Ostensible Cat

Ok, ok, so this is a little fun with my Halloween costume that Daisey made for me this year. I really, really love this idea and am going to use it for my Halloween costume next year. Essentially I'll make this the t-shirt design and wear the mask so I continue with the death metal Turkmenian Flare-horned Markhor (a type of goat). This year Daisey made us all masks for animals with a musical motif. She was a goth sun bear, my son was a spirit of 76 punk rock caracal, and my daughter went as a new wave red panda. Here's a look at me in my costume this year: I hope you enjoy them! Daisey, the kids and I sure did have fun with them this year! Happy gaming all!

Not too long ago, Kobold Quarterly announced that they were having an artistry contest.  I'm not too sure what the status of the contest is, but I thought I'd go ahead and display the art that I submited.  As always, I'm super excited by Daisey's color work.  Can you spot all of the inspirations?

My wife and collaborator Daisey has started a fantastic new series of interviews with fellow artists of all stripes over on her blog. Her first interview is with a High School classmate who does custom car work. It is great to see the creative process through a completely different medium. Go check out the interview here . Stay tuned for future installments with some of our many artistic friends and acquaintances from around the world. It's a fascinating journey and well worth the read!

Whew, I just finished off a set of commision pieces and am about to move on to another project. After I finish doing a project, I like to go back and look through my projects to see how I've evolved over time. Looking back through my project pictures, I came across some pictures for Bear's Fifth birthday (wow, was that really two year's ago?!?!). He wanted a knight themed birthday complete with a quest. I desinged the quest and the map. At the end of the quest, I knighted the kids. It was a lot of fun and gets me itching to do some more fun maps. I actually cut the large map up into various sections, rolled them up like scrolls and they found each new piece as they fulfilled the various quest segments. Several Years ago, Daisey made me a really cool Green Man costume that I wore as the "Green Knight" to guide the kids on the quest. Here's some photos of that "project". I've got one more commission piece to finish up and then I'm goi

Yesterday I posted the color finished front cover for the Obsidian Sands of Syncrates cover. I figured I'd post the B&W original so that you can see some of the process involved and just how much of a team Daisey and I are when it comes to doing the color works. It all starts from the art direction. Everyone tends to approach this a little different, but usually it takes the shape of a verbal sketch of the cene to be depicted and a size of the overall drawing. For this particular piece, Joe Browning uses cover images that are sized 5" x 7.5". You can visit the descriptive text on Joe's blog here . Some folks are very veribose and meticulous in their verbal depictions, others are very sparse. I think Joe's strikes a nice balance in that he frames a scene but gives me a lot of leverage in using my artistic vision to visually depict the scene. Next, I'll usually pull out my sketchbook and do a rough thumbnail sketch. For this image, I roughed it o

Alright, this is the last of the Alphabetical related blog posts. It certainly was challenging to do. I know some folks are looking forward to getting back to gamer related business. I'll admit that I'm looking forward to a more freeform posting. Anyway, Daisey and I just finished some cover work for the Expeditious Retreat Press OSRIC/AD&D 1e tournament module The Obsidian Sands of Syncrates . I'm very pleased with our collaborative work. I think we make a great team in so many ways and it really shines through in our artistic collaborations. Here's a look at our latest.

If you have not been following Trey Causey's work over at From The Sorcerer's Skull , I gotta say, you're missing out on one of the freshest takes on a fantasy setting that is currently out there. Weird in a sort of crazy 1920's pulp meets seriealized sci-fi and cliff hanger movies meets lost highway Route 66 weird roadside attraction - aw hell, this thing just oozes flavor. Go check out the downloadable preview Strange Trails and read through it. Oh yeah, this is also where Daisey and I began our collaboration work so here's a piece that we worked on for Wierd adventures: Got check it out!

Alrighty, so the other day I went over to my favorite online artseller and ordered a bunch of art supplies. I ordered a a bunch of stuff to make some linoleum prints. You know, I don't think I've made any lino prints since I was in High School (damn, and that was a hell of a long time ago). I know we did quite a few found object prints for zines in my punk days but that was a bit more spontaneous and in college I did a lot of etching and lithography. So anyway, my lovely wife has volunteered to sew up some flannel dice bags and I'm going to make up a print design for the dice bags. I'm fully intending on being at GENCON this summer so I'll hand out what I bring for free. I'm also thinking of making some hand printed T-shirts and the like. I'd sell some of this stuff but unfortunately I can't use the US military mail and the Status of Forces agreement bars me from conducting business through the Italian post, so I figure making a batch of stuff up

Joe Browning of Expeditious Retreat Press just posted the latest cover art that Daisey and I did for the Latest Expeditious Retreat Press OSRIC module over at his blog . Here's the full cover: I love how this one turned out. Daisey did a great job of coloring my work. Here's the full version without the cover trade dress:

Of course it does! My wife Daisey has been incredibly supportive and understanding of all my various forms of geekery. What is the saying - behind every good man is a good woman? Well, I just wanted to say there is no one standing behind anyone here. Daisey is an equal partner in Team Bingham and quite an amazing woman in many ways. So, if you haven't already checked out her blog, go see for yourself at Creative Compulsive as well as her portfolio web site Oxeyedaisey . Oh yeah, I've been keeping her busy with colorizing some of my art. Just wwait to see the newest covers we did for Expeditious Retreat Press- she did and incredible job!

What can I say but my son Bear is an incredibly imaginitive little guy who always amazes me with the things he comes up with. Halloween is a particular favorite as it gives Daisey a chance to show off her crazy costume skills and Bear to show off his imagination. The October after we arrived in Germany, we took a trip to Bavaria and visited the town of Oberammergau . From there we visited King Ludwig II's Linderhof Palace as well as Hoenschwangau and Neuschwanstein . It was an enchanting trip to be sure and one that struck a particular chord with my then 3 1/2 year old son Bear. Bear was particularly taken with the story of the swan knights that were said to have built a castle in the area in the 12th century. Lohengrin, the Swan Knight became a particular favorite of Bear. I played some of Wagner's Operas for him and he loved them. So enchanted was he with Lohengrin, the very next Halloween, he asked his incredibly skilled mother to make him a Swan Knight costume for

As you may have noticed, my family highly thrives on creative energy. We don't watch TV or play video games so we spend much of our time reading books (to eachother), playing games and working on creative projects (and getting out and about when the weather is nice - many colds and flu as well as inclement weather have slowed us down a bit this year). At any rate, this has been a very productive winter as far as the creative scene goes. My wife Daisey has really begun to hit her strde on her blog, showing off some of her creatvie endeavors as well as family collaborations. This blog post by her really does a good job at showing off her creative side and comparing and contrasting both of our creative endeavors. We have more collaborative work coming up in the near future. I've mentioned the Kid Monster project in which I do the pencil and ink work and she does the color. I'll get my son Bear (6) and daughter Rosa (3) involved in actually coming up with the monster i

Here's the Back Cover work for the upcoming Expeditious Retreat Press Advanced Adventure Module: The Secret of Callair Hills: Read Joe Browning's blog post here . I did some preparatory scans at a couple of points during the process with the intent of making a blog post on how I do my work. Look for that soon.

I'm primarily a B&W artist so I don't get a chance to do much cover work. I can do color, but I'll admit I'm not too adept at it. However, I've been teaming up with my wife Daisey (an incredible skilled artist in her own right) to bring a bit of color to my work. I'm very excited about the results. Here's one we've done for the cover of one of the latest Advanced Adventures by Expeditious Retreat Press You can also check it out at Joe Browning's blog here. Very cool!

Busy day and not much time to post. However, my wife showed off her mad costuming skills on her blog. Take a look at the fairy costumes she has created: http://creativecompolsive.blogspot.com/2011/02/fairy-wings-and-tutu.html. . Alright, time to get back to the drawing board (and I mean that literally)!

For those of you who commented on the colored salamader art that I recently posted, I really must say that I'm in awe of my wife's artistic tallent. She is quite the artist in her own right. With a degree in costuming, she does everything from costume design to watercolor painting and photography. She recently set up her own blog, Creative Compulsive which you can check out here . I'm excited to be doing some further collaboration work with her on some upcoming projects!

It runs in the family. I came home from work and found my wife colorizin' some of my art work. I gotta tell you, I think she nailed it too. Daisey is quite the artist in her own right. You can check out her web site here: Oxeyedaisey . Look for more collaborative work in the near future! Meanwhile, I've been working on some artwork for Blair over at Planet Algol and his Jewel Throne . As well as other miscellaneous stuff. I've got to head out to Indianapolis next week for a whirlwind business trip. I'd much rather stay here in Italy and draw, but oh well.