A bird’s-eye painting is more like an artistic blueprint of the project. It is the painting that synthesizes all the different attractions of the land and gives a first look at the big idea. These paintings are key in the development process, as it is the first time everyone can see what the park will look like, agree on the layout, and move forward with the project. All details have to be in the painting from the very beginning, which means it can take me several weeks to paint. A project of this magnitude doesn’t happen without revisions. As the process moves forward many things can shift; whether there are budget adjustments, new technical requirements or changes in artistic direction. This requires me to work quickly, sometimes radically changing an entire section of a painting.

As I was looking at the pirate flag floating on top of the fortress, I was also in the middle of another skull and bones painting for a book cover called Shield and Crocus by Michael R Underwood. It is a fantasy story that takes place in the ancient city of Audec-Hal, build among the bones and skull of the miles-tall Titan named Audec.

I have a fascination for skeletons and especially skulls; so needless to say, I was instantly hooked. I was asked to depict a distinctive and evocative urban landscape with a sense of scale, something epic. I had a very clear idea where I wanted to go right from the start. Establishing the mood and palette came fairly quickly, while the architectural details took longer but were the most fun. This ended up being a painting that is easily listed among my favorites is going to be among my favorites.

This painting will be among many others on display at the San Diego Comic Con July 23rd to 27th at my booth #4503. I hope to see many of you there.

Film

I’ve worked on a couple of film projects in the past year that are slated to come out in the next year or so.

300: Rise of an Empire comes out this March, and I’m thrilled to see the final product. There is also an art book that launched this past Friday with some of the paintings I did.

R.I.P.D came out earlier this year, and I was asked to do one big painting of the destruction of Boston, that big establishing shot unfortunately didn’t make it in the film.

I also had the opportunity to work on The Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) and The Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015).

Book Covers

I did three new covers for Joel Shepherds Cassandra Kresnov series including 23 Years on Fire (Pyr, 2013) and Operation Shield (Pyr, 2014). The third was just completed in January and will be posted online shortly.

With Tor, I did the cover for David Edison’s The Waking Engine (2014), Anthony Huso’s The Last Page (2014), and the English translation of the Chinese The Three-Body Problem, by Liu Cixin and translated by Ken Liu (2014)

For Baen Books, I did a new cover for Anne McCaffrey’s The Death of Sleep. Finally, for Amazon I did three covers for the Mark T. Barnes Trilogy The Echoes of Empire: The Garden of Stones (2013), The Obsidian Heart (2013) , and The Pillars of Sand (2014).

Games

I’m happy to announce that Obduction exceeded their Kickstarter campaign and I can’t wait to start on the project. Stay tuned for updates throughout the process.

Other

I started 2013 with two paintings in the January edition of National Geographic on an article on the future of space exploration. Later, I was able to do a cover for Popular Science.

I’ve been busy with Acme Archives, with 7 new paintings from Nautilus to Peter Pan, and two new Winnie the Pooh paintings. Each of them are so much fun for me to do, and I’m looking forward to doing more!

I’ve also been fortunate to be a guest as several different conferences and events in 2013, including running Artist’s Alley at Industry Giants in Dallas, and being the Guest of Honor at the Luca Comic Festival.

I also was a speaker at Icarus Inter-Stellar Project. It was a great experience, as I’ve never had an opportunity to speak to scientists about my work.

2013 was a busy and successful year, and I’m looking forward to yet another great year!

If you use the digital edition of National Geographic for your iPad or Kindle, there is an accompanying audio interview of me discussing the process of the two paintings.

Enjoy, and Happy New Year! Hope everyone had a great holiday with friends and family.

You can begin pre-ordering your limited edition copy, that comes with a 9×12″ signed and numbered exclusive print, and an 8 x 11″ original ink sketch.

Only 100 available worldwide! For more information and pre-order, visit the shop.