Three-Headed Troll Art Wurks

Undead Stone Giant

2012-01-22T19:02:00.003-05:00

Never mess with an evil necromancer when he has an undead stone giant at his disposal.

Blue Dragon Attack

2012-01-17T09:34:00.002-05:00

This is a follow-up to the green dragon illustration I did last year. While green dragons are probably my favorite of the chromatic dragons, I've always liked blue dragons as well.

Treants vs Trolls

2011-12-30T09:37:00.002-05:00

Been a while since I posted anything...but here's an interior piece I did for a client a little ways back. I'll have plenty more to post here soon as I'm currently slammed with commissions. Yay!

Russ Nicholson Fighting Fantasy Study!

2011-08-14T18:07:00.002-04:00

Wandering Monsters

2011-07-31T10:31:00.007-04:00

Another Russ Nicholson study from the early eighties.
This particular piece graced the interior of White Dwarf
Magazine, Russ contributed quite a bit to this particular
gaming magazine for about 10 years. This is one of my
favourite pieces. My version took about 6 days to complete.

Russ Nicholson Wizard Study

2011-07-13T17:32:00.019-04:00

Russ Nicholson Wizard Study. This was a piece from an early edition of
White Dwarf Magazine. I love Russ Nicholson's style of artwork,
its like a modern day Drurer woodcut print.
I find rendering all those close lines is a great method of loosening myself up artistically
before I start my own work. I think this is my fifth or sixth Russ Nicholson study piece.

Jim Holloway Wizard Study
Another study piece, this time from old school D&D Artist Jim Holloway.
Another artist I really admire. Both of them are still plying their trade
drawing, painting and rendering their own fantastic brand of fantasy
artwork. This particular Jim Holloway piece is from 1981. It was in
the basic D&D Module Blizzard Pass M1 Solo adventure, the one
with the invisible pen entries. I think my own style lends itself to
the Russ Nicholson style a lot more than Jim's. I do like drawing/
attempting to draw both artists works. I have probably drawn
more than a dozen of Jim's smaller pieces to date, with middling
results. Have to keep at it I suppose. Now, maybe something by
Roslof, Elmore, Dee, Willingham or Otus?

Judge Dredd

2011-07-06T11:04:00.013-04:00

Judge Dredd in pencils. My little bit of fan art, the new Dredd movie is out later this year with Karl Urban as the famous Judge. It proports to be an edgy, gritty and meaner portrayal.

Green Dragon Encounter...

2011-05-28T14:15:00.002-04:00

This is the first in a series of chromatic dragon scenes I'm gonna produce over the next few months or so. I've always liked the look of green dragons from D&D, so I picked that color to start this off with. Not sure which one I'll tackle next, but I'm looking forward to tackling it. Until then....

More Goblinoids...

2011-04-13T08:21:00.002-04:00

Here's another interior piece I did for Rod Waibel and his Sacrosanct Games...

When evil parties attack!

2011-03-24T20:32:00.002-04:00

This was an interior piece for a module that I did for Sacrosanct Games...

New Center Stage Miniatures piece.

2011-03-11T16:01:00.001-05:00

Latest Cover...

2011-03-04T10:51:00.003-05:00

One of my latest for a client, Pat and his megadungeon over at...
http://henchmanabuse.blogspot.com/
A group of Morlocks and their pet albino ape going up against a party...

Giant Rat & Sexy 1930's actress

2010-12-13T15:04:00.006-05:00

Giant Rat, staple low level Dungeon Critter

I did this particular piece in work the other day, it depicts Swedish-French actress Marcell Rogez circa 1935. I be diggin the original photograph.

Russ Nicholson Troll Study from the Warlock of Firetop Mountain Fighting Fantasy Book

2010-11-25T10:45:00.004-05:00

Another Russ Nicholson study, this time from
the Warlock of Firetop Mountain. Did this piece
in work over the course of 3 nights (took about
six hours total). It was rendered on standard
printer paper, which was a tad stoopid of me
in retrospect. I used a dip pen and India ink.
It really is the only way to try and half reach
the level of tiny organic detailing that Russ
excells at. It was done on U.K sized A4.
Cleaned up in Photoshop CS5. It also comes
to you from the future (read the completion date)
due to my completing it at 4am probably.

One for Sancrosanct Games

2010-09-30T09:31:00.003-04:00

Here's an illustration I just did for Rob Waibel over at Sancrosanct Games for a product titled, Lost Treasure of Actzimotal coming out in the near future.

2010-09-01T14:39:00.004-04:00

Wow, I haven't posted in ages! Been under the weather for most of the summer, and moving in slooooooow mooooootion. Here are my latest two commissions, for a LL module:

An owlbear in a primitive cage.

A party battling some giant ants in the jungle canopy. Pity the dwarf doesn't realize that you can't choke out an ant. Maybe his belly fat will plug up the spiracles and get the job done.

Next on the drawing board is a poster for North Texas RPG Con III.

-JB

Three Witches

2010-08-17T06:09:00.002-04:00

Finally finished inking my Russ Nicholson study,
it turned out to be a serious inkfest, even by my
standards. The original was very complex with
a lot more fine detailing than I could include
because in my infinate wisdom I drew it out on
a standard A4 sheet, it really needed an A3 at
least. I used pencil/blending sticks, nib dip pen
and a tiny staedtler 0.05 liner pen (takes patience).

2010-06-24T07:49:00.002-04:00

Here's a commission piece I just completed. I call it, "MUMMY DEAREST." It's pen & ink with ink wash on 14" x 17" Bristol board.

2010-06-09T09:06:00.002-04:00

Here's a b&w piece I just completed. I've always liked owlbears, so I thought I'd put one going up against a dwarven clan at the entrance to their dwarven citadel.

This one is pen & ink (with ink wash) on 14"x 17" Bristol board. (For Sale)

Comic Book Cover...

2010-05-25T15:49:00.003-04:00

Did this for a buddy who owns a comic shop and had a contest for his customers. Their job was to pick 6 members from the Marvel Universe of who they'd like to see as an Avengers team and the winner of the contest got their team drawn on a blank gatefold cover. The guy who won actually picked Conan as a team member, which I thought was cool. More traditional RPG art to follow soon!

*Click image to make bigger!

Early pencil roughs for upcoming painting...

2010-01-16T21:39:00.003-05:00

This will be my biggest painting to date at 15"x 20". I've still got some of the ruins to work out and a couple more areas to tighten up, but after I get back from Cancun next week, I figure she'll be close to being ready for the initial paint washes.

Latest module cover....

2010-01-11T20:30:00.003-05:00

Just got done with another acrylic piece for a client's module cover. I'm still trying to figure out this whole "painting thing" but it's a fun learning process.

Happy Christmas From Three Headed Troll

2009-12-24T09:49:00.002-05:00

Neecie's Fart Collection

2009-12-18T12:39:00.026-05:00

Behold fellow bloggers the Art that fills our apartment courtesy of Denise my Gurlfriend.

I really like this oval shaped oil painting by Hyulami
it currently resides in our shitting room (sitting room).

I love this nightime sea scene, very fantasy looking (just add a Dragon)
It is a large oil painting (3 foot X 2 foot) and signed A.J Wiseman, may 1969

Nice if your Neecy (this is just a print)

This scary monstrocity is something else, I cant work out
the signature (initials are H.T in red) Denise came home
with it from a car boot sale last year. It resides in the hallway.
Sometimes I scare Denise with it by just busting into the
toilet when she's on the can and just pushing the Bulls face
through the open door, its a crazy big thing too (about 3 foot
by 2 foot).I really dig this for its whacky composition, a bull
and a bird? Denise's Art taste is definately diverse.

Denise had this Oil painting commissioned about 10 years ago.
It is painted by a local Arteest called Ann Turner....nice.

Another tasteful print. Bedroom

Speaking of Bulls, I've heard the Artist of this particular
piece is a veritable well hung bull of a man!

Actually its a print of a digital painting by myself.......

The Titanic at full steam, just off the south coast of Ireland.
Denise loves the Titanic, and anything Titanic related.
I painted this piece (albeit crappily) last year for her birthday.
Acrylics & Ink on watercolour board. I have been meaning to
do her a better rendition.

Small oil painting by a F.Murphy, I dig the limited colour palate
on this piece, the artist shows his blending skills pretty well.
I like this particular piece. I would dig seeing him paint a
fantasy scene.

Old prints by myself Denise & a Troll and a
small model of the Tiger tank I drove during the war.
(I climbed inside the Tiger II in Bovington tank museum)
My niece Rachel and her Dolphin friend Snorky nestle
in the background, the Gargoyles gaze on malignantly.

Denise likes this particular piece. It has its merits, I like
the way the background trails away and the foregound is
laid down thick in an inpasto effect with a pallet knife.
Oils again. It needs a few Otyugh's or something...

One of my favourite pieces belonging to Denise.A very small
oil painting, brilliant painting skill, very Bob Ross. I have
probably studied this piece the most.By W.Cramer....nice.

Sort of African Savannah look to this Oil painting.
Largeish (3 foot by a foot and a half) cant make the
scribbly signature out.(pauses to sip hot Chocolate)
Yes straight men do drink that particular beverage.
Presently in our bedroom above the headboard.
It may very well fall one night and squash my melon head.

Conan the Cimmerian

2009-12-14T01:17:00.002-05:00

Sahuagin Attack!

2009-12-08T11:16:00.003-05:00

Here's my latest doodle of a commission I recently got.

Sahuagins....they're like flippin' cock-a-roaches!

Completion, progress and another meowth to feed.

2009-09-26T19:15:00.012-04:00

Howdy Folks,

I've been busy trying to get some pieces together for Con on the Cob. Here is a sampling of some of my latest work. If you get a chance to pop up to Ohio to attend Con on the Cob, be sure to track down Brian and myself. We'll have art on display in the artist alley. I promise we don't bite.

I finished that Chanticleer piece. Pretty pleased with how it came out:

I also completed a Harpy, at the urging of my friend Stace, who thought it was a shame that none of my work had boobies. Enjoy!

On to the work in progress. Well, I've had a piece sitting on my easel for over a year now. It's a gessoed masonite board, 12" wide x 36" tall. Very tall and skinny. I laid down some initial background shapes in acrylic, then completed the rest in oils. You can paint oil over acrylic, just never vice versa ;)

I want the piece to be something of a sequel to my Grave Robbers (oil and kitty litter on canvas), below:

So, I got the acrylic tones in and a little bit of oil, then the poor thing sat neglected forever. I think my problem is that I'm used to working in acrylic and as a result, I'm spoiled by the quick drying time. Oils take sooooo long to dry, and I can only work for so long before everything gets muddy. Eventually, I set the painting aside to let it dry, then never get back to it.

Here's the poor painting, sitting dejectedly in my studio. It's that tall pink vagina-shaped monstrosity nestled beneath the stand-up easel in the corner.

Several weeks ago, I took it out and dabbled a bit. The idea has always been to have the Grave Robbers being confronted by a spectral, translucent detective. I made a bit of progress on the figures and the surrounding caves. Then it sat again.

Well, I finally got the notion to work on it a bit more today, with further fleshing of the Robbers (and their cat), and the initial stages of the ghost. For obvious reasons, I'll have to wait until the Robbers are fully resolved before I can add the trench-coated shoulder and raised .45 automatic of the ghostly detective. You'll be able to see the other figures through his non-corporeal shoulder.

Things started to get a little muddy, so I decided to call it a day and took a few pictures to share. However, in reviewing them, I just hated the tall skinny guy in the top hat. He looked like some half-assed Gandalf, and his posture was uninteresting and stiff.

Stepping away from the painting, indeed viewing the pics on the small screen of my iPhone, drove it home. He needed a complete do-over. So, I went back to the easel and picked up the brush in order to make him a little more crooked. No matter that his shadow would no longer match - Maybe he's got some Bram Stoker's Dracula action going on. As they say, "Kill your darlings". So, I killed him. I was instantly satisfied, as a more dynamic shape took form. The new crooked form fit well into the compositional space of the figures. For now, he's just a black shape:

Love it! So long, Gandalf!

But wait... now the shape looks like an awesome anthropomorphic crow! If I gave him a black beak that pointed toward the cat's ears, and worked on some feathers...

So, that will be the next step. Materialize the crow-man and make the tall, mismatched shadow INTO the 2nd Robber, complete with top hat, curly beard and whacked-out eyes. Those features will definitely help bring the eye up to the otherwise neglected top half of the painting.

I'll post the results as soon as they happen. For now, it's the "let it dry" game. But with Con on the Cob a mere 3 weeks away, I don't have the luxury of sitting on it this time.

Finally, I've added a new "helper" to the household. My coworkers found a poor little stray kitten and brought him to me because they know I'm a sucker. Here he is, doing routine maintenance on my WACOM tablet. Damn, is he cute or what?

"Chewy! Hand me the pixel spanner!"

Entering Acererak's Tomb

2009-09-16T12:56:00.003-04:00

Here's my latest drawing of an adventuring party just entering the deadliest D&D module ever created....the TOMB OF HORRORS. Arguably my favorite module from back in the day. Hope you enjoy....

Stirge Encounter!

2009-08-31T14:12:00.003-04:00

Here's a recent sketchbook commission that I just completed this weekend. The only stipulations by the person wanting the commission was that he wanted it to have an adventuring party and stirges in it. This is what I came up with...

L4: Demonspawn module cover...

2009-08-28T15:17:00.002-04:00

Thought I'd post one of my latest pieces. This one was my first attempt at acrylics and while I struggled a bit, it's definitely lit a fire under my butt to do some more painting in the near future.

Pipe Dreams

2009-08-14T10:06:00.004-04:00

Acrylic and ink on 6"x4" canvas. ©Jason A Braun (click to see full pic)

"Pipe Dreams" by White Ghost Shivers

I see faces, on the ceiling.
As the smoke begins to rise.
Always staring and beyond caring.
And they never close their eyes.

I hear voices, that keep me reeling.
So tender and so shrill.
Some are singing, but some are screaming.
And they bind me to their will.

Someone is choking, beneath my fingers.
And I thrill to feel his fight.
Tomorrow's grieving can be deceiving,
And it haunts me through the night.

Morning has broken, the sun has spoken,
As I stumble through the door.
To join the living, the less forgiving,
I know that I'll be back for more.

I know that I'll be back for more!

Jaybird's personal work

2009-08-13T16:50:00.003-04:00

Howdy Folks!

It's been forever since I posted, so I thought I'd drop a couple of things up here. A recent goal has been to carve out as much free time to paint as possible, and it's finally beginning to show dividends.

Up first, an Egyptian Mau Cat that's being donated to an auction benefitting the San Antonio Feral Cat Coalition. I'm not ashamed of the soft spot I've got for our feline friends. Meow! 8x10, acrylic on canvas.

Next, here's a work in progress that I like to call "Chanticleer at the Joust". This piece started life as a quick figure painting that I belted out to test some varnish before attempting to apply said varnish to a larger, commissioned piece. Better to ruin a test canvas, right? Turns out that I hated the varnish, so I'm glad I tested!

I sat down and started making random shapes to cover up the figure and the varnish. Then it was sort of a Rorschach test... what did I see in the shapes?

I turned it around and around and thought of a few ideas, but it was a co-worker who said "It looks like a rooster in knight's armor". So, I decided to push it in that direction. The runner up was a purple alien landscape. I may yet explore that idea digitally since I have a nice scan of the purple stage.

A rooster in knight's armor:

A little more brush time and I think we'll have a wrap! Thanks for reading.

Buh-GAWK!!!
Jaybird

Last Stand Against The Frost Giant Lich King

2009-08-09T15:26:00.013-04:00

Hey everyone, long time no blog. I thought I'd post my latest drawing up for the blog viewers to check out. I thought it would be fun to do a Lich encounter but have the Lich a bit different from the norm that we tend to see in gaming supplements. So, I thought a frost giant lich king would be sort of a cool take on a classic "creature." It was my first stab at a female dwarf too in any drawing that I had ever done. I was torn as to whether I wanted her to have a beard or not. In the end, a small tuft of chin hair won me over.

*Click on the small pic and she'll get all big for ya'!

Peace!

Ossuary of Horrors

2009-06-21T19:03:00.003-04:00

New first edition module I'm currently working on. This is one of the many
Player pullout art pieces to be included in the mod, as player aids.
Ossuary of Horrors plays homage to the original "Tomb of Horrors" by Gary Gygax.
It will contain all new monsters to keep the players on their toes, and be playable
by character levels 10-14. My other two fellow Troll Heads Brian "Glad" Thomas and Jason
"Jaybird" Braun will be assisting in this endeavour.

The Crawl Ghouls abode

Restoring old Photographs

2009-05-26T11:40:00.003-04:00

I got this commission lately to try and patch up a 1920's photo in pretty bad condition.
The original was cracked, badly illuminated & torn up. I decided to go for a quick repair
job in Adobe Photoshop CS (version 8) I intend to do a bit more with it, but this is as far
as I got today. When I'm happy I will obtain a couple of A4 prints on glossy paper at my
local printers.

She's a biggun!

2009-04-17T15:30:00.002-04:00

In my previous post, I mentioned an 84" x 60" semi-abstract painting that had been commissioned. The client is a brand new high-end seafood restaurant, so they'd like a painting of their building with a lot of madcap activity spilling out of it: music, people, wine, seafood, etc. All in the vein of my previous Wein & Saenger Fest posters. Naturally, I'll find a way to get Sir Winston into the piece. I'm thinking about picturing him with a fishing pole, in keeping with the nautical theme. Well, they've approved my price quote with one caveat: the size went from 84x60 on stretched canvas to 108" x 72" on gessoed board! Holy schneikies!

The good news there is that they're having their carpenters build the board to my specifications, so it will keep me from having to tackle stretching such a mammoth canvas (and from footing the bill for the materials). Initial sketches will go over to them on Monday, and once they are approved, I can get started layin' down the paint! I purchased a good quantity of paint today and can already visualize the color scheme, so I'm rarin' to go.

One problem with the increased size is that there's no way such a huge, heavy and fragile monstrosity would survive the trip up the winding stairs to my 3rd-floor apartment. So, I'll either be painting it after hours here at work or in my boss' graciously-offered pool house.

I'll post here as the job progresses. Right now it's nothing more than a pile of supplies and a whirlwind of the mind's eye!

Jaybird Update

2009-03-25T10:04:00.003-04:00

I've been quiet lately, but it's for good reason. I'm swamped with work! Now that I've settled into my new apartment and have my studio space back in working order, I'm churning away at some pretty fun projects. Most are still secret for the moment, but I'll share them here when the NDA's are lifted. It's going to be a very busy couple of weeks for me.

One interesting commission is for an 84" x 60" abstract painting to dominate one wall of a brand new restaurant. A canvas that size will about fill my entire work space, but it should be lots of fun! They want something along the lines of the whacky characters and settings I've done for a local wine and music festival:

2008

2009

In further news, I've been invited to be a special guest at the inaugural North Texas RPG Convention, June 5-7. It was really great of the guys to invite me up to Dallas, and Jess and I are really looking forward to it!

Finally, I'm in the home stretch of the Mr. Sasquatch 2009 competition. Beard photos are due April 1, so I only have a week left to push my face follicles to the MAX! I'll post here again when voting opens. I won in 2008, so I'm trying to defend my title. Here's a recent in-progress shot:

My Honda CB250rs Motorcycle Restoration.

2009-03-18T16:21:00.018-04:00

I started the ardous task of clearing out my garage yesterday.

It has been used as a bulk storage area for the past few years.

I uncovered my old Honda CB250rs motorcycle today, it had

been buried beneath boxes and bags at the back of the garage

since 2007.It was still running when I stored it away, but the

m.o.t & tax were up on it. It also had developed a rather annoying

oil leak from the drive sprocket engine seal. That job requires a

complete engine and gearbox strip to fix properly. *sigh*.I had

meant to restore the 28 year old little thumper, but had two

other bikes already on the road so really did not need it at the

time.I know the CB is a basic & old little thing, but I had fallen

for its charms years ago. They really are a great little bike,

hit 85 on a good day, handle like a dream and definately ooze

character (and oil).Anyhoo I scrapped the original registration

so need a new frame, V5 and reg. I secured one in Feburary

for £50 complete with year's m.o.t. Yesterday I degreased

the replacement frame and swingarm, in preparation

for painting tomorrow. Today had me clearing out my garage,

and uncovering my old donor bike. The fun starts tomorrow.

Degreased, sanded and painted the frame & swinging arm yesterday.

Fully stripped my donor bike, minus the engine. I could not remove the

siezed rear engine mounting bolt. (I have three skinned knuckles to

proove it). That's a moot point however, as I'm using another spare

engine I have. Little F**king Miffway lent assistance! (well sat in her

cage looking bemused, probably stoned on paint fumes?) I also took

the time to start cleaning up all the various fastners and components.

I have two other lock-ups that are crammed with bike bits, so it will

take a few days rooting to obtain the very best parts to use on this build.

I must have over three CB250rs's in bits at this stage. When the m.o.t's

and tax were up, and they needed a major stripdown, I just took them apart

for spares. Two years ago I had one "RS" that the frame around the footpegs

collapsed from corrosion.I bought it cheap for parts, but the owner lightly

tarted it up with a brush to conceal the rust. I'm using the motor from that

particular bike in this build.

Hopefully it will look like this when completed!

I'm currently about a third of the way through my build.
My time this past week has been taken up with sanding,
cleaning, degreasing and polishing. Monotonous stuff.
Today I located all the extra components I require for the
rebuild. I also cleaned and sanded the engine, and gave it
a first coat of engine lacquer. Tomorrow I should make
considerably more progress.(hopefully)

These two following images are from last Tursday and Friday.Thursday seemed to be the most productive day, as I assembled all the major components onto the waiting frame.The engine, front end,forks and wheels were installed. Friday had me installing the carb, cables, brakes, drive chain,electrics etc. Then I had a weekend break and got stuck in again on Monday.I finished the wiring and reinstalled the exhaust and another battery.The afternoon had me finally fire the old girl up after a three year hiatus in my garage.She started at the second push (I jump started it on the nice hill outside my garage).The old fuel was still fine,as I had the petrol tank full to the brim to avoid any evapouration. So Tuesday had me just going over everything,safety checks and then a 30 mile round trip blast (which is not entirely recommended on a brand new frame up rebuild, in case anything goes wrong) but she behaved perfectly.So a completed bike rebuild in a week worked out just fine I'm happy to say. And importantly it has turned put to be the cheapest rebuild I have even accomplished (about £85 all told, including the frame, V5 and M.O.T cert for £50).I still have some polishing work to do, some paint touch ups and I'm also planning to re-spray her in a month or so.I have a few spare body kits lurking about. One is a rather fetching metallic blue and black colour.But the replacement V5 lists the prior bike as being red, so I just rolled with that colour scheme.(I had the red body work lying around too)That motor is really torquey and sweet. A trip to Rykas cafe in box hill is on the cards this weekend.......they do the nicest burgers in the South West, and as many of you guys already know, its a popular bikers meeting spot.

NORSEMEN!!!

2009-02-26T00:13:00.003-05:00

All I can say is that I'm loving the new tablet. I fired this rough little doodle off tonight once I got my new toy home and revved up. I don't often work in Corel Painter, so it was an experiment in both software and tablet.

To the MOON, Alice. To the moon!

2009-02-25T10:41:00.002-05:00

Here's a quick non-RPG commission that I knocked out over the weekend. The client wanted a simple vector drawing of a kilt-wearing astronaut hoisting a mug of beer. Cheers!

In other news, I'll be picking up a fun new toy this evening. I can't wait to kick the tires a little, and hopefully I'll have some gorgeous new art to show for it!

Stay tuned as I fumble with this frightening new technology...

Aaaaand the third head finally shows up!

2009-02-19T11:19:00.007-05:00

Well, as they say...better late than never! The guys have been getting on my case (and rightly so) to get over here and add to 3HT's new blog, so I felt it my duty to oblige my fellow troll heads. It's been busy lately with tons o' art being produced from the three of us. As I reflect on the art I've produced over this last year I've seen major room for improvement on my part and have since decided to start taking a little more time on my pieces so that hopefully this head turns out a better product. We'll see if that happens. ;)

As far as art of late from my own personal drawing table, I've started another "demon" piece involving that Prince of Demons...Demogorgon! Duh-duh-duuuuuuh! This is the biggest picture I've done to date coming in at a whoppin' 17" x 22".

Here's a couple of photos taken by my cruddy digital dinosaur of a camera of early stages of the Demogorgon pic...hope you enjoy!

The Flintwork Clan

2009-02-18T15:22:00.006-05:00

Completed part three today.
Pubo climbs down the rope about 100 feet onto
a rock ledge littered with rubble. The other party members
await him there. The only way on appears to be another shaft
downwards. There is nothing of interest here save rubble, a few disturbed bats, and
bat droppings, so the party must continue downwards.

The Flintwork Clan
I have decided to catalogue the adventures of the down at heel, sundered group of petty Dwarves known as "The Flintwork Clan". Out of work since their small flint mine closed, the family has been looking for other outlets to earn a living.
So far I have worked out that the clan is called Flintwork, their flint mine has closed, they are a poor, smelly and down at heel lot, rather like petty Dwarves. Their leader is Pubo "Pumpkinhead" Flintwork (owing to his overtly large head) Then there is Gizzard, Mooji the Cat (a polymorphed Dwarf Thief), Pauli Swordbreaker, (the resident bad-ass Dwarf champion), and the two drunken "grogbreath" cousins. (one is called "Grog" the other "BBreath" or bad breath..."grogbreath" as a pair) Together they make up the fighting, adventuring and mining force of the rather small sundered Flintwork Clan. Known affectionately as the Flintwork Force! My first illo will depict the clan, and especially these principle chaacters. The second illo (which I finished today) depicts the team about to enter and survey a cave system located about two days journey from their home.

Adobe Photoshop Art Blog

2009-02-13T08:28:00.006-05:00

I have been playing around with various Photoshop Tutorials to hopefully

improve my novice digital art rendering skills. I have this great painting an eye

from scratch tutorial by wonderful digital artist called, Brian Thomas.....no no,

sorry Brian Haberlin. He is really great, he deep breathes, he coughs, he clears his throat, his infant son sings in the background, the water pump from his fish tank bubbles away as he gives away all his precious digital art wisdom. And I'm there like a sponge lapping it all up. Great guy!

Here is an older eye tutorial result above. Using his pointers, I learned that eyeballs reflect light and colour and are not white. When you depict them you strive to show reflection, wetness and the fact that it is a ball in a socket.

The one I did today is on the left. (the one with the tan)
Its a great little tutorial to improve your rendering skills. I think everyone discovers Photoshop, creates cartoon colouring for a few months, then gets tired of it any starts using Painter. Then learns more, and comes back to Adobe Photoshop again. The trick is using the smudge tool for blending. You get Painter like mixed paint effects.

The Green eyeball was given much more time and detailing.

However I was not as happy with the upper lid or shading in that particular

version. As I said, its good practice. I universally never start artwork from scratch on computer, I always draw it and scan it in. So these Tut's have forced

me to begin a small piece of work from scratch in Photoshop. Overall its good

training for me too, as well as rendering training.

Silly 3D amusing things!

2009-02-12T16:29:00.007-05:00

Messed around with a few old 3D Models I created in 3DSMAX7 today.
I've got pretty rusty with my 3D stuff as I have not done any in about 6 months.
Two Dwarven Zombies, using modified animations. And Peekatoot speaks for
himself!

2009-02-10T11:23:00.004-05:00

In all seriousness, 2009 has been off to a busy start for we fellas here at Three-Headed Troll. On top of commissions for clients such as Chaotic Henchmen Productions, Brave Halfling Publishing, Center Stage Miniatures, Pied Piper Publishing, the City of New Braunfels and Gamewick Games, we Heads have been busy honing our own skills and pushing each other to the challenge. The volume of work, both professional and personal, has been heroic. There's also a revamp of our website in the works.

Here's to hoping the momentum carries on through the rest of the year! GLAD and I should have some really great work to show for ourselves when we display at Con on the Cob in October.

2009-02-10T10:23:00.003-05:00

Bah! What else could you expect, Andy? You're on the other side of the Atlantic, effectively living in The FUUUUUUUUUUTUUUURE!

To all of our readers, this is the new incarnation of the Three-Headed Troll blog. Here the three heads will talk about life, art, adult beverages and whatever else crosses our minds. It'll be a fine place to catch news updates and maybe even preview some in-progress art.

Enjoy your stay!