J. Acone Studios

Monty: Its just a work in progress

2012-02-09T16:25:00.000-08:00

Head Studies

2012-01-30T16:04:00.001-08:00

I went and tackled a series of head studies for my justicators website. I've been scouring my players facebooks for reference like a creepy stalker. I want the characters to at least have accents, if not be portraits of the folks who play them. So here we have em.

Head Studies

Concept Art for Justicators Website

2011-12-08T18:40:00.000-08:00

So I am generating a website for my D&D group, both as a nerdy venture and a source for portfolio projects. There are few things that can get me more pumped to work then D&D. I've found that through the vivid, and silly, experiences my friends and I come up with around the table have always been a wellspring of inspiration for me.

A long long time ago (it seems), my group came up with the idea to start a new campaign where the characters would be fantasy incarnations of ourselves. Their traits and personalities would mirror our own and the class and attributes would reflect what we thought we would be in a fantasy world. The characters very names are anagrams of our own (Robert Montgomery = Monty Gombert, ect).

So with that in mind, I wanted to capture my players personalities into the very core of the design process. I started with some loose silhouettes because I believe that good character design starts with a unique silhouette that is instantly recognizable at a glance. Then I did some small quick comps with a bic pen and some printer paper. I wanted to be as accurate as possible in depicting there character's equipment and weapons. I had to reprise a couple comps after finding that I forgot what they actually had on there person.

Monty's concept has always been floating in my noggin. He's our wizard and by far the most eccentric one in the bunch. In my world, magic is a hidden and cryptic art possessed mainly by the eastern (asian) cultures. Monty was raised amongst these people and I wanted it to reflect in his design, but awkwardly. He's like a fish out of water, but doesn't notice it.

Ella was an aristocrat, and now a pariah of the upper class. She was accused of adultery and thrown from her homeland. She is seeking a new life and has to start from scratch. Now that she has joined an adventure party, she needs to hold her own in combat. I wanted to show that she is new to fighting. To suggest that she doesn't quite belong in that armor, but is becoming more and more competent as she goes along. She is also haunted by spirits which explains the pensive expression on her face.

Landissa is a ranger and as such, she is dirty, surly, and a little rough around the edges. She was raised in a remote settlement where fighting and tracking are the way of life. She's the opposite of the "idealized" female fighter, but cleans up nice once you wash all the dirt and grease off.

Reyco is an upstart paladin of the church with humble beginnings. He doesn't fit the stereotypical paladin mold, at least not completely. He's not a brash, bible thumping lunatic clad in 400lbs of plate. He instead casually reflects the morals of his religion (sometimes in spite of his church) and has some subtlety and guile to boot.

Then finally I wanted to see what they'd look like side by side in a group. I believe I have accomplished my goal of creating a compelling and unique bunch of concepts and I can't wait to roll these ideas into finished illustrations.

Book Interior for Fantasy Craft: "Soft Spot"

2010-12-12T16:47:00.000-08:00

I'm very happy to show my first published credit in the mainstream fantasy RPG realm. This illustration is featured in an expansion of Crafty Game's Fantasy Craft. The expansion book is called The Adventure Companion. The illustration is for a trait called "Soft Spot" and it features a goblin attacking a giant at the weakest point that he could reach.

Doing this piece was a ton of fun. Its so cool to be featured on the list of interior artist on a publication like this, and side by side with my buddy Paul 'Prof' Herbert. I hope to get many more interiors over the coming months. Wish me luck, and a big thanks to Art Director Patrick Kapera for the opportunity.

Cover Art for “The Adventures of D'artello: Love and War”

2010-12-05T18:36:00.000-08:00

So I've mentioned a couple times about that book cover I've been working on recently. Well its done and off to Don Previe, the author. Don is self publishing his book series and he has also won an editors choice award for the first book. I'm happy to have been apart of this project and I encourage everyone to go and pick up his book when it comes out.

Now on to the art. I've learned a ton by working on this piece. Some stuff relearned and reinforced, and a lot of new process oriented items. One in particular:

I miss being able to tap into the resources up at my school!

For those of you that don't know, I recently moved from my home in southern New Hampshire to my parents house in Northern Virginia. Well apparently a lot of the seemingly simple processes I learned to use at school are hard to get a hold of outside of the nurturing college bubble. Things like printing on my own paper. I spoke to every mainstream printing house in my area as well as some private ones and all I got was a chorus of “......uuuuuhhhs” and “eeeeerrrrrrs” and blank stares followed by “let me speak to my supervisor”.

Another service I had trouble procuring was having someone photograph the finished piece (which is an 18” x 24' oil painting). Big props to Kim Parsons at the E street Penn Camera for helping me out with that. Anyway, the point is that this piece gave me the opportunity to dig into the local resources, albeit I do miss the one stop shop that was my school.

Here is the drawing I ended up working out for the piece.

Don already had a composition in mind so I didn't have to do much thumbnailing. One mistake I had made was not doing a value comp before jumping into the paint. Not planning enough was a recurring theme I noticed at Illuxcon when I had people review my work. Most of my mistakes came down to me not doing enough planning for the complex imagery I was setting out to tackle. I just need to buckle down and really solidify an idea for an image beforehand. Granted it might take awhile, but I trust that stage will speed up over time.

Anywho, here is the painting. Let me know what you think.

I look forward to seeing it in its printed form. Good luck Don on promoting your book.

Also on a cool note, I was asked by my buddy Jeremy McHugh to join Ralph Horsley and Drew Baker in recalling our experiences at Illuxcon. If you want to hear their recollections and my ramblings, head on over to the Ninja Mountain as well as subscribe to them on iTunes. Thanks for the chat guys.

P.S. Thanks Susanne for sitting for me.

OH! Walking Dead Finale!!!

Joe Illuxcone

2010-11-21T15:58:00.000-08:00

This time last week I was steeping in a vat of awesome-ness at the third annual Illuxcon. So many brilliant folks in one room! For those of you who aren't familiar, Illuxcon is an amazing fantasy art symposium where the front-runners of the industry gather to showcase their work. Some of those artists also host round tables and lectures on various topics. I felt like I was back in school as I spent my days running back and forth to various classrooms: Todd Lockwood's lecture on Composition, Donato's lecture on Abstraction and Realism, then over to Jane Franks talk about the Art of Negotiation and Selling Artwork, and finally to Jeff Menges terrific reflection on the Golden Age of Illustration's influence on Fantasy art. These were a few of the supremely enlightening events at this shindig and I would strongly urge everyone interested in Genre Illustration to go next year.

In other news, This book cover project I've been working on has been absorbing a ton of my time and it has been teaching me a ton about technique and my overall process. The book is a fantasy/scifi blend which is totally up my alley. I have also been knocking out some comps for some self-promo work, and some portrait work as well. I was chatting with artist Rob Rey at the showcase and he brought up that he does a portrait a week. I personally love to do portraits and they are great practice, so I'm making it a goal to do the same. You can see some of my portrait work on my site, however my recent stuff will take time for me to build up the funds for photographing. I need to either get a good camera soon, or learn a way to will my images onto the internet with mind bullets.

Website and More...

2010-11-19T21:32:00.000-08:00

Things have been crazy since I moved from New England. Life in what is basically a suburb of D.C. is remarkably different. Every road has at least three lanes and every store is in a strip mall. Not to mention that the traffic is horrendous. However, the fast-paced, industrial lifestyle of this place cannot help but become apart of you. Adapt and survive and all that. Here I find myself working harder than ever on my Illustration career.

I have been working with an up-and-coming author on a book cover. I have to say that there are few things more exciting than working on a commissioned project. He has been a terrific client to work for and I urge everyone to go out and get his book when it comes out. I'll post some some updates soon. I have also been working on some RPG related projects as well as some promotional pieces. With that I suppose the real exciting news is.....

I've finally found my home on the web!

You can now see my work at joeacone.com (I know, I'm clever...)

I was able to scrounge up some money for some cheap hosting and have been playing around with Indexhibit (thanks Evan). As apart of my new career plan, I would actually like to break into the Advertising and Editorial market. So I nabbed what work I could find and posted it under the subject Institutional. This will prove to be an interesting shift in my work considering I spent most of my days at school warping my assignments to include some kind of fantastical element. This has been mainly inspired by a great discussion I had with prolific and renown artist Dave Seeley. This is a guy who has found a great balance between doing Genre and Institutional work. This way he is able to satiate his creative compulsions and his pockets. I have to say thanks for the advice Dave.

So big things on the horizon aaaaaaand I'm not really sure how to end this post. It has been a bit of a ramble. I guess I'll end with stay tuned on the blog and check out my new, very new, website. All the best.