Owen William Weber Illustration

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 ...

Sound the Alarm! , 12"x12", oil on paper on masonite, 2014. This is a piece I painted for Fantasy Flight Games from about a year ago.  It was painted for their "Escape from Mt. Gram" deck for their Lord of the Rings LCG.  The description was just to depict a goblin ringing a bell of sorts made from the armor of past victims.  I hadn't really done any evil creatures in a very long time, so I wanted to really show that I can handle the darker side of Lord of the Rings.  Also, I had recently dove head first into Death/Black Metal music and I was really jonesin' for a good demonic painting to paint. Sound the Alarm! sketch , 12"x12", pencil, 2014. I had a great time working on the sketch, and the Art Director liked how it looked, so it was approved for the painting stage without any changes.  As you can see, I kinda get a general composition worked out, but I do a good amount of improvising during the painting stage.  Also, I don't do colo...

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...

Greenseer's Raven , 12"x 10", oil on paper on masonite, 2014. ©Fantasy Flight Games When it rains, it pours.  I have always found this statement to be strangely true.  I may go a long time between jobs, but once I get a new commission a couple others will follow.  And like yesterday, when I have news to tell (like a blog post that was well overdue) a couple other tidbits came to my knowledge within an hour or so. Firstly, a card commission I have been waiting patiently to show for the past year, has finally been released!  It's called "Greenseer's Raven", and it is part of the "Secrets and Schemes" deck of the A Game of Thrones LCG from Fantasy Flight Games.  I was very excited to get this commission last year; firelight and animals are always fun to paint.  There isn't much of a story behind this one though, I found reference of a raven, and just improvised from there.  I tried to work in as many diagonals with the tree branches a...

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...

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...

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...

I was just alerted that this piece was released quite a while ago.  I had a really good time painting this piece for "The Black Riders" deck in The Lord of the Rings LCG.  Barliman is a sweet, lovely man, one of the people worth fighting for.  I think I came on to this piece as a last minute addition to fill up the deck.  There was a much quicker due date than most,  so this one is quite small.  I stare at it every once in a while (in the pile of paintings standing against my wall) and it makes me happy.  I'm quite proud of this one.

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...

Happy Solstice Everyone! I have been working very hard lately with a couple commissions due before the Holidays, but I thought I'd show you all my Winter Card image this year. Since last year I produced one of my favorite paintings for my Winter Card, I thought I'd bring back the character and show him in another situation.  This year the Nisse is coming into the barn from a very blustery evening.  I always want to instill a feeling of solitude in these Nisse paintings, a love for his role on the farm.  Also, I want these paintings to show a contemporary time period.  The house that he works for could be from numerous decades, but there are little hints of electricity, or in this case, windmills in the background.  Windmills are everywhere in Denmark, and since this is a Danish character, the windmills give a geographical symbol.  They also act as a somewhat political symbol, as I believe that wind is one energy source our world needs to h...

The Golem of Prague , 12"x 16", Oil on Paper on Masonite, 2013. Back in August, at Gen Con Indy, I was approached by a man who was starting a book called "Lands and Legends".  It is a book of illustrations based on various myths, legends and fantastic places, from all cultures around the world.  I was saying yes to his pitch in no time.  There was already a huge list of amazing illustrators involved and he had a great financial plan for this book that would involve a Kickstarter campaign.  He had a list of ideas for various subjects that would meet his criteria, as I glossed over the list, "The Golem of Prague" jumped out at me and my mind was made up that this was my subject matter.  The Golem has been a subject I have wanted to paint since I came back from Prague four years ago.  I went to a service in the Old New Synagogue (depicted in the background of the painting) with my Wife and Father-In-Law, knowing full well that what was left...

Beliefs Mean Nothing , 24"x18", Oil on Paper on Masonite, 2013. Since coming back from GenCon, I have been super motivated to finish a personal piece before Illuxcon, where I will be showing in the showcase Friday and Saturday night.  I have had this composition as a drawing in my work sketchbook for what seems like ages now, and I'm glad I had the time to bang this one out. This piece was conceived from the idea that Creationists are pushing to get their beliefs taught in schools in Texas.  The image is meant to depict a Creationist man clutching to his beliefs, willfully blind, even in the face of scientific evidence.  I also wanted the viewer to get the impression that the triceratops is abandoning the man, as the man abandons the dinosaur.  The triceratops fades from the man towards a more enlightened mind.  The title refers to an idea I have been pondering lately.  It is irrelevant whether someone believes in something; that thing exists at that...

Gen Con was a blast this year! It was so much fun to finally have a booth of my own this year.  It was a very different experience, for the first time I didn't see much of the actual convention.  In the past I have walked through everyone's booth at least once or twice, this year I probably saw a quarter of what was there.  It was great to hear all the compliments from the attendees, and I loved drawing on people play mats and signing cards!  That was truly an amazing experience!  It was wonderful to see past friends and make some great new ones.  Here are a few pictures from the weekend. Sarah at the booth on wednesday Me and my Booth Elisabeth Alba and a true leg man My first play mat sketch This woman had unicorns covering her play mat Another Play Mat My view all Weekend Right before I left for Indianapolis, I was given the new Star Wars: Edge of Darkness Expansion pack from Fantasy Flight Games.  ...