Final Illustration fully colored in Oils. Its a simple composition, but very dynamic and engaging. Oils on canvas board, 16" x 20"

Tonal drawing and final composition for my next piece. It depicts Conan the Barbarian about to engage a Kodiak bear that's menacing the village in the background. Pencils on toned paper, 16" x 20"

Progression of an idea I had for a new Illo. I think I'm going to go ahead and include the finished piece in my Thesis.

So I did go with the lighting after all. This whole painting was an experiment in warm colors and "loose" brushstrokes. Oil on canvas board, 14" x 18"

Final composition study in a tonal value. Although this is the composition I'm going for, I am not so sure about the lighting in the background yet. 

Brush, pen and color marker studies.

Tone sketches looking for light and shadow.

Thumbnail drawings trying to decide on a composition for my new version of Valiant Duel Illo.

I finished this about a week ago, but I have been sitting on it since then thinking what else I could do to it. I think that I'm going to add additional foreground plants in the lower left corner to increase the plane depth. 

Once in the canvas ( which I had previously toned) I started by working in the background. 

This is the same new composition in its final size of 14" x 20", drawn in tone paper. From here I transferred this drawing to the canvas board of the same size.

In a 11" x 17" toned sketchbook, I drew my idea for this new composition in the form of a tonal study. Satisfied with this, I went ahead with the final drawing at the canvas size.

Several studies later, I went for the standing pose for Jane first and the ape-like pose for Tarzan. 

I several pictures of my model, but I chose these two as my main reference. At this moment I had my heart set on the standing position for my model, but I still played with the idea of painting the kneeling one on top of the original piece.

Revisiting the "Tarzan meets Jane", I was trying to repaint Jane in a slightly different position, so as to be able to see what she is doing with her hand (reaching for her pistol). While sketching her like this, it occurred to me to change her position entirely, thus changing the entire composition at once. So in the thumb below I played with her being on her feet, while Tarzan is adopting a more ape like posture.