Eric Lofgren

Thanks Storn. The Erquigdlit was one of my faves as well. The linework shading works best with a tech pen, by the way Thanks Glad you liked the Dragon pic. On behalf of all the artists who worked on MMM, thanks. In my opinion, MMM is probably one of the tightest publications from Hero that I've worked on, regarding the art and it's use. An artist can't get more focused or higher quality feedback than from the buying public, Joen00b (apart from good critiques from seasoned professional artists, that is). That's my opinion on it at any rate. And thanks for your feedback

Thank you Keith. Your comments are very much appreciated All those things you mention, as you well know I'm sure, come with practise. Or "Practise, practise, practise" as an old pro on the boards here is wont to say

Thanks D-Man. I appreciate that Yes, I do take commissions. What did you have in mind?

My pleasure Monolith No problem at all. Glad you like 'em.

Agreed, Keith Anyway, here's some of my faves. I did more than I can remember, but these ones have always stood out for me: Cipactli- Blood Demon- Spiked Dragon- Erqigdlit- Here's some more links to follow to some other favorites if you wish Any and all feedback is always appreciated. links removed to free up space Thanks for looking

Apart from Storn's posted pieces (which are awesome as ever), I haven't seen anything from this book yet. And I'd love to hear what you guys thought of my contributions to MMM if you've seen it already I can post some like Storn has if need be.

Re: Until Superpowers Database Art and Content discussion. Thank you very much Eric

Storn, you are absolutely correct. And I hope I didn't come across as implying that art education wouldn't provide benefit to a lot of people. But in the context of this thread, Patriot is saying that formal schooling is not an option and as a father of two myself I completely sympathize with his situation. School and family, especially a young family are a definite no no when bills need paid and food and clothes need to be provided. Yet, an artistic drive is just that, a drive and a bugger to get rid of. Thus, we are still left with an option of improving ourselves through self study. Which, I suspect, probably provides more benefit to the dedicated student with a strong sense of direction in where they want to go, then the student ho humming his/her way through art school receiving possibly questionable advice from a "teacher". When I say I never took an art class, it means just that. I never took one single class regarding anything about art. Everything I know and I can cover a broad spectrum of disciplines, styles and mediums, I taught myself. Granted, the time frame is a bit drawn out, but it's very doable as long as the drive and a willingness to learn and observe exist. There are many pro in this field who can say the same. Three that immediately jump to mind are Berni Wrightson, who took 6 monthes of instruction after doing one of those "can you draw this pirate" tests on the back of a match book. And the Hidebrandts, who also only had about 6 months instruction formally. As I was saying A couple thoughts about inking. I think a good understanding of what arena you want to work in has a great deal to do with what tools you want to use. Comics are paramount when it comes to dynamic figure brush inking. But that's not automatically the case for traditional style inking. Where the emphasis is on accurate anatomy with dynamism given to overall layout and strong contrasts in lighting and forms. An excellent example of that is the aforementioned Mike Mignola, who blocks in his layouts and finishes with pens of varying sizes. Myself, I don't want to be thought of as stricly a comic style inker but more of an illustrator, so have taken up pens which I feel provides me with my own unique out put or style. And as Rpg's in general represent a broad cross section of styles and genres, I feel that a more diverse approach to methods is needed and is just advantageous. Hero Games, on the other hand, specializes in comic style story telling and the comic approach to the art is almost automatic, yet, I think that sometimes even here, something a little different in style is appreciated. (I will emphasize that I use the diposable pens and not the refillable technical pens. The former yield quite nicely to pressure and provide a nice varyed line where the latter are cumbersome and provide nothing in the way of dynamism.) Brushes are always an option of course and always will be. I was just looking at some old art by Alfredo Alcala, who works in a Booth/Wrightson vein and all his lines were done with a specially designed chinese calligrahy brush. And his work is mind boggling. I just don't think that a brush is the be all end all tool for all genres or styles or for all people. I feel strongly that the discipline you decide to work in is in some small way defined by your choice of inking tools and more importantly, your proficiency with it as well. So, I suppose the way I view it is that an understanding of brush dynamics is important, but doesn't cover all aspects of inking, which are all equally rewarding. Unless, of course, you want to be known as a comic inker, then learn your brush techniques and practise, practise, practise All of tha above going for two cents only Eric By the way, Nato, thank you very much for your kind words on my work. I was very pleased with the way my work turned out in Mill. City myself and I'm really looking forward to doing more (which I am )

So, too, with Mike Mignola of Hellboy fame And yes, figure drawing would help a great deal. Good call, Nato. I should have thought to include that in my post. Eric Lofgren

Here's what I do.... PAtriot, don't worry so much about schooling at this point. Get to it if you can, but it's not the end all be all. I never took any formal schooling at all when it comes to art, other than what I taught myself. Sometimes you really do know what's best if your heart is truly behind it all. Just find the resources you feel are necessary (such as you are doing in this thread) and go from there. There are hundreds of books out there that can assist you on your journey towards this. The most important being books on anatomy (but definitely include your own pursuits as in your own photography if you want), perspective, color theory and anything on layout and design. Drawimg Comics the Marvel Way, believe it or not is an excellent resource for all sapects of comic work. As is Dynamic Figure Drawing by Hogarth. Check your local art store or book store and see what they can provide. As to paper, I just use a book of Strathmore Bristol smooth paper which comes in a pad form. They also have a vellum grade for pencils, which has a bit more of a tooth to it. As most of my work is tranfered digitally, though, I'm not too concerned about paper type. You could even use printer paper if you had to, as it's just going to be scanned in and editted anyway. But, it does pay to use a heavier grade of paper for longevities sake and this Strathmore paper I buy is relatively cheap at 12 to 15 bucks Canadian a pad and you get 20 sheets of 100 lb. If the project is for your own use, though, perhaps 2 or 3 ply illustration board is more what you would need. For the record, I pretty much use just pens now. I started with a brush, but found that going with pens adds a further dimension to the look of my art that lands somewhere between comic style and straight illustration. Chris Stevens uses pens quite a bit as well. For an example of my style, just check out some of the work I did for Ninja Hero, Millenium City, CKC or The Terran Empire. You can also see a bunch of other more recent work for other companies at my website. The link is in my sig. And as for saving your images, tiff's are the format of choice for most publishers, as they carry a lot more detail with them. They also hold the detail longer, where jpg's seriously degrade after many savings. Jpg's on the other hand can smooth out an image to give it a more rich and appealing appearance, but at a large loss of pixels. What I do is make a final 300 dpi tiff copy that goes to the publisher and for my own records, a high res 200 or 300 dpi jpg for proofing (sometimes) and a low res 72 dpi jpg for display purposes only on a forum or web gallery or my web site, etc. Hope all that helps a little and stick with it, whatever you do. Eric Lofgren

I heartily agree, Storn There should be some awesome work available for this one and I hope I can get in on it as well. Eric Lofgren

Hey folks Just thought I'd chime in and say how much I enjoyed working on this book. Overall, it turned out very impressive. Initially, my personal fave was Ninja Hero, but now after seeing this one, it makes it tough to decide. Of course, this decision will surely change again, so I'd best be prepared Anyway, I look forward to any oppurtunity to do more for Hero Games. They are a great company to work for and they have a pretty cool audience Eric Lofgren