Girl and dragon

Finished in five hours, initially inspired from a study. 'Girl and dragon' is my one of my latest personal pieces.

The Piano, Volume 2: The Dream - Preview

Here is the first page of 'The Piano', Volume 2. It is set for release about end July. I'm posting an enlarged version of panel 3. Mermaid :) "The Piano, Volume 1" can be purchased from Amazon in both digital and print format here: BUY IT HERE

Proof for 'The Piano' arrived and approved, Available on Amazon soon

'The Piano', the print version goes on sale in about a week's time. Volume 1 looks great and there has been a lot of excitement expressed by everyone who got to see the proof. Here's one of my favorite spreads from the book. I will post details when the book goes live on Amazon, but you should be able to order one from your local bookshop soon afterwards if you prefer. ciro correia

WIP of New Illustration for 2nd Edition of The Snickitysnatcher

Unfortunately I'm not allowed to post a final copy of this illustration just yet. It's going to be in the revised edition, out at the end of April in digital and print versions. Here's a work in progress shot showing the illustration's progress from sketch to about 70% completion. I've been told the final looks stunning. Hope you enjoy the teaser, and keep checking for release dates on this absolutely 'must have copy' of 'The Snickitysnatcher'. I'm thinking of giving away a signed poster print of the final, closer to release date. Would anyone be keen on trying to win a copy in a lottery style give away?

About the Illustration: The Illustration is of Dione, the leader of the fairies from the forest around Fangtop. She plays a pivotal role in Indigo's rescue and in getting her to understand the danger she is in. I based the character loosely on Minerva, my favorite Higher Power. She is the goddess of art, magic, wisdom and learning.

ciro correia

The Piano - cover

Release date for 'The Piano' is  - 3 March 2013. Here is the cover illustration for the Graphic Novel.
Everything ready to roll. It will be released exclusively on kindle first, followed by dead tree copies soon. Please get yourself a copy on the 3rd, I'll be posting up links to the book on the third.

Older Illustrations - The Juniper Tree

These are from 'The Juniper Tree' by Brothers Grimm (My illustrated version). It is one of my absolute favorite Grimm fairy tales, I remember finding an old dusty copy of Grimms at my local library when I was about eleven. Reading it late into the night. Probably post more of these sometime. My personal favorite out of these three is blood in the snow.

The Imperial Road - Concept Art

Created from the rough sketch, done in sectional perspective, in last post here is a Concept piece featuring 'the Imperial road'. I did this concept for my new book (title undisclosed as yet) due out at the end of the year. It is meant to give a feel of the terrain and area that the imperial road runs through as it winds through the northern most province of the great empire. The artwork and illustrations in this book will be substantially different to my debut novel which were pencil sketches and concepts (if you have not bought my book yet - or at least checked the free downloadable sample out - shame on you! Go download it right now here: The Snickitysnatcher or at Barnes and Noble here: The Snickitysnatcher at BN or if you have an ipad and feel compeled to only buy through Apple, at the ibook store here: The Snickitysnatcher through itunes .
The Barnes and Noble site has a really cool 'look inside instantly feature' - :)

Faerie - sketch more, paint more, do more!

The more we do, the more we fail, the faster we grow.... I'm trying to up my productivity and to let go of pieces instead of trying to polish them up. I think that you get to a point when work on an image will not add anything to the viewers experience of the image. That is probably when you should stop - that is probably 'the finish line'. Here is something I'm letting go, though I'm not promising I won't come back to it ;)

I wanted to create a fairy of a different kind, something mystical and away from what one would normally expect a fairy to look like.

updated 25th July,'12 - Just in case anyone thinks I'm advocating not finishing work here is a post that I agree with completely about starting and finishing (Thanks to Scott Johnson who reposted it on google+). What I am talking about is when to declare a picture finished, I've previously leaned towards polishing every inch of the canvas but that is not finishing. Finishing is a difficult line to draw especially if you obsess and desire perfection (I'm a perfectionist and constantly deal with my ideal versus my 'at that moment skill level' issues). PLEASE FINISH your work but finishing something is a personal line you have to draw and sometimes you have to cut the lines and send your boat out to sea... even if you end up drawing it back to the shore later.  THE FINISH LINE

Painting Process - WIP : Sojourner and the dragons.

Aside from some minor details I want to add at a later date I'm calling this finished.

Files crashed and corrupted, lost all my work from the image below on. By some sheer luck I managed to patch back some of the work done from fragments of files and losing other portions. Think I know what happened but it could very well be weird electromagnetic debris from our recent solar max for all I know. The patched file with some additions Posted above:

Working back to front, pass by pass ;)

'The Dark' - WIP 2

Had some time to post this up. It is the second work in progress post for 'The Dark'. I'm working on compositional elements and maintaining the value range I set for the image. Working on anatomy and such as I go, the basics are okay so fixes are pretty easy.

WIP2

WIP1

Screen capture of some of the workflow below:

The Magician's Daughter - Final

Please see previous post for details.

Ichabod D'Amarelo - Character Illustration (stylised and rough version)

The slightly insane and strategically brilliant Captain of 'The Frolicking Jade Empress' from 'Tales from the Sunless Sea'.  This is the rough sketch that I neatened up a bit, it actually goes with other sketches of the character. This one is the most stylized of the bunch. I'm working on putting a variation of styles into this blog and ultimately my portfolio. My preferred style of painting is representational and realism but as a professional I want my work to reflect the fact that I can do anything from ultra stylized work to ultra realism. Watch this space.  

(Sorry, if you're using an older browser this .png image might not display correctly, time to upgrade :))

Concept Art - The Crypt

Concept Art for game level. I created a few different versions of this during editing to try optimize the light.

Female Amazon Warrior part 2

This is an alternate version of the first one. I included a side by side view.  This was done as an art test for Gameloft. 

Gisthorn the magician and props.

Character views with props, etc... just another version.

I love bells, I get kind of obsessed with them at times... Thought I'd give a closer view of the bell at the end of Gisthorn's 'Staff of powerful enlightenment'.

The Three Little Zombie Pigs

I wasn't going to do a piece for the Bobby Chiu's ImagineFX and CGHUB Fairy-tale Re-imagined challenge. I hadn't even had time to look at the forum with everyone's wips. I read the details three months back but things have just been a little too intense. About three weeks or so ago I found some time. Did a few sketches and jumped right into the fray with 'The Three Little Zombie Pigs'. I altered my style to suit the black comedic/horror aspect. I'd love to post some close ups for the detailing and paint marks to be seem more clearly. Thinking about it. You'll find the WIP thread here: WIP!!

Hippolyta - character illustration

This was done as an art test for Gameloft. 


 This is a character illustration of an amazon warrior. I gave her the name Hippolyta, though 'Amazon Warrior' works just as good as a title. Hippolyta, according to legend, was their queen. I took way to long on this, mostly because I was nursing a head cold and partly because I was obsessing about it's importance. No excuses, it is what it is. Below this post is my screen capture for this, you'll probably  notice I painted the figure nude and then overlaid clothes. I want to do some variations on her clothing and 'make up/war paint'. Perhaps a resketch, if a have some time too. Below is a portion from wikipedia about Hippolyta.

"Heracles' ninth labor:Hippolyta appears in the myth of Heracles. It was her girdle that Heracles was sent to retrieve for Admeta, the daughter of king Eurystheus, as his ninth labor.When Heracles landed the Amazons received him warmly and Hippolyta came to his ship to greet him. Upon hearing his request, she agreed to let him take the girdle. Hera, however, was not pleased, as was often the case with Heracles. To stop him, Hera came down to the Amazons disguised as one of their own and ran through the land, crying that Heracles meant to kidnap their queen. Probably remembering all too well what Theseus had done, the Amazons charged toward the ship to save Hippolyta. Fearing that Hippolyta had betrayed him, Heracles kissed her briefly then hastily killed her, ripped the girdle from her lifeless body, and set sail, narrowly escaping the raging warriors." - according to wikipedia 

Surprise Assault at the Gate

'Urduin faces his doom' is the alternate name for this piece. Urduin steps forward, unprepared with his armor hardly on, to face what most likely will be his end. He looks back at us frozen in the moment as the huge Red crawls down the cliff to the gate. Hope you like it.

Dungeon Delve Challenge

This is my entry for the Dungeon Delve Challenge. Thinking back about the time I spent on this. It was, not only pure bliss but I learned a hell of a lot too. 

My adventurer slash hero has found himself out of his depth. As I was sketching and thinking about my character  I had this backstory rumbling through my head: He is a rich noble with aspiring ambitions of becoming an adventurer. He got lost after purchasing a dud map, at the local watering hole, of a nearby mountain 'dig' site that happened to be infested by all sorts of monsters. Gung-ho into the underground halls he went, ill prepared and under equipped. Got into a few tussles, badly wounded. A few days later he is lost and in deep trouble. Visit the art order site for cool posts from Art Director Jon Schindehette. Makes for some interesting reading.  http://theartorder.com/

Night Interrupted

Illustration:
Fairies, brownies, pixies, elves or just plain fairy tale folk. The backstory behind this illustration is that of a woodland night interrupted by a hungry creature. The creature might be looking for bugs only. It might want to eat the little folk as a night time snack. So either they're in mortal danger or they're really upset about their family home being trashed. If you opt for the ‘on the menu’ interpretation then the picture is supposed to show tension between the tight group as they try to remain hidden (they’re very obviously not doing very well at that) and the creature as it turns its head towards them.  Don't worry kids they'll probably get away ;) .