Witness

New Masters Academy

Heya folks!

If you would like some awesome and affordable online art education, I highly recommend the recently started New Master Academy. I've been trying it out for a few months now, and while the quality varies a bit from lesson to lesson, overall it is an amazing value. I've spent hundreds on art DVD's in past. Generally, you can expect a 2 hour demonstration video from a professional artist to cost $30-$100. Compare that to the $19 monthly subscription for an ever growing list of video demonstrations and lectures. You really can't beat that.


Link: http://www.newmastersacademy.org/


The videos from Steve Huston alone make this a good value IMO.
Hopefully these guys are successful, so that we see more content like this in the future.

Patrol

Sketches

Quick sketches, trying to improve all around.

Wood's Edge

Reprieve

The gentle bounce of the aircraft and droning of its well-tuned engines had me in a tranquil lull. After a long hour's flight, our target was appearing over the horizon.  I wished so dearly to just keep dreaming, to stay in my trance among the clouds.

Reality was approaching, and like the haunting raid sirens below, it soon melted all illusions of comfort.

After years of terrible war, our foe was already beaten, blooded, and disarmed. He knelt before us. Our planes, the sword held steady above his pitiful head. With payload armed, we would soon answer his cries for mercy.

In those final moments I tried so hard to justify my cruel mission. My conscience yearned to break away, to defect from the subsequent guilt.  Like a wolf bound to his pack, I, whether it be by duty or fear was tethered to formation.

As fate drew nearer, my heart pounded, and soon began thrashing as if desiring to tear free and turn back.

On command the formation shifted. The sword arm raised high.

In that final instant a blinding  flash of light saturated all perception.  My plane's propellers stopped like the hands of frozen clock. My heart paused. A moment of calm...

 Then, with a thunderous boom! My plane shook, windows shattered, and the stick flew from my hands.  A streak of white blazed before me as the horizon began to spin.  It struck us like a bolt of lightning. Seeming to appear from thin air it unleashed a chain of power that jumped from one plane to another, ripping apart the entire squadron with one fell swoop.

Be it by human construct or divine power, we were utterly decimated.

But then my conscience eased, my soul reprieved.  Falling through the sky, my mind retreated back into that tranquil dream, my trance among the clouds.

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I got a good kick out of this quick cover mock-up, sent to me by my friend Mark Foster http://markfosterart.blogspot.com/
It seems rather fitting!

Curious Trail

These lands are strange to me. I've been traveling westward for numerous seasons now, far beyond the borders of even the most thorough maps. I intend to find the furthest shore, where this magnificent land finally bows before the sea. The last human settlement is now many months behind me, and while I have become well acquainted with my lonesome journey, the horizon is growing ever more foreign to me. Monolithic spires protrude from the otherwise gently rolling plains. Springing from the stones, winding streams emerge from and caress the sprawling landscape.  While it all seems remarkably hospitable, I'm getting an odd feeling now as I wander deeper into this exotic paradise.

I've just crossed upon a trail that looks oddly deliberate, quite unlike the naturally eroded paths I've been clinging to. Could these loosely scattered stones have been laid by ancient hands, or is my isolated soul just starving for any semblance of human company?

For now, though my legs ache from the steep climb, I dare not pause for rest or study.  It seems the trail has become just as curious of me.