I’ve re-recorded my 2025 Comicon Lecture. For those who attended, this is your chance to revisit the material—this time without the technical hiccups or the abrupt cut-off at the end of the hour. We can finally take our time and dig into the ideas properly. My goal is simple: to help you put language and labels to the instincts and habits you already use as an artist—and for those still hesitating at the edge, to…| Muddy Colors
“Art is more about an emotional connection. Not how much it cost, or what celebrity made it. If you have an emotional connection, then it’s art. I’ve worked with hundreds of illustrators in my life, and they’re all brilliant, but they don’t get recognized for anything. This museum is a temple to the people’s art.” — George Lucas Above: George Lucas, Guillermo del Toro, Doug Chiang, and panel moderator Queen Latifah A little over 8…| Muddy Colors
If we were to make up a list of “Muddy Colors’s Favorite Artists” I think it would be safe to say John Singer Sargent is in the top 5. He’s certainly a frequent article topic and referenced quite a bit on this blog over the years. If you want some background, I did one of my Turning Points articles on him and Robert Hunt did a great one called “So What’s So Great About John…| Muddy Colors
Recently in one of my online classes for SmArt School, a few students were having trouble creating visual interest in their compositions. The pieces lacked depth. The culprit wasn’t the design of the main elements, but the distribution of values. Generally, the students think of the background as dark, but they also wanted to put their main subject in dark clothing, and all the darks in the subject were the same darks as in the…| Muddy Colors
I recently had the pleasure of working with the tabletop RPG Oath Hammer to create a cover and several illustrations. Today, I’d like to share some of the work for them with you! I love the challenge that these kinds of projects present: complex character interactions, cool backgrounds, interesting lighting and texture opportunities, and most of all, visual storytelling. This image in particular called for a classic group of RPG heroes who have encountered some…| Muddy Colors
World Building is one of the most underrated essentials of storytelling, and if you do it right, one of the most invisible. In my personal opinion, the holy trinity of storytelling World Building and Character Development are top tier with Plot as the tiny lagging puppy running keep up. Character and World Building are what draws you in to a story, and want to revisit it again later. When a story is working, Plot is…| Muddy Colors
Play and creativity go together hand-in-hand like, well, me and Colin. However, amidst deadline crunches, working with clients, creative problem solving challenges, material disasters and, dare we admit, at times over-the-top, self-imposed pressures to continually bring more to the party, sometimes getting through a piece can feel more like a slog than the expressive rapture that beckoned us into the creative arts in the first place. As our schedules become more and more intense, it’s…| Muddy Colors
Howdy folks! Bit of a nuts and bolts post here. I get asked all the time how I go about mounting a drawing I’ve done, to panel. Maybe you’ve done a drawing and you dig it so much you don’t want to paint over it? Maybe you want to have the original drawing available for a collector? Heck, maybe you want to simply paint bigger than your original drawing? I gotcha covered. Plus, I also…| Muddy Colors
Think about what your dream life looks like. If you picture it, placing no constraints on yourself to keep it humble or realistic, what would your fairy tale best life be? In mine, I am a celebrated author and illustrator. I increase representation of Native American people, queer people,| Muddy Colors
-By Howard Lyon Color is a fascinating and challenging part of painting. It can be defined as hue, saturation and value. Today, I am going to focus a little more on saturation. Saturation being how intense or gray a color is. Before I get going though, I think I need to add a disclaimer to this post. Painting from life is the best way to understand color. Also, photographs of paintings are by no…| Muddy Colors
I always love to visit another artist’s studio. I suspect that Muddy Colors readers do too- so this month I thought I would give you a studio tour. I also know that readiers probably know little or nothing about me, as I don’t think I am what one normally thinks of as a sci-fi fantasy artist (more on professional identity issues in a future article). My studio is at my home, about 30 feet from…| Muddy Colors
“This is the little corner of the world wherein I shall work out my destiny.” N. C. Wyeth A while back fellow Muddy Colors contributor, monster enthusiast, and cat wrangler, Justin Gerard, and I were talking about studios. He posed the question: what makes an ideal studio? In all the working set ups from all the years, what really mattered for quality of life and production? Thinking through every place in the last 15 years…| Muddy Colors
Lately I’ve been illustrating classic novels for special handmade editions. One publishing house I’ve worked with is Arete Editions in the UK. I’ve worked with the publisher, Marcelo Anciano, for twenty years and we love to discuss books and publishing and writing when working together. It’s from one of those conversations that he offered me the chance to illustrate Stephen King’s mild ghost story, The Life of Chuck. Marcelo also works on books and interior…| Muddy Colors
I think as creative humans, it’s important to have a deep and strong connection to the senses. And I feel that all senses are a support to the others. They work in tandem, and along with understanding and openness, a presence. For example, let’s take what it is to see. What does “to see” mean to you? I feel that to see is… To be awake, aware, to let ourselves be lifted by all that…| Muddy Colors
Whether it’s portrait of a pet or the furry best friend of a fictional hero, most illustrators will be asked to draw a dog or cat along the way. In this article, I’ll focus on the often overlooked skull and head differences that can dramatically improve your drawings and basic animal anatomy. This key insight will help improve your dog and cat anatomy with one look. If you’ve read my articles, you will know The…| Muddy Colors
Last month I did a long post about how to not rely on Google images to do your image research — for a lot of reasons, including originality, accuracy, and avoiding AI sludge filling up search engines. The short version of the post is to start using better/vetted databases. And one I forgot to add is| Muddy Colors
Color roughs are something I put a lot of value in. Colors set the mood. They tell a story as much as the drawing does. To me, the color choice has never been easy or something I have taken lightly, but over the years I have developed different palettes that I like and that I tend to use more often.| Muddy Colors
It's fairly self evident, like one of those little cards on a new broom you plan to buy, that shows you how to use a broom, but it bears addressing anyway. We're in a hyper narcissistic time, and more and more creators, writers, and artists are having to pick up the slack publishers are leaving behi| Muddy Colors
