Sunday, October 15, 2023

Illarys Ink Illustrations

 In preparation for the DVPit event where I pitched both Curse of the Eel and Illarys, I wanted to populate my pitch with illustrations so it wasn't just a wall of text in the story summary.

These were very inspired by Gary Gianni's illustrations for "The Knight of the Seven Kingdoms," which is a series of short novels about a knight and his squire. I loved the book and the illustrations were amazing, so I wanted to try out this style of inking for Illarys, and here are the results!

Tools used were Deleter G-pen, Tachikawa Nihonji pen, Pilot drafting ink, on Stillman & Birn Epsilon paper.

This was the cover to the pitch, I still really love this image

Separation

Recovering

The Knight

The Cave

Panther


Thursday, August 3, 2023

Dungeon Scrawlers Character Designs

 I got to provide character designs for some characters of "Fearful Symmetry," a short D&D campaign by the Dungeon Scrawlers and DMed by Erin M. Evans! These were a lot of fun to make and I'm glad to have had the opportunity to contribute to their long running campaign!

https://www.youtube.com/c/DungeonScrawlers

https://www.twitch.tv/dungeonscrawlers

Ilya, the Rashemi Wizard

Stirge, the Rogue/Arcane Trickster

Florin, definitely not a Warlock


Saturday, April 1, 2023

Illarys Chapter 0 Cover

 Hello everyone, here's a look at my cover for my next book "Illarys, chapter 0!" This is a prologue that happens before the chapter that will be published in StarTales. I loved this setting so much, I had to jump the gun and draw more. I should have this on my upcoming convention tables, at SCComicon in Greenville, SC and at Momocon in Atlanta in May!

 


More of this work to come! This was all drawn and colored in Procreate, with the type done in Illustrator.


Friday, March 17, 2023

Art Inspired by Relics of Ruin

 Hey everyone! I drew this last month, but I got to read a snippet of the upcoming Relics of Ruin, a sequel to Empire of Exiles by Erin M. Evans! I came up with this illustration of one of the best moments in the passage, which shows best boy, Tunuk, pondering on the events leading up to this current moment. This was also to congratulate Erin as the Relics cover and release date were announced! I'm excited to read this book, and to make more art inspired by the series!

This is probably one of my first full on digital illustrations. I got myself an iPad Pro with Procreate, and I've been having a lot of fun finding ways to make art in a different way. I'm not giving up my pens and paper, but this is a cool new adventure that I hope to grow from. You can also check out my process video on Tiktok here: https://www.tiktok.com/@jorgesantiagojrcomics/video/7207237658165120298?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7211591819695867435



Friday, January 6, 2023

Variant Cover for Sidekick for Hire issue 5

This is a project I finished at the end of last year, but I got the opportunity to draw a variant cover for the 5th issue of Sidekick for Hire, a really interesting take on superheroes by Kristian Herrera & Rick Alves! After reading the existing issues and the script for the 5th, I really wanted to focus on Sasha (she ended up as my favorite character in the series) and so I came up with this cover concept. 

I tend to color my covers a lot lately, which is interesting. This cover did come out well in terms of what I envisioned and what I was able to do, and it was a very color-centric approach, with the lighting and the effects. I hope you dig it, and please support the 5th issue which will be on Kickstarter soon! The Pre-launch link is here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sidekick3/sidekick-for-hire-1-5?ref=ksrtwitter-prelaunch

Now to take a look at my process for it. I used a Zebra brush pen and the Pentel Color Brush on Stillman & Birn Zeta paper, and it's colored in Photoshop.





Friday, December 30, 2022

Curse of the Eel has 1 Million Views on Tapas!

 Hello everyone, I wanted to post this before but my end of the year has been hectic, but Curse of the Eel has hit a really cool milestone! My comic has 1 million views on Tapas, which is amazing! I'm really lucky to have made a story that can be enjoyed by people, and I hope everyone will continue to enjoy Eel as the story enters its final acts!

https://tapas.io/series/Eel/info

Here is an illustration I made for the occasion! Thank you for reading!



Friday, November 18, 2022

Empire of Exiles Illustration: My first professional fantasy illustration!

Hello everyone! So this is a really cool story so let me start off with that:

I've been really digging fantasy stuff in the last few years; after the pandemic, fantasy has been my number one genre and I've been working on more fantasy stuff like Illarys, but also making fan art for my favorite characters. I've been drawing a bunch of fan art for the Brimstone Angels Saga, a D&D series about twin Tiefling girls, which is written by the awesome and kind Erin M. Evans! She's shared a bunch of my drawings on social media (which is really cool when you get seen by the creator!) and I learned very quickly that she had a new original fantasy story coming out: Empire of Exiles! She was nice enough to send me an Advanced Reader Copy, so I could get a jump start on the fan arts, and she decided to commission me to create an illustration for this new book!

I'll include my progress stages here, including a TikTok I made of my inking process on this illustration, which was used as a pre-order bonus as a bookmark and a device wallpaper! I'm really excited to have gotten this opportunity and to have my first fantasy illustration be for Erin, who is both kind and amazingly talented. I read Empire of Exiles in like 2 weeks, and I loved it! Below is my interpretation of the inciting incident, as this is a fantasy murder mystery and not all is as it seems!

You can pick up Empire of Exiles from all major booksellers, it's published through Orbit Books, so you can find it at Barnes and Noble or your local bookstores (and if they don't have it, you can ask them to order it for you)! It's also available as an e-book and an audiobook! At the end, I'll include the book description that is listed on Erin's website.


 

And here are the colors!


"Magic, mystery, and revolution collide in this fantasy epic where an unlikely team of mages, scribes, and archivists must band together to unearth a conspiracy that might topple their empire.

Twenty-seven years ago, a Duke with a grudge led a ruthless coup against the empire of Semilla, killing thousands. He failed. The Duke was executed, a terrifyingly powerful sorcerer was imprisoned, and an unwilling princess disappeared.

The empire moved on.

Now, when Quill, an apprentice scribe, arrives in the capital city, he believes he’s on a simple errand for another pompous noble: fetch ancient artifacts from the magical Imperial Archives. He’s always found his apprenticeship to a lawman to be dull work. But these aren’t just any artifacts — these are the instruments of revolution, the banners under which the Duke lead his coup.

Just as the artifacts are unearthed, the city is shaken by a brutal murder that seems to have been caused by a weapon not seen since the days of rebellion. With Quill being the main witness to the murder, and no one in power believing his story, he must join the Archivists — a young mage, a seasoned archivist, and a disillusioned detective — to solve the truth of the attack. And what they uncover will be the key to saving the empire – or destroying it again."

Check out Empire of Exiles, I'm already awaiting book 2!