Ok, so the cool news is that I have been nominated for this year’s (2008) Chesley Award for Best Cover Illustration-Magazine for my cover art for Dungeon, issue #145. Now that is a hoot.

     Personally, I really like this piece because it has a fair amount of the old pulp stylings within it. I call it ‘Best Laid Plans’. These unlucky adventurers are returning from a successful exploration of a jungle temple seen in the distance. However, fate  has stepped in to make sure, that at the very least, nobody is going to be having any drinking or wenching money at the tavern tonight.  At the worst, they will be exploring a croc’s inner workings. Such is the life of a dungeon adventurer : )

     For a bit larger picture:  http://www.battleduck.com/fantasy/bestlaidplans.html

     This picture shows a workbench I just completed over this weekend inside the Broc Sett.  It is 12 foot wide, around 30 inches deep with the top about 42 inches or so off the floor.  I drew up rough plans where I wanted to go, bought the lumber and winged it from there. There is  storage space directly accessible underneath the top which is in three pieces. This is not a bench for pounding on but for creation and assembly of ideas. A smaller bench for beating on things will be made so as to fit underneath this one.  I can just roll it out when I need it. For me, this a landmark as this is the first dedicated space I have ever had to do larger projects. Perhaps, more importantly is that I am now one step closer to making puppets and stop-motion stuff.

     It is interesting that once you have a tool or a space to work in,  ideas that would have never crossed your mind are suddenly generated in buckets simply because of the fact of ownership.