I'm going to be a guest at the Design Studio Press Booth at the Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle this Saturday, March 2nd. I'll be doing a book signing from 4:00 - 5:30pm, but I'll also be kicking around for most of the afternoon, so if you are attending ECCC this weekend, come by and say hello at Booth# 10042!
CBC RADIO INTERVIEW
I had a short interview segment on a recent episode of the CBC Radio program On The Island with Gregor Craigie. I talk to CBC correspondent Sterling Eyford about my new book and we touch on the topic of AI generated images as well.
You can listen to the segment here.
Big thanks to Sterling, Gregor and the CBC for the opportunity!
PRINT SALE - %15 OFF
To celebrate the release of my art books I’m having a %15 off sale on all limited edition prints on my website. Prints of pieces from both books are available...including new prints and the return of some older classics. Check them out at: http://www.borninconcrete.com/shop
Ends Nov.15th, 2022.
EK2 - THE LOST YEARS - AVAILABLE NOW!
After a month long supply chain related shipping delay, my new book EK2 - The Lost Years, is now in stock and available from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Target and from my publisher, Design Studio Press. The book will also be available from physical retailers as well...so it might pop up in a bookstore near you.
Thanks to everyone that have already pre-ordered copies!
Here are the links:
Amazon - tinyurl.com/mr8ekwh4
Barnes and Noble - tinyurl.com/bdh43a7r
Target - tinyurl.com/9ndua4n8
Design Studio Press - tinyurl.com/5b5fkjjd
EK2 - THE LOST YEARS - AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER ON AMAZON
My book, EK2 - The Lost Years is now available for pre-order on Amazon! In addition to amazon.com, the book is also available on various European Amazon sites such as amazon.uk, amazon.de and amazon.fr, as well. So for those in Europe that would like to order the book, you can now do so from within the continent and you won’t have to pay shipping rates from North America. Shipping of the books should commence by the end of the month.
Here are the links:
EK2 - THE LOST YEARS ARTBOOK
My second art book, EK2 - The Lost Years, is coming out soon from Design Studio Press! This 96 page, hardcover art book features all of the pieces from the second EK art series, design materials from various model kit collaborations and a sampling of the work done for the Traveller Kickstarter project. A few personal commissions are included as well, along with some new work created specifically for this collection.
The book is currently available for pre-order from Design Studio Press here, and will be released later this month/early next month. I’ll post again regarding the official publication/release date.
CLARKESWORLD #177
“Companion”, a piece from my EK2 Series is featured on the cover of issue #177 of science fiction anthology Clarkesworld. The ebook version is currently available (in almost any format you may want/need) and a print copy will follow in the future.
Issues can be purchased on the Clarkesworld website here.
Thanks to Neil Clarke again for the opportunity.
EK 03 COSMONAUT RESIN MODEL KIT BACK IN STOCK
The EK Cosmonaut 03 resin model kit is back in stock! Amazingly sculpted by Gene Campbell and produced by Industria Mechanika. This is unfortunately the last run of this kit so get one while you can!
Order at: https://industriamechanika.com/shop/32-derek-stenning
DYSTOPIC PRE-ORDER
1/6th Scale Dystopic resin model kits are back for pre-order from Industria Mechanika! Order at the IMech shop here.
Best guess shipping date is June 2021. Could be delayed due to Covid……fingers crossed that it is not!
EK COSMONAUT 01 & 02 BACK IN STOCK
1/8th scale EK Cosmonaut 01 and Cosmonaut 02 resin model kits are back in stock again at Industria Mechanika! The perfect thing to help whittle away those Covid lockdown hours! Order at the Industria Mechanika Shop here.
TITAN
A couple years ago I worked on this cool little adventure game/technology demonstrator called Titan. I was mainly doing character design work and I only worked on it part time, as I was also working full time at NLG/Nintendo. It was a fun little project…and the design freedom was a great balance to the more rigid confines of the Nintendo work. Unfortunately after several months the cheques stopped coming in and emails went unanswered…….and I was done. From what I heard the whole project collapsed several months later. It was a shame……I would have loved to have designed more of those robots! Anyways, here are a few pieces, and a larger selection of the work can be seen here.
CYRUS LONGBONES BOOK 3 COVER WRAP
Cover art for the final book in Jeremy Mathiesen's great swashbuckling Cyrus Longbones trilogy! A full wrap image was created for the print edition and the front cover was re-puposed for the ebook and audio book versions.
Published by Viking House Publishing. Thanks to Jeremy!
THE ROOKIES
I'll be participating on the judging panel again for this years edition of The Rookies, an international awards competition for artists, designers, animators and creators. Entries are now closed, having had to have been submitted by May 31st, 2019 (I’m late in posting this…..been too busy to keep up with posting this kind of thing!). Every year The Rookies hand out a bunch of great prizes and paid internships to some of the top studios in the field. If you missed it this year, keep an eye out for next year’s competition.
Winners are to be announced mid July 2019!
You can check it out at therookies.co
EK SERIES ART BOOK SOLD OUT
My first art book is out of print! My publisher, Design Studio Press, has sold all their copies. There are a still a few new and used copies kicking around on a couple Amazon sites and there may be some available at different book retailers, but that is it. Japanese publisher Born Digital bought the rights to this book, so they may still have some of the Japanese language softcover edition in stock, and may publish more in the future, but the English hardcover edition is out of stock.
Thanks to everyone that bought a copy of the book, and a special thanks to all that purchased signed copies from me personally as well.
I’ll have to get started on the next one……
DYSTOPIC
The Dystopic model kit is back in stock at Industria Mechanika! 1/6 scale resin with etched metal parts, metal wires, decals, and high quality casting. The real thing....not that bootlegged garbage!
Sculpted by Gene Campbell.
Get one at the IMech shop here.
TUF VOYAGING
My illustration of Haviland Tuf, George R. R. Martin's cat loving space adventurer, has been licensed for the cover of the new Spanish language edition of "Tuf Voyaging"! I did this illustration a few years ago for Wired Magazine (for an article regarding the publication of a new edition of Tuf Voyaging for the English market), so it is cool to see it used again. The book is available now and published by Nova/Penguin Random House.
Thanks to Joana Lopez at Penguin Random House.
Book display at the Libreria Gigimesh in Barcelona, Spain.
GRAFFICA INTERVIEW
Life has been pretty chaotic for me so far this year, so I'm catching up on some older news...but here is an interview I did a few months back with Spanish design/illustration magazine Gràffica.
We discuss how I got into art, my career path, working with Nintendo and Microsoft and the EK Series.
Anyways, check it out here. I hope you can read Spanish!
Thanks to Alicia Juan and Graffica!
UNHOLINESS ARRIVES BY SATELLITE
I recently became involved in a project that requires/affords me the opportunity to dive back into my Entartete Kunst work to create a few pieces that, for various reasons, I had omitted from the first series. This is the first one that i have finished...and I won't get into any details regarding the project here, but there are a few more new EK images coming down the pipe in the near future.
Enjoy!
FURIOUS....no not really...
Over the past couple years I've helped out on Anki Overdrive with character design and illustration. Earlier this year I was asked to work on their Fast & Furious cross over...again with character design and illustration. Working on film related projects can be bit tricky...as you have to jump through many levels of approval: internal developer approval, production studio approval, the I.P. holder approval and then the actors themselves. But I've worked on other film related projects in the past, so I know the drill. Things went fairly smoothly, but there were a few hick ups along the way, with the scope of the work being cut back, the Anki art director being replaced half way through the project and a few scheduling issues. But in the end, the work was finished and was given over to Anki. Fast forward a few months to release and I see that the characters that I had done have been changed - painted over and modified with body parts skewed and scaled. It was disappointing to see. But you can't get too upset as these things. At the end of the day it is their property so they do as they wish and the new versions must have been approved by Universal and the actors.....so I guess everyone else is happy with it. That is the way it goes....
Anyways, here are my originals.....
MR. BODHI
Years ago I designed a group of mascots for Vancouver based game developer Next Level Games. These simple, graphic characters, known as the NLG Family, were created to represent different aspects of the company's culture and were used in internal branding situations. As the company celebrated it's 15th year, they asked if I would design a new "family member", one that would encompass some new traits that the company has picked up along the way: wisdom/experience, awareness and consideration.
After several design rounds Mr. Bodhi was born. He is meant to be jolly and wise so visually he is somewhat reminiscent of Budai, the Laughing Buddha, and his silhouette is meant to be similar to the Mandelbrot Set. His long flexible arms enable him to hug any sized frame and his colours are warm and inviting.
It was a little challenging designing a character to fit in with a group of designs I did so many years ago...but in the end I think he turned out pretty well.
