Edison Force!!!

Well, July is coming to an end, and with it will come the release of Edison Force from Hex Games!

This is probably my favorite cover to date...I guess that makes sense since it's the most recent, but I think there's more to it than that. I enjoyed the research and inspiration phase of it very much, and also the writer Ian gave me a lot of ideas to work with for what he wanted on it. So many ideas in fact, that I had to sift through them and unfortunately had to end up leaving a lot of them out.
I've been wanting to do a more in depth post talking a little bit about the way I work and develop my ideas lately. I'm not making any promises because I have a lot of other work to do to get ready for Archon, the holiday season at Fusion, and (hopefully) the Small Press Expo this fall, but I think I may put together something with this cover to kind of show it from start to finish.
The boy with the electric rifle was the first illustration that I did for this project. This is actually the second version of this drawing, as I felt that in my first go he was a little too old. The game is set in the turn of the 20th century, and revolves around a lot of electrical, steam/diesel punk technology. I felt (and I think this may have been Ian's intention) that there would be a lot of kids working for Mr. Edison's organization.
Diamond Jill and her Electric Handgun. I struggled with this one, wanting to do more of an "adventurer" design, until I realized that she really should be more subtle...like a member of the upper-class. Or at least a LADY, and not just some street urchin like the boy with the electric rifle. I imagine that she normally wouldn't use her electric handgun unless she was cornered, and that's why she's just a bit disheveled.
What game about turn of the century super-spies and mad scientists would be complete without a radio controlled monkey?

That's it for today. Until next time, take care and be good.
Your friend,
Jeffrey

What I've Been Up To This Summer

It's been a long month since I posted last... actually, it looks like it's been more like two. There's a tendency to want to either apologize for being away so long, or make grand promises and set a rigid schedule for the return. I don't think I'm going to do either of those things. Admittedly, it's hard to get back into the blogging mind frame after being away. I always want to come back with this incredible, thought provoking post. Something I haven't done before, that will inspire and amaze those of you who've managed to stick with me. Really though, the hardest part of starting again is... well... starting.

So, here we go. What I did over my summer break. Part 1 of 12. (Just kidding)

I've been super busy designing lapel pins for baseball, softball and soccer teams. What's sometimes great about that is getting a design back months later to be edited into a medal or coin. I opened one of those jobs the other day and didn't remember doing it. It's weird, saying to yourself "That's really cool! Did I design that?". For the record, I did, but maybe that's a sign that I need to trust myself more than I do. Ha-ha-ha!

Did some more work for Hex, went to hang out and play some games with them at Die-Con, and am working on more stuff for them. Needless to say, I'm still very excited about the work I do for them, and hope to be able to expand on that a little bit this fall.Title logo for Edison Force. I've been describing it at "Charlies Angles at the turn of the 20th century". Don't know how accurate that is, but there you go... I'll do a post just for this a little later, because I did 4 or five things for it.

Really Excited about Hobomancer. This is still just a work in progress, but like I said, I'm pretty excited about it.

We cleaned and reorganized the studio. I can finally get to my bookshelves again! Sorry about the horrible panorama...
There's a whole stack of drawings on my desk that I've been trying to get finished for a book I'm working on. Also a very exciting project with it's own share of new experiences and challenges. I'm nearly to the point with it where I'm starting to think about the next book... this is always a difficult place to be, because I have to keep my energy and enthusiasm up in the face of something new and shiny.

The microwave and tile back-splash are finally done. Yay! It's hard to put into words what a weight having that project done takes off my shoulders.
...and of course the kids just keep on getting bigger.