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Jessica
Small oil portrait. I did this in Genesis oils, which is not really oil paint, but handles a good deal like it. I think I botched the varnishing stage though. The one – and only -drawback to these paints is you can’t use traditional varnish, and I do not like the varnish made for the paints. I’m looking forward to doing more analog painting this year.
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Unpublished Cover
Several versions of this cover exist, but this is the only one that has never been in print. The US version of this cover did not have the Hierarchy character portraits at the sides of the art. The Spanish version has a star field in the background and no character portraits. This is watercolor, but I attempted to do tweaks to various versions of it in Photoshop. Hilariously wonky efforts, I did not even know how to use the pen tool back then.
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Splash Page
This is a piece I haven’t run in awhile, a promotional pinup from many years ago. The drawing is a tad awkward, and you can see the flawed scan of the tone sheet there on D’mer’s face. For some reason back then, everybody was getting really scary strong jawlines.
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Liana and Rieken
A rather awkward, early watercolor. This was used for a limited edition print included with some signed comics. Liana looks like she has a sunburn.
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The Ascendant
The original cover for A DISTANT SOIL Volume II. While this was shot from a scan of a transparency of the original art, the color looks a bit off to my eyes. It’s amazing how much variance in color you can get from a single picture! The original is in watercolor. I like how the image seems to glow on the computer screen!
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Early Cover Art
This is a 1980’s era cover, painted in colored inks with colored pencil touch-ups. The original is pretty rough, but I did some digital touch ups years later. I think it’s a bit clunky, but there you go.
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TROLL BRIDGE
I don’t usually post things that are not A DISTANT SOIL related, but this kinda is. In A DISTANT SOIL #25, I did an eight page adaptation of a short story by Neil Gaiman. I had some extra money and thought it would be cool to publish stories by writers I liked. I was never very happy with the job I did. Short deadline, cramped space. Years later, I popped a note to Neil saying how bad I always felt about it, and how if I had the chance to do it again, I’d knock people’s socks off. So he said SURE! So here it is. Coming in late September,…
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Roses
This is an alternate version of the final cover of A DISTANT SOIL 32. My friend Jozef Szekeres, who is a noted animator and animation director for Disney and other clients, encouraged me to try painting with animation cel paints. I didn’t really care for it, though I love the look. It is much easier to get this kind of look in a digital painting, that’s for sure. Animation cel paint handles like glue. And the original art tends to be fragile and unstable. I still have all these paint containers, but I bet they have all dried out by now.
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Seren
This is another illustration where the master file seems to be missing. Oy. Anyway, it’s a black and white drawing from ages ago, and one of my early attempts at digital color. Only I didn’t know how to use layers to isolate the black lines, so I clumsily tried painting around the lines. It’s funny, now.
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Jason and Beys
This is a digital repaint of a lost original cover painting in watercolor and pencil. I was trying out some new ideas for composition and design, but my painting was uneven back in the day. Losing some of the art archives has been a mixed blessing, as the restorations often turn out better than the original art. Also, if you’re following our updates to the comic, please look to RECENT COMMENTS at the right and click on the latest page of chapter 8. All of chapter 7 has now been restored.
