The Lost Calling - Alien Species

The twelve alien species that make up the Republic in The Lost Calling were not fully realized while I was working on the comic form of the story. In the early stages I had a basic idea for each of the races, but had not yet decided how they would fit into the story. They weren't fleshed out until I began work on adapting the setting to be used in a weekly roleplaying game with my friends. To help them visualize and understand their choices of possible alien races to play as, I needed to finally design these creatures. Each with a distinct evolutionary backstory and a timeline within the history of the Republic, they served as distinct alien races to populate my fictional galaxy.
Below are the original designs provided to my gaming group and currently used on the data entry pages in the Far Reaches wiki.

The Year of the Dinosaur - Paleo Art Challenge 2015

A few years ago, I gave myself a challenge to complete 30 paintings in 30 days. It was a lot of fun. In recent years I have looked around for new and exciting challenges. I stumbled upon a similar exercise to do 30 days of dinosaurs drawings in 30 days, but it just didn't grab me enough. I sat on the idea for a while and as my love of painting once again blossomed, I began thinking about it again.
Recently, I have been enjoying painting birds and other things. It has been a unique challenge and a fun opportunity to paint something I had no idea I would enjoy so much. But I kept coming back to the idea of the dinosaur art challenge.
It wasn't until I painted this:

To date, this is probably one of my favorite pieces. It rekindled my love of dinosaurs and my unrealized dream of doing paleoart. While, I don't have the scientific schooling to do it officially, this is where my newest challenge idea came from. Adapt the 30 Day dino drawing challenge, drop a few categories, add some of my own and make it a new challenge.
2015 is the year I put this idea into fruition. Though a little late to start, now that it is almost February, my goal is to complete 25 paleo-themed works of art over the next year or so. It is not a race to get them done, but a challenge to make compelling art that I am proud of.
I'll never be a paleoartist, and that is okay. It leaves opportunity and time to paint so many other things (like the living dinosaurs we see flying around us everyday). And while it might be the year of the ram, 2015 is going to be the year of the dinosaur for me.

Stay tuned to this blog for work in progress images as well as postings of the finished works and where to purchase your own print. If you would like to take on my challenge as well, please feel free, you can try to do them all in a month, or spread it out. I would love to see what everyone else comes up with. This will be my challenge list:

1)A Theropod

2)A Sauropod

3)An ornithopod

4)Favorite Dinosaur

5)A maniraptoran

6)A Ceratopsian

7)An Ancient Bird

8)A feathered dinosaur (using modern bird coloring)

9)A hybrid of two dinosaurs

10)A sleeping dinosaur

11)A family group

12)Dinosaur(s) playing

13)A Synapsid

14)Courtship behavior

15)A Thyreophoran

16)A prehistoric mammal (Tertiary era)

17)Dinosaur concepts based on the Chinese zodiac

18)A dinosaur in a modern setting

19)Flying reptiles (Pterosauromorpha)

20)A pokemon-inspired dinosaur

21)A close-up

22)A fantasy-based dinosaur

23)A dinosaur and human

24)A dinosaur eating

25)Add dinos to a landscape painting

And I have already begun. Here is a sketch in progress of my first painting. It will be of a Monolophosaurus, a Chinese dinosaur discovered by a Canadian/Chinese team in 1981.

The Graphite Coalition

A few months back, I began a new project. Yes, I know, I often have far too many projects on the go. Well, I wanted to start a group related project to get other people involved. The core idea was to create a system of weekly themes, centered around popular culture and media. This would make for a light hearted, low pressure project to get people making art on a weekly basis. There were no limits. Submissions could be from a simple doodle done at work, to a week-long painting. Even CG and sculptural works were acceptable.
The project is entering its ninth week, and we have touched on some interesting and fun themes (which are all drawn randomly). Though turn out hasn't always been spectacular, I have kept the project going, ensuring there is an open opportunity for those interested.
I wanted to take a moment, on my lately neglected blog, to showcase some of the drawings I have made for this project. These are not for sale or done as promotion, and I do not own the rights to the characters or properties shown. These are merely done as artistic exercise and for fun.

I hope you enjoy the work, and for more on the Graphite Coalition, you can visit the group's page: The Graphite Coalition Project. If you are interested in joining the group, you can drop me an email request and I can set you up on our weekly mailing list.

USS Enterprise NC1701 - C

Korrasami

Tales of Urth - Book 1: Chapter 6

Chapter 6

A Dark Gift

"I don't hear anything," Jamfire said, his ear pressed against the door. "I am sure it is safe to try the key."

Titan emerged with the lantern in one hand and the small ring of iron keys in the other. He handed the lantern to the elf, waiting as Jamfire adjusted it to cast the handle of the door in its pale glow.

"There is certainly a lock here," the dwarf muttered as he traced the outline of a metal plate with his rough fingertips. Just below a cracked and rusted handle, the metal locking mechanism was bolted to the door. It was more elaborate than what would be expected in a place like this.

Thumbing through each key on the ring, Titan chose a couple to try. The third attempt found the small key sliding into the lock easily. He turned the key and felt the bolt pull away from the frame. The full weight of the door dell on the hinges and it shifted slightly on an odd angle.

Standing up and away from the door, Titan pulled his hammer from his belt and nodded to Jamfire. The elf grabbed hold of the handle and dragged the door open, feeling it grate across the stone. He held aloft the lantern to peer into the doorway. Nothing but darkness stared back at them.

"What do you see?" asked Damar, standing well behind Titan, his staff at the ready to protect the nervous bird held under his opposite arm.

"It seems to be a hallway." Jamfire explained. The elf held the lantern away from his face, allowing his keen violet eyes to adjust to the darkness. He blinked away the spots in his vision as he looked into the empty corridor. "Yes, a hallway, about twenty yards. I think there is another closed doorway at the end."

Tales of Urth: Book 1 - Chapter 5

Chapter 5

An Encounter Below

The drop through the hole to the flat stone landing directly below it, wasn't more than the height of the average man, but the journey into the absolute darkness below still worried Damar. Tucking himself in close to the damp wall, he made room on the stone platform for the others to follow.

Titan was second, and with him came a welcoming shaft of light. His storm lantern was proving far too useful, and Damar suddenly had a sense of dread that something could happen to it, leaving them trapped down here in darkness. The Tartarean had never really realized his discomfort in the dark. He recognized his difficulty in seeing in the dark, more poorly than any other non-human race he had encountered. But there was something else in that blackness. It wasn't his inability to see that bothered him. Something far deeper tugged at him in the shadows.

The light from the lantern was a comforting sight, and the Tar looked around the room to get his bearings. The light of the simple oil lamp didn't cut far into the room that opened up beyond the stair. It flickered and glistened off of roughly hewn walls, slick with rainwater seeping in from above.

As Jamfire descended into the room, Karenna tucked tightly into the crook of his arm, Damar took a hesitant step down the stone steps. They were solid though unprecisely cut. Each step varied in depth and height, making them awkward to descend. The entire stair, fixed firmly to the side wall, appeared to be cut from the rock wall itself. In fact, as they moved down and into the room, it looked as if the entire room were simply cut out of the mountain rock. It was almost box-like in shape, as if the room had been built up with stone walls, but no brick or seem could be found. Closer inspection of the wall, as Damar kept his hand there for support down the steps, showed rough tool marks that had carved the room from solid stone.

"Is this dwarven architecture?" asked Jamfire, looking closely at the chips and scrapes along the wall.

"No dwarf would claim this sort of work," replied Titan with disgust. He turned to the elf to clarify, "It is too rough and asymmetrical.  Geometry is everything to a well skilled dwarfsmith. No something else cut this room, but something far cleverer than a burrowing creature."

They reached the bottom of the steps and Titan pushed ahead to lead with the lamp. Walking into the center of the room, they could just make out all four walls of the room. The floor was not tiled or built up of brick, and so it listed awkwardly in some places. The room looked square enough that the slight imperfections almost made them dizzy as they walked across the uneven ground. Water pooled in sloped areas near the walls, but in others, rivulets of rainwater ran to the center of the room where a crudely cut channel collected it and sent it out to two drains on either side of the room. Titan was right, the room was roughly made, but it was not the tunnel of some unthinking beast. There was reason here. Ideas and ambition held back by limited skill.

Tales of Urth: Book 1 - Chapter 4

Chapter 4

The Farm

A less than gentle nudge from Titan's boot woke Damar from a sleep he hadn't planned on. He blinked open dry dull eyes, trying to take in the room around him. The lamp on the stove had dimmed significantly signaling at least a few hours had passed, but the light from the windows was no brighter than earliest signs of false-dawn.

"What is happening," Damar said, his voice betraying the fatigued cobwebs in his head, that he tried his best to shake out.

"It is morning, but the storm is still raging." Jamfire paced across the single room farmhouse, speaking as if he were merely thinking aloud. "If we are going to go, now is better than later."

"I agree," stated the dwarf, "as much as I hate getting wet, I am bored to tears sitting in this shack."

Damar looked at Karenna who sat nestled on a wooden stool. The bird looked at the squat dwarf with a silent annoyance. The Tartarean stood, stretching his arms and working the blood back into his limbs. He pulled his staff from the floor and checked his pouches.

"I'm ready enough, but before we go out into the storm," Damar paused, "what exactly are we looking for?"

The chicken stood and hopped down from the stool with an ungraceful flap of useless wings.

"Whoever did this to me for a start."

"I saw something in the storm last night," said Titan, "I say we look for traces of that. Anything that will lead us to the dark creature she saw cast this strange magic.

"And where do we start?" Damar asked.

"The barn," the elf said simple as he pulled the door open.

Tales of Urth - Book 1: Chapter 3

Chapter 3

A Feathered Favor

“A talking chicken?!” said the dwarf incredulously, poking at the white feathered thing at his feet.

The chicken scoffed in a strange sound that garbled together the perturbed cluck of an old hen with the impatient sigh of an obstinate teenager. She ruffled her feathers in annoyance, looking from one member of the party to the next.

“It seems hard to believe and yet there it is,” stated Damar simply.

“What is your name, chicken?” asked Jamfire, his voice was slow, punching out each word as if he were speaking to a dumb child.

“It’s Karenna,” replied the bird with a sigh, her voice laced with impatience. “And you don’t have to speak to me like an idiot, just because I look like a chicken doesn’t mean I can’t understand you.”

“My apologies Corna,” Jamfire said with a humble bow.

“Karenna. I saw you take on those brutes at the tavern. I thought you might be great warriors, now I am rather concerned you are wandering idiots.”

“We meant no insult, bird, it isn’t everyday you see talking livestock,” said Titan with a chuckle.

“Fine,” replied Karenna, “just tell me this, are you great adventurers or not?”

“Adventurers, certainly,” said Damar, “but great?”

“Speak for yourself, lad!” Titan pulled his hammer from his belt, striking a heroic pose. He smiled like he had swallowed an ounce of sour cheese. He tossed his hammer in a show of agility, but immediately dropped it when the pommel inelegantly struck his palm. The hammer struck the ground near the chicken and sent her flying in a cloud of dirt and feathers.

Titan looked about sheepishly.

Tentacle News Shop!!

Do you like weird art? Do you like fancy original t-shirts that make your friends ask, "who are you wearing tonight"? Well now is your chance! My wife and I have been working hard to set up a brand new online store!

Cat iphone case

Check out the "SHOP" link on the left to be taken to our brand new shop that will slowly fill with new designs and products. The shop contains original artwork by me, Jeff Powers. These unique designs can be customized and put on various items and articles of clothing.

Ever wanted a t-rex on your tummy?

Many of these designs can be moved from one product to another. If you like the look of a tshirt design, why not try it on a cell phone case or a mug?

We will be adding more designs often. Everything from humorous new designs, to classic works of illustration that I have showcased on Tentacle News. Including the much loved, and often stolen, Absinthe poster designs.

Soon we will also make available art prints and drawings from my collection. So you can own an original Jeff Powers art poster or canvas print.

Purchasing from the TentacleNews Shop, not only helps you look cool, but also helps me as an artist and freelance illustrator. It also pushes me to make more cool things.

As new cool products and designs become available, I will try to take the time to showcase them here on the blog. And for anyone who follows my twitter, or my livestreams, I will post updates on new designs in progress.

If you have any suggestions or ideas for new products, or like a particular piece I have featured on Tentacle News, please feel free to let me know. We want to make available the products and designs that you guys want.

So check out the store regularly! And thanks for all your support!

(Note: for Absinthe products, be sure to remove the safe search feature from the store sidebar. These products do contain nudity and are hidden from the main store.)

Tales of Urth - Book 1: Chapter 2

Tales of Urth is a serialized novel, to read the previous chapters, click here, and scroll down for each chapter.

Chapter 2

Hedgemeadow

“I haven’t had much luck in towns,” Damar said. “I’m pretty sure this country hates anything that isn’t human.

“The lad is right, I have been avoiding most of the towns myself. The most I can hope for is spiteful looks across the room and the polite refusal to be served,” added Titan. “Maybe an elf has better luck passing for human, but neither of us ever will.”

“Do I look human to you?” Jamfire retorted. “I haven’t had any more luck thank either you in the towns to the north. But we are all running low on supplies and my back could use a real mattress at least one night a month.”

“What makes you think the next town will be any better than the last?” Damar asked, his mnd quickly falling back to his past encounters with the citizens of Merridale.

“It might not be, but I am not opposed to trying.” Jamfire was confident. He didn’t seem the type to barge in blindly, but it wasn’t nearly as cautious as Damar.

Titan seemed more concerned with the hassle than with the possibility of any danger.

Jamfire pressed on without waiting for any further discussion. The other two fell into step behind him, unsure about the plan, but not willing to make much more of it.

Jamfire spent much of the walk talking about the forest, its creatures, and the wonders to behold back home in Ayne. He talked almost as much as the dwarf, but could fill an entire conversation with facts about a single species of tree. The others were less impressed with his vast knowledge and more with how many words on a single topic he could fit into one breath.

Damar listened absently. He was pleased to have the company, and with two heavy talkers, it left little for him to have to find the words to say. He wasn’t bored, nor was he lost in his own thoughts, reliving the moments from the past as the trail wound onward. He listened to the two intently, and realized he had learned more about the world in an hour of conversation, than he had in a month of walking.

Tales of Urth - Book 1: Chapter 1

Part 1
- - - -
Chapter 1

An Unexpected Meeting

The rains fell hard in Merridale, Damar noted. It has been cold and wet since he had arrived in the barony nearly a month ago. He wasn't cut out for the cold and wet, he thought, as he huddled under a tree by the side of the mud slick that had once been a well tread horse path. His red-skinned body shivered. He had lived his entire life on Urth. He knew nothing of the hot and dry world that his ancestors had once called home. Damar had never seen Tartarus, all he knew of it was from the tales of humans, who had never been there either.

"This is ridiculous," he muttered under his breath. The deluge continued and he knew that very quickly he would need to find better shelter than an old tree. The trek was slow in the mud and muck, but his pace was quickened at the bright strike of lightning. The knotted old oak was certainly not the place to be in a thunderstorm.

He pushed forward, miserably grumbling at the wet sloshing of water in his overworn boots. The shoddy leather had given their all in the long days of walking, but for boots found discarded behind an old farmers house, they had done more than he could have expected. A hole-ridden riding cloak, also pilferred from some unsuspecting human's farmstead, was failing at its sole duty of keeping the rainwater off Damar's back. His probing tail could feel each and every hole in the cloak as it tried its best to stay hidden. The old coat was once a faded black color, but had long since been washed and was now caked with brown mud and horse excrement. It was a miserable thing to behold, but Damar kept it close to him as he traveled if for only one purpose. The coat had a tall hood that covered the young man's head. He kept it up rain or shine, even in the heat of midday sun. It was the only security he felt in this land. It did more than protect him from the elements, but traveling alone in Merridale, a barony almost exclusively inhabited by humans, it hid his true identity from other travelers.

It was hard to hide his heritage from closer inspection, he couldn't deny that someone within a few paces could easily recognize his distinctly crimson hued skin. But at a distance the hood at least hid the unmistakable outline of the black boney horns that identified his race.

Tales of Urth - Introduction

Tales of Urth is a serialized novel. This means that it will be posted in segments, and will make up a longer running narrative. This book is a departure from the usual stuff I write and illustrate, but should make for an enjoyable break from those things.
'Tales' is not purely my own creation. I cannot take soul credit for the creation of this world, nor its inhabitants. In fact, the characters of the stories you are about to read, are not my creation at all, but are the work of my friends. Every week, I run a game group known as GNU (gaming nerds united). We play everything from card games to month long role playing games. A few months ago, we took on a new role playing game system, that simplified many rules that tend to bog down typical games. As I learned the system and prepared for my role as game master, I began to create a world for our adventures to take place. We wanted something simple to jump into, as quick to pick up as the rules of our new system. We knew we wanted a generic fantasy setting, something anyone familiar with other rpg's or even just Lord of the Rings would be able to grasp. We had hundreds of minis to use and a group with a firm grasp of the fantasy genre. But our world needed a hook. Why come back for more if everything is so simple and generic.
Thus Urth was born. A world very much like our own, whose events have lead to a strange fantastic world of magic far into our future. This gave us the opportunity to choose from a long timeline of settings, all the took place in our own world, on our own continent. We could play the dark scifi setting of the alien invasion only decades from now, as humans fight to survive with what little technology remains. We could take on the political intrigue of the height of a new age of man, as a human/dwarf empire ruled over the land. But to start, we dove in, five-thousand three hundred years from now, in a place of warring baronies, and rampaging monsters.
As my friends made their characters, and played their best, exciting stories and adventures were revealed. We all quickly fell in love with this world. And when we took time off, so I could get married, we all felt the withdrawl of our weekly trek through an exciting new frontier.
I decided to begin adapting the adventures of my friends into stories that I could then illustrate and share with the world. For us, it is a fun chance to look back. For me, it is opportunity to write and illustrate new things. For you, hopefully, it is an enjoyable collection of stories.

Tales of Urth could not be possible without the creative input and permission of Chris Stapleton, Timm Miller, and Chris Hopp. We couldn't have had this much fun, or been able to create such a fantastic world to explore without the help of Heroes Against Darkness, by Justin Halliday. And of course, none of my writing would be possible without the love and support of my wife, Megan.

Sculpting Dinosaurs

It has been a very long time since I have sculpted anything. I have always considered my strengths to be more in two-dimensional art. But recently, I have been getting back into my old hobby of painting gaming miniatures, and eventually that has lead me to wanting to sculpt my own. My best friend and I have even been developing a tabletop miniatures game for the past few months (more on this in an upcoming post). But before I dove straight into the difficult task of sculpting on a minute scale, I need to test out my sculpting chops. In art school, I barely got the chance to really try most sculpting mediums. Through a bad professor, and a lack of opportunity, I was quickly turned off of the idea of making 3D art. But I have always been curious if I could.
Before diving straight in, I thought I would work my way down in scale. I have always wanted to have some nice sculptures of dinosaurs in my house. Though I will never have any real bronzes around, I thought perhaps I could make some faux bronzes. So, all these ideas lead me to test out my sculpting abilities on an anatomically correct dinosaur sculpture (the faux bronzes will come later).

Gathering up my materials, I chose a fairly simple specimen, but one not too common. Wanting something with a small frame with simple structures to model, I settled on Psittacosaurus, a bipedal protoiguanadon from the lower Cretaceous. I printed out my reference materials, including a side-view skeletal reconstruction at the scale I wanted to sculpt (1:16 scale).

Saturday Sketchbook - 2/15/14

Figure study - 1/29/14

The Polymodal Children #6 - Speramus

The Polymodal Children #6 - Speramus - Jeff Powers © 2013

The Polymodal Children #5 - Amaranth

The Polymodal Children #5 - Amaranth Jeff Powers © 2013

Last year, while living in Korea, I started a series called The Polymodal Children. This is the fifth in the series of digital charcoal drawings I have quite enjoyed returning to occasionally.

Absinthe II - reworked

I finally found the time and inspiration needed to rework this illustration from 2011. It was the second in my Absinthe poster series, which seems to be a huge draw to this site. I have been meaning to do more, but something felt unfinished in the second piece that continued to bother me. I finally reworked it and wanted to share it here! Hope you like it!

This image is now available for print on shirts, mugs and other products. Check it out at the Tentacle News Shop.

Dino Week - Styracosaurus

Well, I think it's about time again to celebrate those prehistoric reptiloids, the great artistic inspirers, Dinosaurs! So during dino-week, I'll post a new sketch and some cool factoids and articles. I hope you dig it. It's great to be back in the studio drawing dinos again.
Today: Styracosaurus

Styracosaurus, named after the spiky butt-end of a spear, was a large herbivorous ceratopsian that lived roughly 76 million years ago. Similar to other members of the ceratopsian infraorder, Styrac had a beaked skull with a large crest arching over its vulnerable neck. Styrac was distinctly recognizable by its set of 4 to 6 two foot long horns. The purpose of the horns and the frill-like skull shape is still debated among paleontologists.
The first Styrac was discovered in Alberta, Canada, in 1913 (though most of the remains were not excavated until much later in 1935). The original discovery was made by Lawrence Lambe who gave the new species the name Styracosaurus albertensis lambe. Popularity of this discovery led it to be used in a number of films such as The Son of Kong (1933) and Ray Harryhausen stated that it was among his childhood favorites, leading to its inclusion in his film The Valley of Gwangi (1969).

Autumn Temple Portrait

Artwork by Jeff Powers © 2013

For a Long Time, I Went to Bed Early

For a Long Time, I Went to Bed Early -  Jeff Powers © 2013

Saturday Sketchbook - Byrthen

The Polymodal Children #4 - Byrthen Jeff Powers © 2012