New Hearthstone card for "Journey to Un'Goro"


Hey everyone! A new Hearthstone expansion is out and I once again have a card in the set. I love love LOVE working with Blizzard and especially on Hearthstone, so it's always a thrill to see my art in the game, as an artist of course, but even more as a genuine FAN of the games.

I believe the set hits next week, but the cards were spoiled yesterday, so I'm free to share it here: The Vinecleaver Machete. I love the theme of this set, and it was equally awesome for me to see what the other artists created for this expansion.



I've been making much more art since the New Year, but not much I can show off just yet, which is a drag. Hmm, maybe I should start some personal project that will give me more art I can reveal in a timely manner...

New Year Hearthstone Update

Sorry I haven't been updating regularly, but this past year has been full of lots of neat work, only some of which I can show off. If you'd like to see my work more regularly, I encourage people to find me on Instagram, where I post works in progress and sketches, as well as finished art. Find me here:
https://www.instagram.com/joewilson_illustration

On to the art!

Here are a few pieces from Hearthstone, the Counterfeit Coin and the Explorer's Hat are two of my favorite Hearthstone cards thus far. From the Mean Streets of Gadgetzan and League of Explorer's sets.






A couple of chess piece cards for the Karazhan expansion.




Fadeleaf Toxin from Whispers of the Old Gods





Trying out some stuff

I'm always trying out some new style or approach. I find it's a good way to stay artistically limber. It really pays to keep exploring. This update shows a little of some recent exploration. This first batch was just me playing with some faster, looser more "concept art" style looks.






I've also been playing a bit with a more graphic, design oriented look. I may one day take this style and create some Tshirt designs, buttons, or another stab at creating stickers.








Monster Stickers


Recently I had the idea that it would be fun to take a stab at creating my own Kickstarter. I know many artists have that same idea, and while many go the route of sketchbooks and other collections of their art, I wanted to do something a little different. I just wasn't sure what. while doodling some sketches for "evil" Halloween candy inspiration hit. Why not do sticker sheets of monsters? When I was a kid back in the 80's, it seemed like cool stickers were all over the place, and what I remember (and maybe it's filtered through little kid lenses) was the art was actually a lot of fun! Yet these days I walk through stores and see art put on stickers (and other products) that is boring and uninspired, and little better than generic clip art. Also, as a guy who loves Halloween, I go into Halloween stores that pop up every season and find that most of the stuff has pretty horrible art on it! If you are going to make something, why not pay a little extra to have an artist at least make it as cool as possible?

So the idea was born for me to do my own version, and call them simply "Monster Stickers". I created three test designs, each with a theme (and admittedly used work I had previously created in the third sheet, but why not? None of those designs had been previously printed or even seen outside my blog here). At the time of this post, the Kickstarter is down to it's final 12 days, and is sitting at 43% funded. Will it get funded? At this point, it actually seems unlikely. It seems to have stalled out a week ago, with a trickle of new support here and there still, but with $2 and $5 pledges being the most obvious options for someone who doesnt want a TON of stickers, it just isn't getting the kind of viral views it would need to make the distance. Despite this, I'm far from discouraged. It's been fun to try, and I've learned a lot. I'm also planning on retooling the idea and trying again. Maybe instead of sheets of monster stickers people would respond to a smaller run of single monster designs, such as a larger die cut sticker of just the Cthulu design, or the Monster Candy all posed together rather than individually on a sticker sheet. Hmmmm, we shall see!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2102533205/monster-stickers

Update!

It's been a little while since I had a decent update, so here's some new art! First, a couple of monsters!



Next, some figure studies from a Drink and Draw a few days ago. Not the most finished works of course, but for 15 minute poses in a bar while drinking, not bad I don't think :P These were done on the Surface Pro 3 running Photoshop. Definitely one of my preferred ways of sketching in color away from home now.