Blue Moon Rising » Projects

Tweaks for Twenty Eleven

Jeff — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 01:25:11 +0000

In what may be a transparent attempt to compensate for the glacial pace of reviews here at BMR, our newly redesigned header will feature artwork from a few of our most favored artist friends. As of now, the list of most favored artists is limited to one Veronica V. Jones, but this may change as time progresses.

There have also been a few other minor style updates, but they pale in comparison to the visual bounty of Ms. Jones’ work. We hope you’ll agree.

There is quite a backlog of artists for whom praises must be sung, but should you — in your travels across the internet — find a fantasy or science fiction artist deserved of accolades, please share your finding with us.

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2010 Origins and Dragon-Con Await

Jeff — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 11:12:54 +0000

It is time once again when a young man’s or woman’s fancy turns to huge crowds of roleplayers, cosplayers and genre media groupies: Convention season is in full bloom.

Next week, Veronica and her faithful minion travel to scenic Columbus for the venerable Origins Game Fair. When not sketching and catching up on her deadlines at her booth, she’ll be holding one of her digital artistry classes for those who want to see how her illustrative magic is made.

In September, Dragon Con descends on Atlanta like fantasy pop-culture typhoon, and Ms. Jones will riding out the storm in the art show for the second year running. The art show is fairly gigantic, but we’re working on a pair of elemental banners to help guide the way to her booth.

We’ll be seeing you!

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Frightful Fairies and Sullen Succubi

Jeff — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 03:56:16 +0000

About this time last year, our Mr. Darkly started a slow, steady trickle of fanciful fairy figures in a wide array of creative color combinations. They were cute, a little underdressed, and far too jittery, so the effort didn’t quite warrant a mention.

Recently, however, the string of salacious sprites has been broken by an updated, but no less improbable portrait of a futuristic demon hunter and her curvaceous captive. Rumor has it that Jon’s next project will also feature demonic damsel fighting a more classical foe: an bright and shining angel.

With a bit of luck, this proposed piece will be included in the batch of Jon’s lenticular stereo images we’ll bring to Origins — along with Veronica‘s dog and pony show — in three weeks time.

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Outside of a Dog….

Jeff — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 05:46:45 +0000

In my callow youth, I was a voracious reader. I read books by the bagful: new, old, borrowed or traded. Asimov, Heinlein, Bradbury, Tolkien, and all the Thieves’ World, Myth Adventures, and Sector General I could get my hands on.

One day, however, a horrible thing happened: while reading a particularly… difficult Star Trek novel, the plot and characters began deconstructing in my head… all of the writer’s fetishes and fantasies were laid bare before me. 20 years later, I have yet to read a work of fiction spanning more than a handful of pages.

With this in mind, it’s not to difficult to see why book reviews have been a long time coming. Fortunately, Veronica is stepping in to address this absence of media in it’s most ancient form, and here — in her own words — is why:

I want to tell you a little bit about myself and what I enjoy, as this will help inform you of my tastes and let you judge just how much weight to give my advice on books. I am new to reviewing work and certainly new to writing. However, I have long had a love affair with reading and love of reading leads to writing I’ve been told.

I consider a trip to a bookstore to browse the aisles to be a delight, and have had to train myself over the years to put down a book and get down to the business of living, as I have sometimes put off necessary work in order to get in a few more chapters.

When I was younger, I brought books to shopping trips with my mom, to dinner parties, in the car or the bus. I would even walk from class to class reading a book. I especially love fantasy, and science fiction, but I’ve been known to enjoy a good intense thriller or mystery and sometimes a nice emotional love story just to mix things up.

There you have it. If she writes one book review for every ten she reads, Veronica will surpass my post count before the year is out.

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Look Out Kids, Veronica is Coming!

Jeff — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 06:05:19 +0000

The 2009 convention season has crept up on us like a thief in the night, and it’s first crime is to steal Veronica off to New York later today for the SCBWI Winter Conference. Her attendance at this munchkin-friendly creative get together is her first official venture into the world of childrens’ illustration.

Even her newly-redesigned website MoonShines has gone a bit whimsical, adding her favorite kiddie creations beside her fantasy and action adventure works.

Fantasy art, however, cannot be denied, so Veronica will yet again be in attendance at Origins. Her latest works will be on display in the art room, but she will no doubt be wandering throughout the room and convention, cavorting with the other artists in attendance with reckless abandon.

Finally, we will redouble our efforts to attend Con on the Cob this year. It might be our imagination, but it seems as if we don’t attend at least one of Andy’s conventions this year, it will be impossible for us to ever catch up to his rapidly expanding list of events.

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Veronica Leads the Zombie Uprising

Jeff — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 14:00:05 +0000

After no small amount of begging, Veronica V. Jones agreed to provide a not so subtle reminder of the doom to befall us all next Friday the 13th: Blog Like it’s the End of the World!

Her cute little zombie girl is apparently not satisfied with the polyfill brains of her teddy bear, nor will the restless, rampaging horde of the undead be satisfied by anything less than the flesh of the living.

You have a week to get your affairs in order…. warn your friends and neighbors with this handy, yet chilling graphic:

Not quite sure what’s going on here? Read Steve Wilson’s original post to learn how to participate in the mayhem!

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2008 Convention Season Quickstart

Jeff — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 03:06:53 +0000

We packed up and shipped a heaping helping of Veronica’s art down to Omegacon yesterday, but it suddenly occurred to us that with all the free time on our hands, there wasn’t any good reason that we shouldn’t drive down to Birmingham this weekend and join the fun. With guests and tracks in fantasy, science fiction, horror, comics, paranormal and the Celtic music scenes, our biggest problem should be deciding where to run each hour.

Next month, our streak of brand new conventions continues at the New York Comic Con artist alley. If her faithful minion finishes laying down all the captions, Veronica’s new art book Retrospectacle will be there with us. Thankfully, we’ll have a few months to recover for a final, more familiar convention in Columbus: the Origins Game Fair. After making a few new friends, we’ll meet up with a few old ones.

Should you happen to be in one of these neighborhoods when we are — new friend or old — be sure to look us up!

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Jon’s Jigglestereo Jubilee

Jeff — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 12:16:37 +0000

We’ve known about his tentacle fetish for a while now, but Johnathan Darkly‘s recent infatuation with stereographic images has gotten out of control.

His eclectic ensemble of digital dolls has always been a little odd, but now they’re wiggling and jittering all over his site. This is not as lascivious as it sounds — not that Jon’s artistic intentions are entirely innocent — yet words alone cannot describe the unusual, semi-dimensional effect of what he’s calling ‘jigglestereo’.

For the 3D purists among his viewing audience, Mr. Darkly has provided other, more traditional stereo viewing options. The hypnotic, shifting method also known as wiggle stereography, however, is an easier way of appreciating his synthetic sculptures without unusual eye acrobatics. After viewing Jon’s latest work, all other creative endeavors you encounter will certainly seem a little more… stable.

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Those Kooky Zombies

Jeff — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 23:12:26 +0000

I asked Veronica to put some color to a recent undeadly piece of hers in honor of today’s zombie flashmobs in California and New Zeland. A word of caution, however: don’t go taking matters into your own hands. You’ll most likely get into serious trouble for killing an college student who got into the ketchup!

Speaking of spooky stuff: Jubiel isn’t undead, but she’s certainly scary. Jiggly too, thanks to Mr. Darkly‘s interesting, but somewhat annoying stereoscopic presentation. She’s not really all that safe for work either, so again… a word of caution!

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Veronica’s 2007 Convention Season Begins

Jeff — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 20:31:19 +0000

The life of a freelance illustrator, while more glamorous than you can possibly imagine, is also quite hectic. Veronica V. Jones‘ schedule, for example, is filled with long stretches of quiet introspection and the gentle pursuit of her craft, but each spring heralds an onslaught of fantasy gaming conventions. With these events come wild fits of preparation, weary travel, and frantic fandom.

This latest season of chaos officially begins for her — and I, her loyal minion — this Friday in nearby Richmond Virginia at RavenCon. A young convention in it’s second year, Ravencon’s guest list is heavily peopled by science fiction and horror authors, and does not yet boast an actual art room. Veronica, however, will be contributing to most of the art panels, and I have a contingency plan involving some traveling display panels and the illicit occupation of a supply closet.

The star of Veronica’s tour is Origins — the weirdest thing to happen to Columbus, Ohio — just after the July 4th holiday. It’s a huge, cuddly monster of a gaming convention, and while it will be hard to top last year’s best fantasy work award, Veronica will certainly try.

Rounding out the circuit is a dark horse: the Halloween Art Spooktacular, which will be haunting St. Joseph, Missouri in early October. It’s a benefit for Mount Mora Cemetery, and seems to be more of a themed gallery showing than Veronica’s traditional convention fare. So, if you find yourself in one of these far-flung locations, find Ms. Jones and tell her to think of her poor lackeys, and find closer venues!

July Update: The Spooktacular is out, and a angry little gathering called Con on the Cob is in!

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Jon’s Fantasy Characters Get WordPressed

Jeff — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 00:15:21 +0000

Back in his dusty little corner of the Interweb, Mr. Johnathan Darkly has interrupted his semi-annual ritual of publishing new images to upgrade his site to the WordPress platform.

This sudden software segue seems to have resulted in not much more than somewhat larger thumbnails, more complicated URLs, and a few spelling fixes, but at least he’s added the ability to comment on his twisted tableaus.

Hopefully this recent flurry of activity portends less ranting and more rendering, but only time will tell.

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Near and Far Eastern Delights at MoonShines

Jeff — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 03:12:43 +0000

We’re right in the middle of convention season, and Veronica’s site MoonShines Fantasy Art has been updated with works from two of her most recent projects: Tales of the Caliphate Nights is a new RPG from Paradigm Concepts that brings ancient Arabia to life, while The Legend of the Five Rings is the epic saga of feudal-Japanesque Rokugan.

Veronica will be back at GenCon this year, so if you’re in Indianapolis on August 10th through the 13th, come by the Artists’ gulag in the dealers room and say “Hi”.

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Undersea Scroll Benefit Auction

Jeff — Mon, 30 Jan 2006 15:58:00 +0000

During the most recent GenCon Indy, with the help of 17 attending artists, the Mythic Undersea Scroll was created. This enchanted underwater vista was crafted on a Japanese calligraphy-style scroll that is 61″ x 17.5″, and features the original artwork of the following fantasy artists:

John Armbruster, Storn A. Cook, David Deen, Jeff Easley, Carl Frank, Liz “Galindorf” Harper, Andy Hopp, Kennon James, Patrick Keith, Vicky Keith, Brad Kim-Marchant, Jeremy McHugh, Raven Mimura, Chris Seaman, Tony Steele, Beth Trott, and David K. Wong.

They’ve created a unique and enchanted vista of mermaids, seahorses, kraken, sea hags, and many other real and mythical beasts. The scroll is being auctioned on eBay, with all proceeds going to the Kennedy Krieger Institute. Thanks again to all the artists who help make this possible!

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The auction is now closed. The wonderful artists who contributed to the Mythic Undersea Scroll have our heartfelt thanks!

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Collaborative Fairy Scroll Benefit Auction

Jeff — Sun, 18 Dec 2005 21:26:00 +0000

During the most recent GenCon Indy, a Fairy Scroll was created with the help of 19 attending artists. This collaborative fairyscape was created on a Japanese calligraphy-style scroll that is 61″ x 17.5″, and features original artwork from the following fantasy artists:

Drew Baker, Richard Blumenstein, Jeff Carlisle, Storn A. Cook, John Dollar, Jeff Easley, John Esh, Carl Frank, Khymberly Cochran Hale, Andy Hopp, Veronica V. Jones, John E. Kaufmann, Heather V. Kreiter, Raven Mimura, William O’Connor, Steve Prescott, Stephanie Pui-Mun Law, Thom Scott, and Beth Trott.

It’s being auctioned on eBay, with all proceeds going to the Kennedy Krieger Institute. Thanks to all the artists who help make this possible!

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Update: The auction is now closed. Thanks again to all of the artists who created the Fairy Scroll! Early next year, the other themed scroll created at GenCon will be auctioned. Stay tuned!

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T-Minus Seven Days to GenCon Indy

Jeff — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 22:16:00 +0000

Next week, Veronica — minions in tow — will be heading off to the fantasy, science fiction, and adventure gaming mosh pit that is GenCon Indy.

She’ll be displaying her latest works featured at MoonShines Fantasy Art in the newly-relocated Art Show, along with 88 other artists, on the right wall of the main Exhibit Hall. There will be a lot of beautiful art, and it’s a great place to hide from the giant Pikachu.

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Stereoscopic Space Ninjas

Jeff — Thu, 26 May 2005 18:45:00 +0000

Johnathan Darkly has recently engaged in a veritable frenzy of productivity. After nearly a year of seemingly quiet introspection, he’s updated luminous shadows twice in as many months.

A few days ago, Jon helped us older folk remember our cherished View-Masters by creating some trippy stereograms, featuring his lovely space ninja Sumi. He also gave the battle-hardened knockout Leda an extreme makeover, complete with battle suit and spiky hair.

No word, however, on when the site’s sultry guide Bianca will be getting her new threads. She’s none to happy about it, either.

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