Book Interior for Fantasy Craft: "Soft Spot"

I'm very happy to show my first published credit in the mainstream fantasy RPG realm. This illustration is featured in an expansion of Crafty Game's Fantasy Craft. The expansion book is called The Adventure Companion. The illustration is for a trait called "Soft Spot" and it features a goblin attacking a giant at the weakest point that he could reach.


Doing this piece was a ton of fun. Its so cool to be featured on the list of interior artist on a publication like this, and side by side with my buddy Paul 'Prof' Herbert. I hope to get many more interiors over the coming months. Wish me luck, and a big thanks to Art Director Patrick Kapera for the opportunity.

Joe Illuxcone

This time last week I was steeping in a vat of awesome-ness at the third annual Illuxcon. So many brilliant folks in one room! For those of you who aren't familiar, Illuxcon is an amazing fantasy art symposium where the front-runners of the industry gather to showcase their work. Some of those artists also host round tables and lectures on various topics. I felt like I was back in school as I spent my days running back and forth to various classrooms: Todd Lockwood's lecture on Composition, Donato's lecture on Abstraction and Realism, then over to Jane Franks talk about the Art of Negotiation and Selling Artwork, and finally to Jeff Menges terrific reflection on the Golden Age of Illustration's influence on Fantasy art. These were a few of the supremely enlightening events at this shindig and I would strongly urge everyone interested in Genre Illustration to go next year.

In other news, This book cover project I've been working on has been absorbing a ton of my time and it has been teaching me a ton about technique and my overall process. The book is a fantasy/scifi blend which is totally up my alley. I have also been knocking out some comps for some self-promo work, and some portrait work as well. I was chatting with artist Rob Rey at the showcase and he brought up that he does a portrait a week. I personally love to do portraits and they are great practice, so I'm making it a goal to do the same. You can see some of my portrait work on my site, however my recent stuff will take time for me to build up the funds for photographing. I need to either get a good camera soon, or learn a way to will my images onto the internet with mind bullets.

Website and More...

Things have been crazy since I moved from New England. Life in what is basically a suburb of D.C. is remarkably different. Every road has at least three lanes and every store is in a strip mall. Not to mention that the traffic is horrendous. However, the fast-paced, industrial lifestyle of this place cannot help but become apart of you. Adapt and survive and all that. Here I find myself working harder than ever on my Illustration career.

I have been working with an up-and-coming author on a book cover. I have to say that there are few things more exciting than working on a commissioned project. He has been a terrific client to work for and I urge everyone to go out and get his book when it comes out. I'll post some some updates soon. I have also been working on some RPG related projects as well as some promotional pieces. With that I suppose the real exciting news is.....

I've finally found my home on the web!

You can now see my work at joeacone.com (I know, I'm clever...)

I was able to scrounge up some money for some cheap hosting and have been playing around with Indexhibit (thanks Evan). As apart of my new career plan, I would actually like to break into the Advertising and Editorial market. So I nabbed what work I could find and posted it under the subject Institutional. This will prove to be an interesting shift in my work considering I spent most of my days at school warping my assignments to include some kind of fantastical element. This has been mainly inspired by a great discussion I had with prolific and renown artist Dave Seeley. This is a guy who has found a great balance between doing Genre and Institutional work. This way he is able to satiate his creative compulsions and his pockets. I have to say thanks for the advice Dave.

So big things on the horizon aaaaaaand I'm not really sure how to end this post. It has been a bit of a ramble. I guess I'll end with stay tuned on the blog and check out my new, very new, website. All the best.