MY FIRST DRAGON CON

My first Dragon Con experience was amazing. Made new friends, sold an original painting and a bunch of prints. Won 3 awards for my work during the art show awards ceremony saturday night. The competition was fierce. With so many pros all in the same room I had no expectations that I would win anything. When my name was called I was floored. I took home awards for "Best Alien", "Best Horror", and 3rd place in the overall art show. Congratulations to Matt Stawicki, Peter Mohrbacher, and Annie Stegg for their wins. Thanks to the jury and all the dragon con attendees that voted for me. After the ceremony it occurred to me that I had not won anything since honor roll in high school.

I have been working on a personal project for a few years now that I had only shown once before last year at CTN Animation Expo. I brought some of that art with me to test the waters with a much larger audience and the response was great. My little robot designs were by far the best selling item I had to offer. What started out as some quick designs done for fun now adorn the walls of many homes, schools and recreation rooms in churches. Artists can never really know what attendees will respond to and what they will ignore, so I'm happy that my offerings went over well. I also didn't come to the con with the expectation of selling anything. I mainly wanted to just share what I do and let 60,000+ people know I exist. That helped keep my spirits high throughout the show.

At Dragon Con, all the attending artists were asked to contribute a sketch to an artboard that would be auctioned off. Here I am next to Don Maitz behind me. Most of the board was all dragon art so I did my best to do a dragon too but my hand sketched a vomiting alien instead. This was a lot of fun. I made vomit sounds and giggled as I worked. I may have to turn this into a full painting. Hmmm.

During the con I was asked to sketch in or sign some sketchbooks.  This is what one guy got.  My buddy KUSH, silently longing for what it will never have.

The overall experience was inspiring. Getting the chance to share and speak with other working professionals who don't leave the studio too often was so satisfying. I'm already excited for next year and am pumped to start a bunch of new personal paintings and commissions to bring.

Special thanks to friends that convinced me to leave to house and join the art community. This has been a blast. Now on to the NEW YORK COMIC CON!!!!

CONVENTION APPEARANCES: SELF PROMOTION

2013 was a very good year for me.  This year is shaping out really well too.  I picked up a few new clients across publishing and advertising and dipped back into game design work.  
One thing I've been terrible at is self promotion and pushing my work at conventions.  I've done a few over the years in between stretches of working staff illustration jobs or being completely buried in freelance concept art work that I never left the house.  I figured " Hey I'm a full time professional artist.  Who cares if people in Prague don't know who I am?"  I think it may have also been a lack of confidence that kept me away from doing more convention art shows.  

So with that said,  I'm happy to announce Upcoming Artist Alley Convention Appearances: 
I'll be at DRAGON CON -AUG 29- SEPT 1. 
And NEW YORK COMIC CON - Oct 9- 12. 
This will be my first time exhibiting at both so I'm nervously excited. Look forward to seeing art friends and meeting new ones.   I plan to do more cons from now on, schedule permitting. I will post floor map info as I get it.

L I L I T H

"Life is a series of choices.  As it turns out, death is the same; not for the ones who are ready, they embrace their fate - move on.  For the rest of us, we linger.  After our survivors pray and throw dirt on our coffins, we're still waiting because for some of us, there's a bigger question: 'What am I now? Where do I go from here?'  We find ourselves in an eternal nowhere between human and thing.. monsters.  Some of these monsters choose to simply accept what they've become.. some don't.  Which leaves us with the most important choice: do you accept what you are or do you refuse? ..Which is the true curse?"  - Aidan Waite

This is a painting I recently completed for a group show at Last Rites Gallery in NYC. "L I L I T H" oil on panel 20"x 26". This is my second time showing my work in a New York City gallery. It was really fun to do and I'm excited to once again show my art among so many strong talents. Opening reception was March 8th and will be on display until April 12th. Special thanks to friends who made it to the opening.The piece got a great response during the reception. It was interesting to see and hear the reactions of the crowd. One patron jokingly said I should have titled the painting "Moist".   

Here's some progress shots and a few pictures from the reception on March 8th.  The progress pics were taken with my phone. I didn't properly chronicle this but if anyone out there is interested in the steps I take you can watch the alien painting video on my website. Process video

I don't like guess work or happy accidents so as usual I sculpted reference before working through the final drawing and painting.

With my drawing transferred to the panel and color/ value studies worked out, I blocked in the background and then started with the legs, working my way up. Saved the chest and face for last.  I usually like to see the whole painting come to life before nailing the face.  Most artists I know work the piece as a whole or start with the face.  When you know what you're doing you can start wherever you want.

CTN Animation Expo 2013 is coming....

This Friday I'll be attending CTN Animation Expo again but this time as an exhibitor. I'm a bit nervous to be showing a side of my portfolio that only a few agencies, children's book publishers and animation studios have ever seen. Since my passions are equally split between realist painting and animation I didn't know exactly how or where to show art that wouldn't comfortably fit on my website until I went to CTN last year. This is a sample of the prints I'll have at my table XT11 on Nov 15-17 in Burbank CA. Looking forward to visiting friends at Dreamworks, SCEA, Riot Games and The HUB. Time to test the waters and share what's been sitting on the hard drive.

Visit http://robotenvy.wordpress.com/2013/11/11/robot-artist-spotlight-eric-wilkerson/ for some of the never before see robot art I'll have to offer at CTN and a quick interview I did with the Robot Envy team.  Looking forward to a great time in Cali!  For those interested in going, visit http://www.ctnanimationexpo.com/ for details.

GOD OF ANOTHER WORLD

Oil on Panel 24"x36"

This is a recent commission for a fantasy book cover.  “God of Another World” by Chad Michael Cox is the first in a potential series of new books.  This should be in stores and online next year.

The author gave me extensive notes, character descriptions and passages of text to review.

I was given free reign to design the characters’ wardrobe based on the color palette for each person mentioned in the notes.  This turned out to be more challenging than I thought.  To switch gears from robots and space suits to ornate fantasy robes was a nice change though.  A fancy style guide packet full of prepared concept art would have been helpful.

I chose to heavily infuse cultural influences from Japan, China, Morocco, Greece, Italy and India into the overall painting just to visually ground the piece in some kind of reality for me. Starting with...

Faunride – strong Caribbean influence dressed in traditional Japanese inspired garb.

Maldinado – More of a Spaniard in appearance/ facial hair.  Basically I was inspired by Duncan Macleod from highlander dressed in ceremonial samurai armor.

Adow -  Adored with Indian gemstone jewelry, robes inspired by Roman and  Moroccan design

alternate idea

Approved digital color sketch

final line art

This was fun and I look forward to the opportunity to paint these characters again.  Up next...Dark urban fantasy.  Switching gears from scifi is a fun change of pace.  Happy to be busy doing what I love.

SFBC: ENDER'S GAME CONCEPT ART

Earlier this year I decided to revisit the design process for the Ender's Game cover I did for Science Fiction Book Club.  Since I still have 3 years worth of concept work I can't show, I wanted to work up something quick that I can. The following is basically a more thought out view of Ender's flash suit I designed for the cover. 

 Ender is basically playing laser tag in zero G. My approach treats the flash suit as more of a child sports uniform with protective padding for collisions with other teams or the battle room walls.  I'm eager to see if this approach was thought of along the concept pipeline for the film.

Since Ender seemed kinda dark and Emo, I revisited what he might look like as an adult in Speaker for the Dead.  Would he keep up with the fashions 3000 years from the events in Ender's Game?  Would he embrace various tribal rituals of those he speaks for (tattoos, piercing etc).  What if he was constantly getting into fights with people who disagreed with how he spoke for the dead. These were fun to do.

MARS ATTACKS: SAN DIEGO COMIC CON 2013

"INVASION BEGINS" Oil on Panel 13"x18"

Good News Everyone!!  Here is the first of 3 new collectible cards I painted for TOPPS revival of the Mars Attacks card series.  Here is the official press release.  “To jumpstart the release of their forthcoming revival of MARS ATTACKS trading cards this fall, The Topps Company, in conjunction with IDW Publishing, will give away an exclusive, limited edition tie-in card at San Diego Comic-Con, July 17-21.   This exciting exclusive will be distributed only at San Diego Comic-Con and will feature brand-new hand painted artwork by science fiction artist Eric Wilkerson.  

The card, entitled "Invasion Begins" will be card #0 and will include an all-new story that will kick off the upcoming Mars Attacks: Invasion card set, the first all-new story-based MARS ATTACKS card set in more than half a century, due in stores this October.  

The upcoming set will include all-new artwork by some of the industry's top talent, including Earl Norem, Joe Jusko, Greg Staples, Glen Orbik, Alex Horley, Manuel Sanjulian, Dan Brereton, Jim Nelson, Jeff Miracola and others.  The story will tie in to current and upcoming MARS ATTACKS comics from IDW.

During San Diego Comic-Con, fans will be able to pick up the exclusive #0 card at the IDW booth (#2643).  Quantities will be strictly limited and supplies are expected to go fast.”

For fans of the series, if you are not able to make it to comic con this year, I will be getting a ton of artist proofs of card #0.   Proofs, prints and original art are available. 

Seen below is the final card. The TOPPS banner for IDW booth #2643 and facebook promo banner.