Space Park: Cosmic Canyon
Our journey through Space Park continues with one of the rockiest locations yet: The Cosmic Canyon! Rocky spires reach through the heavens as explorers brave enough to scale the cliffs are rewarded with breathtaking setting suns.
Space Park · Cosmic Canyon · Type Design by Mattox Shuler
For those who may not know, Space Park is a board game designed by Henry Audubon and the fine folks at Keymaster Games which will be launching through kickstarter soon. Players ride rockets to extraordinary realms throughout the galaxy collecting exotic crystals and badges as they set out to become the next great space explorer!
This was one of the first pieces I sketched for the project and it was a location I was very excited to tackle. I've drawn canyon scenes before but I knew this was a chance to really amp up the depth and atmosphere of the setting to bring life to this spectacular location. These kinds of settings really set the stage for adventure, a theme which is the driving force behind the game itself as well as most of my illustration work.
Now let's explore the creation process!
Thumbnail Sketches
The longer I've worked as an illustrator, the more I've come to value thumbnail sketches. Here's why: Artist's block can often come in two forms:
- Not having enough ideas or
- Having too many ideas and not being sure of which one to pursue.
Thumbnail sketches helps overcome both of these challenges by allowing the free exploration of ideas quickly without over investing in any one direction.
With Cosmic Canyon, I knew what I wanted the location to feel like, the kinds of rock formations I wanted to see, and the atmosphere I wanted to capture, but I didn't know what composition to best showcase the setting simply because there were so many fun angles to choose from. Ultimately, I opted for this composition:
Space Park · Cosmic Canyon · Thumbnail Sketches
Rendering
Once the sketch for this location was set, it was time to paint. As with the other pieces in this project, I purposefully left much of the sketch unfinished so I could explore during the painting process. This method kept the painting process interesting from start to finish as I knew the biggest decisions had already been made but there were still lots of little decisions which needed to be resolved. I started with the background and as I landed at this point, I knew things were headed in a fun direction...
Space Park · Cosmic Canyon · Background
This piece was a lot of fun to work on and I think it adds a lot of tonal variety to the overall family of illustrations for Space Park. So often when I'm asked to do a series of illustrations, there isn't a lot of variation requested in each piece. With each one of these locations having such a strong color profile for gaming purposes, it really gave me an opportunity to explore and push myself as an illustrator - and projects like that are always ones I relish.
Space Park · Cosmic Canyon · Final Illustration
Big thanks to the folks at Keymaster Games for such a great opportunity. It's been a joy seeing this project come to life and I can't wait until it launches through Kickstarter on February 6th! I'd also like to thank my agent, Deborah Wolfe and her talented staff for taking care of everything behind the scenes. It's an honor and a privilege to work with such fine individuals and I count myself blessed because of it!
Variety Magazine
Cover for Variety Magazine
This month I had the opportunity to illustrate my first cover for Variety Magazine (which also happened to be my first cover of any magazine!) with art director, Chuck Kerr. It was a quick turnaround time but I thoroughly enjoyed working with Chuck on the project and am excited to share the results with you. Big thanks to Chuck for the assignment and great art direction and to my agent, Deborah Wolfe, for her help in taking care of so many details so I can focus on illustrating.
Sketches
When I received the brief and read that I'd be illustrating a roller coaster, I was genuinely excited. There's something about vintage roller wooden roller coasters which just seemed to click with me aesthetically so I thought the pairing of style and subject matter was on point. Chuck sent me the cover template to draw on and I quickly jumped into sketches to came up with a few options, leveraging the old tracks as the main composition element.
Sketch Option 1
SKetch Option 2
Values
After reviewing the sketches, the consensus was the death defying drop of the roller coaster needed to be the most prominent aspect of the illustration. This fit with the article and overall look Variety was after so it was time to jump into digital painting.
As with my typical process, I initially worked in black and white to make sure my lighting and values were working well. This kind of linear approach is something I use so I can focus on one thing at a time and not get overwhelmed by too many things happening at once.
Cover Flats
Color Options
With the flats, lighting, and brushwork in place, it was time to move onto color. I came up with a few options which brought out various aspects of the illustration.
Color Option 1
Color Option 2
In the end, the sunset image was the winner and our cover was born! Here are a few of the detail shots to see the textures and styling that went into everything:
Spot Illustrations
This particular assignment also came with 2 spot illustrations: a shooting gallery and an exec struggling to lift a hammer for a Test of Strength game. Spot illustrations can be a lot of fun because they challenge me to focus on capturing an idea simply and effectively. These were fun for that same reason, but with the added bonus of subject material I really enjoy drawing.
Space!
Final Space Cover
This year I had an opportunity to work with a game company on a board game cover illustration with some really fun subject material: Space! Big thanks to my agent, Deborah Wolfe, for all her help with this project. A good agent like Deborah is so valuable in helping out with this business and I'm grateful to be able to work with her.
Sketches
After receiving the brief from the client, I produced a handful of sketches as I explored various layouts and points of focus. The idea was to show chunks of land in space which were being terraformed by our intrepid space explorers.
Typically with these kinds of assignments, I like to develop sketches which showcase various aspects as the focal point - whether its the lands, the ships, or the explorers themselves. After much discussion, it was decided the terraform ship would be the center of focus with the space explorer taking a less prominent position in the foreground.
Values
Once the final pencils were established, it was time to move onto painting! If you've seen these kinds of breakdowns from me before, you know that I work 100% digitally using Adobe Photoshop, and custom pressure sensitive brushes with a Wacom Cintiq. I work in black and white initially to get a better sense of my lighting and depth within the illustration as well.
For the black and white values on this piece, I really wanted to bring a lot of light into the bottom of the piece to show the terraform machine in action. This kind of lighting was fun to explore and helped enhance the overall look of the piece. It also gave me enough black at the top of the illustration to show stars and a few planets in the background.
Black and White Values
Color
With the black and white values in place, I moved onto color. For this particular illustration, lots of time was spent working with the client as we tried to find the right color palette for the piece. We ended up developing a number of palettes, all of which I enjoy for different reasons.
Color can be a tricky thing to get right, which is why I keep everything on layers and can make adjustments as needed. The nice thing is by this point, I've already developed the composition, brushwork, and lighting so it all comes down to finding the right colors to do the job.
Color Option 1
Color Option 2
Color Option 3
Color Option 4
Final Thoughts
I had a great time working on this one. With these kinds of pieces, I really enjoy layering in lots of fun details which don't instantly jump out at you until you begin to look closely. I always enjoyed seeing work like that as a kid and have tried to bring that into my illustrations as a professional - though there's still a long way to go! Here are some of the details of this particular piece:
