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Matthew McFarland (known in some circles as BlackHat Matt) has been a freelancer for White Wolf Game Studio since 1999, and spent a happy few years as the developer of their Dark Ages line. He developed the sourcebooks for their Promethean: The Created line, and has contributed as an author and a developer for all of the World of Darkness lines, including the most recent, Hunter: The Vigil. He lives outside of Cleveland, Ohio with his wife, two children, and their menagerie of furry animals. |
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Ed Beard Jr. has been illustrating for books, games, toys, puzzles and just about every product you can think of for the past 28 years. Ed is a totally self-taught artist and works in tangible mediums, predominately acrylics, watercolors and oils. Ed's career started off as a Government official Portrait painter and then went to a religious works painter. Ed was the youngest person in the United States to mural an entire Cathedral in Cranston RI at the age of 23. Ed's love for Hot Rods and Harley Davidsons took him to a career in custom automotive muraling for the next decade where Ed wrote a column on airbrush technique for Airbrush action magazine. By 1991 Ed found himself attending a variety of fantasy conventions which lead him to Gen Con. It was there that he was commissioned art for D&D and Magic the Gathering which he worked on for 12 years producing over 1000 game cards for many game manufacturers. These days Ed spends most of his time creating "How To" instruction DVD's and books along with painting art for a variety of licensing companies, most notably for the annual Dragon calendar you find at Barnes and Nobles, Borders and many fine book stores. As a tangible medium artist/ illustrator and teacher, Ed find's himself in the role of a strong advocate for preserving the age old craft of creating one of a kind original artworks using tangible mediums. Although Ed recognizes the importance of digital programs for their "commercial application", Ed is one of the few craftsman left in the fantasy art field that believe fantasy art is more than just the end visual result. Ed works diligently to preserve and celebrate this age old craft. You can see Ed's "How To" drawing and painting video presentations on youtube. Ed currently lives in Central PA with his wife Kelly and two children Destini and Dustin. To view more of the artist's works go to www.edbeardjr.com. |
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In his own words... I have been creating fantasy and science fiction art for over 20 years. I worked as a staff artist for TSR, Inc. from 1981 to 1987. While at TSR, I helped set the standards of gaming art in the role-playing genre. Besides creating covers for Dungeons & Dragons, AD&D and other gaming books, I may be best known for my work with the world of Dragonlance. Since 1987, I’ve been working as a freelance illustrator, doing covers for comics, computer games, magazines, fantasy and science fiction books and many more projects too numerous to list here. My time at TSR, Inc. is best exemplified on the covers of the DRAGONLANCE book series. Since then, I have worked for other publishers such as BAEN books, Bantam, Warner Books, ACE/Berkley, Doubleday, and Del Rey. I am also the co-author of "Runes of Autumn" and creator of the "Sovereign Stone" series. In the gaming and comic industries, I have freelanced for TSR, Inc, FASA, Mayfair Games, Game Designer’s Workshop, White Wolf, Iron Crown Enterprises, Dragon Magazine, Amazing Magazine, Wizard Press, D. C. Comics, First Comics, Eclipse Comics and Frank Frazetta’s Fantasy Illustrated. Miscellaneous credits include: LJN Toys, Mattel, Lucas Films, Tonka, Monogram Models, Western Publishing, Sony Entertainment’s Ever Quest, and various computer game covers. |
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In his own words... I, Tony Steele, was born near the ivy covered halls of Michigan State University, oddly enough in the state of Michigan. I am an artist, for lack of a better word, with more than 12 years of experience in graphic design and illustration under my belt. I've always been interested in comics and role-playing games and the art that goes into it. At and early age I decided that a career in art was the thing, growing up I had informed my mother that I wanted to be a cartoonist or a construction worker. She told me that construction was probably the way to go because cartoonists don't make much money. After a colorful educational career and acquiring a degree in Commercial Art-Illustration and one in Graphic Design I strode boldly forth into the world to find that I had no idea where to start. And then there was Gen Con in Milwaukee. From then on I talked to the faces behind the art and learned about "The Biz". Since then I've done inking for comic books (with REAL ink even.), art for card games like Hidden Conflict for Twilight Creations and Unspeakable Words for Playroom Entertainment, RPG books for companies like HERO Games, as well as airbrush package design for DeVillbiss. I love to create monsters, I have many styles from cartoon to realistic. A swiss army artist if you will, I cater to many tastes. For those that want to know, I live in Michigan with my wife Kay (also an artist in her own right.) and our three cats Harley, Miggs and Priss. I'm not going to stop till they pry the pencil from my cold, dead hand. |
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Ummm... yeah. I did it again. I went and made myself a guest at my own con. Oh well, it's good to be the king, as they say. Here's some stuff about me: Since 2001 I have been working as a freelance illustrator, writer, web designer, graphic artist, art director, convention organizer, and game designer. Although my hand is in many metaphorical cookie jars, I've become relatively well known for my weird creature illustrations and concept art (the stranger the better). I've illustrated dozens of published games and books, written several (including the critically acclaimed Low Life), organized the most fun convention on Earth (Con on the Cob), created the Wanderers Guild —a collaborative fantasy endeavor and game publisher, and helped Heather raise the most amazingly awesome little girls ever to walk the planet. Go to my website and look at the pretty pictures. |
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Rob Balder is a professional cartoonist, singer/songwriter, game designer and web entrepreneur. He writes and sings filk/comedy/parody songs, and has recorded two CDs (http://www.richfantasylives.com). The title track from Rob's first filk CD, "Rich Fantasy Lives" was co-written with Filk Hall of Famer (http://www.tomsmithonline.com) Tom Smith, and was nominated for a Pegasus Award for Best Filk Song in 2006, and won in that category in 2007. Rob's songs have often been heard on the syndicated Doctor Demento Show (http://www.doctordemento.com). In January 2006, he and six other comedy music performers founded The Funny Music Project (http://http://www.TheFuMP.com), where they present new songs every single day, released under a Creative Commons license. Rob is also the creator of the clip-art comic strip PartiallyClips (http://www.partiallyclips.com), which is widely read online and has appeared in more than two dozen newspapers and magazines. A book collection of the strip, "Suffering for my Clip Art: the Best of PartiallyClips, volume 1" was published in 2005. He is the Associate Editor of Nth Degree (http://www.nthzine.com/index.html) a popular fanzine covering genre fiction, gaming, comics, fandom and more. He writes science fiction and fantasy, including one unpublished novel and many short stories and poems. Rob also teamed up with Pete Abrams of Sluggy Freelance (http://www.sluggy.com) to create "Get Nifty," (http://www.getnifty.com) a stand-alone card game themed around Pete's comic. Get Nifty debuted in stores in 2006, through Blood & Cardstock Games (http://www.blood-and-cardstock.com). His current major project is a full-color Fantasy webcomic called Erfworld, co-created with illustrator Jamie Noguchi (http://www.angryzenmaster.com). Erfworld began in December 2006 and runs at (http://www.giantitp.com), home of the popular roleplay comic, "The Order of the Stick," by Rich Burlew. Time Magazine named Erfworld one of the Top Ten Graphic Novels of 2007. |
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Sandra L. Garrity has worked as a professional freelance artist for over thirty-five years, creating paintings, murals, and sculptures. In 1989, she also began creating miniatures for the gaming industry. She has sculpted licensed figures for Star Wars, Jurassic Park, Star Trek, Batman, Dragonheart, and Army of Darkness for companies such as Rawcliffe Pewter, Hasbro, Danbury Mint and Franklin Mint. However, the majority of her sculpting has been fantasy and science fiction figures for many of the premiere gaming companies. Sandy enjoys working in the gaming industry and finds it very interesting. She particularly likes the freedom of expression that comes with assignments that allow her to create sculptures from her own designs, and many of her industry clients give her this freedom. As with any artist, Sandy has dozens of unrealized personal designs and projects that she hopes to someday bring to life. In the meantime, she is finding that her established clients want most of her available time, and new clients keep finding her, so these personal endeavors remain dreams for the future. She sculpts in her home studio, where she can be close to her husband, her two daughters, and her horse. |
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I’m a self-taught artist, working almost exclusively in a small scale for my flatwork equine art, which made it a natural thing to start painting minis again in 2000 when I saw how far the sculptures had come from the simple figures I remember painting very badly back in the ‘80s. The figmentia bug bit hard and fast. I’d hate to get an accurate weight of the metal in my studio that’s waiting to be painted. My first minis after coming back to the hobby were done in oils, which I still think have advantages over acrylics. Speed isn’t one of them, though, so I switched to acrylics in 2002. I keep saying I’m going to enter one of the big competitions, but I never fail to spend more time teaching than painting, so we’ll see when I actually manage a competition entry. Most know me either through my online activities (the minipainter email list and my Painting Matters columns at tabletopgamingnews.com) or my convention work. I’ve been a volunteer at the Origins Paint And Take since 2002, taught classes at Gen Con since 2006, then added Historicon and Con on the Cob in 2007. When the topic came up, I jumped at the chance to bring miniature hobby classes to Origins 2008. GAMA management has been looking to have art classes at Origins for some time now, so my interest meshed with theirs and resulted in my promotion to Dean of the Art College there, a new volunteer position for a new program. Origins 2009 will have a broad range of workshops and seminars covering a wide variety of artistic pursuits, most definitely including the miniature hobby. When I don’t have a brush in my hand, you’ll find me occupied by a stack of books for my studies as a Ph.D. student in the history of medicine. |
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Bethany Gecina has been painting miniatures for about 10 years. Her desire to paint little metal people came from Role-playing sessions and not wanting to play with silver monsters and people. She has not had any formal training and learned everything she knows about painting miniatures by reading online articles, asking loads of questions to artists and miniature painters alike, and years of trial and error (her husband always offers up his unpainted minis for her to 'practice' with so he gets free painted minis... so generous huh?). There are a few people that inspire her with painting, and she would have to say that Marike Reimer is her favorite of the miniature painters to date. Her work is always smooth and harmonious, and she is a very sweet person to boot. Some of her more professional work has been for Magnificent Egos and Rackham in the recent past. She has contracted work for many customers and have won quite a few awards for her work. Her favorite of all the figs thus far has to be my first big Dragon she ever painted. It was a Reaper dragon and painted in blues (after many color changes). It won two awards and was her first ever competition piece. In her spare time she enjoys spending time with her family, playing World of Warcraft, role-playing games, watching "bad" scifi movies and gardening.
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Zombified Studios is a brand new production house based in Western New York. With us, you can find all manner of grotesque oddities and general nastiness... and we fully intend to get it all on film. Founded by effects artist Rod Durick, Zombified Studios began as nothing more than a gallery website for his effects makeup projects. It wasn’t long, however, before Zombified Studios took on a life of its own. Other members of the local film making community took notice of something new going on. All it took were a few phone calls and some emails, and talented people started joining up, and an actual studio was born. Zombified Studios has directors, editors, cinematographers, camera operators, wardrobe and makeup stylists, effects people, models and actors all in one place. Our first project, co-produced with Buffa-Low Budget Films, is a short horror film titled “The Pigman”. Complete and ready for the film festival circuit, “The Pigman” is a film based on the local urban legend of a crazed butcher that haunts a winding country road in Angola, NY. We have a lot going on, so stay tuned. www.zombifiedstudios.com www.myspace.com/zombifiedstudios www.myspace.com/thepigmanmovie |
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Jason M. Hardy is a professional geek. He turned pro after the 2000 Geek Olympics, where he nearly won the bronze in the Anti-Social Hurdles. He has written three MechWarrior: Dark Age novels and one Shadowrun novel, including The Scorpion Jar, Drops of Corruption, and the recently published The Last Charge. He has also published over a dozen short stories, most of which appear on the Battlecorps.com website. In his hometown of Chicago, he occasionally teaches science fiction and fantasy writing. He has given a writing workshop at every single Con on the Cob there has ever been, and he will continue to do so until Andy finally comes up with a way to keep him out of the building. |
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