Start of the Working Day

I have just had a lovely start to the working day. When I checked my email I wasn't deluged with spam but rather rceeived a couple of great photos I'd like to share.

tpena19 very kindly sent me a picture of her holding the prize copy of the Bugman's Game. I was relieved to see that it made its way across the Atlantic to California without incident and very pleased to see that it is now in the possession of such a happy smiley person.



The second photo is from an art collector who recently purchased one of my Magic: the Gathering originals and was kind enough to send me this picture of the painting in situ, along with these words.

…the painting is GREAT! My wife and I framed it and hung it in the living room (it shares a wall and exact framing with Parallax Tide by Carl Crtichlow) I can’t thank you enough again…

Fair warms the cockles of the heart and certainly sets me up better than the usual strong cup of coffee :)

Ninja Mountain podcast

The latest episode of the Ninja Mountain podcast is online today. I manage to sneak in with a very brief comment after having been prompted by the robot (!) interviewer. To have a listen follow this link:

http://www.megaflowgraphics.com/NinjaMountain/NinjaMountain029.mp3

This also reminds me that I failed to mention the previous week's show:

http://www.megaflowgraphics.com/NinjaMountain/NinjaMountain028.mp3

Where I made a slightly greater contribution, and also had the great pleasure of chatting to Steve Belledin about his work.

Warforged Titan: Eberron Campaign Guide

The Eberron Campaign guide was recently released by Wizards of the Coast; - info here:
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=products/dndacc/239647200

I had the above chapter start illustration in there, a Warforged Titan battling some adventurers. I have had the chance to work on a few of these now and I have always found them very satisfying. The large format allows you to go a bit wilder than some smaller interior illustrations might.

The one drawback is the layout restrictions. The image spread across a page and a half, which means that quite a lot of the image is sucked into the gutter about a third of the way in from the left. I try to create a composition that works as whole but also with the right two thirds and the left third standing alone.

In this instance you have the female shifter on the left. She fills that left third nicely, but also acts to draw the viewer back into the focus of the composition, which is the lightning blast and warforged adventurer.

The Winner is...

...tpena19

There were 604 peanuts in the tankard and she guessed 589 making hers the closest guess.

!CONGRATULATIONS!

I would like to thank everyone who participated in the competition. I have deliberately not posted any comments or new entries since the competition started, just to keep the entry nice and 'clean', but I have very much appreciated everyone who has come to my blog and made a comment. Thanks.

I have send a note to Tpena19 and look forward to posting the game off to her in the States.