GenCon was a success this year as our editors came back with pictures, updates and ideas. From dressing up to meeting authors, our editors were busy getting the scoop on all the gaming. Here are Christina and Vanessa “working”

Here is Emily Fiegenschuh with her IMPACT book The Explorer’s Guide to Drawing Fantasy Creatures.

Jim Pavelec and Chris Seasman, authors of InkBloom, were also there as promised.

But all good things have to come to an end so our editors are safely back in office working on what’s next.

And for me, I am working the last day of my internship. So sad . It has been an amazing experience here at IMPACT and I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I’m going to miss the behind the scenes action! Now it’s time to join you guys and wait on edge to see what they’re cooking up next! Bye!

GenCon 2011 is finally here! We’ll be updating Facebook and tweeting from GenCon for the next few days. Follow us for breaking news! Several of our authors, including Emily Fiegenschuh, will be there. Have you seen The Explorer’s guide to Drawing Fantasy Creatures yet? Go check it out!

If you’re planning to attend Gen Con in Indianapolis this week, you’ll be able to meet the Emily in person, and get a peek at the book as well as more of this IMPACT artist’s amazing work!

Be sure to check out Emily’s new blog, Fabled Earth, for more information about her appearance at Gen Con, book signings and other promotional events.

Other IMPACT authors who will be there include William O’Connor , Stephanie Pui-Mun Law, Chuck Lukacs, Jim Pavelec, Chris Seaman, and Rebecca Guay.

These authors have helped us create Sketch Dragons, DragonWorld, Dracopedia, Sketch Fantasy Art, Dreamscapes Myth & Magic, Fantasy Genesis, Wreaking Havoc, Ink Bloom, Hell Beasts, and soon to come Fantasy Illustration Master Class.

Check out all these books in the North Light Shop and don’t forget to keep following us while we’re at GenCon!

Sign up for Chuck Lukacs’s mailing list and get a NEW chance every few months to win ORIGINAL prints or collectible Magic: The Gathering cards. Not only that, each time, Chuck will also give a small amount to one of the charities (like this one) listed on his website.

Chuck Lukacs is the author of Fantasy Genesis, the first “how to draw”/fantasy art idea generation game/book of its kind and co-author of Wreaking Havoc, the no holds barred guide to drawing and painting fantasy warriors and weaponry that he did along with fellow IMPACTers Jim Pavelec and Chris Seaman.

Keep creating!

Mona

Click on the pictures to find out more!

Ninja Mountain Scrolls, the blog with news from “a collective of artists who work mainly in the fields of Fantasy, Horror, Science Fiction, and comics,” recently interviewed Chris Seaman and Jim Pavelec to discuss Ink Bloom. The duo talks with Ninja Mountain about their creative process and what it was like to work together. Listen to the interview on the Ninja Mountain podcast here.

In other bloggy Ink Bloom news, Chris and Jim also have their own blog up about making the book: hachihachimitsu.blogspot.com. It will post information, news and reviews about the book. Up now is a concept sketch that grew out of a conversation they had about Hachi’s companion character Pigweed.

“We felt pretty good about it so ran with it. The other is a version of Pigweed’s house. We knew that his house was going to play a roll in Hachi’s story. Here is a previously never before seen concept of Pigweed’s domicile. The original thought was for a more organic design. But decided later to make it more geometric.”

Keep up with Ink Bloom news here and on their site.

Live in the Cleveland area? Then you still have time to see many of the original Ink Bloom paintings in person and up close!

Chris Seaman, co-author of IMPACT’s Ink Bloom, will be exhibiting over 50 pieces of his original work, at Arts Collinwood Gallery in Cleveland, Ohio, until Saturday, September 10th. This exhibition is FREE and open to the public, 11:00 am to 11:00 pm at the
 Arts Collinwood Gallery, 15605 Waterloo Road, 
Cleveland OH, 44110‬
, (216) 692-9500‬
.

Ink Bloom by Jim Pavelec and Chris Seaman is the first fantasy art instruction book to include an original fantasy story. Readers will learn how illustration and story work hand in hand, with step-by-step demonstrations on how to create fantastic alien creatures, landscapes, background elements, and more as they follow Hachi and her friends’ adventures to futuristic worlds.

Order your copy in the NLShop today!

We here at IMPACT understand the need for instant gratification. Sometimes we just aren’t patient enough to wait for books we ordered to come by mail, and sometimes there’s no way we’re getting out of sweatpants to go to the bookstore. Thankfully we solved our own problem with digital downloads.

If you haven’t been to the IMPACT online shop in a while, browse through the digital downloads section. You can get instant access to books like Dreamscapes: Creating Magical Angel, Faery & Mermaid Worlds with Watercolor and Enchanting Fairies: How to Paint Charming Fairies & Flowers, and we also have a full video download of “Painting a Fantasy Scene with Chris Seaman”, the Ink Bloom artist. (Check out a preview of the video here.)

Instant instruction for today’s comic, manga and fantasy artists. Aren’t we a helpful bunch?

Get on it! Fiction and nonfiction meet. IMPACT Books is releasing the first-ever (that we know of…if you can find another one…let us know and we’ll send Hachi to kick its you-know-what) how-to draw, how-to paint book that follows a story line.

By the guys who gave you HELL BEASTS (that’s Jim) and WREAKING HAVOC (that’s the whole crew), we give you INK BLOOM. Follow the blog now for the best updates and sneak peaks!

Check out the Ink Bloom blog here.

Follow Hachi on Facebook here.

Follow IMPACT on Facebook here.

Happy December! (We got our first snow here at IMPACT HQ today, I’m a little giddy.)

-Mona

Jim Pavelec and Chris Seaman’s upcoming IMPACT book Ink Bloom is featured in the current issue of Imagine FX. Check out the article and don’t forget to follow Jim and Chris’s progress on their blog. Ink Bloom will be available in April 2010.

Have a great weekend!

mary

Happy Friday everyone! We’re wrapping up the week with a fourth installment of super-awesome designer Wendy Dunning’s exploits at Mid-Ohio-Con:

With a Little Help from Your Friends
Comic Art Collaboratives and Groups
I found that Columbus has a couple of groups of folks that get together to share their art with each other. One of these is Sunday Comix, founded by Max Ink. Sunday Comix meets once a month (on a Sunday) so that members can share works in progress and get feedback. It’s open to artists, writers and readers. Their website is www.sundaycomix.blogspot.com. They are sponsoring Comix from the Crypt, a haunting art show of member’s works, now through the end of the month of October. A couple of members are pictured here.

Also in Columbus is a group called PANEL. This is a writers and artists collaborative that publishes anthologies with Ferret Press. The anthologies come out twice a year, with the current one being number 14, PANEL of Horror. I stopped to talk to Brent Bowman, who did the cover art for PANEL of Horror.

Q: How long have you been doing this?
A: So long, I can’t remember. But more in the last 4 years since I’ve been with PANEL.

Brent is working on a comic called Allied Powers (www.alliedpowerscomic.com). The writer is Craig Bogart, who has his own comic called The Ineffables (www.theineffables.com). I picked up a couple of issues of both. The Ineffables is kooky fun from the two issues I’ve read so far, and I have not yet broken into Allied Powers.

PANEL website: www.ferretpress.com/weblog
Ferret Press: www.ferretpress.com

The moral of the story: hook up with some of your comic buds to keep the comics dream alive.

Here’s a book by some comic artists that work together: Wreaking Havoc. Written by Jim Pavalec, Chris Seaman, Chuck Lukacs and Thomas Manning, this book shows you how to draw the characters and creatures that wreak havoc and their weapons of destruction. And if October has you in the mood for some horror, check out Jim Pavalec’s Hell Beasts or Steve Ellis’s Scream.