Justin Gerard

The Werelizard: Monster of the Month for August 2019

Meet the Werelizard! Our monster for this month. He's a crazy, deranged and ravenous.  And because of this, he is in more of an action pose than most of the other monsters.  I typically prefer to show the character in some kind of repose for these shots, but the natural scientists who studied him explain that once changed into his half-animal form, this were-creature is constantly in motion, and is never in "repose". So mid-leap is about as close as we can get.  

2019-08-12 13:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post

A Plague of Dragons: Mini-Landscapes

Hey guys! Today I'd like to share some landscapes I've been drawing in pencil for DragonCon next month.  They are small, 4"x6" pastoral scenes drawn on bristol, featuring moments from my Plague of Dragons series. I love little landscapes, and I have been having so much fun doing them in graphite recently. (It just goes so fast!) I work very slowly when I work in color, so it has been nice to just start working, finish the idea, and move right along into the next...

It's "Garbage Royale!" Classic Fantasy Illustration for July

I know it's August, but here is one of the paintings I started in July (that took a bit longer to dry than expected) It was a lot of fun to work on and was painted in a method I rarely use. 

Last Month, Jerry's Artarama was kind enough to send me a set of Turner Acryla-Gaouche paints to try out last month and so I did something a little irregular and used them to paint the underpainting f...

August Roadmap and Revamp

Welcome to August! This month we are going to be focusing on new work for DragonCon, which is happening September 5 in Atlanta, GA! And I am NOT READY for the show!! The plan this month is to do a lot of new original artwork for DragonCon, and share it with you guys here throughout the month. We will have a few monsters, some randoms, a few oils that are *almost* dry,  and then a number of new images from A Plague of Dragons. It should ...

"The Mummy Minotaur" Hi-Res Final Color!

Today I've got a Mummy Minotaur for you! This guy was one of the absolute MOST FUN monsters I've worked on so far, and best of all, I actually hit my 5 HOUR GOAL! (For the first time ever!) He just came together very quickly.  In part this was due to some new brushes I've developed that saved me a lot of time. It all went so fast, even with all the extra mummy cloth strips and fine detailing on the golden bits.  I'll be giving the Minotaur Mummy Photoshop Brush Set ...

It's My Birthday and I'll Draw Minotaurs if I want to!

Guys! it's July 26, my birthday! (Wooo, I'm 3,000 years old!)  

To celebrate this year, I have a Hobbit-style birthday present for you: A high-res Mummy Minotaur Drawing with a video of the drawing process! 

I hope you like them! 

I am almost finished working out the kinks in my setup for livestreaming. (Still have ...

Turtle Hydra Brush Set Download!

This month's brush set is a larger one! It offers 11 total brushes which include a high texture blender brush and smudge brush.  All the brushes, with the exception of the "Snapping Watercolor Brush", are high texture brushes, designed especially to be used on creatures with rough skin, and to give your drawings a distinct, natural media feel.  

The "Hyrtle Shader" ended up being the workhorse brush for the painting, and was used for pretty mu...

The Turtle Hydra Hi-Res Wallpaper and Animatic

Hi Guys! Today I have the final painting for The Turtle Hydra Monster of the Month for July 2019! This has been one of my favorite characters to work on in a long time. I love painting snapping turtles :D They just have such interesting faces. 

As for the time it took... well I definitely didn't get in under 5 hours. This one took just less than 10, so a bit on th...

Bonus Monster for Annie's Birthday!

Today we are celebrating my wife Annie's birthday! 

For her birthday I've done a drawing of 2 of her favorite creatures: A French Bulldog and a little Toad!  

We have a little french bulldog named Dakota, and in this illustration I show why I believe she goes bonkers sometimes. I don't think she means to be bad, I think she probably has the heart of an angel, but sometimes I think that her mind is being controlled by an invisible toad with magical powers. 

If ...

"The Turtle Hydra" Hi-Res Drawing for the Monster of the Month for July!

This month's monster is The Turtle Hydra! He was the runner-up in last month's vote, and I have been eager to take a shot at this guy ever since. Turtles are such fun creatures to draw, and in particular, snapping turtles are my favorite! They are such wild and monstrous looking creatures when you really start to look at them closely.  I had a lot of fun just adding a head here and another head there, lopping off the occasional one, seeing a few more grown in its place; you know...

4th of July BONUS Drawing!

Happy 4th of July! (unless you are from the UK, in which case, Happy Ungrateful Peasants Day!) 

Today, I present to you: GARBAGE ROYALE!

Who's going to win??  I've got my money on the Trash Panda, but the rat with a spork is a real wild card. 

This month we hit the $750 goal, (thanks guys!!) so as a bonus I am doing a new traditional painting in acry...

ROADMAP for JULY 2019

Welcome to July! I've got a lot of exciting stuff planned to share with you guys this month!

First off, our Monster of the Month for July is the Turtle Hydra!  He was the close runner-up to the Ghostfish in last month's Monsters of Jekyll Island series and I am really looking forward to working on him this month.

But he will not be our only monster...

"The Trash Panda!" Bonus Hi-Res Drawing

Here is a Hi-Res Drawing for The Trash Panda. A character I designed for a short series of paintings I started in 2018, but never had a chance to finish.  Next month I am going to be working on a new painting for DragonCon 2019 that will feature this guy.  I will be sharing the progress with you guys here before the show.   

Here is a behind the scenes look at the color pencil design phase:

2019-07-01 12:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post

Classic Fantasy illustration for June and July Sneak Preview

This month has been a whirlwind! First up, Annie and I are now sponsored by Jerry's Artarama.  So in the coming months I will be sharing some product reviews as well as some high res art made using some of the goodies that they've sent me as part of the program.  You'll hear more about this in the coming months, but for today, I have a Dragon Head Study to share with you, painted in Lukas Water Mixable Oils that Jerry's sent me to try out. In the Process Gui...