Jeffrey Kaplan for The Deal

Hey,

A portrait I recently drew of Bank of America's Jeffrey Kaplan is in the current issue of The Deal.

The full-page portrait appears in the feature article "A Deal Guy's Goodbye." Although the deadline was really quick with this, it was great to do a portrait and I was pleased with how it turned out.

This was drawn on watercolor paper with a brush. The original art by itself is here.


Thanks,
Doug

Rafflesia Factoid

I recently finished the artwork below for Richard Solomon's "Factoid" poster project.

My illustrated fact concerned the Rafflesia, the world's largest flower.  Found in and around Malaysia, the flower gives off an unusual odor - hence its nickname the "meat flower."  With that in mind, I felt the Malayan Tiger was an attractive and sensible element to use in the image.

The assignment was altered to call for black and white, but I originally envisioned this as a color piece as some of my submitted sketches show. Despite this change, the project was a lot of fun from the very start.

Thanks,
Doug

Lord of the Rings- Doug Cowan

Although this The Lord of the Rings artwork isn't new, much of it has not been shown before. The finished Legolas artwork was published by Topps as part of their "The Lord of the Rings: Masterpieces II" card set.

Before being assigned the character Legolas, I did many preliminary sketches. Most of these involved Gandalf, who had been my first choice.

Below is the final art; both the original watercolor and the finished image, colored in Photoshop.

Thanks,
Doug

Star Wars 30th Anniversary Card Set- Doug Cowan

Below are some of my card drawings for Topps' The Empire Strikes Back 30th Anniversary card set. Each drawing roughly measures 2.5 x 4.5 inches.

Thanks,
Doug

Star Wars Lithograph: Doug Cowan

"... The idea of a bounty hunter means someone who will never give up. Also, a bounty hunter has lots of experience. When you think of a bounty hunter you don't think of someone starting out in the business. That's why we made him look like he had been through hell."

-Irvin Kershner

Currently featured on the starwars.com homepage, this artwork will be sold as a limited-edition lithograph at Star Wars Celebration V in Orlando, from August 12-15. I'll post the process and final print details once they've been finalized.

The image shows bounty hunter Boba Fett and his ship, Slave I , shortly before the events of The Empire Strikes Back. He's tracked a fugitive to the desolate Outer Rim - essentially the ends of the Earth - and like the bounty hunters of the Wild West, he is looking to bring them in "dead or alive."

Although I was only able to select a single concept for the Star Wars Celebration V approval process, I did many preliminary sketches exploring potential themes. Some of the more colorful ones are shown below:

The following sketch and study led to the final Boba Fett artwork.

Thanks,

Doug

Topps' The Empire Strikes Back 30th Anniversary- Doug Cowan

I recently completed a number of drawings for Topps' The Empire Strikes Back 30th Anniversary card set. I will post more of this work closer to their release in May.

Thanks,
Doug

Character Commissions- Doug Cowan

April is looking to have some projects similar to this past month's as well as a few different ones. In the meantime, here are a few commissioned sketches of various characters I've recently done.

Thanks,
Doug

Satar Wars Galaxy 5: Darth Vader & Darth Maul- Doug Cowan

This is the third and final illustration I did for Topps' Star Wars Galaxy 5 card set. Like my previous Luke Skywalker card, this is an off-screen scene that occurs during The Empire Strikes Back. The reverse side of the card features my sketch and a short quote that describes the scene:
The painting below is the second of three done for Topps' Star Wars Galaxy 5 card set. The scene depicts Darth Maul, standing before the rear loading bay doors of his ship. The reverse side of the card features an earlier sketch and a short quote:

-Doug

Star Wars Galaxy 5 Luke Skywalker- Doug Cowan

This is one of three new illustrations I did for Topps' Star Wars Galaxy 5 card set. Below is the initial sketch selected from the group in my previous post. I've also included a second, refined version that was done before I painted the final image.

-Doug

Star Wars Insider- Doug Cowan

Two of my Star Wars Galaxy 5 sketches are published in the current issue of Star Wars Insider ( issue #115).

Other artists included in the feature are Cliff Chiang, Adam Hughes, Stephane Roux, David Rabbitte, Jerry Vanderstelt, Katie Cook, Grant Gould and Bruce Timm.

Thanks,
Doug

Star Wars Prelims- Doug Cowan

I recently did three new pieces of art for Topps' Star Wars Galaxy 5 trading card set. This series is set to go on sale later this week, so I'll be posting my final art shortly.

In the meantime, below are some of my preliminary sketches that were submitted to Topps and Lucasfilm.

Being that I was only able to do three of these, it would be fun to finish up some of the discarded ideas down the road.

To see more prelims, check out the personal blog here.

Thanks,
Doug

Spider-Man Sketch Cards- Doug Cowan

The Spider-Man Archives card set that I worked on in August was released this past week. I've added 28 of the images to the site. They are shown in my "sketch" section.

These were painted in watercolor and ended up being a lot of fun to do.