Owen William Weber Illustration

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...

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...

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