Zub Tales

Hit a strangely good stride today while drawing.

Started pounding out compositional roughs that will be interior illustrations for the Exalted book “Savant and Sorcerer”. The images are Tarot-esque, with gobs of symbolism and what-not in them. The first couple chicken scratch thumbnails took forever but as the day went on I got more confident with my gestural drawing and hit a pretty good pace. I can visualize how they’re going to come together in the final and I really want this to work out well.

Looking at how many pieces I have to do for the book before Gala and I take the drive down to Atlanta… It’s horribly intimidating, but exciting too.

In the art notes, Geoff (the Developer) wrote:
“An opportunity for artists who are into symbolism enough to understand that they need to use Exalted’s symbolism, or who are setting followers… if we have any of those (the cheerful dude from Udon strikes me as perhaps one of these people).”

So he sort of asked for me to do these pieces. I know I don’t have to, but it’s kind of a challenge and I want to meet it.

It’s easy for me to shy away from tough art assignments at Udon because I’m generally the one assigning them to people… other people. I can focus on art I like to do or subjects that interest me. I’ve given myself a few doozies, but even still.

These pics are going well. Roughed out 6 so far and want to rough out another 9 between now and tomorrow night. Even if they’re all approved, the tough part will really start… getting them all done full size and detailed.

The card game art that I feel really good about won’t be visible for many months. I want something to come out this summer that I can show people and say “I did that… and it’s pretty damn spiffy.” I have some pieces in the books that are good, but I have others that annoy me. I want these to really push my abilities. I want to get to the next plateau artistically.

I also want to spend some time with the lady before she’s gone for the summer. Aye, and that’s the rub.

Concentration.

Gotta balance these tasks against everything else and ride the keen edge between to victory. Wish me luck.

Oh yeah, Cornflake did this kick ass sketch of me while warming up today:

Jim from epic days of yore.