BOOK COVERILLUSTRATIONS

www.CharlesPaints.com

Charles Kent

ck@CharlesPaints.com • 667-305-5553

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First of all, thank you SO much for taking time out of your busy day to explore my digital portfolio

of paintings and drawings!

Sally Surreal is a fictional comic book series which explores the misadventures of a dynamic

heroine named Sally. She wrestles with existential decisions across the landscape of dimensional

shifts thrust upon her by a benevolent, yet somewhat maniacal scientist.

This concept serves as an exploratory canvas for a series of oil and acrylic paintings. My hope is

that it proves to be an adequate showcase of my illustrative skills while exhibiting the conceptual

development behind some of my work. My career to this point has traversed various arenas within the realm of graphic design, but my primary love will always involve a palette, paints and brushes.

Once again, thanks for taking the time to flip a few digital pages on my behalf. I hope there is a

painting or two that catches your eye andhere’s hoping that opportunities unfold!

Charles KentRésumé

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TABLE of CONTENTS

Sally Surreal is a fictional comic book series that serves as a repeatable canvas for my series of oil and acrylic paints. My hope is that it proves to be an adequate showcase of my illustrative skills as well as exhibit the conceptual development behind some of my work.

= Sketch (branched from corresponding cover)Sk

Programs used: Illustrator • InDesign • PhotoshopMaterials used: SS1, SS4, SS5, SS6: Oils

SS2, SS3, SS-TPB: Acrylics

= Trade PaperbackTPB

Beacon is another project in the works that has graced the pages of my sketchbooks. I have backed a written story with thumbnail sketches similar to the formatting displayed with Sally Surreal.

Sally Surreal

Issue 1 $3 US / $4 CAN© 2018 Charles Kentwww.CharlesDraws.com

C H E C K M A T E

Issue 2 $3 US // $4 CAN© 2018 Charles Kentwww.CharlesDraws.com

Womanowar

Issue 3$3 US // $4 CAN© 2018 Charles Kent

Issue 4$3 US // $4 CAN© 2018 Charles Kent

Issue 5 $3 US // $4 CAN© 2018 Charles Kentwww.CharlesDraws.com

Issue 6 $3 US / $4 CAN© 2018 Charles Kentwww.CharlesDraws.com

Collecting issues one through seven of the critically lambasted series, our unlikely heroine Sally embarks on a series of misadventures which relentlessly test her mental fortitude. Hints of extra-terrestrial involvement push her assumptions to the brink of desperation as she pieces together abstract clues that hint at freedom, only to lead her deeper into the seedy depths of her soul. Lines are blurred between culturally established dichotomies... life and death, war and peace... is there really any difference?

Trade $3 US / $4 CAN© 2018 Charles Kentwww.CharlesDraws.com

Ppbk

Trade Paperback$3 US / $4 CAN

© 2018 Charles Kent

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w.CharlesDraws.com

REJECT

ED

Here can be seen an overview of the process which can be seen leading up to a finished painting. Thumbnail sketches and process drawings are combined piecemeal to create a finalized sketch, which is transferred via overheard projector to a final “canvas,” which can be an actual canvas, watercolor paper or illustration board. Then an underpainting is established with blocks of acrylic washes, building to the oil layers until the piece is completed.

The piece seen here is a rejected version of Sally Surreal #6.

Process Overview

n theHere can be seen the maquette that was built as a reference model for Sally Surreal #2. The materials used were craft supplies such as a styrofoam ball and natural materials like twigs and moss found in the forest around my apartment.

Thumbnail Sketches

Sally Surreal #2 Thumbnail Sally Surreal #3 Thumbnail

Sally Surreal #4 Thumbnail Sally Surreal #7 Thumbnail

Charles’ knees throbbed their familiar aches as he trudged doggedly towards the end of Sa’avs Pass. His boots greedily clung to mud and clay as an animated crosshatch of rain traced the contour of his cloak. He had been travelling for days, stopping only to fetch water and relieve himself, and fatigue was finally displacing his perseverance. The weight of the cargo snugly strapped to his sides proved to be every bit the nuisance that Charles had expected. A tall glass of ale will be your reward once the transaction is complete, he reassured himself, and the promise of a warm bed at an inn fueled him for the last leg of his journey.

Crossing paths with nameless travellers became a more and more common occurrence as the town of Chuthan drew nearer. His thoughts drifted aimlessly, as they often would during long journeys, until the approaching sound of clacking hooves focused his senses with a jolt. His hand gripped tightly around the hilt of his concealed rapier as the silhouette of a horse-drawn carriage appeared against the lingering fog. It slowly lumbered past until the sound of rainfall overtook its creaky wooden wheels in the distance behind him. With a breath, he relinquished his weapon and allowed himself to relax.

How did things ever come to this? Charles often wondered, but never in a resentful way. It wasn’t much too long ago that he was dubbed the Shining Savior. Charles the Invincible. The Chosen Champion. These were the titles which helped to forge the path of his childhood towards his final confrontation with the evil Emperor Raven Da’Routh as a scant seventeen-year-old. He was victorious in the end, of course, as prophesized. Bloodied but victorious.

Charles observed with introspective analysis that his journey had almost felt at times like he was going through the motions. With the world’s confidence backing him, how could he fail? The celebrations were long and joyous, the erected statues grand and visionary, the women loose and insatiable. Yet his mind drifted even as his desires were thoroughly quenched, comparing the befores and afters of a world where ‘good’ prevailed and seeing no discernable difference.

What were you truly fighting for, oh Great Defender? His father might ask if he were still alive, the same bureaucrat father who wholeheartedly rejected his son’s predestination. The opportunity for people to govern themselves? Surely now you see how unruly the common masses are on their own. He shook his head with a snort, conceding a half-hearted agreement with the flesh and blood which abandoned him. The world was quick to dismiss their hero, of course, when Charles cynically exiled himself from the public eye.

Now, many years later, he was smuggling drugs across arbitrary borderlines, earning his keep by ensuring the availability of a synthetic drug for wealthy socialites to douse away their sorrows. An honest dishonest living, he reconciled with quiet justification.

The unmistakable rumbling of a gas-powered engine tensed the air once again. A merchant’s motorcar this time, parting its way through the incessant mist. It carried a sense of looming confrontation, even as it disappeared behind Charles’ peripheral vision. His eyes and ears steeled themselves for the inevitable.

“Halt!” A voice commanded, disregarding the fact that Charles already stood frozen in his tracks. “Surrender yourself now. Forfeit your goods without delay and forego your death!” Charles’ shoulders rose and fell with a heavy sigh, prompting two cloaked bandits to rapidly converge upon his position with their weapons drawn. He sidestepped them easily and made light work of them with his rapier, their bodies collapsing upon the rain-soaked earth with a pair of soft thuds.

Writing Sample —One Disillusioned HeroCreative writing, you ask? Indeed, I enjoy spinning a few yarns with like-minded strangers over ancient platforms of communication. I had a number of extensive writing projects with partners over AOL and AIM that rivaled the length of novellas and beyond. Here you will find an example of such partnerships, usually based on science fiction, dystopian conceptual frameworks.

He swiftly turned to meet the motorcar and was faced with a large cannon, still mostly covered in tarp, aimed at his center mass.

“Last chance!” the voice called again from somewhere within the humid dark. A grunt escaped Charles’s lips before he unsheathed his sword and swiped upward with one fluid motion—the same motion which felled the Emperor endless years ago—and the motorcar split into two with a smoldering crack. The scamper of footsteps fleeing into the woods finalized his victory, and Charles reassigned his focus while retiring his sword. The beady yellow lights from the approaching town beckoned, and his weary legs eased their demands. He sifted through the empty square towards the local saloon, passing a defaced, moss-ridden equestrian statue of himself without a second glance.

As a male in Rahven Rahz, you have the choice to be perpetually aroused, or not at all. Charles was reminded of his father’s narrow-eyed observation as two bubbly, scantily-clad waitresses flanked him in greeting within the saloon. Even as their breasts happily bounced against his shoulders, he maintained his blank, unrelenting stare. They asked in unison if they could tend to his cloak, prompting a slow nod of approval. His modest attire saw light for the first time in days—a faded plaid shirt, jeans with patches of discoloration, and brown boots cracking down the seams. Charles’ dark hair and eyes seemed understated against the wash of color prevalent amongst the other patrons of the saloon. Even his 6’2’’ frame was meager compared to other humans—and he preferred it that way.

He surveyed the area and made quick mental notes of his surroundings. A piano player in the corner. Two large ogres cornering a woman with ominous intentions. A large gathering of patrons, hooting and hollering around what seemed to be a sex show. Eventually, he spotted his contact. Charles nonchalantly seated himself at the bar beside a green-skinned Jhenaf, waving off a greeting from the bartender.

A moment passed, then another.

“You have what I need?” Finally, a gruff voice from the Jhenaf before he methodically lifted his glass to his lips.

“Yeah. You have my money?”

Slowly, the Jhenaf guided his hand towards a pouch strapped to his waist. He unzipped it slowly, pulling out what looked to be a bag of coins. Of course I have it, his glance seemed to say as he placed it resolutely on the counter between them.

Taking his cue, Charles loosened the straps around his chest and let the bags of pure Molly drop into his hands. He subsequently placed them beside the coins, on the side closest to the Jhenaf. “I guess that’s that,” Charles muttered, reaching for the coins before a firm shove interrupted his acquisition.

“No payment for you today, boss.” A weapon jammed against Charles’ back made its intentions irrefutably clear. The voice was quickly assessed and determined to be either a cyclops or an intelligent sasquatch. “Now leave and don’t look back.” Charles’ posture sulked, as if to prepare his meek departure from his chair and the premises. He then slammed his fist against his chest, causing a small, rippling explosion to flare out from his back, startling his assailant backwards a few steps. He swiveled hurriedly in his stool, prepared to engage his attacker before a compelling female voice commanded the attention of the entire saloon.

“Stop right there,” it ordered emphatically, persuading Charles to lower his sword as a woman emerged from the shadows of an adjacent room.

ABOUT the ARTISTCharles Kent is a graphic designer by trade, living and working in Owings Mills, Maryland. He has

always had an intensive interest in contemporary illustration and cites a variety of painters

and illustrators as inspirations, which include Zdzislaw Beksinski, Frank Frzetta, Bill Sienkewicz,

Massimiliano Frezzato, and Sam Keith.

After completing school at Virginia Commonwealth University with a degree in Communication Arts, he pursued a path in

graphic design which started at a small company in Richmond, Virginia. He designed novelty products that graced the shelves of K-Mart,

Walgreens, and Sears before moving to Baltimore County to work for Levin Group, Inc.

While at Levin Group, Charles designed a wide variety of marketing materials for almost every type of dental practice, including pediatricians,

orthodontists, and endodontists. His wide breath of work in this arena, as well as projects with other clients and employers, can be seen at

www.CharlesTheDesigner.com.

An opportunity presented itself at T. Rowe Price as a Quality Control Desgner, which combined

graphic design with the responsibility of proofreading marketing work for print and web.

Charles pours just as much passion into his writing as he does into his illustrations, which can be read

at www.CharlesTheIllustrator.com/writing.

www.CharlesPaints.com

Charles KentBOOK COVER ILLUSTRATIONS

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ck@CharlesPaints.comRésumé • 667-305-5553