Talon of Umberlee

Recently I created a cover/ad materials for D&D's organized play release called Lair Assault: Talon of Umberlee.  Unlike any other project I have worked on, I was tasked with creating an image that would be used not only for the print materials, but also for any other needed advertisement for the release.  This meant, all the element in the image needed to be movable so that marketing could place items where they needed for various banners and things of that like.  So, I had to paint everything on separate layers.  I have never done anything like this before so I was some what at a loss on how to even approach it.  I normally paint flat in Photoshop and Corel.  I decided I would do an overall sketch of all the elements together as a composed image and then break them down and paint them out separately.  It certainly took a lot of time but it was really fun.  I worked with AD Kate Irwin on this one.  Always a pleasure.   

Here is the result:

This is a breakdown of how it all went and how each layer was placed in.  It was really a challenge keeping everything in order and in the right place.

...and here is the final booklet.

The Hengeyokai and other Characters

Recently, I was asked to design/update, some creatures for D&D called Hengeyokai.  The particular ones I worked on took the form of a Badger and Hare.  I also did some small illustrations showcasing these characters in October's issue of Dragon Magazine (404).

This brings me to some other characters I have worked on for D&D over the past year or so.  Jon Schindehette has put me to the task of creating a number of heroes the latest D&D Character Option books.  You have probably seen some of these guys popping up in the D&D products and if you are illustrating for D&D then you have probably received them as reference.  So I thought I would share them all.  Here are a few from the Feywild as well as some Elemental Characters.

Many more to come at a later date....

Happy Halloween!

A while back I did a Vampire piece for Wizards of the Coast and I thought it perfectly fitting for the season and my favorite holiday.  I really had a blast with this one and am glad I can finally show it off.  Here is the piece as well as a little bit of my process.

Happy Halloween!!

A little of my process....

 Thumbnail

 Pencil

 Step By Step

Detail

Scientific American

I just recently completed a really fun job for Scientific American.  It was for an article called The First Americans, exploring new research about early humans showing evidence they colonized the American continents earlier than previously thought.  My illustrations depict the idea that these humans took different paths into the new world; one inland, and the other along the west coast, most like by sea.  I had a great time with this project and completed a main illustration for the opening of the article as well as two vignettes for the map portion.  You can take a look at the article online here.  I had the great privilege of working with art directors Michael Mrak and Jen Christiansen.      

  

   

Shadowcore!!

Everyone check out Shadowcore.  Great lineup of fantasy artists contributing.  I am honored to be among them.

Thanks you.

We Have A Winner!!

In March of 2011, my agent Richard Solomon and his staff began a contest for young aspiring illustrators.  It was called Breakthrough and it provided an excellent opportunity for up and coming illustrators to really show of their stuff to the industry.  The judging panel consisted of 20 art/creative directors and top illustrators and they have found a winner.  His name is Michal Dziekan, from Poland, and he is an amazingly talented young artist who already has a brilliant portfolio.  Take a look.

Breakthrough Contest

You can read more about it all here at the RSAR Blog...As well as the Runners-Up and Staff Picks.

Congratulations to Michal and all the Runners-Up!!!  Great work.

Tell all your friends about this and continue to celebrate great illustration!!

Medusa Crime Boss

Sorry to all for the huge gap in posts. I will be trying to get more updated work up on here over the next few weeks.

Here is a piece I did for D&D, for Dungeon Magazine issue 194.

Hopefully more to come soon.

Neverwinter Fortune Cards

A few months back I did a piece for D&D's new Neverwinter Fortune Cards set. While they only used a small portion of the image for the box art as you can see here, I painted out the whole figure so that they could use more of the image for other marketing purposes, dealing with the Neverwinter set. This was a really fun peace and I had a great time working on the landscape in the background. Had a bit of inspiration from Albert Bierstadt on that section.

Hopefully, more work will be freed from NDA's soon and I can post again.

Happy 4th!!!

I thought this would be a fitting post for today. I recently completed 6 illustrations for a Men's Journal article on our military special forces units. These JSOC (Joint Special Operations Command) members are the guys who got Osama bin Laden. This was a fun project from start to finish. The AD and I both agreed it would be great to paint these images in a similar way to the G.I. Joe box art we both grew up with in the 80's. It was very nostalgic. You can find the article in the July issue of Men's Journal. Happy 4th to all, especially all those serving in our armed forces!!!

MicroVisions!!

I was asked to participate in the Microvisions exhibit at the Society of Illustrators. The small 5"X7" pieces will be exhibited at the Society and then auctioned off for the Society's Student Scholarship. They have raised upwards of $15k with the Microvisions over the past few years. I am very honored to be involved and I had a great time working on my little piece.

I am out in Seattle and can't make it to the exhibit but if you are in New York City certainly drop by the Society and check it out.

Ground control to Lt. Gagarin...

April 12th 2011 was the 50th anniversary of the first manned space flight. That man was Yuri Gagarin, soviet cosmonaut, and his ship was the Vostok 1. I thought I would do a little portrait for the occasion. It has been a while since Gagarin made that first amazing trip and many have followed in his footsteps. Gagarin died in 1968 when is MiG 15 crashed during a training flight.

detail

Muddy Colors

I recently did a guest blogging (is that a word?) over at Dan Dos Santos's blog Muddy Colors. It has a short little story about how I got started working with D&D and a Q&A section about my art and process. Check it out: http://muddycolors.blogspot.com/2011/03/guest-blogger-tyler-jacobson.html

Thanks all!

BRUCE!!

GROOVY!!!!!! So I want to get some more portraits into my work seeing as I have done a few lately for commissions. This is a little work in progress of just that, which I have been working on in my spare time. I am really a movie nut so I want to do more film oriented portraits from some of my favorite movies. We will see what comes of these. I am not sure if I will do caricatures for the other images but I couldn't help myself on this one. Plus I have never really done a caricature. More to come on this....hopefully soon

Dragon 397 and a little process....

Recently I did another cover for D&D's Dragon Magazine, Issue 397. The scene depicts the True Priests battling their corrupted brothers in the defiled holy temple. Jon Schindehette was AD on this and as always it was a pleasure working with him.

For this post I thought I would include a little process or step-by-step on how I approached this illustration, and pretty much how I approach all illustrations. I start with a super rough thumbnail keeping it loose. There were a few others, but I just included the one I went with. I usually do a little value or lighting comp over these thumbnails as well, but on this project I was working a bit fast to hit the deadline and I skipped some of my usual steps. After the tight pencil I normally do a full value comp and a fairly rough color comp. I basically lay the colors I am after over the image in Photoshop so I can see where I want to take the finish. Then, magically I paint the finish! Ta Dah! I would like to post an actual timelaps painting process video, but that will have to wait until I can figure out how to do it.

Cheers! Dragon 397

D&D Fortune Cards

I recently did some illustrations for D&D's Fortune Cards game Shadow of Nentir Vale. They were really fun small illustrations and they ended up using one of the Dwarf Slayer pieces on the box art which is great. This was a character named Fargrim who I had developed for D&D's Heroes of the Fallen Lands. It was great to get another opportunity to illustrate him.

These small cards can be a bit of a challenge, considering the tiny window you have to work the art into. It really made be think about how to maintain dynamic, exciting compositions in such a small space.

I am currently working on a some more which should be out in a few months. Here is a link to the current Nentir Vale set. The art director was Mari Kolkowsky who is always a pleasure to work with.

Here are a few of the pieces I did as well as a shot of the box and some of the actual cards.

Rolling Stone Magazine - T.I.

I recently did a portrait of Hip Hop artist T.I. for Rolling Stone magazine. The issue should be out in stores today or tomorrow. Issue 1122 with Jimmy Fallon on the cover.

A few pieces from the end of 2010

Here are a few pieces I completed right before the year ended.

For this first one, my agent Richard Solomon and his staff have been putting together an illustrated Factoid sheet. I got to illustrate the factoid "Olympus Mons on Mars is the largest volcano in our solar system". I am a big space nerd so this was a great one for me. Mons is really massive at about 15 miles tall and hundreds of miles across.

This next one was a set of portraits for some famous alumni for Baylor Magazine.

This last illustrations was for the FED magazine for an article on college degrees in our current economy.