Desktop looking a little boring? Time to switch out the HP7 wallpaper for something new? Maybe something with IMPACT? (Pun intended…)

Download free desktop wallpaper of fine art featured in IMPACT Books and get exclusive bonus desktop wallpapers by signing up for our e-mail newsletter, which actually gives great tips and let’s you in on special offers.

Scroll down to the bottom of the page for IMPACT wallpaper and click the desktop background you like. We’ve got stuff from Extreme Face Painting and Buddy Scalera’s Comic Artist’s Photo Reference. After the image has loaded, just right-click (control-click on a Mac) and select “Set as Background” or “Set as Wallpaper.” The newest images are at the top.

If you sign up for the newsletter, the bonus images include awesome art from Dreamscapes, DragonArt and Wreaking Havoc like this:

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.

IMPACT co-authors Chris Seaman and Jim Pavelec both received high praise and awards for the awesome work they presented at Gen Con this year. Chris won Best in Show for his entire body of work, which means that he gets to judge the art show next year. Jim won third place for a Star Wars cover he created for Dark Horse earlier this year.

Jim and Chris along with Thomas Manning and Chuck Lukacs are the authors of Wreaking Havoc: How to Create Fantasy Warriors and Wicked Weapons. Jim and Chris also co-authored How to Draw Blood-Sucking Monsters and Vampires (available soon), and they are currently working on Ink Bloom (available in April 2010). More on their latest project will be coming out soon.

Chris and Jim at Chris’s booth.

You can see some of their award-winning art and follow their progress on Ink Bloom at their blog.

If you are interested in gaming, Gen Con is the place to be! Gen Con Indy has been going on for over 40 years and features some of the newest games on the market, sneak peaks at up-and-comings, and booth after booth of game-related FUN, and runs this year August 13-16, 2009.

The IMPACT staff will be walking the show floor on Friday, August 14, visiting some of our favorite IMPACT authors (Stephanie Pui-Mun Law, Bill O’Connor, Chris Seaman, and Jim Pavelec to name a few), and just seeing what there is to see. We hope to see some of you too!

Check out the new blog by Jim Pavelec and Chris Seaman, two of the authors of the 2008 release, Wreaking Havoc: How to Create Fantasy Warriors and Wicked Weapons.

The pair has teamed up again to create another IMPACT book, due for release in Spring 2010.

While I can’t share with you the details just yet (well, I could, but you know what I’d have to do next…and quite honestly, I just don’t have the time), I CAN tell you that this next book will be incredibly cool, and you CAN follow along with what Chris and Jim are reading, looking at, stressed out about, at the blog they set up to chronicle their creation of the book: Ink Bloom.

As the publication date nears, of course, details will be revealed.

In the meantime, if you haven’t picked up a copy of Wreaking Havoc, or of Hell Beasts: How to Draw Grotesque Fantasy Creatures, what are you waiting for?!

Horrifying beasts from below were the subject of Jim Pavelec's first how to draw and paint fantasy art book.

Hell Beasts, Jim Pavelec’s first IMPACT instruction book, just received another glowing review, this time from HorrorNews.net. Click here to read the full review.

Check out Hell Beasts and Wreaking Havoc (co-authored by Jim Pavelec, Chris Seaman, Chuck Lukacs and Thomas Manning) for yourself:

Click here to buy Hell Beasts.

Click here to buy Wreaking Havoc.

Read on for more fun facts about Jim Pavelec.

Name: Jim Pavelec
Nickname: None
Hometown: St. Louis, Missouri
Current residence: Berwyn, Illinois
Kids and/or pets? None
Favorite food: various kinds of dead animal flesh
Favorite candy bar: I doubt anyone really cares
Favorite TV show: Lost, Battlestar Gallactica and Death Note
Favorite movie: Conan the Barbarian
Favorite website(s): www.jimpavelec.com
Favorite blog(s): What’s a blog
Do you collect anything (stamps, comics)? toys, comics, anime
First job ever: working in an electrical contractor’s warehouse
Best job ever: writing and illustrating Hell Beasts
When did you know you wanted to be an artist/illustrator? At age 5
Give us a taste of your latest project? I am currently working on various pieces for D&D’s 4th edition.
Talk about a time you felt star struck in your line of work. Brom came over to my table at GenCon and told me one of my pieces was cool.
What’s the best piece of career advice you’ve received? Go to conventions to meet art directors face to face.

The tradition of learning always amazes me. Sometimes I forget, and sometimes I am reminded. Like yesterday. Chris Seaman, one of the authors of Wreaking Havoc, forwarded to us at IMPACT a couple pieces of art created by budding artist, Jordan, age 12. (In case you haven’t heard, we LOVE getting art from readers.)

This morning, while emailing back and forth about how COOL these drawings are, I recalled an interview I did with John Howe when I first started with F+W Media (then F+W Publications), IMPACT Books’ parent company. The interview was for Artist’s & Graphic Designer’s Market.

(In the interest of full-disclosure, I’ll tell you I’ve referenced this interview several times recently, on different occasions, for different reasons. I love it when something gives me a lot of mileage…but I do worry about the horse. Ahem.)

Jordan’s first sketch is from Chris Seaman's Wreaking Havoc gnome.

In the interview, John said:

“The deeper you throw yourself into copying someone else’s work, the faster you get through it and identify the elements which may eventually become part of your own way of approaching things. It’s a tradition that’s been going on for millennia. You’re trying to understand another’s work and the only way to understand is to try to do it. I must’ve copied millions of things when I was in my teens.”

I love that Jordan did the gnome, then seemed to take the stuff she really wanted to use—like the armor decoration for example—and put it to use with her own creature. Perhaps that’s all learning is—whether it’s drawing or writing or whatever. We see or hear something we like. We emulate it. And we should emulate it, at least for a while.

Jordan’s second sketch is her own creation.

John explained it like this:

“You’re looking for yourself somewhere. You’ve identified something that you think you can use. You need to try it and you need to make it your own. Imagine a road. You see a section of it way up ahead—because someone else has been drawing for ages and they’re professionals with all these techniques and gimmicks an gadgets. You get a glimpse long before you could get there by cutting through the woods yourself. Now you can forge on.”

So forge on, Jordan. You drew the gnome, then discovered how to take elements from that drawing and incorporate them into your own. Who knows what you’ll discover tomorrow? 

To read the entire article, originally published in 2004 Artists’ & Graphic Designer’s Market, click here.

So, Hellboy 2: The Golden Army was released on DVD last week. Has anyone purchased it yet? I’m thinking about it, but I had somewhat mixed feelings about the latest Hellboy installment.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the chocolate-eating, evil-fighting demon from hell, and the artistry was amazing. (You can always count on Guillermo del Toro for creative creatures and first-rate animation.)

However, I thought the plot left something to be desired. Some aspects were interesting (Prince Nuada and Princess Nuala’s fatal connection is a fun twist), but by and large, I thought the storyline lacked subtlety and wasn’t particularly creative. Yes, of course environmental issues are important, but don’t hit me over the head with them, OK?

Still…it’s a fun movie, and I’ll probably cave in soon. If you haven’t already, check it out and see for yourself. In the meantime, are you interested in drawing your own hellish creatures? Check out Hell Beasts by Jim Pavelec.

You’ll soon be drawing fiends that’ll scare your sister and send shivers down your spine!