L4: Demonspawn module cover...

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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!