New Art (and a really cute puppy)
If I’ve been a little quiet this last month, it’s because I was pretty busy. Anthologies, Book Covers, and Commissions (oh my!) and then on top of all that, I got a puppy.So today’s post shall be a quick wrap up of some of those projects.
Art Order: B&W Vampires
I decided (close to last minute) to dive into the current Art Order Challenge. It was a great excuse to bust out the Painter Digital Inks and play again (my last fully inked piece was “Exquisite” a year and a half ago now). Gwenth and Garreth are vampires in the D&D world, previously human. I had a lot of fun coming up with their armor and fiddling with the digital inks. Hopefully I’ll get time to play with them again in the near future.
If you’ve never worked with Painter’s Digital Inks before, you can watch my latest Ustream Session to see how they work. I babbled for a bit about Art Order, Romance novels, and vampires (the cool and the lame sparkley kind), too. There’s a bit there when I start ranting about Stephanie Meyer where the audio goes a bit wonky, but sit tight and it sorts itself out after a couple of minutes. Trust me, you don’t miss much.
Art Order has a wicked new challenge that just went up a few days ago, and you get a bonus week to complete it. So scurry over there and check it out, especially if you are a dragon fiend: Catastrophic Dragon Challenge
Master of Crows
Just before this, I was finishing up an “alternate” cover for Grace Draven’s new novel (due out in early July) Master of Crows. This image will be used for promotion, bookmarks and to bind sample chapters of the book to be sent out for review. It was a really fun commission, and I very much enjoyed working with Grace on it. The book pretty much rocks, too. You can purchase it through Amber Quill Press (with the photomanipped cover). You can read an excerpt here: http://grace-draven.livejournal.com/11332.html
What would you do to win your freedom?
That is the question which sets bondwoman, Martise of Asher, on a dangerous path. In exchange for her freedom, she has bargained with her masters, the mage-priests of Conclave, to spy on the renegade sorcerer, Silhara of Neith. The priests want Martise to expose the sorcerer’s treachery and turn him over to Conclave justice. A risky endeavor, but one she accepts without hesitation—until she falls in love with her intended target.
Silhara of Neith, Master of Crows, is a desperate man. The god called Corruption invades his mind, seducing him with promises of limitless power if he will help it gain dominion over the world. Silhara struggles against Corruption’s influence and searches for ways to destroy the god. When Conclave sends Martise as an apprentice to help him, he knows she’s a spy. Now he fights a war on two fronts—against the god who would possess him and the apprentice who would betray him.
Puppy!
And finally, as promised, a picture of my newest family member, Maggie. We adopted her from our local shelter. She’s about 7 weeks old, and some kind of Lab mix. Utterly adorable–except when she’s crying at 4 in the morning, of course. 
Between her, the anthology layout I’m finishing up, and bludgeoning CSS into order to redesign my website, my weekend is going to be stuffed. Wish me luck!
Thanks for the mention, M! Those who’ve seen this illustration have sung its praises. You did a wonderful job.
Maggie is so cute, just keep your shoes out of gnawing distance.
I love both of those paintings and I feel like they are something new for you. I know what you talk about not getting out of the house. This whole summer I have been sitting in front of the tv or computer and not even daily walks helps me from headaches. I am lucky to not have that life all the time though. I hope that you don’t suffer too much, and please set an alarm for eating, so that you don’t get sick.