tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-79844653679801498062012-01-28T16:15:10.112-08:00Notes to SelfJoe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.comBlogger1491100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-65214716797377850152012-01-27T05:33:00.000-08:002012-01-27T05:33:20.480-08:00

Here are two quest screens I made recently for Dark Skull Studios' New Gods of Raanon for Facebook. Most of the images will be covered up with text. Images copyright Dark Skull Studios. I was just contacted about doing a rush cover for Mark Fassett. This will be my third for him. Since I don't have a lot of time to work on this we're trying to do something where it's pretty much on a white

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-42152048157426130342012-01-26T05:46:00.000-08:002012-01-26T05:46:50.571-08:00

Quick doodle for a background for an image. A character would be on the left and the rest would mostly be covered with text. Ended up preferring one of my other thumbnails so I abandoned this one early. I'm really looking forward to showing the images this one is related to. Starting to get a little less lousy at environments and quicker at laying down an environment sketch.

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-57480144070363725372012-01-25T06:07:00.000-08:002012-01-25T06:07:02.080-08:00

Some drawings from last night.

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-43070600647734898382012-01-24T13:10:00.000-08:002012-01-24T13:10:51.246-08:00

So here are some thumbnails for a book cover followed by some color roughs and a little bit of work-in-progress. This is a super early stage of rendering. Still pretty rough and not sure how I'm going to render the geyser of darkness. I guess I could render it like a regular geyser of water but it sounds like this magic stuff is described more as strands or threads. Then there's the whole magic

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-34812366233077040882012-01-23T10:45:00.000-08:002012-01-23T10:45:28.750-08:00

One of my clients recently took a trip to China and was nice enough to send me a gift! Some clients are awesome. I've got plenty of stuff to post but no time to post it. Maybe next week I'll post some of the sketches I've been doing.

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-77494345950801793862012-01-18T05:34:00.000-08:002012-01-18T05:34:57.875-08:00

Made it to sketch group again last night. Thanks Chris Pritchard for the new sketchbook recommendation. It's a nice big Utrecht sketchbook with toned paper. Most of the toned paper sketchbooks I've seen have really rough or scratch pages. This one is nice and smooth. Also, I'm contacting artists to see if they'd like a table at Forge Con in Lexington in May. Tables are $50. Here's a promo

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-71431345443382881962012-01-15T18:29:00.000-08:002012-01-15T18:29:37.454-08:00

 Triad's EVO and EVA in the back. Hot Toys TrueType muscular Caucasian  in front left and Hot Toys TrueType Advanced African American Male on the right. I finally got too fed up with the Triad action figures I was using for reference. They'd be holding a pose and a leg would just pop off. Also some of the hands were practically impossible to change between. Well I ordered two TrueTypes and they

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-59720367557774389562012-01-12T06:38:00.000-08:002012-01-12T06:38:11.889-08:00

Trying to start going to sketch group again. I'm also going to start doing daily studies in the mornings and may start posting those.

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-20043600429831228602012-01-11T08:43:00.000-08:002012-01-11T08:43:01.164-08:00

Here's a break down of the positives and negatives from this year. Afterwards is a break down of sort of how they all tie together. Good A.Income was extremely high this year B.Raised my rates C.I was able to spend more time on each piece D.I got to experience some conventions I hadn't seen yet. E.Spent more time with Zbrush F. I already have enough work planned for 2012 that I really don't have

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-63135242172106673492011-12-15T07:10:00.000-08:002011-12-15T07:30:59.332-08:00

I'll have artwork I'm allowed to post on Jan. 1st but until then here's a business related post. I've heard some strange comments from freelancers lately that makes me want to respond as an art director. Quote Requests Apparently some freelancers prefer clients to be the first one to propose a rate for the work rather than the client requesting a rate quote. Which is an understandable wish but

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-61397885225042406402011-11-11T06:39:00.000-08:002011-11-11T09:13:35.678-08:00

I've been trying to make it to sketch group more often. Lately I've been thinking it would be kind of fun to teach and approach it in a really right brain style. You know actually put artwork to the student as a means of making a living. So assignments would be given out as though they're jobs with contracts and everything. If a student delivers the work by deadline they are awarded points

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-78840941119128760752011-11-03T18:53:00.000-07:002011-11-04T07:37:28.285-07:00

This month I'm finishing chapter 4 of Myth of Midigan. Then in December I have a book cover, two other full color images, and five greyscale chapter openers to finish. In January I'll probably do another book cover, 8 more color images and 9 greyscale 1/3rd pagers. In Febuary I'll probably be doing chapter 5 of Myth of Midigan to finish up that story. After that stretch I'm going to cut

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-56662893551985179162011-09-20T07:21:00.000-07:002011-09-20T07:21:47.180-07:00

Quick re-cap. Attendance:I'd estimate 800 maybe over the course of the one day event. I suspect the people running the convention will say 1200. They might be telling the truth, I have no idea. Venue: Really nice. I probably got one of the weaker spots by not having a wall behind me but it was still nice. Great lighting. Easiest loading and unloading at a convention ever. I was located outside of

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-90773515319551656822011-09-02T08:30:00.000-07:002011-09-02T08:30:27.631-07:00

Cover for Mark Fassett's next book Questioner's Shadow. It was great to work with him again. It had been forever since going to sketch group but I managed to make it last week. The model had a really emaciated face that was a lot of fun to draw. At GenCon I sketched a lot. Here are a couple. Here's a logo thing I had to design but isn't going to be used. I really loathe doing this kind of

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-87406823531783708082011-08-23T08:37:00.000-07:002011-08-23T08:37:29.282-07:00

So here's probably the most complicated piece I've ever worked on. It's the cover for Book of Mortals by Dark Skull Studios for whom I'm the Art Director for their print products. So yes it was my idea to do an illustration with a zillion figures. In the game there's the Well of Souls which contains souls that are pulled out and enter the spirit stream where they eventually find bodies on the

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-68391489391474137202011-08-08T06:11:00.000-07:002011-08-09T05:15:41.094-07:00

GenConWednesday-Due to circumstances, I was completely unprepared for GenCon. After setting up my booth it looked like a homeless person had stumbled in and tried to put their stuff up in the art show. Luckily my booth assistant, Adam Schmidt, wasn't in a panic like me and came up with some solutions that really improved the look of my display.Still, my sketches and 8.5x11 prints were displayed

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-9989668160619134672011-07-13T05:20:00.000-07:002011-07-13T05:20:28.800-07:00

Finished the painting several days ago. Haven't heard back from the client on what he thinks of it. So I said earlier that this was just an all out attempt to decide for good whether oils were in my future or if I could toss aside any and all thought about doing oil paintings anymore. Well I think it's the end of the road for using oils. Unless ofcourse the original sells for at least $600.

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-13173100869272768462011-07-06T09:01:00.000-07:002011-07-06T09:01:46.810-07:00

Just a tease again. Better photo this time but some values look a bit wonky because of reflections and whatnot. Guy's face on the left still needs work. Third time painting his head and sadly the weakest of the three. Luckily the other two characters should be easy as pie compared to these too. I had some help with the pose but the costuming stuff is pretty much entirely from imagination. Thus

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-1502641589474424942011-06-30T17:33:00.000-07:002011-06-30T17:33:23.845-07:00

Thought I'd post some stuff where I've done commissions where screenshots from 3D games are involved. This isn't the exact screenshot but this is the same character. The client also supplied a description that included things that can't be seen in-game or were factors he couldn't necessarily control in the game about his appearance. From there I basically try to mantain the same design but

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-5286047642160310092011-06-29T18:32:00.000-07:002011-06-29T18:32:52.688-07:00

Here are a couple of pieces I did a while back for some cards for a board game that was shown at Origins. It's been a pretty hellacious month but I'm done. I've been working 5 days a week and 2 nights a week on some illustration work. Brutal sitting that much and my carpal tunnel started to flare at the end of the stretch. It's not in my style though so I won't be sharing it. I made some BOLD

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-15219861366679547592011-06-08T19:48:00.000-07:002011-06-08T19:48:36.539-07:00

Most of the painting on this will be done in July. June is insanity for me because of the webcomic. This will be done in July though. Still need to fix some things with the snow/ground plane. Did some stuff wishy washy and I need to go in and clear them up. Also there's still tree issues. My flip display for conventions has been super handy. I've got all of my reference photos in there and I can

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-57984471831551802492011-05-18T05:42:00.000-07:002011-05-18T05:42:29.656-07:00

Not much of an update as this change to the painting was done the same day I had done the previous step I posted. Decided that I really wanted to roughly lay in the trees and adjust the sky color some while the paint was still wet. Wanted to re-paint the snow with it being dry. I should have stuck closer to reference for the trees. You can see it in my color study but I've really painted the

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-81275468533881922002011-05-11T13:02:00.000-07:002011-05-13T13:28:22.102-07:00

I've been having a perfect storm of computer problems lately. Ended up having to back my entire hard drive up and then restore to factory settings. So I had a while today to do a first rough pass at my huge painting. Working a little different from normal. Trying not to worry about getting it all done in a pass. So I've left out the characters and trees at the moment. Little worried about going

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-87133233650022120012011-05-04T06:50:00.000-07:002011-05-04T06:50:57.834-07:00

Some life drawing from last night.  Also, I decided for working on the easel I needed to get a decent palette.. I had just been using plexiglass in my drafting table drawer since I had been doing my paintings on my drawing table. The palettes at the store were all extremely small. My friend Richard had several palettes traced off of old masters palettes so I tried out a few and picked out

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-44827071485874089072011-04-29T12:42:00.000-07:002011-04-29T12:42:42.370-07:00

Quick color study for the big painting. Alan Grizzell was nice enough to let me use his opaque projector so the drawing is on the masonite now. So I'm not far from finally starting!

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-47037245983332256282011-04-27T05:18:00.000-07:002011-04-27T05:18:43.618-07:00

Some figure drawings from last night plus a naughty doodle for a game.

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-53243431065366250612011-04-26T12:25:00.000-07:002011-04-26T12:25:02.347-07:00

Finally finished the last study for the big painting! Well unless I decide to do a couple of rough mini paintings of it first. But awfully eager so I'll probably jump right into it.

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-4560420738214728032011-04-22T08:07:00.000-07:002011-04-22T09:04:28.212-07:00

Sketch for the makers of Pact Magic and a rough sketch for the Eowyn and Nazgul challenge on Art Order. Debating on whether to finish the Lord of the Rings image. Hard to motivate myself to create fan artwork. At the same time the webcomic work isn't satisfying my art interests and it'd be a real picker upper to work on the LotR image. Now for my latest blathering/plotting. I've got to do

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-90151879620792634392011-04-12T11:45:00.000-07:002011-04-12T11:45:08.254-07:00

Studies for the big painting.

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-88739889117351582122011-04-11T11:48:00.000-07:002011-04-11T11:48:28.603-07:00

Gearing up for the big painting. The surface has arrived as well as a couple of paints I ordered to fill gaps in opacity between colors. Shot reference for the female, the bard and the mage. Just put together this little maquette to get an idea of scale between characters and to shot them under various lighting conditions so that I can unify the lighting from the various photoshoots for the

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-42146252342319946702011-04-06T06:14:00.000-07:002011-04-06T06:14:06.034-07:00

Couple of recent pieces. Top one was a private commission. It was fun to do a piece that was way over the top. Tricky since the client wanted a flaming hammer, glowing armor, an illusionary image of a volcano erupting and a figure that's darkness. Decided to make the flames more stylized. Haven't heard any complaints but still not sure if I shouldn't raise the realism. Probably change the

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-82949308647809412162011-03-31T04:56:00.000-07:002011-03-31T04:56:09.432-07:00

Managed to make it to sketch night two weeks in a row! Things are going good. About to switch over to page rate rather than hourly on the webcomic which I think will mean making more money. A company that I've done a decent amount of work,and am still doing stuff, for just released a couple of images from the product line I'm on and it looks like I'm in damn good company. It's from a lesser known

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-50760118744945711592011-03-02T21:09:00.001-08:002011-03-02T21:09:43.065-08:00

Looks like I've been avoiding fee the last couple of sessions of life drawing. I'll have to do some studies next time.

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-68576736539063058912011-03-02T11:59:00.000-08:002011-03-02T12:00:37.493-08:00

Some lines for two private commissions. Not super tight. Lately I've been doing really tight pencils on toned paper before finals. Might do the same with these and add some more details before going to paint. I had originally planned on trying the second one as a large oil painting but I'm just not going to have the time. On the up side, this means that I think I'll be doing some livestreams

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-53186482534099922662011-02-18T07:38:00.000-08:002011-02-18T07:38:10.554-08:00

When only salinated water is available people have built houses with inverted thatched roofs for collecting water. Homes in caves will have a tube rising out of the soil above ground for ventilation. People have dug pits and built their homes in them so that enemies walking the flat desert like ground above cannot see their home from far away. If the winters are cold the larger side of the

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-63182742282156255522011-02-16T08:13:00.000-08:002011-02-16T08:13:11.724-08:00

So there was a lot of chatter on the ol' Facebook about the evils of private commissions about a month ago. Basically people appear to run into commissioners who needle them to death with revision requests and other nuisances. I've had the opposite experience with private commissions always going smoothly so far. When reading these comments I initially just thought, "I'm such a lucky bird." I

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-14996689947076362502011-02-09T10:14:00.000-08:002011-02-09T10:14:05.371-08:00

So my private commissions are still rolling. Thought I'd post some of the rough sketches. One involves 4 characters so that was kind of an interesting trick. Felt like I needed to give each character equal screen time so that all 4 players would be happy.

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-51949817121776304712011-01-29T11:35:00.000-08:002011-01-29T11:35:47.181-08:00

Thought I'd make something clear. I love doing this freelance illustration stuff. I know I gripe a lot about the bad apples, maybe that's because I like the blues or maybe it's because overwhelmingly positive stuff seems cheesy to me. So for once, I give you cheese. Don't expect much cheese beyond this. It's hard to have any hobbies because illustration is also what I enjoy more than anything

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-51515723995639469182011-01-07T08:21:00.000-08:002011-01-07T08:21:44.356-08:00

Kind of a tip. It makes fairly nice rubble reference to just break up some styrofoam and dip it in a cup of paint to kill the white some. If you're really concerned you could dip it in a bucket of housepaint to get a more opaque covering I'm sure. If you want some rocks rather than man-made rubble then take some of that soft foam that comes in flexible sheets and tear it up and dip it in paint.

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-85820919962236381712011-01-06T06:00:00.000-08:002011-01-06T06:00:01.671-08:00

This month is going to be insanely busy. This month is going well. Got a love letter from an old client of mine yesterday. "I miss you. Wish we could be together again." That sort of thing. It was very sweet. Anyways, this month I haven't been sick! So I managed to make it to figure drawing this week. Haven't been in over a month. Very rusty. Bottom two are from an older session that I just

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-67089388220307582742011-01-03T07:48:00.000-08:002011-01-03T09:35:17.053-08:00

Here are some thumbnails I made for somebody wanting a private commission. They're really rough. Never heard back from the guy so I guess he didn't like any of them. He had two ideas for an illustration, one being the character flying above a distant city and another one with two characters in battle I broke one of my own rules here and I think I just paid for it. If a client has little or no art

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-6167420384786100052010-12-18T19:38:00.000-08:002010-12-18T19:38:40.269-08:00

Everybody's doing them so I might as well too. 6 month Delay First half of the year was spent creating the children's book for my son that my mom wrote. Book sales aren't good but it was never about that and I could care less whether another copy ever sells. I haven't spent any money or time on advertising so really it hasn't had a chance. Speaking of advertising, since I wasn't working in the

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-36149138756830292032010-12-15T21:11:00.000-08:002010-12-15T21:11:31.956-08:00

I'm still fooling with the thumbnails for the piece I'm doing on my own. Thought I had one picked out but it was a night scene. It seems like people prefer brighter prints and I offer way too many dark prints. Plus it's a lighting situation I've done a hundred times. Probably fell into it out of comfort. So I turned it into a day shot and changed things a bit. It's still the front runner. Thought

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-85864655949033666872010-12-14T20:18:00.000-08:002010-12-14T20:18:58.017-08:00

I'm trying to be more regular with my blogposts. Sorry that NDA's kind of interfere with my ability to make more of these contain art. The major project I've been working on is for a comic company so I thought I'd talk a bit about it. I was super hesitant to take on this work but it offered consistent work at a good wage so I just had to accept. I was and still am worried about a variety of

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-1441389791598787722010-12-11T09:47:00.000-08:002010-12-11T09:47:40.212-08:00

So last night I decided to look through some old livestream by Tom Scholes and it got me all rejuvenated and wanting to do some environments. My environments are weak and Tom makes it look so easy. Thought I'd post some links to artist videos that are free on the internet.The last two are more like ads for buying the full video. Know of some great free vids that I don't have listed here? Post

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-64390100133709583422010-12-08T19:08:00.000-08:002010-12-08T19:08:50.934-08:00

This is a piece I did for Cubicle 7. I wasn't too happy with how it turned out. I tried to do it as oils and chose too small of a size and was just totally discouraged by how tiny the heads were to try to paint. I also tried using some new oils that were water miscible. They dry very matte so it makes it very tricky if you're using water miscible with regular oils. The regular oils look much

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-13561910146291870732010-12-08T18:41:00.000-08:002010-12-08T18:41:59.653-08:00

Still fooling around with that one thumbnail I did at Illuxcon. Originally I'd planned on a body being on the ground but I decided that was perhaps a bit dark for a possible print. Then I thought maybe I'd have a woman summoning something that's a dark value out of the ground. Decided I didn't like the lighting situation in that scenario but the cast shadows were a major part of the composition.

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-17319619911863452442010-11-23T20:11:00.000-08:002010-11-23T20:16:59.248-08:00

It's not that I have time to do a more in-depth post, it's just that I have to do something to break up the cycle of eat,sleep and work. I didn't want to miss anything on Thursday so I arrived on Wednesday in Altoona. Thursday I realized that nothing much happens until 6pm. We decided to try to find something to do in Altoona. There were only 4 results for things to do in Altoona and they

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-42474509605331071062010-11-22T06:57:00.000-08:002010-11-22T06:57:17.491-08:00

Wanted to finally do a post-Illuxcon post. Finn's been gettings sick lately and with Thanksgiving coming up, I feel like I've constantly been behind so this will be super fast. I snuck in early and ran to check out Donato's work. Hit me like a ton of bricks. Walked away thinking, "whatever it takes to create something like that." I've been holding myself back from oils for a laundry list of

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-45753806292556807772010-11-16T13:16:00.000-08:002010-11-16T13:16:43.495-08:00

Just got back from Illuxcon. Trying to work out compositions in around 3 values. Hopefully it will make for some more striking images. Here's two I'm thinking of pursuing. First one needs something. Did have a body on the ground but decided against it for content reasons. Maybe something dark at the characters feet would serve the same purpose.

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-82487938861781010802010-09-20T08:17:00.000-07:002010-09-20T08:35:53.116-07:00

Size comparison between the popular articulated Spider-Man and the smaller but still highly articulated Daredevil. So most of who are using artist mannequins probably aren't using the old wooden type. The most popular seems to be this gigantic Spider-Man that has a million points of articulation. The proportions of it have always bothered me so about a year and a half ago I started looking for

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-77996121095648492152010-09-15T20:07:00.000-07:002010-09-15T20:12:08.399-07:00

I'm always trying to figure out why I'm not satisfied with my work and I think I may have found part of the answer. I think my major problem is I focus on the nouns of my illustrations. As my little stylus flies here and there across the screen I'm always thinking, "this is leather. This is shiny. This is wet and shiny. This is bumpy. This is transparent. This is wrinkly. This is an up plane.

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-34096074285430703612010-09-08T16:59:00.000-07:002010-09-08T16:59:34.109-07:00

Done from life on my tablet last sketchgroup. Product review is going to have to wait. Thought I got a shipping notice but it was a notice stating that something was ready to ship and I'd be notified when it shipped. geez. I might write a prequel post that talks about a strange subculture. Anyways I should be able to show some fun artwork around the end of the month or early next month. I'm

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-5911468544909565042010-08-31T11:13:00.000-07:002010-08-31T11:14:32.886-07:00

Good news: I got my check from GenCon and I made more than I thought. Basically made up for the percentage that GenCon takes. This means that one guy that I thought must have just left, must have paid and then never came back for his prints. Strange. Bad news: The texture art gig is no more. Apparently my work wasn't up to snuff. I should have expected this as he didn't really like my test piece

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-22854103194420382652010-08-26T19:25:00.000-07:002010-08-26T19:25:58.412-07:00

Haven't posted any of these in a while. Probably because I haven't been going to sketch group as regularly as normal. If I don't have much work on my plate, I feel bad about going to sketch group and spending money. The inconsistency has made for some figure drawings that are all over the place as far as quality. Anyways, this first drawing was done on my trip to Indy. Finn's head wouldn't stay

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-20103001986469467082010-08-13T07:55:00.000-07:002010-08-13T07:55:42.261-07:00

I've seen a couple of people talking about self-publishing lately so I thought I'd make a post about my experience. I'll try to keep it short. So a major problem in my search was the fact that I had to try to find a self-publisher that would accept a book with less than 32 pages and full-color. That significantly narrowed my search and I thought I was going to have to cut out the dedication page

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-80335511625198948352010-08-09T13:21:00.000-07:002010-08-09T13:21:21.241-07:00

It was good. Made $437 this year which I believe covers my booth and print costs. Last year I just covered booth so that's an improvement. I need to start selling originals if I want to make big money. Might want to think about frames as it allows for bigger purchases. I've been catering more to the youngster with posters on their walls than collectors. Might need to try to hit both areas. My

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-56971973557121273662010-08-03T06:46:00.000-07:002010-08-03T06:46:31.767-07:00

I feel like the year begins with GenCon. My gas tank gets filled up with work there and then by the time it rolls around the following year I'm starting to run on fumes. That was especially the case this year. So I thought I'd do a little review of how things are going. DONE I've finally updated my website so that prints are available. That's something I've needed to do for forever so I'm

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-29837380054843713912010-07-27T09:57:00.000-07:002010-07-27T10:43:00.379-07:00

Sort of changed my website. It's wordpress now but it's not really any better than my old site. It will be easier to update and it will have a store up sometime after GenCon. Doesn't look like I'll be able to combine it with my blog unless I buy a premium theme. My previous bio section didn't really say anything about myself and sounded more like it should be a part of a resume. Now it's rambling

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-82011013682571499952010-07-23T11:29:00.000-07:002010-07-23T11:29:59.304-07:00

So I've been working on some texture work lately on a trial basis. Wrapped it up today and I have a good feeling they won't be hiring me on. Very unfortunate and disappointing as I'd really like to do the work. Isn't there a saying that goes, "you don't know what you don't know." I didn't know jack about how difficult it is to be a texture artist. You might think it's just painting surfaces for

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-90749940801290920002010-07-22T21:33:00.000-07:002010-07-22T21:33:53.848-07:00

I think it's an interesting story so I figured I'd lay it out here. I was art director for a roleplaying game company and helped put together a couple of books in case you didn't know. So I was hired by company X for some quarter-page illustrations. Eventually they asked if I would like to playtest the game for them. I said sure. I playtested the game with some friends and knew the rules really

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-87841513342238620432010-07-22T21:02:00.000-07:002010-07-22T21:05:50.918-07:00

Thought I'd run through the various ways I've presented my portfolio and the pros and cons. Regular Ol' three ring binder Pros:Cheap. Custom cover. Adjustable page count. Cons:Feels cheap.Can get scuffed up. Anecdote:In college I had some support materials in a drawing presentation that where in a binder where a plastic sleeve was scuffed and something had mysteriously discolored a spot on the

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-84646453788284433102010-07-10T06:54:00.000-07:002010-07-10T06:54:27.535-07:00

I often forget until GenCon rolls around but if you want the productions costs of your prints to be  really low you need to plan for the images being 11x17 or 8.5x11. You have a lot more options as far as companies when it comes to looking for those size prints and most of them offer big price breaks for ordering as few as five. It's not too hard to get each of your prints for fifty cents to a

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-74701728224393481282010-07-02T06:39:00.000-07:002010-07-02T06:39:43.053-07:00

I need your help. I don't do a lot of traditional art so I don't know how to do some stuff. I've got this painting on illustration board that I'd like to have on my panel at GenCon. It's not very rigid though so I suppose I need to mount it on foam core. What's the best way to do that? I suppose I could frame it instead but I think it would be a more expensive option and I'm trying to keep

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-32483812198585323252010-06-30T10:26:00.000-07:002010-06-30T10:26:01.301-07:00

Been revising a couple of pieces. I think the war goddess one is much improved. Crudsucker was mostly just expanded to the old background. Thought it'd be more attractive as a print that way. Still struggling with that Elorgo piece. Think I may call it done. Having the fire in there was probably a real bad idea. Looks strange to tone a fire down from full brightness.

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-21882529839844242732010-06-26T09:31:00.000-07:002010-06-26T09:31:28.599-07:00

This is kind of me laying down stream of consciousness as far as what I've been thinking as far as the career lately. Figured writing it down might bring some clarity and make me more resolved to pursue the solutions. So business has been bad lately. Potential reasons; pen and paper gaming industry is in decline, pool of artists has increased, other artists are lowering their rates, babysitting

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-466641780832282182010-06-24T11:15:00.000-07:002010-06-30T08:00:26.092-07:00

So I did a ton of illos for Aberrant a while back and some of the sculpts based on my illos are starting to roll out. I think it's pretty cool. Anyways here's a list of what's next on my plate to accomplish before GenCon. 1.Fix Blood Drinkers 2.Fix Elorgo's Tale 3.Fix Drow VS Mindflayer not worth it. removed from portfolio 4.Hook Horror plenty of fight scenes already. dimensions are print

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-47156391146237158312010-06-23T18:27:00.000-07:002010-06-25T09:32:50.587-07:00

Here's the maquette I put together for this. The action figure was a bit too small for what I had in mind for the picture. Still looking for work so I kind of rushed this one through the process. The more frequently I'm able to update threads on forums, the more my work gets seen and the more work offers I get. Unfortunately I've just been getting a zillion percentage profit offers.

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-14257544450656659102010-06-22T10:58:00.000-07:002010-06-22T10:58:42.003-07:00

Here's how the demon and chick pic is coming together. I'll probably put some clothes on her eventually but I'm hoping this will be a good T&A piece that might attract some print sales.

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-52901490204414688792010-06-18T11:04:00.000-07:002010-06-18T11:04:07.220-07:00

Sketching up a new piece. Here's progress so far.

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-80853238220173273342010-06-15T08:14:00.000-07:002010-06-15T08:14:05.014-07:00

A lot of you are probably aware of the latest Art Order challenge. Gotta Have a Hook. Unlike most challenges or contests this one is very specific in what the resulting images will be and I have to admit it's very intimidating. Everybody is going to be turning in a male dwarf fighting a hook horror. You could make the most amazing fight scene from this and STILL not stand out. So the task at

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-44743355840356155032010-06-08T19:31:00.000-07:002010-06-12T08:18:40.471-07:00

I'm a big fan of art terms and quick slogans. As I work, I try to cycle through the rolodex of things I've learned and terms shortens that cycle significantly. Thought maybe I should write down some of that list plus add a new one. contrapposto-"human figure standing with most of its weight on one foot so that its shoulders and arms twist off-axis from the hips and legs." I don't think of this

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-50223291519530235632010-05-28T10:29:00.001-07:002010-05-28T10:29:52.199-07:00

Here's that troll pic I've slowly been working on during my livestreams. Thinking about cropping in and darkening out a lot of the background details.

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-47622480432268526172010-05-27T04:56:00.000-07:002010-05-27T04:56:47.841-07:00

Thought it would be fun to post a bunch of my creatures. Which are your favorites? Which are your least favorites? I put boll deevil at the bottom followed by cerberus. My portfolio probably consists of too many of these but I have a hard time ranking these.

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-6489238657525325022010-05-26T20:55:00.000-07:002010-05-26T20:55:57.827-07:00

So it's famine at the moment so I've been running down my mental checklist of ADs to contact and I remembered something insane I used to do. Makes me laugh now. Seven years ago I had an excel spreadsheet that had nearly every company listed on RPGnow plus some others. Column 1:Company name. Column 2: AD's e-mail. Column 3:subject matter and style. Column 4: Estimated pay range Column 5: date

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-48524926266951790722010-05-26T08:43:00.000-07:002010-05-26T08:43:09.930-07:00

Here are a bunch of sketches from Tuesday nights. By the way, I'm currently available for work.

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-74503466833784837652010-05-19T10:59:00.000-07:002010-05-19T10:59:55.968-07:00

So doing this as a traditional painting sure didn't last long. An hour in and I just couldn't see the point in spending so much extra time on it because I wanted it in oils. So I switched to working on it digitally. Here's how it's looking so far. May crop out the troll's legs so that we're closer to the action. Plus the legs are boring. Then I'd probably scoot the far dwarf up on the picture

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-40519379364462699562010-05-19T06:44:00.000-07:002010-05-19T06:44:15.320-07:00

There's a website called Kickstarter that works as a third party for accepting donations towards projects. I heard about them a couple of weeks ago but blew it off as being useless for me. I can't get anybody to donate to me currently and at the moment I'm not wanting to do a graphic novel or anything. Now I'm considering setting up something on there so that people can donate to send me to next

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-70497020797634512742010-05-03T09:34:00.000-07:002010-05-03T09:34:51.709-07:00

Had an awesome weekend! Started to recover from being sick for one but I also took a lot of time to thumbnail for personal pieces. Came up with about thirteen illustrations I want to make. Plus I started revising a pic that's under NDA and will be slathering the dwarves VS troll pic with matte medium this week. Not sure when I'll get around to that oil painting though. Oh yeah, this dying otyugh

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-73079487632343575522010-04-23T11:22:00.001-07:002010-04-23T11:22:56.842-07:00

Another revision based on some feedback from Drew Baker and Richard Luschek.

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-48790730756317657512010-04-23T08:56:00.000-07:002010-05-12T19:47:11.574-07:00

Drew Baker was kind enough to give me a critique on the kali piece so I made some changes to it today based off of what he said. Ended up fixing up some other areas that weren't mentioned.

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-36552587002655060932010-04-14T07:00:00.000-07:002010-04-14T07:00:59.493-07:00

Recently completed a ton of revisions to two old pieces. I think they're much improved and revising them really helped me spot some mistakes that I apparently tend to repeat. Next up is Elorgo's Tale and Taishu. I just purchased zbrush and have been playing with that since Monday. Working on a troll for reference for an illustration. Same illustration where I took the photos of the chopped up

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-8465772489865048762010-04-07T09:28:00.000-07:002010-04-07T09:28:39.764-07:00

I finished all of the art!!! I'm ecstatic. You really have no idea how much this thing has stressed me out and weighed on my mind. If you read this blog, you're probably aware that my mother passed away on Thanksgiving but before that she'd asked me to illustrate a short story she had written so that my son, Finn, could have something to remember her by. My mother had actually asked me to do the

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-35988253141771868062010-03-31T06:42:00.000-07:002010-03-31T06:42:57.454-07:00

I was drawing pretty poorly last night but here's the latest digital life drawings.

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-4467270422859390012010-03-30T10:01:00.000-07:002010-03-30T10:01:23.102-07:00

Children's book is almost done. Have to touch up two paintings for it. Digitally paint over a pencil sketch and digitally finish 3 paintings that are already started. Still working on the Mutation Nation image. Trying to make it my most polished image to date. So I've started thinking about my next piece which I sketched out a while back that is meant to target D&D. Again I'm wanting to get more

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-21811105405111001112010-03-24T09:03:00.000-07:002010-03-24T09:03:45.775-07:00

Digital sketches from life at last night's figure drawing session. Also posted my rig for that. I've got that programmable key strip so that it's like I still have a keyboard. I use it with my cintiq as well. Guess what? The last six sketches for the children's book are drawn out and have the matte medium drying on them right now! Should be finished at least by next week. There was a little

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-41442111345354042602010-03-19T08:56:00.000-07:002010-03-19T08:56:32.296-07:00

Trying to improve and make more believable fantasy art so maybe I can start landing those dream jobs for WotC and books. So as you can see I've started making little maquettes. Hopefully it pays off although the dragonborn pic hasn't been particularly popular. Once I complete the children's book I should be able to do one of these a month and hope for the best come GenCon and Illuxcon. Trying to

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-26994893988678773032010-03-12T07:06:00.000-08:002010-03-12T07:10:00.389-08:00

After this recent hard drive problem it occurred to me that I Won't be able to keep files for eternity for the purpose of prints. Not onlythat, I'm sure I won't be printing the same prints in a couple of years. So all of my prints will actually be a limited number, so why not begin to take advantage by signing and numbering prints? Then I realized how little I know about limited edition prints.

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-19684077567239566592010-03-09T20:11:00.000-08:002010-03-09T20:11:40.869-08:00

Tonight's digital figure drawing from life. It was a good night to be working digitally. I think if I'd been working in pencil I would have gotten caught up in the details early on. The poses were really shifting all night because they were difficult to hold.  Ofcourse it meant I had to trust my initial lay in a bit more than I like. Also I've attached two older sketches because I apparently

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-82227433776365961572010-03-03T00:45:00.000-08:002010-03-03T00:45:30.244-08:00

Here's one of last night's figure drawings. Done on the fujitsu table.The legs were giving me fits. That far leg looks perpendicular but in reality it was pointed more away from us. Perhaps the far foot isn't foreshortened enough. Also it's odd where the heel almost looks like it's sitting on the knee. Should have made that area up in order to break that tangent.

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-22250934716185187522010-02-27T17:52:00.000-08:002010-02-27T17:52:09.684-08:00

Managed to make it to sketch group on Tuesday. The weather has interfered for a couple of weeks. Bit rusty. David Mack was there and it was fun to meet him and goof off. So here are two sketches from that. Plus one of the children's book images. I've also attached two rough sketches I did for a company years ago that they never responded with feedback to. Never got a chance to make them

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-42173133234547094942010-02-26T10:49:00.000-08:002010-02-26T10:49:25.102-08:00

Had an artist I know e-mail me about a client I had worked with and it spawned this entry that I wanted to jot down for myself. At the time of the work, I despised this client and that one client is the source of nearly all of my complaints about how bad clients can be. Looking back at it now, I still despise and think the client was awful, but I'm better able to see how to prevent the horrible

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-35111922063735170532010-02-11T16:49:00.000-08:002010-02-11T16:49:20.045-08:00

A post to let you know I'm not dead. Working on children's book stuff. I'm done with 15 of 24 illustrations for it. Should be 18 of 24 tomorrow. Crazy amounts of snow have kept the babysitter from visiting and my wife was stranded away from the house for two nights so I've been watching my little one a lot. I believe Aberrant is about to finally release some artwork I did so I may have some new

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-61305457563592938372010-01-27T08:10:00.000-08:002010-01-27T08:10:25.665-08:00

Wow the new system for uploading pictures is so much better now. With that and a scanner, I now have no excuse for not updating this more. WAR GODDESS First image is a cover I just completed for Dark Skull Studios' New Gods of Mankind. I'm happy with the background and sort of the colors although they are a bit middle of the road. While I do think it probably deserves to be in my

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-3754353370406638742010-01-06T14:05:00.001-08:002010-01-06T14:37:39.802-08:00

Couple of recent life drawings.Bit rusty. Had't gone to sketch group in a while . Just got a scanner that works with my work computer!! Not only that but it can scan an 11x17 area! woot! All of these are no taller than 7inches hah hah. I also just got some oil paints that I had been wanting. Haven't been able to work a lot lately. Completed a couple of pieces for Aberrant and am working on the

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-2333923074897573922009-11-12T14:48:00.000-08:002009-11-12T14:54:34.214-08:00

Well my simple idea about fixing this piece didn't pan out. Still trying to fix it. Changed the angle of one arm so that it's less of a straight vertical. Tried to use a graphic element to incorporate red into the cloak. That head is still sequestered. Brought in some more imagery into the cloak so that the outstretched hand isn't on a background that pops it so much. Decided that having

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-279486951241980302009-11-12T09:56:00.000-08:002009-11-12T10:01:21.075-08:00

Finished with revisions on this one. Too many clear verticals in the background with one shooting our character in the head? Maybe. Does that right most vertical create a tangent with the tip of the wing? Almost. Something about those feels right to me. Maybe I'll change my mind though in a couple of days. Moving on to the Elorgo piece now as I think I've come up with some simple solutions to

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-22585523342337431272009-11-10T17:08:00.000-08:002009-11-10T17:10:25.515-08:00

Starting to go back and revise those pieces from the review.Think it's an improvement so far?

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-81273767973847260272009-11-07T21:08:00.000-08:002009-11-07T21:52:02.030-08:00

So I had my Conceptart.org portfolio review today. My reviewers were Jason Manley,Brett Briley (or did he leave before mine, I can't remember),Anita Kunz and Brian Hagan. So I got lucky with having two extra reviewers there.I was really worried that they'd pick a weak piece to really critique the hell out of and wouldn't give me a broad overview of what my problems are but they really did give me

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7984465367980149806.post-43621137984665209732009-10-23T08:33:00.000-07:002009-10-23T09:15:07.911-07:00

Thought I'd make a not so serious post. Dug up a couple of old pieces that I thought might be amusing to bring up.Couldn't find any of my pre-college stuff on disc but I was mainly creating linoleum cut prints and textiles. Then there were a couple of ink wash drawings from life. Without much work or experience under my belt, I decided to go into art. Mostly because my mother came home all of the

Joe Slucherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03207126311688232266noreply@blogger.com0