I like seeing how art evolves, from the beginning of the thumbnail sketches all the way through the final product. I think you can literally see an artist’s though processes as they work through issues, try new things, and complete what their vision is.

In my case, it might be more like watching chaos unfold in front of you.

I created a video/slideshow of my cover art for author Brian Keene‘s novella Scratch, which was recently released by Cemetery Dance Publications. It hopefully shows the genesis from the initial thumbnail sketch through the final product, and as always let me know what you think.

Now, fair warning, the image I’m about to present is of a scene in author Brian Keene‘s recently released novella Scratch, and may contain a bit of a spoiler.

When I go to make a print of something to sell, I tend to revisit what the piece looks like.  If it’s a color piece, I usually just make sure it will print correctly and move on.  In the case of grayscale art, often I’ll look at it and see if I can enhance it with color.

Most of the time, I’ll give a grayscale piece a “duotone” effect if I think it will make it better.  Not always, but just when I think the piece will be better off with a touch of color than just the black, gray and white colors by themselves.

I only very rarely make a grayscale piece a full color work, as I approach full color work in a different way (mostly in my head). The image below, from author Brian Keene‘s recently released novella Scratch, has had a couple of additional colors added, but not the full range of colors, and I think it adds a little something to the mix.

Here’s what the initial image looks like, and in fact it’s how it was printed:

Though the image itself (called “nasty” by friend and fellow artist Kirk Alberts) is a bit of a shock, there’s also some subtlety involved.  In fact, I’ve had to point out the leg and foot in the snake’s mouth to several people.

So, in Photoshop, I duplicated this layer and, using the “Hue/Saturation” adjustment (you can do this a number of different ways), I added a sepia tone to it:

It’s actually not bad at this point, and in fact on many pieces I’ve stopped here and printed it.  But, being big into experimentation, I thought I’d try a magenta version as well.  So, duplicate the layer again and repeat:

Now, this version is.. shall we say… “girly”.

That magenta is way too strong, but if we work with the sepia and the magenta using masks and layer blending modes, we can turn it into the final piece:

By manipulating it in Photoshop, with really only a couple of colors (and black of course), we have a piece that feels far more aggressive than the grayscale one did.  This one (I think anyway) gives you a false sense that there’s really more gore here than is depicted, and strikes home the horror of the moment.

I could spend the time to color every part, to really make each individual part into a color work.  But for me, this might actually be stronger. The viewer’s mind starts filling in the gaps of color, making them often see what’s not really there.

It’s no more bloody or gory than the grayscale version, but it has a certain impact that the grayscale does not.

Opinions?

I’ve been very anxious to show everyone this, and now, upon the release of the novella, I can do just that. Below I’ve attached a number of pieces of art that I did for author Brian Keene’s book Scratch, just released from Cemetery Dance Publications.

Scratch, if you don’t follow Keene’s work (and his followers are Legion), is the story of a giant snake. One that gives our characters quite a bad time.

I have to say, working on such an in-depth and extensive project was a daunting idea at first. But working with an author like Brian, who is so open to ideas and so helpful with the ones I came up with, was just fantastic. All the fine folks at Cemetery Dance are very supportive and wonderful to work with as well, and overall this was a great experience.

Now, the art itself is spread quite thoroughly throughout the book, and while the esteemed Mr. Keene doesn’t think that the art alone gives away the story, it’s certainly a possibility.

So, fair warning. The art is chock full of spoilers.

One more time, for those Keene fans (and others) who haven’t read it:

SPOILERS!!!!

If you’d just like to see what the art looks like, please enjoy the full gallery below. Every image in Scratch is there, please let me know what you think.

If, however, you’d like a bit more “meat” with it, follow along below this (and to the next page) for comments on how I created the art, thoughts on it, and so forth.  REALLY spoiled then, and I mean it.

After this, there’s no going back, because the rest below contains

SO MANY SPOILERS!!! NOT KIDDING!!!

Without further ado, follow along to the next page for my insights.

Read the rest of the entry »

It’s definitely been an interesting couple of weeks, and to start things off here’s how last week (Sunday evening) started:

Out in Colorado here we call that, “turning on a green arrow”. Basically, we get the green turn arrow (everyone else gets red), we start turning and BLAMMO!, other party never stopped at the light.  Luckily, being on a fast road, he wasn’t going the full 65 mph that is the speed limit through there.  Only 45 or 50 mph.  Lucky us.

Now, no worries.  Other than being knocked around a bit the family and I are fine.  But it definitely wasn’t how I imagined starting my week going into KillerCon in Las Vegas. I think it also tempered by stay in Vegas some, and I hope that either I hid that well or at the very least I didn’t bore the living crap out of anyone.  Or ignore anyone.  Or both.

KillerCon (put on by the great Wrath James White and crew) turned out to be a good, smaller con.  I was able to talk to several folks I hadn’t been able to in awhile (Keene, Tomo, EvylEd, Mark, Sam, and on), quite a few folks I’d only met online before (Maurice, Bill Ollie, and so on) and quite a few new folks as well (Scotty, Erik, Jeannie, and plenty more). There were a few bumps in the road for the overall con, but for a first shot out of the cannon it turned out well.

KillerCon also held a first for me: the first time I was officially on a panel (in this case, with Allen K and John Palisano).  Now, with all the cons out there and all the people at them it’s probably not a real big deal.  Not to mention we had a light showing (I was going to tell myself that it was because it was Sunday morning at 10 am). But for me, it was a great feeling to be up on the stage and having people be genuinely interested in what I had to say.

It was really great to talk to the crowd, and get their feedback.  I also thought talking with Allen K and John Palisano was great too.  I’m always fascinated listening to how other artists (hell, any creative-types) do things, and hearing where the things I do are similar and where they are not.

Now, don’t let this picture scare you away from the internet for the rest of creation (which is 2012 anyway), but here I am (on the far right) at the panel. Make sure any children or ferrets avert their eyes, I don’t want to be responsible for blindness because of my hideous appearance.  Though I do like my Clutch shirt:

Although, since you skipped that photo in the hopes of avoiding permanent monitor damage looking at me, it is worth pointing out that my portfolio made it nicely into the picture (score!). Also, thanks to Matt Schwartz for taking the photo.

There was only one drawback to the trip.  Here’s what I saw as I was leaving Vegas:

Here, though, is today in Colorado, the day I have to drive all over the place and walk around outside:

Karma: kicking me in the willies since 1972.

This fall, one of Brian Keene’s new books, Scratch, will be coming out from Cemetery Dance Publications.  Having done the artwork for the book, I decided to do a promotional “layer-by-layer” video for YouTube.  The video is for the endpapers of the new book, both are based on a snippet of “mythological” information about the monster of the story.

The video builds the two pieces gradually, revealing each layer until they are complete.  As always, let me know what you think.

Away we go…

Addendum:

I probably should’ve put a little more information about the project in this particular post, so here it goes.

The art in the video, for Brian Keene’s Scratch, is featured in the endpapers of the book. The idea is taken from a fragment of the snake’s mythology, mentioned in the book as one of the characters is explaining the snake’s history. The art itself is the same scene from two different angles, of a devastating attack by Scratch.

As far as technique, with this art the pieces are built as individual layers digitally, gradually building layer on layer over the whole piece. Though the layers don’t necessarily pop up onscreen in the same order that I created them, they do represent well how I tend to jump around a bit on things. Doing individual pieces on separate layers does give me the advantage of changing my mind, and quietly (or even completely) altering the location of a piece to make it work better.

The trick was working the idea (and the perspective) to show the same scene interestingly from the two angles. Often something looks great from one direction, yet uninteresting from another. I spent a fair amount of time going back and forth between the two, tweaking the angles and locations to get it just right.

Just in case anyone out there wants them (I’ve had a question here and there on it), I saved a number of my art pieces as computer downloads.  They appear on my website’s navigation, and they include:

• Wallpaper: Art of Russell Dickerson
• Wallpaper: Asylum
• Wallpaper: Bloodspawn
• Wallpaper: Brian Keene’s Scratch #1
• Wallpaper: Brian Keene’s Scratch #2
• Wallpaper: Brian Keene’s Scratch #3
• Wallpaper: Ghosts
• Wallpaper: Join Us
• Wallpaper: Plastic
• Wallpaper: Surreal
• Wallpaper: Visions

Feel free to download them and use them on your computer, and your work computer, and your friend’s computer, and…

I created a few computer desktop/wallpapers from the art that I did for Brian Keene’s Scratch. Here they are below:

Download here

Download here

Download here