Purgatori

In the early days of Chaos comics I was a huge fan of one of their flagship titles, Lady Death.  One of the characters from the Lady Death was Purgatori a blood red vampire goddess with thigh-high boots and a wicked smile.  I never thought of creating an image for her until a friend of mine, a fellow Purgatori fan, recently celebrated his birthday and I wanted to give him something more than a gift certificate!  So this image is for my buddy and all of the Purgatori fans out there.

Uprising

Rolling clouds engulf the city and what rises out of the storm are the swarming wings of doom that are large enough to blot out the sun.  
A swarm of dragons over taking a city whether that city be medieval or modern has always be a visual that I've been drawn to.  Perhaps it's the idea that these majestic dragons are finally taking back the land that belongs to them that I love, or maybe it's just that dragons have the freedom to go anywhere and do anything they want.  Really, who would tell them no!  In this image I've visualized those ideas in a way that I hope conveys a sense of majesty and savagery that only dragons possess.

Published in Exposé 10

Lamin Illustration & Design is very pleased to announce that you can find our fantasy art images in the pages of  EXPOSÉ 10 available NOW!
For the last decade, Ballistic Publishing has released the Computer Graphics industry must have, digital art annual: EXPOSÉ. The latest installment of the Finest Digital Art in the Known Universe brings together a record number of inspiring works from not only the giants of the entertainment industry, but also many rising stars.  EXPOSÉ 10 is the largest EXPOSÉ to date with 288 pages, and features a record-smashing 548 images by 380 artists representing artists from every continent on Earth, making it the most diverse collection of styles and cultural influences, and a true depiction of the worldwide digital art community with Lamin Illustration & Design being showcased as one of the many proud Canadians.

Autumn

Here is an illustration that I worked on for writer Richard A. Valicek.  In this illustration the direction was to come up with a classic romantic fantasy scene.  The challenge that came with working on this image was trying to come up with a scene that is both familiar and recognizable while at the same making it seem otherworldly.  I think with the bridge design almost acting as a third character in this composition it took the scene from a forest to a fantasy.

 

 

 

Laura Secord Secondary School Presentation 2012

A few months ago I was given the opportunity to visit Laura Secord Secondary School in St. Catherines Ontario where I was asked to conduct a lecture on illustration followed by a how-to session on digital painting and illustration.  It was an amazing experience where I met a very talented and enthusiastic group of young up and coming artists under the very insightful guidance of their teacher Steve Azzopardi.  A huge thanks goes out to Steve (Mr. Azzopardi) for inviting me out and allowing me to speak to the students, Peter Romo for his accomodations and assistance, Ben for his video work and Andrew Schaefer for his beautiful photo documentation of the event.  You can take a look at some of those photos HERE and you watch a video excerpt of the presentation found HERE.  If you'd like to see more of Andrew's work you can take a look at amazing portfolio HERE.  

Dusk

I just can't escape the need to create dragons!  For a while I tried to get away from them but then I thought, why?  They're beautiful, majestic and have a rich history that crosses many borders and many cultures.  And quite simply I love them!  Here is a dragon that I drew a while ago but never got around to painting but I finally had some time!  The line illustration for this image exists in the pages of Leather Wings and can be found HERE.

Exposé 10

A few months ago I entered some of my illustrations into Ballistic Publishing's tenth anniversary of their digital art annual Exposé 10.  It's with great excitement that we're pleased to announce that three of Lamin Illustration & Design's pieces made into the very prestigious collection of the top fantasy illustrators from around the world.  The due date for the publication to hit stores has yet to be announced but we'll definitely keep you posted once it does hit the shelves.  In the meantime you'll find the pages for the book posted below.  Thank you so much for all of your support!


Here are the selected images:

Here are the selected images as they will appear in Expose 10!

Page 44.

Page 49.

Page 66.

Solara

The challenge in working on this image was giving an overall softness to the light that I have streaming in through the window.  With most of my images there are one or two light sources found, but in this image I wanted there to be an overall warmth of light washing over the character that conveys a sense of calmness and ease because today is the day that this confident young dragon woman will be presented as a new born to the counsel as heir to her families throne.  Her name is Solara our dragon queen.  

Emma

Traveling by train has always been a love of mine even though I rarely get a chance to do it.  However I still have the opportunity to live out the experience through an illustration I call Emma.  She's on her way to meet with her father in a neighbouring city and is traveling through the countryside on a steam powered train that his company developed.  
The challenge that came with working on this image was easily the lighting.  I wanted to have a soft warm light source flooding in from the window behind Emma that would be a compliment to the warmth and confidence that I felt was part of her personality.  After playing around with multiple adjustment layers and overlay layers I finally came up with something that I hope conveys the sense of warmth and confidence that I want Emma to have.

Nakoma

The scientific studies linking birds as being the descendants of dinosaurs has been well documented and debated.  Without getting into the theory behind the debate I thought it would be a cool idea to come up with a species of birds that are descendants of dragons.  

Her name is Nakoma and her feathers serve as a record of her species' history.  She is one of the remaining few that lives on in legend.  The sketch for this image can be found in the pages of Leathers Wings!

Lamin

Lunachick

Here is an image taken from a line illustration found in pages of Solstice.  She is my interpretation of a heavy metal dragon woman.  I've always been into rock and heavy metal so I'm actually surprised that it took me this long to do a rock themed illustration.  This will be the first of many music themed images that will cover different genres across the music spectrum!  Rock on!

Lamin