Spellcasters by Perna Studios - My Contribution

Last year I got a huge surprise by being invited to participate on sketch cards for Perna Studios.  Tony and Elaine were launching a new series of cards focused on magic users titled "Spellcasters".  The cards just shipped yesterday so we've been cleared to display our work on the set.  I did 20 cards in total and hopefully will be invited to work on future sets for them.  :)

Non-Sport Update Magazine highlighted!

Wow!  Don't know where to even begin on this one but just got news today that one of my cards was used as a sample for upcoming cards in 2013 in the Non-Sport Update Magazine.  This is on the page where they're talking about what else is coming this year, and mine is up on the upper-left corner of the title page for the article.  :)

The Perna's have been outstanding to work with and I'm thrilled that they thought one of my cards was high quality enough that they'd use it as promotional material. While I'm sure it doesn't "mean" anything - I do think it shows that I'm continuing to make good progress and growth as an artist which is my main goal.

Marvels Bronze Age Trading Cards

Hey folks, know I haven't posted here nearly as often as I need to - and an early New Year Resolution for me will be do to just that and make this blog more active with works in progress, etc...

SO, that said, here's a link to my recently completed work for Rittenhouse Archive - Marvels Bronze Age trading cards.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.4465129984427.2165715.1175098323&type=3

This SHOULD take you to my Facebook album of all the cards.

I completed 100 sketch cards for the set, all done with Copic multiliners and Copic Sketch markers.  Here and there also is a little acrylic and gouache paint for highlights.

The set came out on Wed, Dec 5 and there are a couple of places you can probably find some of my cards. eBay is probably the easiest but not many of mine are up there yet from this set.  I'm hoping that means that most folks who pulled one of my cards wants to keep it vs. sell it, but I did see a couple of mine get snatched up RIGHT at the stroke of midnight and that was encouraging. :)

Well, back to the real 'job' and then to work on the Spellcasters set for Perna Studios :)

Honored and Surprised

Well, this week I got quite the surprise as several folks sent me Facebook messages trying to draw my attention to a post by a pastor and author in Denver.  Nadia Bolz-Weber is a pastor in Denver and has published several books related to theology and the church in the post-modern age.  It turns out Nadia was trying to track down the original artist for this picture:

This was something I had done over a year ago in response to a Facebook conversation with Nadia that my wife was involved in where some folks had criticized her for being a female pastor.  (I won't even get started on that).  In their criticism, they referred to her as a "Pastrix" which she thought was both very funny, as well as mused openly what that would "look like".  So, when I heard that I decided to put together something quickly just for fun.  I sent it to her, we had a laugh and that was the last I thought of it.

Well, this past week I found out she and her publisher were both trying to track me down because they wanted to use that artwork to represent Nadia as her author profile on their website.  I was extremely surprised but also quite honored that they would want to use this quick sketch in that way.

Thank you both to Nadia and Jericho books for contacting me and using my art to represent Nadia.

Link to my DeviantArt page
http://jedidad.deviantart.com/#/d5iwwby

Commissions Closed For Now

Hard for me to believe I'm even posting this up, but in order to concentrate on the card set I'm working on right now, I'm having to temporarily close requests for commissions.  I'm putting much more detail in these cards than I have in prior sets and while I'm very happy with the results so far, it's slowed my work down some and the last thing I want to do is 'rush' a commission.

That said - I've had a few folks ask me about commissions lately, and artist proof cards from the Marvel's Greatest Heroes set that came out in Feb.  I do have a couple of AP's left, and I'll let folks know when I'm ready to open those up for commissions, and if all goes well,  in Dec, I'll get some more AP cards from the Bronze Age set that comes out then. 

Meanwhile again, I'm not taking on any more official commissions for a little while here until I can get "caught up" on my schedule and feel comfortable that I'm not going to have any concerns about deadlines, etc...

Recently completed commissions

Haven't posted here in a while, and that's primarily because I can't show any of the work I'm doing until it gets formal approval.  BUT, I did get approval yesterday on an Artist Proof commission I completed last month and I also just completed a Personal Sketch Card (PSC) commission for a friend SO, that said, here they are.  :)

 Completed Artist Proof commission from the Marvel's Greatest Heroes trading card set distributed by Rittenhouse Archives.

Completed with Copic multiliners and markers
Final size:  4x5

Completed Nightwing Personal Sketch Card (PSC) commission.

Completed on Bristol stock with Copic multiliners and markers
Final size: 2.5 x 3.5

Break Time Is Over...

It's been a great couple of weeks here where I was able to finish up work on a set of sketch cards, go on vacation with the family, then have an absolute blast at Heroes Con the following weekend, and then a couple more weeks of just downtime.  BUT, a package arrived for me this afternoon so my evenings and weekends just got busy again!  Yay! 

At this point all I'm able to say is that I'm working on another set of sketch cards for an as-yet unannounced trading card set that will come out next year.  But it's still very much following my passion and dream of drawing 'professionally' (which still sounds strange for me to say / type), so as I can provide more details I will.

For now - here's the only teaser I can give.  :)