Owen William Weber Illustration

I have just finished another two paintings in my ongoing Prehistoric Creatures series.  The most recent four in the series have all been mammals that lived millions of years after the dinosaurs went extinct.  I plan to do seven of these mammals and then go back to dinosaurs, maybe group them into Prehistoric Creatures Series 1, Series 2, etc.  They are all for sale, but they have been snatched up quick, so if anyone as inquiries on pricing, please email me at owweberillustration@gmail.com . I have been doing pencil portraits of many prehistoric animals on my instagram account, and these two have gotten the most likes, which is a great way of knowing which creature to paint next for this series.  Smilodon is very well know.  Along with the Woolly Mammoth, it's one of the most well known extinct creatures from the Early Pleistocene era.  It was only a matter of time before I was going to paint this guy.  I wanted to show it in a way that was not ofte...

Yesterday, I received my contributor copy of Elder Sign: Omens of Ice which holds the painting "Frostbite" that I painted for it last year.  The idea behind it was that it was a man who had been frostbitten in his hands and face, in a New England town in the early 20th c., I believe.  The AD wanted him screaming and being brought into an ambulance.  I love doing this type of stuff, but I'm never given these types of assignments, so I was very excited.  And a word to the wise, don't google image search "frostbite", it's truly awful to look at.  Here is the sketch that I came up with: Frostbite Sketch, 12" x 8", Pencil. The AD thought the screaming mouth was a bit too much, so I closed it and went ahead with the painting.  Here is the final: Frostbite , 12" x 8", oil on paper on masonite, 2015. ©Fantasy Flight Games Another piece that I just finished and then immediately sold was my "Irish Elk" piece.  This animal w...

Though I did not do all the challenges of the Month of Love tumblr blog, I did do two.  I tried to come up with good ideas for the other two challenges, but for whatever reason, it just didn't work out.  So here are the two that I did complete. The first piece I painted was for the Second week, the challenge being: Language of Love.  I thought it was an interesting idea to convey the ways animals show love to their owners.  This image came to mind.  Though we have never had a mouse problem, our cat has on occasion displayed a waterbug or two it has killed.  I was able to piece together a couple reference photos I took of our cat for this piece, so it worked as a nice portrait of Mim.  I painted this all in one sitting, something I haven't done in quite some time. A Present , 7" x 10", Oil on Paper on Masonite, 2016.  The second piece I painted was for the Third week, the challenge being: Weapons.  I was really having trouble coming up...

A Winter's Dream , 17" x 11", Oil on Paper on Masonite, 2015. Back in August, the 6th to be exact, Sarah and I welcomed our baby girl, Dagmar, into the world.  She is now turning 6 months old and I am just now getting around to posting the first blog post since the summer.  She's a lot of work, but not enough to excuse my laziness about this blog.  Anyways, for the past three years I have done a Nisse painting as my Winter card, but for some reason I just wasn't in the mood to come up with a new Nisse painting, and I just didn't feel like I had a great composition in mind this winter.  So I looked to my new muse.  I took a picture one morning of her sleeping, and worked in some creatures, new and old, real and surreal into the winter landscape around her.  I've always wondered what she dreams, I can't imagine her dreams look like this, but I thought it was a cool idea. Also, I have been doing a One Sketch A Day sketchbook since New Year's, so ...

Highmount from Fleischmanns , 13"x10.875", oil on masonite, 2015. Every year, Sarah and I go up to the Catskills for the Fourth of July.  There's just something nice about being in the woods, grilling and seeing local fireworks instead of the Big City fireworks.  If I'm lucky, which I usually am, I can get away from the house and do some landscape painting en plein air.   This year, I went to this spot at the top of a little valley, overlooking a mountain that used to have a ski resort called Highmount.  You can see the green lines on the right side of the mountain where the trails still leave their veins.  This piece took two days, about 3 hours of work each day.  When I am outside, painting in the middle of nowhere, I think I'm at my happiest.

I have just finished work on a personal piece depicting Ygritte, an extremely strong female presence in the "A Song of Ice and Fire" series written by George R. R. Martin.  I haven't painted a portrait in a long time, and since my schedule had freed up a bit, I thought this was also a perfect opportunity to do this character piece. Recently, I have gotten told by many people that I should paint a pin-up type painting to sell at conventions.  Pin-ups always sell well at conventions, and it seems like a no brainer to just suck it up and paint one.  But that's not what I do.  I totally understand that there is a place for pin-ups in this society and I don't want to come down on artists that do them.  If done right, they can be empowering works of art.  They depict women, usually that have curves, kicking ass.  I love paintings or movies or tv shows of women kicking ass, but I have never had the urge to paint the stereotypical pin-up painting.  I p...

It has been a very long time since I have updated this, so I'll have a couple more posts coming up soon.  This one will be about a commission for an upcoming Lord of the Rings deck called "The Wastes of Eriador" from Fantasy Flight Games. It was a pretty straightforward project, here is what the AD sent: Description: Ally. A Guard of the Citadel, dressed in silver with a helm of mithril, bearing the carved wings of sea-birds. He stands guard next to the open gate leading into the topmost tier of Minas Tirith, where we can see the leafless White Tree of Gondor standing prominently behind him. So here is the drawing I sent: Honour Guard Sketch , 10"x10", pencil on Strathmore 400 series, 2014. This was approved, so I went ahead and did the final using oil on masonite. The AD liked it, but wanted me to enlarge the arms and the chest.  I digitally did all the changes, and here is the final image: Honour Guard , 10"x10", digital and oil on...

The World is Old , 40"x 20", oil on paper on masonite, 2015. This is a new painting in my "Creationist Series".  Back in October, I had started painting this piece; it was almost finished but then I had to paint Winter cards and another playing card.  I finally picked this piece back up at the end of December in order to finish it by the deadline of the Spectrum and Art Renewal Center annual submissions. This piece is depicting a Bible study group, blindfolded, as a group of Dreadnoughtus "shadows" pass by.  The Dreadnoughtus was recently discovered down in southern Argentina, and was declared the largest sauropod ever discovered.  This immediately ignited my imagination.  I had wanted to do a large piece for my series, and showing a herd of these creatures and showing the scale of them in relation to the creationist group seemed like a perfect opportunity.  I wanted to show the group of Dreadnoughtus passing by the people in varying degrees of op...

The Nisse's Gift , 17"x11", oil on paper on masonite, 2014. Hello Again, I should have posted this a while ago, seeing as it was my Holiday card this year, and I've had the digital file for some time now.  Sarah and I do a Non-Denominational Winter card every year, and for the past couple years a Nisse has been part of the image.  A Nisse is a little gnome-like creature that is prominent in all Scandinavian cultures in one form or another.  They can also be called Tomte or Tomtenisse.  My family was from Denmark, so to us they are Nisse.  Every household has their own unique Nisse.  They are known to care for the animals of the house and fix various things the family may have overlooked (very courteous these creatures are, right?).  But if they are not given a hot bowl of porridge every year on Christmas Eve (when they are setting the presents under the tree) they will play tricks on the family for the next year.  And even if the famil...

Hello Again, So this time I will be showing the process of painting the latest card of mine that has been released.  The new Lord of the Rings LCG expansion pack from Fantasy Flight Games, "The Road Darkens", has become available, which has my "Leaf-Wrapped Lembas" card. When I received the assignment, around this time last year, I was immediately excited.  I had been wanting a good excuse to do a highly detailed bread still-life, in the tradition of 18th c. Spanish painters like Luis Meléndez.  I then researched what Tolkien was intending his Lembas bread to be similar to; it turns out he was thinking of Bannock bread.  Luckily enough, I told my wife about this, and she instantly whips out her obsession: Yvette van Boven 's Cookbook, Homemade Winter .  She has a great recipe for Bannock bread.  So we quickly fried the bread that night; fried, because it is cooked on a pan over the burners.  It looked great, I was quite happy with the outcome o...

I painted this piece for Levi Stack back in December.  It's the cover for Mr. Stack's newest young adult novel, the second book in the Card Game series, The Magic Trick.  The novel has just become available digitally.  I'm not sure whether it will be released on paperback like the first book.  I hope it is, because as much as the image looks great on a screen, I love seeing my work printed.  Here is the original painting, and also the version with the type laid over it.  I'm very happy with the outcome and think this cover is better than the first. The Magic Trick , 13.25"x20", Oil on Paper on Masonite, 2013. Buy the Book on Kindle Here

Ashemark Councilor , 13"x10", Oil on Paper on Masonite, 2013. ©Fantasy Flight Games. Last year, I painted this piece for the A Game of Thrones LCG from Fantasy Flight Games.  It was released within one of the newer decks, "Prize of the North."  This guy is a character completely made up for the game, Ashemark gets barely a mention in the novel.  This character is supposed to be a lordling with allegiance towards the Lannisters, hence the lion banners on either side of the archway.  I'm happy with how the piece came out, but I have no real personal story to tell along with it, so I thought I'd just show a couple process images along with this painting.  This was my main reference picture.  No too much to say, I did many poses with this "staff", and this one seem to have a good diagonal positioning.  The art director also put in the description that it should look as if the character is hindering someone from entering the archway, this seem...

Magaretville, NY , Oil, 7.75"x12", 2014. Back in June, we were upstate, in the Catskills for a long weekend.  While I was busy relaxing and taking in the beautiful scenery, I took some time out to paint this landscape.  It took about 3 hours.  In my opinion, there is nothing as pure as painting en plein air.  One becomes completely zen with the surroundings and painting becomes less about depicting a particular scene or composition and becomes more about the feeling or nature of the scene.  It's hard to explain, and can sound extremely corny, when describing the feeling that comes with painting en plein air.  I am constantly moving the brush, painting things that happened 30-45 minutes ago, changing things on the fly, building up paint as it dries.  It's totally different from how I normally paint.  Very freeing, very rejuvenating. Also I will, again, have a booth in the Art Show area at Gen Con Indianapolis this year.  It's a wond...

Hemelhaven , 7.25"x11", Oil over Ink, 2014. A couple months ago, I was very bored and was having a bit of artist's block.  So to kick myself out of this rut, I started drawing castles on big rock cliffs in the middle of the ocean.  This is a composition I drew all the time back in high school.  I got quite imaginative with some of them.  So, after getting back from the Netherlands, I wanted to do a castle city in a more Dutch aesthetic.  This isn't too important of a piece for me, just a fun exercise.  I was also playing around with doing an ink drawing and painting on top of it.  So I did the ink drawing, sprayed it thoroughly with Krylon UV Archival spray, then mounted the paper to a board using acrylic matte medium.  Luckily, it did not smudge at all.  So, this is the final image, but I thought I'd show the black and white version also. Hemelhaven , 7.25"x11", Ink, 2014.

Swarming Mosquitoes , 11"x11", Oil on Paper, on Masonite, 2013. ©Fantasy Flight Games I have been meaning to post this painting for quite some time now, since the card it was painted for came out a month or two ago, sorry if you have been waiting with baited breath.  The description for this commission was to show swarms of hazardous mosquitoes attacking a random ranger in the Dead Marshes.  In order to approach this kind of painting, where the motion of the character swatting at bugs, I couldn't just pose my model in a static position and take a picture.  So my friend, Scott Murphy, came over, dressed in full ranger garb, and flailed around as I held my finger down on a rapid fire setting on my camera.  In a matter or minutes, I had about a hundred pictures from which to choose.  There were some great shots that really showed the motion I wanted, this being the best, in my opinion. This card is part of The Lord of the Rings LCG from Fantasy Flight Game...

My wife and I went on a ski vacation in mid-January to the Catskills, and I brought this piece to work on while I wasn't skiing.  I had taken a photo of this scene about 6 years ago, when my wife and I first started dating.  The folds in the sheets were too perfect to not take the photo.  So, now years later, I was finally going to take some time to paint the scene. About halfway through my second day of working, I got a phone call that my father had had a heart attack while he was in the hospital, and was being air-lifted to another better hospital.  We dropped everything and rushed to his side.  He survived that heart attack, and I was able to spend some quality time with him before he eventually died about a month after that to a second heart attack. I will always look at this painting and remember that time in my life; the hardest and worst time in my life.  This painting gave me some beautiful distraction from the hardship going on in my brain. ...

Hello Everyone! It's been a little while since my last post, I have a few pieces that I will be able to post soon, but I am excited about this newest painting so I'm going to give you guys this one first. The Truth Can Be Hard, 18"x24", Oil on Paper on Masonite, 2014 "The Truth Can Be Hard" is the second piece in my "Creationist" series.  It is another commentary on the Young Earth Creationist movement that is happening in our society.  It is scary that certain people don't respond to a progressive scientific outlook on the history of our planet and Universe.  Homo Sapiens have been on Earth for an estimated 200,000 years, which is still just the blink of an eye in the grand scheme of things.  And to think that some people believe we lived along side dinosaurs is just a bit too naive to take seriously.  So that is what this series is about.  People who blind themselves to the world surrounding them, in order to somehow feel closer to God...

Silver Lamp , 11"x11", Oil on Paper on Masonite, 2013. ©Fantasy Flight Games A new card of mine from the Lord of the Rings LCG from Fantasy Flight Games has just been released.  This one is called "Silver Lamp".  The original concept for this image was for it to be a character piece of Haldir of Lórien.  He was to be finding the fellowship in the forest surrounding Lothlórien and lighting their faces.  I guess the Art Director was fond of my design for the lamp, so they changed the card from Haldir to "Silver Lamp".  I myself am very happy with this card.  This is part of The Voice of Isengard set. I should have another piece coming out in the Dead Marshes Nightmare deck in the next couple months, so look out for that. There is also a nice piece that Master of Lore wrote up about this piece on his blog, so if you have a few minutes, you might want to check it out: http://masteroflore.wordpress.com/2014/04/25/artist-spotlight-owen-william-web...

This is a painting I did back in 2012 for the new A Games of Thrones LCG Chapter Pack called The Horn that Wakes.  I had a great time doing this piece.  Evil characters are so much fun to design and create.  Happy Valentine's Day!

Hello Everyone! Happy New Year, sorry it's been so long.  Since the new year I have gotten some much needed relaxation and have taken a short break from painting.  I have gotten some great news professionally though, my paintings "The Golem of Prague" and "Beliefs Mean Nothing" have both gotten into the annual competitions for Infected By Art and the Society of Illustrators West .  These are both very prestigious competitions and I am extremely lucky to be chosen.  A slew of other great illustrators have also gotten in and I wish to congratulate all of them on their success as well. In other news, before the holidays I was commissioned by a friend to do a portrait of his younger brother, Joe, as a Conan type character.  I was given a lot of freedom and had a blast painting this piece.  Here is the final piece:   I have been told that Joe loved the piece, which I named "Joe the Destroyer" but he is calling it, ahem, "The Hyman's Bane...