Peter Mohrbacher

Shateiel, Tranquil Observer - Detail Phase

Around this point in the painting, I started thinking "huh, something looks weird".

Typically, a loose version of a painting gives you a clear sense of how all the pieces should fit together since your brain fills in the gaps in the information. At an earlier point, I felt like this pose worked better, but as the details started to come in they began to drift.

Adding the details to a painting is often one of the most time consuming parts of the process, but it can also be the easi...

Legacy Print - July 2019

Did I forget to promote this month's print?

Yep... It's Rahab, Angel of the Deep

The deadline to sign up for the Legacy Print or higher tier is tomorrow, prior to me posting the final art for Shateiel, Tranquil Observer.

Shateiel, Tranquil Observer - Color Phase

Shateiel keeps getting painted in cold, far away places. First in the snow and now up in the frigid air above the clouds. There is something attractive about these foreboding locations. Something about them feels like they offer the potential for escape from reality.

Shateiel, Tranquil Observer - Value Phase

 Since things are bit hectic right now, I thought I would do a nice simple piece. Something right in the middle of my wheelhouse.  Amid the stressful preparations for my big move, I'm craving a little bit of the feeling I'm trying to capture in this piece. I need to be on the ground, taking care of business but I'd rather be up in the clouds escaping it all.

The Angel of Silence was the perfect subject for this month's piece since it gives me a good excuse to inhabit the peace...

Temporary Store Closing + Clearance

As you may have heard, I'm moving from Chicago to Florida. In preparation for the move I'm going to have to shut down the store for about 2-4 weeks.

Before I take it offline, I wanted to toss a few rare items up there for anyone who is interested. There is a mix of discontinued playmats and prints that have been knocking around the dark corners of my studio.

 You can find them at the top of the store here: h...

July Rewards + Discount Code

All wallpapers, works in progress, high res finals and PSDs for Phanuel, The Still Presence are now on their respective Discord channels. Log  into the Angelarium Discord channel to download them and access the  complete archive.

This month's Patreon exclusive 10% off promo code is TREE10. It's good for anything on www.angelarium.net/store including prints, cards, playmats...

Quick Personal Update

I'm getting everything delivered last minute this month since I spent part of it kicking around Florida looking for a new place to live. Thankfully, I nailed down a contract on a place fast enough that I was able to make it back to the studio in time to finish this month's painting.

There's a chance I'll be taking August off due to a combination of our move and a couple very large events. We'll see how July goes.

Book of Watchers + Emanations

In the middle of arranging for...

Phanuel, The Still Presence

Whoever understands the first truth
Should understand the ultimate truth.
The last and first,
Are they not the same?

-Mumon (The Gateless Gate)

Phanuel, The Still Presence - Color Phase

A lot of the reference pieces I was looking at for this painting were neon and space colors. That wouldn't do. For this current run of Seraphim, I wanted to put them in more natural feeling environments. One of my big goals in this piece is to merge the naturalistic with the artificial. Adding color, I felt like there was an opportunity to play the warm greens of the trees off of the colder hues of Phanuel's metal bits. 

I love painting with warm natural colors. Picking away at bit...

Phanuel, The Still Presence - Value Phase

There was a hot minute where I thought I wasn't going to be able to move forward on this piece. Creating an image with perfect symmetry was never my goal, so simply mirroring elements from one side of the canvas to the other wouldn't do. This means having to paint every symmetrical element twice, making the second time similar enough to look intentional but not so similar that it looked artificial. Getting this effect made me worry for the background. I was relieved to find that once I dove i...

Phanuel, Angel of Truth - Returns! - Concept Phase

I had the older version of Phanuel up on my screen while I was doing sketches when my wife walked into my office and exclaimed "Wow! You're almost done with this one". Apparently, she has no memory of the older piece and assumed I'd painted it yesterday morning.

Phanuel is from the third wave of Seraphim designs and feels to me to be basically brand new. I was surprised to see that it was originally painted 3 years ago.

What's also surprising to me is that this piece (and many ...

Legacy Print (June 2019) - Zuriel, Angel of Libra

This month's Legacy Print is another very popular entry from the Zodiac series. This one is my personal favorite and just so happens to also be my birth sign.

If you'd like a delicious 12x18 signed luster print of Zuriel, please make sure to sign up by June 29th.

Much love,

-Pete

Summer Sale! - Full Story

In a couple of months, I'm moving down to Sarasota, Florida.

I'm not sure what that transition is going to look like, but I felt it was a safe bet to try to clear out as much stuff as possible out of my studio before that all happens. That means I've stopped restocking inventory and I've marked everything in the store down by 20%.

As Patreon subscribers, you guys get even deeper discounts on top of those numbers from the discount codes I posted yesterday.

If you have had you...

May Rewards + Discount Code

All wallpapers, works in progress, high res finals and PSDs for Remph, Companion to the Ages are now on their respective Discord channels. Log  into the Angelarium Discord channel to download them and access the  complete archive.

This month's Patreon exclusive 10% off promo code is TICKTOCK10. It's good for anything on www.angelarium.net/store including prints, cards, pla...

Remph, Companion to the Ages

 The sound of the water pulsed

Pressure pushed them on beat by beat
Marching forwards, dying upon the beach

And with each stroke they pulled the sand
Dragging it upon the stones
Polishing their faces smooth

May 2019 Legacy Print - Samyaza, Angel of Pride

In the rush of trying to catch up on art this month, I realized I forgot to promote this month's legacy print!

This month's print is Samyaza. If Angelarium was a video game, he'd be the last boss. It's exciting to be able to bring him back for a second :)

Remph, Companion of the Ages - Detail Phase

Painting the clouds and the main figure are coming along quite smoothly. These are things I've done enough times to be able to walk through without much trouble. These stairs on the other hand. Hoo boy. I've got a late night or two ahead of me.

Keep an eye out for the final soon! I think I might actually hit the deadline on this one :)

If you missed my previous update, I'm running behind on everything because I'm finalizing the first two books while preparing for a move. Next mont...

Remph, Companion of the Ages - Color Phase

Those little acolytes from the Matariel piece are back!

I meant to start adding them to all the recent Seraphim paintings, but I couldn't find a way to incorporate them in a way I liked in the last couple. We'll see how often they are going to be appearing from here on out.

This feels like a very old school color palette to me. It's one that I've used going way back since before I started working on this project full time. It's not as much of departure from the original Remph pain...

Remph, Companion to the Ages - Value Phase

I was saying to myself. "Okay bud. You've got just 1 week to make this piece happen. Take it easy on yourself. You made each of those Emanations paintings in a week, you can do this. Just don't do anything stupid."

Then I decided to paint stairs.

SMH

This is a new take on Remph, Angel of Time. I always loved this design, but this piece was never popular. I'm excited to take another stab at it.

2019-05-29 20:57:19 +0000 UTC View Post

April Rewards + Discount Code

All wallpapers, works in progress, high res finals and PSDs for Dumah, The Chiming Bell are now on their respective Discord channels. Log  into the Angelarium Discord channel to download them and access the  complete archive.

This month's Patreon exclusive 10% off promo code is WAKE10. It's good for anything on www.angelarium.net/store including prints, cards, playmats and...

Where I'm at - Life update

Hey folks,

I've been getting some questions about when rewards are being posted/shipped, so I can see there is some frustration and I wanted to address it.

Things have been running behind these last couple of months.

I've been trying to stay focused on finalizing the Book of Watchers and I'm happy to say that there has been some very tangible success. Though, this project is so insanely late that the impending reality of finishing it has been producing a lot of stress for me...

Dumah, The Chiming Bell

 I looked into the sky and saw
A truth written in quiet motion
The turning wheel rises and as it falls
It shows us what we've seen
A vision from beyond
no different than a vision from within 

Dumah, Angel of Dreams - Color Phase

I'm keeping the palette on this one pretty simple. I was playing around with keeping it monochrome but the current state of it includes some washes of cyan to help create separation through temperature. Keeping the figure mostly in shadow means that I need to use some tools to create depth. If I'm not going to create that depth with value, then it has to be with hue, saturation or color temp.

Part of me wants to play around with the values again to see if there is a punchier solution to...

Dumah, Angel of Dreams - Value Phase

These posts are coming in real late this month because I've been doubling down on my efforts to finish up the books. I've been working on this piece throughout the month, but I've just been behind on posting updates and social media posts. Sorry! I'm going to try to do better next month once I get used to handling all this stuff myself again.

The new version of Dumah is breaking from my recent trend of keeping the pieces looking more classical. I'm choosing instead to try to create a m...

Legacy Print - April 2019

The print this month will be Muriel, Angel of Cancer!

Anyone subscribed to the $30 tier or higher will get a copy of this print along with any other rewards after this month.

Dumah - History Lesson

I'm working on a new illustration for Dumah, Angel of Dreams this month.  Before I start posting the progress so far, I wanted to share something older first.

This is a painting from around 2007-2008. Just around the time where I was seeking out my first jobs as a professional artist. I had been gaining attention for Angelarium at the time and I wanted to start adding new Angels to the roster. This one never quite made it out of the gate.

I started working on a version of it...

Playing Card Deck - Trilogy

-Limited Availability-

I've updated the look of the Angelarium playing cards and this time there are three unique decks featuring artwork from each of the main collections. They're up on the store for $12 each while supplies last.

These decks have limited stock. Once they're sold out, they will be discontinued.

 https://www.angelarium.net/store?category=Merch 

-Pete

Angelarium: Live Q&A - (Fri) April 5th

Hey guys,

I'm emerging from my hardened cocoon to hang out and answer questions live on Twitch this Friday at 5pm CST. It's been too long! 

 https://www.twitch.tv/events/5llZIjoiSgyJrH9XqW1Elg 

Elaine will be joining me to help moderate. So if you've got questions for her, feel free to bring those too.

See you there,

-Pete

March Rewards + Discount Code

All wallpapers, works in progress, high res finals and PSDs for Israfel, Shadow of Perfect Bliss are now on their respective Discord channels. Log  into the Angelarium Discord channel to download them and access the  complete archive.

This month's Patreon exclusive 10% off promo code is SONG10. It's good for anything on www.angelarium.net/store including prints, cards, pla...

Israfel, Shadow of Perfect Bliss

 The ecstasies above

   With thy burning measures suit—   

Thy grief, thy joy, thy hate, thy love,

   With the fervour of thy lute—

   Well may the stars be mute!

Yes, Heaven is thine; but this

   Is a world of sweets and sours;

   Our flowers are merely—flowers,   

And the shadow of thy perfect bliss

   Is...