Griffin bard book cover

Jul30
by on July 30, 2015 at 9:57 am
Posted In: Baron's Art

Sketchbook final color 01This is a commission I recently finished for Earl McClaw. McClaw came to me this year with an unusual request. Instead producing a finished piece of work that would be framed he asked whether I'd be willing to work on the cover of a book. This was a blank sketchbook that he would other artist fill interior with additional art.

This meant that I would be working on piece that would later be handled, shipped and touched by far more hands and surfaces than I have ever done before. To give the art the best chance for survival I sprayed the final piece with four to five coats of UV resistant acrylic clear coat. That way the art has a fade-resistant, and semi-water resistant coating over it.

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Commission Averious round one sketches

Jul28
by on July 28, 2015 at 5:13 pm
Posted In: Baron's Art

These are a first round of study sketches I did for Averious  Averious commission. The commission has several elements that the client was very specific about, therefore to assure I got things right in the final piece I decided to do a series of study sketches first.

I got the green light from the client this afternoon so the next is to pore over the various features of USMC dress blues!

I hope you like what you see. Please help make more art like this possible by supporting me at Patreon

If you like what you see in my work and would like to have a piece of art from me; then contact me about commissions. Averious round 01

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Last day to rate Smudge’s shirts on WeLoveFine Neverwinter contest

Jul20
by on July 20, 2015 at 1:11 pm
Posted In: News & Reviews, Smudge's Journal

This is the last day to rate shirts for the WeLoveFine Dungeons & Dragons Neverwitner MMO T-shirt contest. Come support Smudge's designs if you haven't already!

School of Hard Knox - Dwarven Drinking Contest - Feed the Mimic - Laughing Troll

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Commission: Night Watch

Jul17
by on July 17, 2015 at 1:06 pm
Posted In: Baron's Art

Night WatchThis is a commission I recently completed for Sasta of their OC Reluctance. As you can probably tell Reluctance is a batpony. One of the interesting challenges of this piece deciding on what kind of armor to put her in. The client gave permission to put her in one of several different styles I've seen batponies wear in my Equestria dreamscape. In the end I took a common half-armor variant and adapted several elements from an earlier commission to this style.

The other major challenge was creating the feel of nighttime scene without having the entire picture turn to mud. One way I avoided that was by using my shading to define the shape and textures and distance of objects in the picture. For the sky I used all horizontal lines. The stonework was executed with mostly short, coarse vertical lines; where on Reluctance they I rendered her and her armor with smooth evenly spaced lines that helped define her against the sky.

The image size is roughly 9"x 12" on Strathmore vellum Bristol Board. I used a 0.5mm mechanical pencil with 2B and another with 4B lead to render it. Overall time from start to finish was roughly two and half hours.

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