Sketches from APE 2011 and Breda, Netherlands

 
Here are a few commission sketches from some of this year's shows I have been a guest at.

The left drawing is a Costume sketch of Princess Amidala/ Padme.

The second is of a Japanese girl who got cancer because of the radiation from the Hiroshima bomb.  She was 2 years old when the bomb went off, and died at age 12.  She tried to fold 1000 cranes before she died, so she could recieve a wish, as the crane folding legend goes. She was not able to do so before she died.  She has become a legend in Japan and there are several statues in her honor. 

The third sketch is for someone who requested a "Bond Girl" or secret agent type! 

I hope to post more sketches soon, as I get time to resize the scans and color correct them...

Commissions list for CTN-X pickup already almost full!

Wow!  since posting the pages for commissions yesterday, I have almost filled up my commissons list for CTN already.  There are 4 spots left, more or less, depending on what type of commissions people ask me for.  The BW ones are a little quicker of course than the color sketches.   

Thank you to those who have commissioned drawings already, and if you haven't yet, and want a drawing, please be quick before all the spaces fill up!  

NOTE:  YOUR $10 SHIPPING WILL BE REFUNDED IF YOU PICK THE ART UP AT CTN!

-Craig

Originals and Commissions

CTN Commission $100I've added two new sections to my website!  Now you can buy my originals and commission me for sketches throughout the whole year, not just at conventions. 

I'll be updating my originals for sale often, so check back or email me if you're looking for something in particular. 

And if you're from out of town and heading to CTN this year, I'd be more than happy to do a comission for you now so you can pick it up then. 

More coming soon!

Appearance at APE Expo San Francisco! Oct 1-2

The Art of Craig Elliott cover variant

I will be Joining Art book publisher Flesk Publications exhibiting at APE (Alternative Press Expo) on October 1-2 at the Concourse Exhibition Center in San Francisco, booth number 212 and 213B, next to our friends at Stuart Ng Books. Stop by and say hi if you you live in the area or are visting!  This is my first time exhibiting at the APE show and it will be a real adventure- a whole different crowd from Comicon and Wondercon (put on by the same company as APE)   See you there!

Flesk will have copies of their entire line of books including exclusive titles, Flesk Prime, showcasing the art of Craig Elliott, Gary Gianni, Petar Meseldıija, Mark Schultz and William Stout, and the signed chapbooks Mysterious Islands by Gary Gianni, Mark Schultz: Blue Book, and the 16-page teaser for the upcoming Naughty and Nice: The Good Girl Art of Bruce Timm. Also available will be recently released titles Al Williamson Archives volume two and Mark Schultz: Various Drawings volume five. Craig Elliott will be at the booth for the duration of the show, promoting his upcoming Flesk collection, The Art of Craig Elliott. The book focuses on Craig‚s fine art celebrating the female form, collected in a single volume for the first time. Craig‚s lush imagery combines his meticulous understanding of design with his intensely emotional approach to color and form. Elliott works in the Save & Closeanimation industry as a visual development artist, character designer and concept artist, collaborating on such hit films as Bee Movie, Treasure Planet, Rio and The Princess and the Frog. Craig will have original art, prints and jewelry on hand. Free fliers and catalogues will be available for all 2011 Flesk Offerings. Publisher, John Flesk, will be in attendance to offer insight into our upcoming titles and what is in store in the future. We look forward to seeing you at the show! Flesk Publications' focus is on comic, fantasy, fine and illustration art, and graphic novels. Our goal is to continue promoting the arts through quality collections. Our publications showcase the talents of James Bama, Craig Elliott, Gary Gianni, Petar Meseldıija, Steve Rude, Mark Schultz, Jim Silke, William Stout, Bruce Timm, Al Williamson, and more. Full details and sample pages for these books and for all Flesk Publications titles, plus the most recent news can be found at fleskpublications.com. Additional information can be read on publisher John Fleskes‚ blog at fleskpublications.com/blog.

Motivarti - first set of classes closing today!

I wanted to make other artists out there interested in animation and in improving their skills that the new group Motivarti has put together some amazing classes you should look into.  One is with Kathy Altieri, a colleague of mine from Disney and Dreamworks, and is currently a Production designer at Dreamworks.  

Kathy has so much valuable experience and such a great weath of skills.  Don't miss out on this class!  It closes tonight for registration so RUN, don't walk!  People pay big bucks just to come and hear Kathy talk at an event for a brief few minutes- you can have hours of learning time with her!   

Motivarti is also offering another group of great classes that will fill up fast I am sure.  Sign up before they are closed as well! 

Illustration Art blog post

David Apatoff, who runs a wonderful blog called "Illustration Art"  has done a quite nice post on myself- Jump over to his blog and check it out, along with the many other great posts he puts together.  The articles are all very informative and down to earth in nature.  Just the kind of place I'm proud to show up!  

The post on me was part of a short series he did on 5 artists he felt worth posting about from Comic-Con 2011. My friend and colleague from Dreamworks, Nathan Fowkes was another one of his choices- check tham all out!  

 

An evening with Flesk Prime event and limited print!

In addition to my appearance with  Gary Gianni, Petar Meseldzija, Mark Schultz and William Stout at the Breda Strip Festival in the Netherlands next month, there will also be a special dinner where you can get some one on one time with the artists.  The dinner is strictly limited to 15 guests to allow everyone the time and opportunity to speak with all of us.  

All attendees will receive a free copy of a special limited edition Giclée print signed by all the artists as well-  

Those interested in participating can contact evening organizer Mark Thelosen for pricing and availability at hoffmansmark@yahoo.com

For more information on the evening and the inspiration behind it visit John Fleskes blog post about the event.

European appearance -2011

If you are in Europe, or will be travelling there, and want to catch me and have an opportunity to invest in some prints or original art, I will be travelling this year to the Netherlands in September to exhibit with Flesk Publications booth at the Breda Strip Festival from September 9th to the 12th.  I will be there with Gary Gianni, Bill Stout, Mark Schultz and Petar Meseldzija in support of the Flesk Prime book which features all 5 of us.  I think this will be the ONLY time all 5 of us will be in 1 place with this book, so it should be a pretty special occasion!  

For those of you who have not heard of the book here is a link to it on the Flesk Publishing Site:

Breda is in the southern part of the Netherlands, so is quite accessable from many European countries. 

I will also be visiting Belgium, Paris and London before leaving Europe, so if you would like to meet for a meal or hang out in a museum, let me know!   I'll be doing lots of eating and museum going while there!  

Comic-Con San Diego 2011- Booth# 4713

I will be in he same area of the convention floor again this year– Among the Fantasy Illustrators on the Left side of the hall. Booth number 4713!   There will be a selection of new prints, more jewelry, and books and a large portfolio of original work. 

 

Another major new item available will be the Flesk Prime book will be available at comicon from Flesk publishing a few asiles over form me.  I will have a preview copy for everyone to look at.  Flesk will also have some preview pages of my upcoming art book "The Art of Craig Elliott", with an introduction by Iain McCaig.

Another exciting new item at comicon will be a limited run of hand silkscreened moleskine sketchbooks.   This one is especially for my other artist fans out there!  These books are in very limited quantities, so come by quick if you want to pick one up!  

Tori Davis, A fellow film designer in the animation industry will aslo be showing with me, so be sure to check out her work too!  

See you there!  

-Craig Elliott

Warcraft painting- Lady Sylvanas

Another recent World of Warcraft trading card game painting from the icecrown citaldel raid pack is of Lady Sylvanas.  I actually don't know if it is possible to fire 3 arrows at once, but I tried to make it look convincing.  She does have red eyes and blue skin, and that is not entirely real either... 

Lady Sylvanas

My sketches for this painting were a little more developed than I usually do, and I like some of the other ideas enough to paint them as well some day.  The focus of this painting centers around the action of shooting arrows, so most of them attempt to emphasize this.  I think I enjoy action more than I realized before I had done this painting, and hopefully will do more in future! 

Warcraft painting- Blood Queen

I have been doing a series of paintings for Blizzard's World of Warcraft trading card game. A new set called "Icecrown Citadel" has just been released so I can show the images of the cards!   The first painting is of "Blood Queen Lana-thel"  She is a giant vampire queen in the game-  they also have used my painting as the main image for her on the online wiki- lucky me!  

http://www.wowpedia.org/Blood-Queen_Lana'thel

Prints of the painting will also be available at Comicon this year! 

Blood Queen Lana'thel

Below are the sketches for possible compositions (left image).  After Blizzard chose a sketch, more detailed sketches of the chosen figure for the painting were done.  I try to work out the anatomy and face of the figure in enough detail before hand so I am not slowed down with trying to work out the details when I am painting.  

Wondercon 2011

Come by and visit me this year at booth #723! I'll have many new items, prints jewelry, cards and books- I will be taking commissions again this year-  come by early to get on the list - it filled up in the first hour last year!  

If you are an art student in San Francisco, I will also be with John Fleskes at the Flesk Publishing table Thursday night before the con in the Academy of Art at their Comics Symposium night.  

I hope to see you there! 

Travelling Burlesque show

La Gallery in Montreal has put on a show with my Music pinup painting!  The show will be a travellingone moving from Montreal the La Gallery Paris, La Gallery New York, and then Tokyo.  I may visit the show at some of the other locations, stay tuned for that!  Meanwhile have a look at the great art in the show- My favorites are Cassgrain, Vatine, Maly Siri and Carlos Nine!  

Show Blog:
http://pinup-lagallery.blogspot.com/

Gallery Website:
http://www.lagmontreal.com/

Flesk Publishing Blog!

John Fleskes of Flesk Publications came to visit me last weekend and has posted a little treatment of some of our recent adventures at the Gallery Nucleus show and elsewhere. Check out the post and his wonderful art books! 

JOHN FLESKES BLOG

Final "Music" pinup painting!

Here is the final painting that will be in the Gallery Nucleus "Poster Peepshow" group exhibition.  Come by Feb 5th at 7pm and see this and all the other work, and pick up some free cheesecake or do some life drawing with the Sucide Girls!  

See you there!  

CLICK FOR DIRECTIONS

Middle steps in "Music Pinup" painting

Here, the first shot shows the dark and light sides of the figure blocked in, as well as starting to add flat areas of color in the hair and stockings.  The background color and pattern is also finished here, and the drawing corrected a bit with the cream color as I filled it in.   

The second image shows an adjusted and darkened skin tone as well as all of the basic colors in the center of the picture blocked in. next I'll move to block in the border colors and then go back into the center panel and make all the finishing touches.  

"Music" Pinup painting beginning stages

In the first image is a color sketch I have done on top of the drawing from the last post- I just scan the drawing and paint over in photoshop until I get the colors I am looking for. You need a good printer to use this technique for traditional painting. This is because the printout has to be exactly the same as the sketch on the monitor, or it is of no use.

Here I have transferred the drawing to my painting surface. I am painting on Rives BFK paper that has been gessoed white, and then a wash of brown oil has been applied and allowed to dry. I do the drawing in hard colored pencil, and then start to block in the shadows with oil.  

Gallery Nucleus Presents: Poster Peepshow: The Art of the Pin up

I'll be in this show along with many other amazing artists!  Olivia, Dean Yeagle, Bill Presing and Robh Ruppel to name a few. I would go even if I wasn't in the show.  

I'll be posting some stages of the creation the painting for this show. keep your eyes peeled. Here is a sketch to start you off:

Gallery Nucleus Presents:
Poster Peepshow: The Art of the Pin up

February 05, 2011 – February 28, 2011
Opening Reception: February 05, 2011(7 pm - 11 pm)

Alhambra, CA – The pin up girl is sweet, yet equally a seductress, flirty as well as sexy, naïve but secretly naughty.
She embodies sensuality, youth, fun, and pleasure. Men and women alike have admired her for nearly 100 years. The
pin up girl could be found on the covers and centerfolds of thousands of magazines, calendars, ad campaigns,
and even decorated WWII war crafts; thereby, pin up art has become an integral part of Americana.
“Poster Peepshow” celebrates the pin up girl by featuring original artwork by contemporary artists and
pays homage to pin up masters such as George Petty, Gil Elvgren, and Alberto Vargas. Over the past decade it has
become impossible to ignore the growing popularity to recapture the nostalgia of pin up glamour. We are pleased to
contribute to the culture’s growing appreciation through this exhibition. 

FEATURED ARTISTS
Nathan Cabrera
Marcelo Dadolce
Olivia De Berardinis
Craig Elliott
Jenny Gase-Baker
Keron Grant
Shane Glines
Oren Haskins
Lawrence Noble
Ryuichi Ogino
Bill Pressing
Rockin’ Jelly Bean
Robh Ruppel
Marguerite Sauvage
Jim Silke
Stuntkid
Francis Vallejo
Barnaby Ward
Dean Yeagle

CLASSIC PIN UP ARTISTS
Rolf Armstrong
Al Buell
Art Frahm
Al Moore
K.O. Munson 

HIGHLIGHTS
Olivia De Berardinis Book Signing: 6pm- 7pm
Free Live Figure Drawing featuring the Suicide Girls

SPECIAL GUESTS
Lenora Claire
Julie Newmar 

SPONSORED BY
Grapefruit Moon Gallery
Suicide Girls
Sort This Out Cellars 

For more information, please see:
http://www.gallerynucleus.com/gallery/exhibition/263

Contact: info@gallerynucleus.com and jasmine@gallerynucleus.com

One more....

This drawing was probably the most fun- after hoofing it around the Louvre for the second day, I walked through the Tuileries gardens that are at one end of the Louvre complex.  There amongst mazes of foliage and trees are some amazing sculptures.  These are by Aristide Maillol one of my favorite sculptors. there is a beautiful Gaston Lachaise and many more.  there are something like 10 - 13 Maillol bronzes around the Tuileries.  The day I was there it was raining, so I sat on a ripped out page of my sketchbook, under my umbrella and sketched the bronze you see. There were kids playing on her and tourist posing with her the whole time too! The rain got on the paper from time to time but didn't seem to affect the dried watercolor washes I had on the paper!  

The photo was actually taken by turning 90 degrees to the right of where I was drawing.  It is of another Maillol and the Eiffel tower!  Gotta love Paris. 

Manet and Gerome from the Musee' D'Orsay

Here are a few more drawings from the Musee D'Orsay and the Gerome show that was there.  The left piece is of course Manet's "Olympia".  It was such an honor to draw from the REAL painting after having seen it so many times in books and on posters.  

The on the right drawing the female figure was drawn from a sculpture in the restaurant at the museum, which has AMAZING food!  The museum curator was there having lunch or something and watched me without me knowing it.  he leaned over at one point and said that he has seen thousands of people drawing at the museum, but he'd never seen someone who drew so fast and so well!  What a great complement, I just about floated home after that!   

The right drawing on the same page is a sketch of one of Gerome's beautiful marble sculptures, many of which were actually a combination of gold marble, ivory bronze and other precious materials.  who knew!?