My Artwork


Here's a picture I drew of my character Rodrusco "Dru" Wellesley for my
buddy's Dungeons & Dragons campaign. He's a paladin of the goddess of love.
Doing all the gold with coloring pencils was a new experience for me and
a lot of fun. I also thought the horse turned out rather well.

Original drawing for The Orb of Winter cover. As you can see, it
features a lot more. The City of Zanda is in the distance with my
interpretation of the Librarium Apocalypto and the green glow at
its base visible beyond the buildings.
Detail of Talen's face. I loved the way his eyes turned out. Click to EMBIGGEN.
This is Talen from my story Black Dragon Rising. He's the boyfriend of Kian (pictured
below). This comes from a scene in that story. They are in an ancient Valion knight
keep that's deserted for some reason and are getting ready for bed. That's why he's
taking off his armor. I did the painting using acrylics and coloring pencil on cold-press
illustration board. Then I prettied it up in photoshop. I'm especially proud of Talen's face.
Also, the Black Dragon assassin tattoo turned out pretty good.  Click to EMBIGGEN.
Engineering sketch of the killsuit Talen and Kian wear in The Nightshade's Apprentice.
Click to Embiggen. Final version I use on the sequel, Assassin of the Silver Rose may differ.
This is the cover for my story, "The Nightshade's Apprentice," which is
book one in the duology "Sword of Rogues."
Jordan from "Oculus." I think this picture turned out really well aside from
my reluctance to include a background. I have no idea what I would use.
This picture kind of came about because I wanted to experiment with
1) freckles, 2) bare feet, and 3) my love for leather coats! It's done in
Prismacolor coloring pencil on illustration board. CLICK TO EMBIGGEN
This is Andy Callahan. Jordan meets him in college in the book "Oculus." The illustration
is a scene from the book at the woods around Andy's home in the Hamptons. It's
pencil on regular drawing paper.
I drew this using coloring pencil on illustration board. It's Jordan from
"Slipstream." He's supposed to be seventeen so I tried really hard to make
him look "not quite adult." Some comments I got were "You really nailed
the eyes." I agree. But I spent hours tweaking the eyes in PhotoShop. So
yeah, what you see here is a combination of PhotoShop and Prismacolor
pencils with a blending stick.
This is Jordan (one year older than the pic above) and his friend Brianna Talbot from book
two in the series "A Crisis of Two Worlds". I did this using Prismacolor pencils and a blending
stick all on illustration board. I was pretty happy with the result. I finished it by scanning it
into the computer and then tweaked it using Adobe PhotoShop elements.
This is Kolin Lightfoot. He's the Avalonian that Jordan falls in love with (yeah there's gay people in my
book :). He is almost a century old and stays young by being a liquid life addict. Anyway, I drew him in
his killsuit (futuristic body armor with all kinds of bells and whistles--think HALO inspired). I used
Prismacolor pencils and a blending stick on illustration board. I finished by scanning it into the p.c.
and then used Adobe Photoshop Elements to clean it up.

Called "Wings by Night" I did this using acrylic paint on illustration board.
This is a throw-back to my Dungeons & Dragons days. It has nothing to
do with any story I've come up with. I just figured I'd paint a blue dragon
in the style of Larry Elmore and feature a busty broad who may or may
not be in trouble. I guess it depends on what kind of spells the girl can
cast and whether or not the dragon is a friend. Click to embiggen.
This is a young knight I drew using Prismacolor pencil on regular paper. I could have
blended it more. This is from my high fantasy days. Who knows...he could show up
in a story some day.
This guys is a Timeron Knight. I wrote a fantasy book that I periodically query. Anyway,
Timeron Knights are a part of that world. They wear huge spurs because they have to ride
dragons around. This is done using regular pencil on paper and just sketching away for hours.
The "ZY" on the rock is because the name of this character is Ser Zylander of Clan
Chezbernon and he is a "Darkglory" in the ranks of Taleta, the Queen of Demons.
This is Ser Crispin Micah in my book "Assassin's Gambit" which isn't published. He's
a Valion Knight which means he turns into a big wolf half of the time (because he
worships the God of Winter and Wolves). He's a Crimson Guard of Thomas and is
Captain of the Guard of Kian Lightfoot's main city called Tegel. He has telepathic
communication with Kian because about twice per year, they go off in the woods
together on a hunting trip and "rut." This is a magical ceremony because Kian is the
first "Omega" to be born in 1000 years and that makes him super special. Through
"rutting" Crispin becomes almost unkillable. All of his wounds instantly heal, he's
super strong, super fast, can see better than an eagle, has telepathy. It's pretty cool.
This is Kian in my book "Assassin's Gambit" standing on a rooftoop in Tegel (his home).
Kian is the Black Dragon of the Silver Rose. His wife died and left him with a baby to care for
(his only child). He's the Duke of Tegel and the number two assassin in the world of
Wynwrayth. This picture is drawn using pencil on regular drawing paper.
This is Kendall Lightfoot (Kian's son) once he grows up.
In "Assassin's Gambit" he's just a baby. He'll follow his dad's
footsteps and be the Black Dragon Assassin of the Scarlet Rose.
Kendall will have a chip on his shoulder because dad is such
an incredible assassin, and in contrast, Ken's been spoiled all
his life. His code name is "Cardinal". The Lightfoots (btw)
never age past 20. This is coloring pencil on illustration board.
A black dragon assassin (character from one of my stories) and two ladies.
A half dragon half human character outside an ancient city. I was trying to expand my
ability to draw subjects that aren't human by practicing with reptilian features. It is not
my best work at all. Pencil on drawing paper.
I call this picture "Dreaming of Vampires." The story is that there's been an apocalypse on
Earth. The guy above who's name is "Cyrus" is a handsome Detective in Los Angeles
being stalked by a vampire that wants to turn him into the undead. Eventually, it happens
hence why he has a bloody handprint. Pencil on drawing paper.

Black Dragon Assassin entering the temple to the Queen of Demons. That's
what those symbols on the pillar are supposed to mean. This is pencil
on drawing paper.
NC-17 RATED ART WORK IS ON A HIDDEN PAGE. CLICK HERE TO VIEW.
Warning, this art features male and female nudity as well as sexual acts drawn by me using pencil on drawing paper.

16 comments:

  1. Love the detail you get into your art work, I think it a nice reflection of your written work. (:

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  2. Michael, your artwork is amazing! You're a very talented guy!

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  3. THESE ARE AWESOME!! I was an art major in college, BFA from the Academy of Art via Unuversity of San Francisco, then architecture at Cal. I love pencil drawings best though I spent years producing presentation drawings for architecture: ink on vellum to produce black line prints which I rendered with Prismacolor & markers. I miss drawing, but I have nearly 30 years experience and yours are great. I love them! And now I know how to picture Jordan!

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  4. Really life-like artwork - amazing detail and creativity. Makes me want to read the books:)
    WriterlySam

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  5. Thank you Samantha. I appreciate the compliment :)

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  6. Michael, you are sickly talented. The drawings are phenomenal---I'm BEYOND impressed!!!

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  7. Thank you so much for saying so, Morgan :) *hugs

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  8. Wow, this is awesome stuff! You are blessed with great talent!

    And yes, your detail and work on the eyes is well worth the effort, fantastic!

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  9. Love the ink on Talen's arm...it's gorgeous!

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  10. I've taken WAY too long this morning looking at your drawings. You are so talented. Ridiculously talented :)

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  11. @Brinda: Thank you so much for saying so. I haven't had the bug to paint recently but I'm sure it'll come back.

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  12. Loving the artwork. Very well done! Hope you're still keeping it up :)

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