Heroes of the Jade Oath

I'd like to take a little break from the Tarot cards to showcase a set of commissions I've recently worked on for Rite Publishing's Heroes of the Jade Oath. It's a Chinese fantasy setting that I was asked to illustrate in pencil, which is a slight deviation from my normal, stark black and white inking. I haven't done pencil shading since college, so it was an interesting step to take as far as remembering my skills. "White Hair of the Deadly Lotus." "Shenxue Adventurers"
"Monks of the Jade Oath""Sutra"
I have one more illustration from this batch, so look forward to seeing that in the next few weeks!

more more more ...

Been a sorta crappy past few weeks for me. Family stuff any what not ... I'll just say the next four months are going to be the longest in my life. :(
Anyways, to keep my mind off of things, I've been diligently scribbling away at my cards. I've only got 23 more to finish!! Here's a few that have been done for awhile, the next batch of three that come in line with what I've already posted here.Korgith and Astraea have one of those sappy, sorta dramatic love stories, so they fit well in the card "The Lovers."
What's more badass than a half-demonic man wielding a scythe? Nothing, as far as I'm concerned. Zane is featured on "The Chariot."Here we have Rayne, the saucy piratess, gazing off into the distance on the "Strength" card of the series.

All of the finished cards can be seen, as usual, here: http://www.mandapandarawks.com/current.html

fixed!

I'm such an idiot.

Next batch of cards

Here's a few more Tarot cards, as promised:Thesa, instructing a young, large-chinned Rufus decorates "The Empress."
My friend Joy's boyfriend, the evil Calidor looking imposing on "The Emporer."No, he's not accepting an Oscar. This is Nestor standing inside of a crappily-illustrated temple. I hate drawing backgrounds; it's my biggest weakness.

More next week! You can see them all on my website: http://www.mandapandarawks.com/current.html

Artprize!

Just so you can check it out yourself: www.artprize.org
It's an exciting time for artists in Grand Rapids! I've been working like a madwoman trying to get my nearly-decade long project finished in time to submit to this art contest, an entire set of tarot cards illustrated by me, of course, and featured characters of my own (and my husband's) design. I did a little calculating, and based on how many I have left to complete, (I've got about half of them done out of 78 total) I have to completely finish 4 every week from now until July 31, the contest deadline. That's fully inking, coloring with pencils and markers, scanning, and touching up a half of a deck. Needless to say, I'm a bit overwhelmed and burned out; I'm trying to accomplish this AND stay (barely) on top of my few unfinished commissions. But I've never been more determined in my life to get something of this magnitude finished. Even while in college, with big projects due and my grades on the line, I was never as fully invested in something as I am with this Tarot card ordeal. Perhaps it's because I care about it more than I did a self-portrait for my painting class. (Heck, who the hell wouldn't?) So far I've been able to keep up with my self-imposed pace.
My next step, which will probably be a hurried and frantic one if I manage to complete all of these cards, is to find a decent printer to actually create my images into a physical deck of cards. Any ideas, anyone out there who may actually be reading this? I'm thinking I want them over-sized, like 4x6 or 5x7, glossy, with images on the front and the back. (The back being the same design on each card) I can't wait to see them finished.
And what next? I'd like to bring the stories my husband and I have developed to life via a webcomic of some sort ... that's a mighty undertaking, but we'll see where that goes when I get there.
Anyways, I figured I'd post some of the finished cards here each week so you can see all the hard work I've done.

The one that started it all. "The Fool" is the first card of the major arcana, and my version features a melancholy Korgith gazing across the waves as he begins his search for his mute lady love, Astraea.
(A humorous side note: my friend and former co-worker Brooke developed a crush on Korgith and dubbed him "Nicholas.")


I think this is one of the better colored out of all of the cards so far. "The Magician" features The Prophet foretelling the demise of Rufus and Keldith.



Here's Astraea, and she's naked! She runs around like that lot. This card is "The High Priestess."

You can see all of my completed cards on my website if you're interested. http://www.mandapandarawks.com/current.html