A spot of fantasy art... (larger download than the average thread)

[flyingmice]

But hey, here's one I finished today, and is uncharacteristically free from NDA, so I can post it right away.  And it has some more of that old school adventuring feel hopefully. Well it has a party fighting beasts at least!

Whoa, Jon! I love those menacing giant hedgehogs!

-clash

[Silverlion]

The Earth Against Us!

Nice. Love that piece.
(Rock giant, and spikey elemental things is what it looks like.)

[blakkie]

Beautiful work, Jon! I love the faces of the troupe!

That says 'serious business', doesn't it.

Checked your site out John. Nice. I particularly like this one. I really feel the action there.  :yarr:


P.S. I also checked your About, and I've got a question for you about that. My wife's a hobby-painter/artist but she's recently been picking up the seriousness of it, illustrating her own children's book. I've been considering dragging her into the 21st century in the form of a Wacom 3 for Mother's Day, if only to reduce the number of evenings I have to watch over all the kids myself. :keke:  Did you personally start out in physical medium and later switch to electronic? If so how did you find the change over? If you can relate any tips/pitfalls from your experience, or that of others you know, that would be helpful.

[Hodgson]

Thanks guys!

Blakkie- thanks for checking out the site! Indeed I started out with traditional media and moved across. Its not necessarily an easy thing to do, but some people find it easier than others. I've always mucked about making images on computers right back to my ZX Spectrum. I "trained" with acrylics and oils though.  The main pitfall is the temptation to just give up on new things and stick to what you know.  I had found however that since publishers increasingly wanted digital files I had to learn some of the skills. And slowly it seemed I was doing more and more digitally.

One of the major pitfalls with digital media is the sheer volume of choice.  All those cheesy effects can be very tempting when you're new to it, but the level of discipline needed is the same.  Stay away from those lens flares!

I think a solid foundation in trade media is a very very good place to start from.  If there's any questions you or your wife have just ask and I'll try to help.

[Consonant Dude]

I like your work a lot, Jon. The three things I appreciated most:

-Your characters have... character. They don't have the "this is a pretty and generic model with a blank expression" vibe that can grow tiring. They look like adventurers, not people afraid to break a nail.

-The larger pieces showing landscapes are epic and inspiring. Usually, that's how I separate the good artists from the great. Not that doing close-ups is easy but I find many people can't do anything else.

-Finally, I find myself agreeing with Sett: I like that your work has both a modern yet classical style.

I don't buy as many products as I used to but wouldn't mind at all if your art graced the cover of a product I acquire one day!

[Hodgson]

I like your work a lot, Jon. The three things I appreciated most:

Thanks, that's really nice to hear.  A lot of what I've shown here is stuff I like, and mostly conicidentally things that weren't really tightly art directed.  Sometimes you just have to do exactly what the client wants though.

Personally my own interests when it comes to fantasy are well rooted in "gritty", one foot-in-realism stuff.  I love Dragon Warriors for that, for example.  And I love worlds that are really close to history or real world myths.  I can appreciate more flamboyant settings for sure, and really colourful, lush concepts like Final Fantasy X for example can certainly be a blast to do.  But I think my heart belongs to the lower end of the fantasy spectrum.  I guess I just find it easier to get into.  I was brought up on LOTR, Robin Hood, the Mabinogion, the Chronicles of Prydain and so on.

With regard to landscapes I am extremely lucky to have the Ochil Hills right at the back of my house, so there's no end of inspiration looking out over Stirling Castle and the Wallace Monument.  The light and clouds are constantly changing providing a constantly updated visual reference.

Look at me waffling on.  Cheers again!

[Rob Lang]

Wow, it's a beauty. What medium is it in?

[Hodgson]

Wow, it's a beauty. What medium is it in?

Thanks!  Its digital - Painter 9 mostly, with some Photoshop too.

[Nicephorus]

Damn, these are all incredible!  The overall lighting, in the midst of action, the realistic rendering, the cool monsters, the detailed background - it all screams fun roleplaying.

[Rob Lang]

Thanks!  Its digital - Painter 9 mostly, with some Photoshop too.

You had me fooled. I thought it was oil and then scanned.

Great, nonetheless!

[Dwight]

I think a solid foundation in trade media is a very very good place to start from.  If there's any questions you or your wife have just ask and I'll try to help.

Thanks, I'll take you up on that now. Techish question, size vs. screen. How important is it to get close to a 1:1 pad to screen ratio? The monitor likely to be used is an aging Gateway 2185 widescreen with 1680x1050 native resolution. Not "professional" quality but decent (I think it was listed about $900 CND retail when we got it on a warranty exchange nearly 3 years ago, it has fairly good colour, not a bargin-bin dithered display). Am I going to want to go with a Wacom 11"x6" to keep close to the same screen and pad aspect ratio? (so drawing a circle nets a circle)?  Or should I give serious consideration to tracking down a smaller 1600x1200 display and pairing that with a 12"x9" for an exact match? 12"x9" is pretty close to 1:1 with a 19" monitor.

P.S I've got a 20" 1600x1200 LCD in work office but I wouldn't get the same model as I found it pretty low quality on colour reproduction. It has a low enough viewing angle that you can't get the same colour at the top and bottom.   EDIT: Although I can't say I'm ready to drop 4-digits on a upper tier monitor, certainly not till I know the wife is going to be good with the transition. It seems tough finding something middle of the road, all the lower resolution 4:3 monitors LCD I've looked at in person are complete crud. Although I haven't seen those super pricy NEC 19" that are suppose to be close to CRT.

[Hodgson]

Ok, tech hat on... generally speaking best for colour are CRT monitors.  I love my Apple screen, but the cost can be prohibitive. A good art buddy and generally knowledgable chap (who I'm not sure would want a name drop, so I won't. He does a lot of art for White Wolf and Privateer Press, amongst other awesome gigs outside of gaming) tells me that Dell use the same components in their screens as Apple, and don't charge the extra for beret wearing, chin stroking rights that us Apple swine demand!

What I will say is initially don't worry toooooo much about colour reproduction on your monitor.  Provided its sensibly calibrated - and that doens't need to be anything terribly scary.  Just try some images on a few friends monitors and make sure what you see is pretty reasonable.  No surprises and you should be ok.

No one needs the pressure of spending a fortune on equipment they might hate using, or feel obliged to struggle with.

As to tablet/screen ratios it depends on your working methods.  By and large its not critical - I certainly don't have a 1:1 ratio, and my arm would get very tired if I did.  I have a 17 inch Apple display and a 6x8 inch Wacom Intuos 3,
but I built up to both of those, and will continue to improve my equipment forever I imagine.  Its not necessary to start with a full fledged "pro" set up.



If you make really large sweeping gestures when you work then a big tablet will help your transition to digital.  If you make very small stipply marks it'd be a waste of money.  I used a 5x4 graphire for a long time, and made cover art using it for Mongoose (Hey no sniggering! I was in good company back then, Ralph Horsley and Anne Stokes also did covers for them at that time

I've always been quite a loose painter, so pin point accuracy on a huge tablet was never an issue for me.  And to be honest working digitally you spend a lot of time zoomed in on one area or another, so a 1:1 ratio doesn't really matter.  Eventually I found the tiny tablet was giving me wrist strain from so many repeated small movements, so I upgraded to a larger one. Probably only a problem if you're doing 10 hour days at it though.

The tablet will scale to the screen 0f they are wildly different aspect ratios you may loose a little working area on the tablet, but it won't do ovals for circles.

Hope that helps! I'm due at the pub, so must dash!

Thanks to Nicephorus too!

And Rob - its all tricks these days, eh? Bloody computers!

[Dwight]

Thanks Jon!

[Hodgson]

Verily shall we gird our loins, take up sword and spear and sally forth, delve into the darke, risk life and limb in perile most foule, baffle traps with 10 foot wooden poles, leap crevasses and abseil down chasms, we shall make our saves vs death and rods, we shall layeth ye critical hits upon the heads of our enemies.  Potions shall we quaff, scrolls shall we reade and rest for 2d6 turns shall we take whilst munching on our iron vittles.

And finally, our hour shall come, once ye dread beasts are laid low with fell handed blows, heads stoven and smote arrayed in disarray before us, then shall we find at last ye chests of treasure type P, and gain XPs uncounted!!!

Onward brave companions! Onward on our quest for ADVENTURE!
Hang on, is it just me or are those weird leaves freaking anyone else out?

[Hodgson]

Hey all, don't want to spam up the forum too much, since the last image didn't get much traffic, but...
Just finished, a cover for David F Berens forthcoming novel, Dragon's Reign.
Here's a thumbnail of the full image, which will be available soon as a poster from yours truly:


Here's a crop of the central elements:


And the main dude:

All images are (C)2008 Jon Hodgson, and was made in the UK, under UK copyright law.

Thanks for looking!