Jon Hodgson News (Dec 05)

Hey Hey. A month has past, and so here I am again!

Painting is progressing like pulling teeth today, so what better way to take a breather than by updating my Ninja Mountain News for the month of December?

Big news this month is starting work on Eberron for Wizards of the Coast. Its a very cool setting, and I'm enjoying getting my teeth into the sketches! Can't really say very much without the explosive collar they make me wear going off. Its been really cool and a great relief to be asked to do a second job for WoC. Its hard to explain to anyone who isn't working in this particular field, but it's been something I've always wanted to do, and to get one shot at the gig and never to be asked again would have been... disappointing in the extreme? Just like when you start out in illustration its easy to concentrate on getting a foot in the door, getting the first gig. When in fact the second one is the hard one, the important one! (In my own humble estimation of course!)

Also in the pipe line this month are internal art for Warhammer Historical's "Alamo" for Legends of the Old West. It's always cool to work with the LotoW team, as we bounce off each other quite nicely, and the guys are nicely visually oriented. It was an ambitious project from the outset in terms of production values, and its one of my personal career highs in many ways. Even if most people I run into don't necessarily know an awful lot about it. The research for Alamo has been made a lot easier by my ole Dad having a huge interest in the old west. His spectacular collection of Time Life books on the period has been thoroughly plundered!

Vlad Internals are also still in production for Warhammer Historical too. Just getting to a stage where I'm happy to start sending them in.

What else? I did a couple of Sabertooth cards super-fast earlier in the month, and another cover for AFMBE, which I'm applying finishing touches to.

Some internal art for the WFRP2 Skaven book are also on the computer as I speak. Its a very, very busy month! I'm spending a bit too long on them, but since I played the original game as a teenager I have a lot of time for it! And skaven have always been a personal fave monster.

Oh I fitted in a cover for a kid's board game too.

The Snygg Corben Project

Ninja Mountain member Mattias Snygg has been investgating the work of Richard Corben! And he's written it all up here:
"Corben and Me"

The results are extremely entertaining as well as informative! There's plenty of examples of Corben's work along with some great studies from Mattias.

NB: As befitting a study of the work of an artist such as Corben, this project should be considered as material suitable only for grown ups. There's some strong images of nudity and some equally strong language.

A Change for Purdy E Mail

My email address has changed, for all of those that are interested the new address is purdyart@googlemail.com .

Thanks all! :)

Scott.

Scott Purdy News

Well I'm about to start working on another set of Warhammer Roleplaying Game artwork for Green Ronin and Black Industries and I'm really excited about being a part of this particular project, Children of the Horned Rat: A Guide to Skaven... Who wouldn't love drawing Skaven eh?! :)

I'm also working on a small project for an up-and-coming RPG company... more on that soon!

Andrew from Steam Power Publishing has contacted me recently to work on their Etherscope supplement, more on that soon, too!

My work is featured, alongside Eric Lofgren in Malhavoc Press' Arcana Evolved: Spell Treasury, available next month.

JAGS has just released it's JAGS Wonderland RPG featuring Scott's, Eric's and Ralph's artwork

Another up and coming release featuring my work is Realms of Scorcery, a WFRP supplement, also featuring an amazing cover by Ralph Horsley.

Visit Sean K Reynolds site to see our latest colaboration on Monster of the Month here: http://www.seankreynolds.com/skrg/free/motm/motm5_pusmother.html

Visit my website too, where I've had a bit of an overhaul and added more colour artwork!: www.scottpurdy.net

Jon Hodgson News

Well now. Dispatches from Jon World Number One:

I'm off to Newcastle (UK) this Sunday the 13th of November to do a signing for my friends at Travelling Man. There's a Legend of the Five Rings CCG tournament on too, so I expect signing cards will be the order of the day! Hopefully some print sales too.

As mentioned on the NM front page, I've just finished my first batch of work for Wizards of the Coast, for a D&D supplement. Which I have to say I enjoyed enormously - I wish I could share some of the work, but I can't just yet! There's definitely no free rides - the higher the profile of the work the more "right" is has to be, so it was pretty hard work - though the pressure came from myself! The art directors at WotC are nothing but pleasant to work with! Fingers crossed for a repeat performance...

This last week also saw me send in a cover for Mongoose's Conan line, and a cover for a new Eden Studios book:All Tomorrow's Zombies Exciting stuff! Zombies and Conan are hard to beat enjoyment-wise.

Looking forward I have just embarked on sketches for internal art for Warhammer Historical's "Vlad the Impaler and the Ottomans". This is the first non-ancients era book I've done for them, so its a steep learning curve on the historical research. The cover art is in the bag, the first one for the core line that I've done. I hope it can live up to the previous covers!

Lately I've squeezed in a little experimental personal work, and you can have a wee sneak preview here: Sketchbook

Well that's about it from me for now. Maybe see you in Newcastle!

Jon

Welcome

Welcome to the Ninja Mountain Blog!

Ninja Mountain is a loose collective of artists working in the fields of fantasy and science fiction. Our site can be found at: www.ninjamountain.net

Our members:
Sam Araya
Chris Dien
Matt Dixon
Andy Hepworth
Jon Hodgson
Ralph Horsley
Rafal Hrynkiewicz
Scott Johnson
Eric Lofgren
Patrick McEvoy
Jeremy McHugh
Socar Myles
Torstein Nordstrand
Scott Purdy
James Ryman
Mattias Snygg
Anne Stokes
Grey Thornberry
Kieran Yanner

In this blog expect to find the latest member news and gossip, along with the occasional tutorial and opinion piece from the world of fantastical illustration.