MIA but back now (hopefully)

Well it's been a fast 6 months since I have had a chance to update my blog (and honestly I really should be working on sketches instead of writing :P ) I have been really busy with GenCon in August, and since then I did 3 illustrations for DnD's players handbook 3 with Kate (super cool ad at wotc), I got to do 3 magic card (woot!), a wow card (which was awesome since I play wow too :D ) 4 cards for LoN and 4 for starwars galaxies... all while teaching full time.

I finally got around to posting some more work onto my site so have a look and let me know what you think.

http://stankoillustration.com/work.html

Comic Con

Well, this has been a crazy month. I finished a cover for DnD 4e (sorry can't show it yet, nda and all :P ) and got 3 sketches for star wars galaxies finish and some how got a b/w done for art order. And now without any immediate deadlines I am free to enjoy a couple of days at comic con. I am really looking forward to seeing all the great art, it's always a huge inspiration. I am also looking forward to seeing Greg Manchess finish up the princess of mars that he started at the master class. Anyway, I'll leave you with the b/w I did for art order which was a lot of fun to do. Enjoy and thanks for looking.

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New Web design and IMC wrap up.

I apologies for the lack of updates from the IMC. The internet there was painfully slow, and considering I didn't finish painting most nights until 2 or 3am, I just didn't have the energy to post stuff. IMHO there was something really special about that class. I can't quite put my finger on why or what it is, but I think most of us realized that it was an amazing week. I think/ hope that we are in the middle of a new golden age for illustration. Maybe it's just my love for the art, but I believe in a century or two, when art historians look back at our time, the frazetta's and vallejo's will define our culture. Once the last coat of oils dry, I'll post the piece I made for the class.

And if you haven't noticed I redesigned my web site to make it easier for AD's to bookmark and forward my work. Less glam and more function is the idea.

IMC!!!

Night before:
I large group went out to ABC brewery to get a bite and catch up. Irene, Greg and Donato came by, it was great to see them again. A few of us had a great talk with Donato about how to stay fresh on comission and different ways to "keep you edge"

Day 1
The day started with an awesome video showing the work of all the instructors. It was simply amazing. The rest of the day was spent getting great crits from the faculty. Dan and Charles helped me work thru some minor issue with my sketch and Greg came by later and offer some great thoughts too. I had a wonderful conversation with Irene about NDAs and other parts of the business. Finally the day ended with Boris and Julie talking about photography and a demo of how to shoot reference images by Dan and Donato. I ended up spending until 1:20ish in the studio working on my image.

Day 2
Most of the day was spent working on our images while the faculty gave individual advice. So much good stuff here, there is no way to list it all. There was probably more talking and such going on than painting, but it was great fun. Dan talked in the afternoon about how to make up reference ie Frankenstiening and then after dinner Greg gave us a retrospective of his work. WOW he is an amazing artist and a super cool guy.

Now off to bed! Below is my painting so far and a pict of boris and julie painting. Watching them paint is amazing as well.

IMC ver 2.0

On Saturday I'll be leaving for Illustration Master Class again. It's such an amazing experience to be around all that talent. I am really looking forward to it! Anyway I wanted to share my sketches which will be the starting point for my painting while I am there. It is of the lady of the lake. I hope to post updates on the class everyday so be sure and check back.

Jon's Concept Art Interview

I just finished up with some work for a 4th edition DnD book, Legends of Norrath Card and SWG cards. I'll post that work once the NDA is lifted. In the meantime. Jon was kind enough to post some of my work in his interview with concept art.

I'm off to Disney world for a week for our family vaction and will be busy when I get back on a DnD manual cover!

I got to paint an Undead Treant!

Here is a piece I have been wanting to share for a few weeks now and it's finally out so I can post it :) It was for the cover of Dungeon magazine. It was pretty complex but tons of fun to make. The main focus was the blackroot treant which is standing above the viewer, ready to stomp on em, in a crystal coliseum with the shadow of a green dragon on the wall and a stained glass window at the top of the ceiling.

I was really inspired by pollice verso by Jean Leon Gerome. A big thanks to Chantal Pare who was kind enough to let me use one of his patterns from his site for my inspiration for the glass window. Also thanks to Jon Schindehette who was fantastic to work with and who really helped me make this piece successful. I have included a few steps that I did along the way just for fun. Enjoy.

Here is a really rough sculpture that I made of the face on a blackroot treant to make sure I got the lighting right. It was fun to make, my son even helped too.



... and this is the sketch...



mid way thru...



...and finally done. Someday soon I'll do a full blown tutorial.



And below is one of the interior art illus. that I did for that article. Here is a bit of a story about this image. I had the opportunity to spend a week in North Platte Nebraska at the High School as a guest artist in late April and had a fantastic time. However, I didn't realize that there was an overlap between my time at the HS and my deadline on this round of work. So I would spend all day at the HS and then rush back to the hotel about 4pm work on this image until 1 or 2 in the morning each night. But in the end it was a great time and it all worked out, and I got all the images done on time. Anyway enjoy...



All images © Wizards of the Coast

Some recent work...

The force is strong in my family :)
This was an image that was tons of fun to do. I finally got the opportunity to use both my son and my wife in a SWG card and it's currently a BG Desktop at SWG TCG web site. My son is a HUGE star wars fan, so he really got a kick out of dressing up as a padawan (however he was bummed that he wasn't using the lightsaber tho)



Boll Deevil
This is a weekly exercise that Jon Schindehette http://artorder.blogspot.com/ puts together. It's a great exercise and really a fantastic way to keep yourself loose. I am in the middle of a couple of pieces for DnD and SoE so I decided it would be a perfect time to play around with speed painting. I gave myself a 1 hour time limit and came pretty close to hitting it. It's not as finished as I normally work, but it was fun to work with a set of limitations. Enjoy:

"Basically, we've taken a small and not very terrifying (unless you are a farmer) Boll Weevel and tossed him into the D&D Easy-Make Monster Maker™ and popped out the Boll Deevil. A terrifying incarnation of epic proportions...sometimes."

New Work!!

I finally got around to updating my web page with some art that is no longer under the NDA. I'll have more to post soon. Enjoy!

Click here to see my latest stuff

Jon Schindehette, one of the Senior AD's at WoTC has been running a fantastic blog. It's full of really great stuff for illustrators, and he has been one of my favorite people to work with... ever! Anyway, Jon was kind enough to post some of my ramblings about the master class I did this summer. Check it out here...

http://artorder.blogspot.com/2009/02/john-stanko-and-master-illustraion.html

I just finished a round of work for Star Wars Galaxies TCG and will post them once I can (NDA and all :P ) BUT that means I have a couple of weeks to work on some projects for myself. Here is one that I hope to finish up before the summer and take with me to comic con. It's heavily inspired by Donato Giancola. I had the pleasure of learning from Donato at the Illustration Master class last summer. He not only a master painter/ illustrator, but also just an all around great guy. Anyway... enjoy!

Ok, I have been bad about maintaining this blog... but I promise to do better.

It has been a crazy year; I attended the "illustration master class" which was an amazing experience (I'll post more on this later). I was nominated for a chesley, and that was a fantastic honor. I won first place for my painting that I produced at the master class at Gencon. I won best amazon at dragon con. Also I have been working with WoTC, creating art for the online dragon magazine, and will have a piece in player handbook 2. I have also been creating card art for Legends of Norrath and Star Wars Galaxies. Anyway, that has been what I have been up to over the past year.

Now that's out of the way, (since most of my current work falls under NDA's) I wanted to post up some of my speed oil painting value studies. These are done from life in 10 to 30 min. Figure drawing is a really critical part of my process and I do it as often as my schedule allows (ideally 2 or 3 times a week) This comes from an exercise that I saw Dan Dos Santos demo while at the master class. I have been dying to try it, and now that I have... it's not as easy as Dan made it look! Enjoy!