Above you will see a piece I did a couple of months ago on toned paper because I liked my initial sketch. I usually scribble around a bit before launching into a work in progress, just to limber up. These sketches usually involve bones and organic junk and other healthy outlets for a growing imagination. Most of them end up becoming part of a massive fire hazard I am building in my studio. (This is a joke and if you are an insurance adjuster I will repeat – a joke!)

If I find something exceptionally appealing about a sketches bony protuberances I will commit them to a cleaner going over. And if I really like them, and I need something real quick to fill up my display at a con, I will paint them. Someone bought the sketch at said con so I can’t show the complete progression, but lets just say it was even better than what you see here.

Anyway, this is a Wendigo, an ancient spirit of winter (frostburned fingertips), hunger and cannibalism (empty stomach and inward facing rib/teeth) and the wild (horns and animal skulls and all the other junk I wanted to draw anyway). He took just a few days work to go from the toned paper to color and if he is really well-behaved and time permits, he might get a digital cleanup. Or not. Sometimes I like my ancient spirits messy.