was in an inking mood and she was short on time, so I agreed to ink it. These also happen to be her first sequentials ever, and darn good sequentials they be.

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They were inked in Photoshop 7 with a Wacom tablet as part of a project for PandamoniumComix.com

Check 'em out and let us know what you think!

Thanks for stoppin' by!

~Ray

Why ain't you be updatin', foo'!?

I know. I'm a stinker. Well, I'm just super busy.

. Just finished lettering Noble Causes #18.

. Coloring a back story for an upcoming issue of Image Comics' "Fear Agent."

. Really needing to get caught up on my other coloring projects. Both graphic novels: "Nothingface" and "the other one I still don't have permission to talk about"

. About to start a really cool sketch card project that I can't tell you about, but will hopefully be able to soon.

. Also about to start lettering a book called "Pencilneck"

Been doing some other random things like inking and whatnot. Will have previews of that sort of stuff soon.

So, I'm swamped again. Especially through March. It's going to be a tough month.

Oh, and I haven't set up my own gallery of these yet, but you can now view ALL of my Lord of the Rings: Evolution sketch cards online at http://www.LOTRsketchcards.com!! Just look for my name and let me know what you think.

Back to my workout. Have a great day, ever'body!

And thanks for stoppin' by.

~Ray