WHERE DID I GO?

SO...after that first Star Wars gig, Star Wars Galactic Files Series 2, for Topps I continued on taking baby steps into the world of sketch cards, following up with my next assignment on Mars Attacks: Invasion. I was pretty stoked because I loved the idea of being able to contribute to a new concept adding to the amazing original series released back in the '60s. New bugs, mutants and Martians!

Mars Attacks: Invasion

After that I was fortunate to be asked back for a new set of Star Wars trading cards called Star Wars Illustrated: A New Hope! The set was based on the radio drama from the early '80s. As a kid I would tune in every week and listened religiously to an expanded universe I was crazy to know more about. Yeah, no tablets, phones or fancy gadgets to watch Star Wars back then cept a VCR. With the radio drama you had to imagine what it all looked like in your head! Crazy, right? While working on these I took a trip to the New York Comic Con for the second year in a row to check it out and see what it's like. One day I'll maybe make it in their artist alley so I wanted to see what I might be getting into. My hotel was coincidentally next to the Topps building and it seemed like maybe something was coming full circle with my artwork. Something...in the Force. For once I was working on a professional gig and was travelling to NYC and working on these cards in the big city! A tiny slice of my ultimate dream to live there and pursue my artwork!

Star Wars Illustrated: A New Hope

So at this point I'm rolling along and after coming back from a trip to NYCC, I decide it's time to move on from my pretty all-consuming job at the time and find something to balance out the time I was going to need to dedicate to my artwork. I took two months off at the holidays and found something a lot less involved. During my time off I reached out to other trading card companies, sending emails with samples of my cards and landed a gig with one of my favorite companies called Monsterwax. My first set was Legendary Lovecraft. While I was vaguely familiar with the works of Lovecraft I had no idea how amazing and influential his writing was until I jumped into reading it all. A great deal of modern horror sci-fi has roots in his ideas from Alien, Predator, The Thing and so much more. To see how much of the movies I have loved my whole life were influenced by Lovecraft blew me away. This dude was the real deal! Some of his descriptions are pretty crazy detailed but it was an awesome challenge trying to capture his vision in that set of sketch cards. The really cool part was that there was little visual reference or illustrations for Lovecraft stories so I had to interpret these creatures as faithfully as I could from my head. These cards have a lot of personal value to me because I did them at time when things were changing in a big way for my artwork.

Legendary Lovecraft

From Antarctica it was back to a galaxy far, far away! Star Wars Chrome Perspectives was really nifty! The cards were smaller and they were inserted into a framed card which created a really beautiful collectible! I'm a nut for monsters and aliens so I had to draw Hoover, a Swamp Snake and other obscure creatures for the set!

Star Wars Chrome Perspectives

SWCP Final Product with the frame (AP Vader in Flames)

From this point on I had some down time between card sets and decided to submit samples of my work to be considered for the Star Wars Celebration Art Show in Anaheim. But that is for another post! For this entry, I'll just say that I made it to the concept round which was really cool but I didn't make the final cut. That was an experience in itself and I learned a lot from it. Working on official Star Wars sketch cards for Topps qualified me for eligibility as you can only submit if you have done work for Lucasfilm or one of their licensees. It was a tremendous opportunity to have some really cool people see my work that just doesn't happen every day. I learned so much that I want to write about all of that separately. I've never found any real documentation of artists experiences who have the opportunity to be considered for a Celebration Art Show. So for anyone thinking about going for it one day maybe my experience will help in some way. But again, that's for another post some other day.

Back in the saddle for more sketch cards, I had two sets for Monsterwax back to back with Monsters & Maniacs followed by Dinosaur Galaxy! Monsters & Maniacs I felt really was some of my best work. I hit a stride in the middle of those cards and they might be my favorite sketch cards to date. I think my line work really pops in those! Dinosaur Galaxy was another big leap with composition as I added more backgrounds and multiple creatures. Both sets had some fun colors too!

So here we are now!

I just wrapped three new sets! One is Star Wars Illustrated: The Empire Strikes Back and the other two I have not been given the green light to show my work yet. Both are my first sets for new companies I hope will lead to many more exciting projects down the road.

Oh! I am also working on two other sets I can't say anything about yet either. One I could say is a follow up to a set I've done before and the other is such an honor to be involved with because of the history of the set. I promise it will be really cool stuff!

Then there's an awesome secret project for an online comic I have the great fortune to be involved with as well. It's a humbling experience as it's with some amazing writers and artists headed by my own personal Obi-Wan Kenobi. Yeah, can't say anything about that one either.

For more current news on what I am up to, check me out on Facebook here https://www.facebook.com/tyrantdrawnwest or for ALL of my artwork you can always see my work on Deviant Art here http://tyrant-1.deviantart.com/.

Stay tuned as I delve into the world of commissions and conventions. Woohoo!!!

Thanks for the support!