Monday, November 23, 2015

CHAMPION


Here is a cover I did awhile ago for the novel "Champion" by DS Brown.

It was a fun opportunity to experiment a bit with digital painting different textures for the characters faces. I also took a bit of time to sculpt a maquette of one of the alien heads.





Alternate Concept
 
Approved rough sketch

 











Friday, November 20, 2015

MARS ATTACKS LAMP!!!!


via IFTTT

Let my painting light up your life with this officially licensed TOPPS Mars Attacks
table lamp by Lamp in a Box.  Makes a terrific gift for that special someone this holiday season.
http://lampinabox.com/mars-attacks-wilkerson-cover-art?bid=2

Monday, June 29, 2015

GEMMA BARROWS COMES TO COOPERSTOWN


This is the cover for the May issue of Intergalactic Medicine Show. It's based on the issue's cover story "Gemma Barrows Comes to Cooperstown" by Jamie Todd Rubin. "Gemma" is a touching story about one of the greatest pitchers of the 25th century, a woman who made her way to baseball immortality through grit and determination. When the story opens, Gemma has already passed away so there is no detailed description of the character. This left it wide open for me to do something I rarely ever see. There was also a cool part of the story that referenced playing baseball in artificial gravity. I'm a huge Babylon 5 fan and all I kept thinking is how fun it would be to paint a baseball field on a rotating station! That excitement resulted in the design of a stadium within a Syd Mead inspired space station. SO. MUCH. FUN.
After doing a few dark moody paintings recently it was a fun change to attempt a predominantly bright yellow illustration and make the environment feel massive in scale yet not compete or distract from the focal point.  Once I knew that the figure would be a black woman it was easy at that point to make sure the background had enough color and value contrast to allow her to pop.  I also made sure most of the compositional lines all flowed into her.
I chose to add a bit of symbolism to the painting in the form of halo lighting above her head.  This alludes to the main character being deceased and also how fondly and lovingly she is remembered by all that knew her.



Rough color block in over original unfinished line art


Wednesday, June 3, 2015

MARS ATTACKS: THE GREAT ESCAPE

"THE GREAT ESCAPE"  © TOPPS
Oil on Panel 18"x24"
Available for purchase
This is one of my contributions to the new Mars Attacks: Occupation Trading Card set which continues the storyline from the Invasion set released in 2013.  The art description called for a 16th century knight, a samurai, a 1970's boxer and maybe a 1930's gangster (all alien abductees from various points in human history ) to somehow break out of their stasis pods and escape a martian base.  The focus had to be on the knight and the boxer as they fight their way out of the stronghold.





My first thought when reading the assignment was how much fun it would be to explore designing the martian base interior (or at least a hint of it) as well as painting an African American boxer from the 70's punching an alien in the face.  The boxer was made the focal point of the painting for two reasons. First, I thought it would be a nice change to see a minority figure in the foreground of a multicultural scifi painting where the humans are united against a common foe.  Secondly, the boxer is the only one of the heroes that would have ever seen a hand gun or knew that the martian's ray gun could be used against them.  I imagined they'd have to shoot their way out.  Boxing gloves and swords alone against ray guns would have left these guys vaporized pretty quick.
Early sketches reveal my desire to make the boxer look like a cross between KungFu Joe and Black Dynamite.




The characters needed to be consistent as they are in other cards in the set.  It was decided that the boxer should be barechested and have more of an Muhammad Ali/ Joe Frazier vibe instead.  Once the sketch was approved I went to work.   Thankfully I know a guy that is super muscular and agreed to model for me.  It would have been a nightmare to try and make myself look muscular or work from assorted muscle reference.  


final drawing

There are a number of tremendously talented painters working on this new set which was just successfully funded through kickstarter.  I look forward to seeing all the art when Mars Attacks: Occupation is released.

Friday, April 10, 2015

SCI FI BOOK COVER WIP

The past few months have been crazy.  I said yes to a lot of work right before my daughter was born.  I was in some kind of panic as if I would never have time to paint again after she was born. Which in hindsight was really stupid on both counts.

Here is a work in progress close up of a book cover I'm wrapping up now.  More to show next month as NDA's clear. Very excited to finally share some new concept work soon.  For now this is what I have.  Been playing with making my own custom PS brushes to mimic how I paint traditionally and fell in love with a fan brush I made.  Saved me bags of time while painting feathers.

More WIP images and maquettes made for this are over on my instagram. Please follow for future updates. Thanks!



Thursday, January 15, 2015

STORK BOT 9000


This was the baby shower invitation I made and sent out to friends and family a few months back. The Stork-bot 9000 series are hard working little delivery mechas. It brought my special bundle.

I'm hard at work on a bunch of stuff right now and have been posting more infrequently here.  If you are interested in what I'm working on at the moment you can also find me on Instagram.  You can follow along at
http://instagram.com/ericwilkersonart