bfowler.com

“Stranger in a Strange Land”

Bryan Fowler — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 23:37:33 +0000

Working on my portfolio a bit. Here are some process shots and the final image below.

Samurai Warrior

Bryan Fowler — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 23:52:15 +0000

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Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Bryan Fowler — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 23:06:11 +0000

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Making Magic

Bryan Fowler — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 23:05:43 +0000

I’ve been working on some Magic: The Gathering card game submissions and thought I’d share some of the initial work. Hopefully, I can find the time to finish it up and paint it.

Daveron

Bryan Fowler — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 23:56:03 +0000

If you’re a devoted follower of my blog you’ve not doubt seems some of the previous character paintings I’ve done for the “Dawn Rising” series by Michael John Grist.

Here is another.

Slave Leia and Slave Girl Oola in Jabba’s slave pit.

Bryan Fowler — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 22:02:47 +0000

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The Mighty Thor

Bryan Fowler — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 22:39:09 +0000

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Heroes Con 2011

Bryan Fowler — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 14:05:11 +0000

It’s that time of year again. The Heroes Convention in Charlotte , NC will be held from June 3rd to June 5th. I’ll be there all three days in space SP-22 in Artists Alley.

EARLY BIRD COMMISSIONS!!!

I’m also taking early bird commissions at over 50% off my usual price. Character of your choice, black and white or color! If you’d like to commission a piece drop me an email at bryanfowlerart@gmail.com. You can pick it up at the show (or I can always mail it to you if you prefer). Special only runs til June 3rd.

Centaur Tattoo

Bryan Fowler — Sun, 22 May 2011 22:58:04 +0000

Here’s an illustration for a Tattoo for a client. He’s doing a motif on the signs of the birth of his children. Here is Sagittarius.

Fantasy Football – 100lb Newborns

Bryan Fowler — Wed, 18 May 2011 22:42:19 +0000

This is a little different from most of the commercial work I do. My brother is in a hardcore fantasy football league and I help him co-manage the team. After last season (where we got ousted in the first round of the playoffs) he wanted me to come up with a logo for our team. Thus, the 100lb. newborn was born.

Mare

Bryan Fowler — Sun, 15 May 2011 22:33:43 +0000

Here is the 2nd illustration for the world of “Dawn Rising” by Michael John Grist. For more information you can check out his website at http://www.michaeljohngrist.com. For some crazy reason I thought it’d be a good idea to paint this one in oils and REALLY big. Big for me anyway. The original around 24″ x 39″.

Masters of the Universe – Beastman

Bryan Fowler — Thu, 12 May 2011 22:22:31 +0000

Here’s a little commission I did a few weeks back. The wife of a previous client emailed and wanted something special for her husband for a Christmas present. She wrapped up frame with a note saying she’d already paid me for a commission of his choice. A few days later he contacted me and had settled on Beastman from He-man and the Masters of the Universe fame.

Dwarf = fun but deadly.

Bryan Fowler — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 22:54:40 +0000

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Ravenwood Final Pencils – Step 3

Bryan Fowler — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 23:41:50 +0000

Here are the finished pencils. There are quite a few ways to get your final image onto your board. In my case my final image was around 20 x 30 inches. I don’t have a set process exactly to get my image on the paper. Sometime I freehand draw the entire thing from the composite reference image I put together. Sometime I use a grid method to transfer it. This time I used a projector. But you have to be careful. There are a huge number of pitfalls in tracing your reference. First, you can’t just trace it. The image will come out very stiff, proportions will be off, etc. I very quickly and loosing trace in the major outlines of the figures and a few key marks such as indicated facial feature or large blocks of shadows. This only takes 5 or 10 minutes and the next 5-6 hours will be spent doing the real drawing and fixing the inherent mistakes from the transfer process. Here is how the final came out.

I drew the image on a 20×30 sheet of 140 lb. drawing paper. I take the paper and mount it onto a wooden panel using water and Mat Medium. When everything is dry I’ve got a great surface to begin my oil painting. I first heard about the mounting process from Donato Giancola HERE. He explains the process much much better than I can.

Next: Oil Painting

Ravenwood Reference – Step 2

Bryan Fowler — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 23:16:46 +0000

Last post we saw my finished thumbnails and rough. Now it’s time to gather my reference. I begin by surfing the internet and going through my reference files for images that will be helpful in the illustration. Pictures of bats, bat’s wings, fur, the Walther P-38, etc. You want to make sure you especially reference anything that is any type of name brand. Ravenwood uses a Walther P-38 so I couldn’t just draw in a generic gun. These details are important and believe me, fans will pick up on this stuff in a heart beat.

After I’ve filled a folder full of images it’s time to gather some props (or build your own), find some models and schedule a photo shoot. In this case, the props were very minimal. The gun and the sword. For the gun I used my son’s Nerf dart gun. I mostly needed the way a hand would hold the gun at a certain angle. For the models my gracious brother and his wife agreed to be my subjects. Along with my props, camera and lights I went to their house for the photo shot. In this instance it didn’t matter the location since the background was completely dark.

My camera is a Nikon D80. A great camera. I make sure to not just take overall shots of my models posing. I take close-ups of anything I’ll want details for in the drawing and painting stage. I always get close-up of faces and hands. You can mess up the entire rest of an image but as long as the face and hands look good you’ll be OK. At least that’s what I was told by Dan Dos Santos.

After I’ve got all my photography shot and my references, I take it all into photoshop and digitally produce a comp that’s arranged as close as I can get to my final image. The it’s time to transfer my image to my paper.

Next: Transferring the image!

Ravenwood: Step Son of Mystery – Step 1

Bryan Fowler — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 23:08:50 +0000

I was recently commissioned to do the cover to the book “Ravenwood: Step Son of Mystery” set to come out from Airship27 Productions next month. Special thanks to Producer and Publisher Ron and Art Director Rob over at Airship27 for making it a fun and easy project to work on. Go HERE for all the details.

I began this project with a brief from Ron who had a few selections from the book that another artist had done interior pen and ink drawings for. I got to choose from those scenes in the story for the cover. The one I liked best was of our Hero discovering a human like Bat creature. I began doing thumbnails right away. Initially, my thumbnails are really, really loose. I was looking for a nice composition first and foremost. So I just start arranging shapes and letting whatever comes happen. It important at this stage not to get to tied in to something. At left is one page of many from my sketchbook of some thumbnails for this project.

After I’ve got dozens of thumbnails and I’ve explored the idea pretty well I select a few to work up to a more finished stage to send my client. I try to pick slightly different ways I could approach the cover. Some of more narrative while other may have more of a pinup or movie poster feel.

I pencil the roughs and then scan them into Photoshop to add some gray tones. Ron and Rob both loved the 3rd image and approved it with some minor changes involving facial expressions and where the characters were looking. Armed with my approved rough it was time to take some reference and pencil my final image.

Next up: Ravenwood Reference.

Dawn Rising

Bryan Fowler — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 23:00:16 +0000

I’m in the process of working on a number of illustrations for “Dawn Rising” by Michael John Grist. For more information you can check out his website at http://www.michaeljohngrist.com/2010/12/dawn-in-the-gravery/. Here is the first of many images from the world of Jabbler’s Mons.

Ravenwood: Stepson of Mystery is OUT!

Bryan Fowler — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 19:01:58 +0000

I did the cover. Here’s the press release. Will be available at Amazon and Barnes and Nobles but buy the book at http://www.gopulp.info/ to get a discount.

THE RETURN OF
RAVENWOOD!

Airship 27 Productions & Cornerstone Book Publishers bring back another classic
pulp hero from the 1930s in an all new collection of fast paced, macabre adventures of
the supernatural. Meet Ravenwood – Stepson of Mystery!

He is an orphan raised by a Tibetan mystic known only as the Nameless One. As
an Occult Detective he has no equal and is called upon by the authorities when they
are challenged by supernatural mysteries. One of the more obscure pulp characters,
Ravenwood – The Stepson of Mystery appeared as a back-up feature in the pages of
Secret Agent X magazine. There were only five Ravenwood stories ever written, all by
his creator, the prolific pulp veteran, Frederick C. Davis.

Now he returns in this brand new series of weird adventures, beginning with this volume
in which he combats Sun Koh, a lost prince of Atlantis, battles with monstrous Yetis in
Manhattan and deals with murderous ghosts and zombie assassins. Four of today’s finest
pulp storytellers Frank Schildiner, B.C. Bell, Bill Gladman and Bobby Nash offer up a
quartet of fast paced, bizarre thrillers that rekindle the excitement and wonder that were
the pulps.

With a stunning cover by Bryan Fowler and dramatic interior illustrations by Charles
Fetherolf, Ravenwood – Stepson of Mystery was designed by Rob Davis and edited by
Ron Fortier. Once again Airship 27 Productions presents pulp fans with another one-of-
kind quality pulp reading experience like no other on the market today.

AIRSHIP 27 PRODUCTIONS – Pulp fiction for a new generation!

ISBN: 1-934935-82-4
ISBN 13: 978-1-934935-82-8
Produced by Airship 27
Published by Cornerstone Book Publishers
Release date: 31 Dec. 2010
Retail Price: $24.95
Discounted at our on-line shop. (http://www.gopulp.info/)

The Lost Dungeon Elf.

Bryan Fowler — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 04:46:44 +0000

I did this oil painting for a contest on Artorder blog.

I think I’ve finally started to pull together a lot of elements in putting together an illustration. The prelim sketches, layouts, color roughs, reference. For this piece I also made the costume and sculpted the rocks. In future posts I go into more detail on some of those elements.

Sculpting is fum.

Bryan Fowler — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 23:33:02 +0000

Not as fum as chum but still very fum.

I sculpted the entire human body in college. All the bones, then the muscles. Took me half a semester in a figure drawing class I was taking. I’ve always wanted to try my hand at it again and I think it will really help with my understanding of form to improve my drawing skills. I’m a big fan of the Marvel artist, Paolo Rivera who sculpts small heads of Marvel heroes for reference.

I messed round for and hour or two with some recently purchased Sculpey last night. Here at my meager efforts.

Thought of you.

Bryan Fowler — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 23:27:41 +0000

Sometime you just see things that just really, really impress you. I loved this.

Thought of You from Ryan J Woodward on Vimeo.

Thor vs. Loki

Bryan Fowler — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 23:46:13 +0000

During the Heroes comic book convention last year I did this painting of Thor getting ready to lay the hammer down on Loki. I started it the day before the convention but finished it on the live art auction stage. These things are always a time crunch and I never got to put the amount of polish on it that I wanted. So, of course, I had to put it in Photoshop and finish it off. This is the first time I’ve gone to so far traditionally and finished digitally. This piece is probably 75-80% acrylic paint and 20-25% digital.

Spidey and WW Sketches

Bryan Fowler — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 23:50:28 +0000

Comic books will always be my first love and I drew one of my favorite characters while watching a movie over the weekend. Can’t remember the movie but drawing Spidey was loads of fun. I’ve been trying to do more of a montage type feels to some of my drawings instead of a classic pin-up. I also probably need to work with a slightly harder lead. This is a 3B and things smear a little too easy.

Not gonna mention the other stuff. There have been..uh…developments.

Inside is outside, inside is outside, inside is outside…..

Viking Warrior

Bryan Fowler — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 23:35:41 +0000

This is a piece I did for my portfolio. There are many times I’ll take a sketch from my sketchbook and turn it into a mock cover for a comic, novel or trading card. In this instance I decided to do a comic cover. My idea was to mix narrative abstract elements (the arrows and sky) with a realistic figure. I also wanted it to be really have a lot of impact so I choose a very saturated palette and really pushed the red. I also like doing images that don’t fit on the cover. What I mean is that I like to indicate and suggest the story and action but not show all of it. Here the Viking is hacking something (or someone) but it’s left up to the viewer to fill in the rest of the story.

Here are a few progress shots from my refined drawing in Photoshop to the finished digital piece. It’s all Photoshop.

I’m working on doing a drawing of the creatures that have been after me. Keep that on the down low.

The Reilly Method of Drawing.

Bryan Fowler — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 23:19:49 +0000

I’ve learned numerous different ways and techniques to draw. I keep them all in my visual toolbox to utilize when I need them. One particular technique I’ve been discovering more in depth lately is that of the great teacher and illustrator, Mr. Frank Reilly.

The “Reilly Method” of drawing is not expressly defined because Mr. Reilly never wrote any books on his method. All knowledge comes from notes taken by students attending his classes and the students themselves, many of which went on to continue his teaching methods.

The Reilly method to drawing the figure is a general system used to construct the human figure. It breaks drawing the figure down to simple ideas and rules that can easily be memorized although Reilly says this method is a way to “think” of drawing the figure and less a connect the dots method. What’s sets it apart from other methods I’ve learned is the idea of finding abstractions in the model. An example of an abstraction might be the shape of the shadows on the nose or under the lip. It’s any abstract shape or pattern that you can find. When you draw these abstractions it’s easier to get correct proportions, sizes and overall correct drawings. When you add that to good gestures and anatomy you get a very potent drawing.

What really started to enhance my figure drawings were his ideas about shading. When you’ve got all the construction layed in you separate the image into light side and dark side. Reduce everything in the shadow on one side and everything in the half tone and light into the other. Shade everything on the dark side a 50% gray with the side of your pencil or charcoal. Then you can go back and refine the values, adding darker one. It’s the idea of how he approaches the figure that is the key.

Practicing his method allows you to do very accurate and quick drawings but also opens it up so that you can have more of your artistic input into the drawing. You’ll end up doing a lot more drawing of the model and less coping it.

Below are numerous links I’ve found that showcase and talk about his methods.

http://www.dhfa.net/Artiststatement2.html

http://www.americanartarchives.com/reilly.htm

http://todaysinspiration.blogspot.com/2008/05/frank-reilly-could-teach-wooden-indian.html

http://www.blog.freshdesigner.com/2009/08/riley-method-head-drawing.html

Also, check out Fred Fixler and the Watts Atelier.