Frazetta Tribute Show for Juvenile Diabetes

My A Princess of Mars piece was selected from over 300 entries for inclusion in the upcoming Frank Frazetta tribute exhibition at Gallery Provocateur.  The Exhibition will open concurrent to the Chicago Comic Convention which runs from March 18th - 20th. Proceeds from the show will be donated to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation for Frank's granddaughter Jessica, who has type 1 juvenile diabetes, in hopes for a cure.

Like so many, Frazetta’s work was a tremendous inspiration for me as a young artist and continues to be to this day.  More specifically Frank’s Dark Kingdom piece from above was probably the single greatest influence on me and fueled my desire to pursue illustration.  Copying from my older brothers Molly Hatchet album, I would spend countless hours trying to recreate the masterpiece as a child.  That original album hangs in my studio to this day.

More info on the artists and exhibit can be found here, and many thanks to Veronika Kotlajic of Gallery Provocateur for putting together such a great show for such an awesome cause.

I am very honored to be a part of this show.

Lincoln: Process

Just in time for his birthday here is a recently completed portrait of our sixteenth president, Abraham Lincoln. I have always been fascinated by Lincoln and have wanted to paint him for quite some time. Such great sunken eyes!

I also thought this would be a good opportunity to show off a step by step of my painting technique. I’ve added a new section to the website called “Process” which can be accessed from the site’s main navigation bar. So if you've been curious as to how I go about a typical painting click here and check out the step by step process and video slideshow.

Happy birthday Abe!

Spectrum 17

Spectrum 17, a compilation of the years best fantastic art has arrived in book stores everywhere.  I am both honored and fortunate enough to be included in this year copy.  Ive had the pleasure of owning every single copy of Spectrum since its inception in 1994 and still to this day find myself flipping through past years for inspiration.  With the awesome Manchess cover (which I had the pleasure of seeing created before my very eyes at IMC 2009) on the crisp white background, amazing type design, beautiful reproductions, and new artist info next to the specific art, it is in my opinion the best Spectrum to date!  Heres a small list of some fellow artist friends & colleagues I have the pleasure of sharing the pages with.

Aaron Miller
Greg Manchess
Boris & Julie
Howard Lyon
Donato Giancola
David Palumbo
Allen Douglas
Scott Fischer
Teetering Bulb (Zelda & Kurt)
Rebecca Guay
Steven Belledin
Terese Nielsen
Kristina Carroll
Raoul Vitale
Matt Stewart
Allen Williams
Justin Gerard
Joe Devito

Congratulations to everyone who got in this year.  If you've already got a copy Im on page 249, if you don't... what are you waiting for?  Its awesome!  Run on out and grab yourself a copy or get a really great discount from Amazon here.

-Dom

Imagine FX 60

Head on out and pick up the latest issue of Imagine FX magazine.  Besides being a really great resource for illustrators it has a cool article on the Illustration masters class I attended this past summer.  I was fortunate enough to have my Maid of Orleans piece featured with some other really great artists that attended the class.  In addition to the IMC article theres a neat little piece on the science behind visual perception by Jim Gurney and nice article on legendary illustrator William Stout.  So run on out and grab yourself a copy!

Here are links to the two previous articles I posted about the Illustration Masters Class:

IMC 2009
IMC 2010

Go check them out if you haven't already.

-Dom

Illustration Master Class: Joan of Arc & Imagine FX

Here is my assignment for this years

Illustration Masters Class

I attended a couple of weeks ago in Amherst Massachusetts.  (For those unfamiliar with IMC check out my previous blog post on last years

here

.)

For this years Assignment I chose to take on the Maid of Orleans... Joan of Arc.  We were free to interpret this book cover anyway we wished through either a historical viewpoint or, as I chose here a more fantastical one.  I’ve been wanting to do an angel piece for quite sometime and this was the perfect opportunity to take on the challenge.

You cacheck it out in my portfolio

here

or check out a larger view with some zoom details of brush work

here

.  Enjoy!

This years IMC class was a little different than last in that

Imagine FX Magazine

chose 10 artists to be featured in an upcoming article.  I just found out that I was fortunate enough to be one of the select artists.  Ill post an update when the article hits the stands, but in the mean time here is a list of all the artists that were chosen.

Anthony Palumbo

Clark Huggins

Dominick Saponaro

Andrew Baker

Jason Cheeseman-Meyer

Marc Scheff

Michael Hayes

Rebecca Solow

Sam Kennedy

Winona Nelson

Congratulations to everyone, Im honored to be in such good company!

-Dom

1027 Final (For Real This Time)

Here’s the follow up to my figure study post from a few weeks ago.  After “finishing” this piece without the figures I felt something was missing from it.  I really thought it could benefit from another narrative layer and added the two foreground figures.  Adding the human element to the painting really transforms the piece from a nice train portrait to a much more narrative story.  Check out a larger version and zoom details here.

-Dom

Art Order Calendar

Back in December I was lucky enough to be featured in Jon Schindehette’s 2010 Art Order Calendar.  For those not familiar with Jon he is the Senior Art Director for Dungeons and Dragons.  Besides his work at Wizards of the Coast Jon’s ArtOrder blog is a great resource for illustrators both new and seasoned for all things fantasy art related.  The calendar was conceived of as a promotion for prospective sponsors of his blog.  Jon is also selling them ($12.95 + Shipping) on his site to defray some of the cost.  So head on over and grab one while you still can!  Other artists included are:

Aaron Miller
Andrew Olson
Anna Christenson
Eric Braddock  (Fellow U-arts Grad)
Garrett Hanna
Lu Vazquez
McLean Kendree
Sabin Boykinov
Tiziano Baracchi
Tobias Kwan
Tyler Jacobson
William O'Connor

Thanks again to Jon for including me in the calendar and for all his time he gives the illustration community.

-Dom

1027 Figure Studies

Here’s a couple of quick figure costume design/pose studies done for inclusion in my train piece here.  After “finishing“ the piece I felt it was part of a larger narrative and needed a human element added.  I am putting the finishing touches on the figures and will be posting the real final very soon.  Stay tuned.

-Dom

A Princess of Mars

This was one of the assignments for the Illustration Masters Class I attended last Summer.  It is a cover for the Edgar Rice Burroughs science fiction novel A Princess of Mars.  The first of his famous Barsoom series. It is also Burroughs' first novel, predating his Tarzan stories.  The story is considered a classic example of 20th century pulp fiction or more specifically the planetary romance genre.  You can check out a larger version in the portfolio section here.

IMC is a fantasy and science fiction illustration week long workshop created and run by Rebecca Guay in Amherst Massachusetts.  It is an intense week of learning and Attendees benefit from a full schedule of classes in figure drawing, use of reference, drawing from the imagination, digital and traditional painting technique, as well as live demos and lectures.  We were assigned a project and expected to have finished sketches when we arrived. We then spent the week working with some of the best in the industry on our pieces.  This coming years faculty include:

Julie Bell
Dan Dos Santos
Scott Fischer
Irene Gallo
Donato Giancola
Rebecca Guay
James Gurney
Greg Manchess
Boris Vallejo

Many of the nights went on into the wee hours of the morning and the collective art boost that everyone provided was just awesome!  I cant wait for this years.

-Dom

Bighorn

I painted this piece as a challenge after getting back in touch with fellow U-Arts Alumn and friend Will Spear.  He paints all sorts of great wildlife and landscapes avoiding the figure at all costs.  I on the other hand like to paint more narrative figure work.  We flipped this on its head and I painted the wildlife while he painted... lets just say... a not so flattering swashbuckling portrait of myself.

All in all I really enjoyed painting this.  It was a fun departure from my usual subject matter.  I think Ill try something similar soon.

*Here is a link to Will’s facebook page because he doesn't have his website up yet.  Go connect with him and check out his really great Plein Air paintings.  Make sure you let him know where you heard of him.

-Dom