I haven’t posted in a long time. I meant to post all the artwork I did for the WoW commissions I got before, but I just kept not finding the time. I did post them all to my Deviant Art account a while back, but I didn’t really get the traction I was hoping for there. Anyways, I’ve added the entirety of them and including the gallery below.  So let’s give a small life update since I did take on all those commissions…

Well first, the commissions went swimmingly, I had 32 orders and that helped us through a really, really rough financial time, I mean saved our asses helped, so yay for that! Shortly thereafter we moved into a house with lower rent, but that weekend, I was contacted about a job opportunity. A couple days later I was at an interview, and that day I got hired on as a Front End Developer at Hart, Inc. in Maumee, Ohio! The job itself is far and way better than I ever had it at any previous employer, and the pay has gotten us out of any previous financial funk, and on the road to goodness. I’ve also recently started hitting the gym again with my wife, and today, actually, we started the Couch-2-5k program. It’s gonna hurt a lot I think.

I haven’t drawn much, which is a bummer, but I have started costume crafting again, and I’ve got some sweet plans for costumes for wifey (click that link, bitches) and me. I’m going to try to get some more artwork done soon, and I’m going to chronicle my adventure in costuming. I’m also going to try and do some game reviews, some might be in depth, some might be very glancing overviews, regardless, game stuff. Wheee!

That’s about it, take a look at the art and let me know what you think! (I think the comments here on the site are broken, so feel free to comment on facebook or tweet me @thejarett.

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That’s what she said!

Anyways… so the site looks like a little plain, a little weird, and thing might be screwy for the next few days. I’m updating, and I found myself a nice to work with bare bones responsive theme because I don’t like the functionality of my current theme on mobile devices. So while things are going to look a little for the next week or so while I sort it out, it’ll work much better on mobile. Also, Pinterest. Yep. Pinterest.

Pin all the things! Seriously. Currently you have to go into each post to pin the correct image. I’m going to try a few different plug ins and find one that works the best, but in the mean time, it’s still functional, use it if you’d like.

Also, happy birthday to me.

So back before graphics, a popular was to play role-playing games was MUD style adventures, entirely text-based. I was a big fan for a summer about fifteen years ago. Anyways, one of my customers asked me to draw his MUD character, which obviously was only from a description he provided. This is what came out, I loved it, he really loved it, and the world was a better place for it.

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My last post about Reddit was due to a post I submitted to Reddit calling for art commissions, which grabbed my website almost 4000 hits in about 36 hours, which is a huge difference from the average 1.21 visitors/day I had. I also got 27 orders for artwork, which I’ve completed 11 of so far, and I’m going to start posting completes up to show off. Most of these are going to be of World of Warcraft characters, but there’s a couple oddballs that were a lot of fun! So, here we go! (more…)

Hey – anyone coming here from Reddit, if you didn’t see the details in topic, I’m doing commissions on the cheap! I’ve hit a really rough financial patch with my wife, which resulted in having to return the handful of gifts were purchased, and we’re still behind on bills. I’m trying to offset that by making some artwork. I haven’t gotten an offer lower than $20 yet, so that’s the base price up to$40 per character, depending on what you want, details, color does run a little more in most cases (around $50/$60). Most quotes are a case by case basis, and I’m trying to get as many done as I can. I’ve got a lot of orders in so far, not many need them by Christmas, so I’ve got time to get people in, and I’ll be working through the next few weeks to get them all done and done well. (Here’s a sample of one I already finished: http://i.imgur.com/QeSqw.jpg)

The kindness of strangers on the internet has bewildered me and left me humbled. I appreciate everyone who’s even inquired or had a kind word to say. I appreciate everyone more than you can know.

Given the amount of orders I have in, I have a few requirements that will help keep things organized and speed up the process. If you definitely want one, I’ll work with you on cost if you think things are a little too high, I’ve had some very generous buyers, so I have no problem going a little lower for someone who wants one but can’t afford it.

When submitting, I’d like your name, reddit user name, email address, characters you want with either screenshots or an armory link and any details you may want included. I’m asking for a half deposit on color artwork since it does take me significantly longer. Also color artwork, at this point, is two weeks out from completion as half the orders I’ve gotten in are for color. You can email me directly at hi@jarettwalen.com, and that’s also my paypal account info.

Thanks again everyone, and happy holidays!

This is a nautolan from Star Wars, drawn after a fan requested it on DeviantArt. Yep, I have a fan, what now bitches? But seriously, I’m happy with the turn out, considering putting down some colors on this tendril-headed lady. (more…)

I’m exceptionally proud of myself on this one. I’ve piddled away at it for a month and a half after doing an initial sketch, and I finally am finished and happy with the end result. I did the base sketch off of a photo of a Zerina Cosplay version of Van Cleef. It’s not intended to be identical, so please don’t compare as such. The lighting is a bit off, but i don’t care much at this point, I’m just happy with the end result, and I can keep lighting in mind earlier in the next process. (more…)

Reddit has this wonderful subreddit, /r/playitforward, in which regular people give away games. Sometimes these people have fun little contests to decide who wins, this one is about cats, and drawings must include red lasers and/or fire. This is my entry. Here’s the link to the contest: http://www.reddit.com/r/playitforward/comments/uvy37/bastion/

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She’s back, and this time has a pimp cane and tasty beverage. This was just a fun way to fill up the final page of my sketchbook before starting a new one. I kept it light and fun with a bit of a summer theme. I imagine this is how Booba hangs out by the pool.

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So I wanted to try to get better at faces that have character to them. I googled references and drew up a bunch of different celebrities. Ultimately I think this was a failure if looked at as a test, but I did learn a bunch from this process, and plan to revisit it a whole bunch to get better. I think some of the better ones are Patrick Stewart and Emma Stone, I like Famke Janssen (yep, I totally misspelled that on the image), but the rest are pretty iffy. Roberty Downy Jr. is passable only because I drew him in his Tony Stark persona. The rest are just not good. (more…)