A few of the major art media publishers have new announcements and releases this week:

• Ballistic Publishing has announced the upcoming release of d’artiste Digital Painting 2, and is calling for artists to submit new entries for publication. The entry deadline is March 24th.
• The Gnomon Workshop has several new videos available of interest to the 2d illustrator: Speedpainting to Matte Painting by Sebastien Larroude, and Character Design Pipeline by Thierry Doizon (aka BARONTiERi).

The Gnomon Workshop has announced several new instructional DVDs:

• High Resolution 3d Vehicle Illustration - A step-by-step demonstration by Brendan McCaffrey using Maya, Photoshop, and Mental Ray.
• Digital Creature Painting - Chet Zar illustrates his process of designing and painting a creature concept.

Check out also the interview, Dynamic Inspiration, with concept artist Sebastien “Rainart” Larroude.

More in the way of new product and video releases this week:

• The Gnomon Workshop has just released seven new videos from the likes of David Finch, Steve Firchow, Alvin Lee, and Joe Weems. Of most interest to the illustrator are four titles covering comic book inking, penciling, and coloring.
• Wacom has recently introduced two new additions to the Cintiq family of products, the 20WSX and the 12WX, a compact 4.4lbs unit that resembles the Intuos3 (except with it’s own LCD screen!), with a more affordable, sub-$1,000 price tag.