Last day of Goblin Week and I'm happy with the results of the drawings that will be added to Goblin Guild. Today's goblin is apart of the bombers. These goblins have to be brave since they are a walking explosive. They carry huge barrels full of gun powder to place near walls or buildings to collapse the structures. They also have an array of small bombs to lob into battalions or through windows. Bombers are targets of the battle fields for their enemies hoping to cause chaos on the goblins side instead of there own. Many have exploded from flaming arrows piercing the barrel leaving the goblins in a bad place.
Goblin Week 2015- Day 6
Todays goblin is an alchemist. The alchemists work in labs creating new explosives. They contain the explosive potions in glass bottles that will shatter when hitting a target. Some of the potions are acidic to cause damage to people while others are meant to light buildings on fire. The alchemists fill barrels with gun powder and roll them towards enemy lines and blow them up. Most cases it back fires on their own ranks, but the alchemists are determined to make it work.
Goblin Week 2015- Day 5
Rus Dread-gouger returns, renowned assassin of the goblin guild. When a job needs to get done they call on Rus. He's so skilled that even outside of the guild he is hired for hits, but won't go after his own. He spends most of his time in the capital city, hiding in the shadows and knife on his hip, ready to strike in the night when your back is turned.
Goblin Week 2015- Day 3
Today for Goblin Week I drew a portrait of a goblin scholar. I haven't thought of who this character is yet but with more sketching to explore his personality I'm sure he will reveal himself. One thing is certain, he doesn't seem to be the friendly sort.
Monster Monday- January 26, 2015
Second day of Goblin Week.
Goblins aren’t known for their education, but there are members of the guild who work as scholars in different areas such as war tactics, engineering, and literature. The scholars are also in charge of the library holding all the guilds documents and were the guild scribes work.
Monster Monday- December 29, 2014
Last Monster Monday of the year! And this year I didn't miss one week reaching my goal of having a monster posted every week of 2014. Having a project like Monster Monday really helps hold accountability to post on my blog, tumblr, and other social media. For 2015, I hope to make it another year full of monsters and creatures as well as other projects.
The image above is the final colored version of the goblin entry to Blizzard's Hearthstone contest.
Monster Monday- December 15, 2014
For this week's Monster Monday is a goblin inspired by Blizzard Entertainment's Hearthstone, an online card game. They recently released an expansion of Goblins VS Gnomes and this was a drawing I created for the goblin side. I ended up finishing the gnome for the art contest But wanted to share the goblin as well. This week I plan on finishing the colors and sharing the final later this week.
Rus Dread-gouger
Rus Dread-gouger, assassin for the Goblin Guild in the capital city of Orbis, Muruspatria. Known for his skill throughout the guild, he has been tracking his prey for days through out the city and he is ready for his move. With his dagger in hand and target in sight, Rus will king the city’s court wizard and take down the magical barrier to let the goblin horde invade.
Monster Monday- November 24, 2014
Hobgoblins are cousins of both goblins and bugbears. They are known to be the intelligent of the three, but not considered geniuses either. Hobgoblins are often elite fighters compared to goblins having more training.The mass amount of weapons and armor for the goblinoid army is crafted by Hobgoblin smiths. In the depths of volcanoes they use the lava to craft tools of destruction. Often the most crude weapons are given to goblin soldiers and the best crafted armor is given to the Bugbear guards of the Goblin King. Hobgoblins often experiment with new materials and explosives to help conquer enemy territories.
Sketches for an Upcoming Project
For the past few weeks, I've been spending a lot of my time working on a personal project that includes many of the Monster Monday drawings. In my past post, I showed the process of how I created the Fungus Behemoth, but didn't show the sketch I created for the ink drawing. Lately I've been experimenting with pencils that are similar to my technique I use when I draw in my sketchbook. So I bought some new pencils in Terra Cotta, Red, and Blue prismacolor pencils to create rough drawings for ink drawings. Here are some drawings I created over the past few weeks.
Some of these have been seen already as ink drawings and digital pieces. Others will be popping up in the next few weeks for Monster Monday and other blog posts.
Monster Monday- September 15, 2014
This week's monster is a goblin on green paper. A while back I sketched out the idea for this goblin for Goblin Guild. But I was not happy with how the soldier ended up. As a way to relax between preparing for Illuxcon, I worked on this drawing on and off. This version will replace the older design in reprints of Goblin Guild.
On Wednesday I'll be driving to Allentown for Illuxcon. I'll be exhibiting my work at the showcase on Friday and Saturday. Original drawings, prints, and books will be available at my table. Make sure to stop by .
Monster Monday- August 18, 2014
Another Bugbear for Monster Monday. I continued with experimenting with adding texture to my ink drawings and have been getting positive results. The Bugbear is a part of a small book that I am creating for promotions to send to Art directors. It's a small accordion book of black and white drawings of monster. On instagram I post a dummy version of the book that helped me decide what changes to add to the final version of the book. The dummy is a little to big for the envelopes I purchased and stronger glue to hold it all together. With the next few days off, I'll be formatting and being the production of my book.
Monster Monday- August 11, 2014
For this week's Monster Monday is a rogue goblin. The idea started as a sketch while I was working on a slow day. Then developed into a sketchy pen drawing then an ink drawing. This goblin is a thief in the Goblin Guild. He carries two swords on his back at hip level. The armor is leather with leather scaling for easy movement. Though he doesn't wear a cloak to hide his face, he uses his scarf to disguise himself. Like many in the Guild, he steals gold and supplies to help the guild gain power. And will do all in his power to get what the Guild needs.
Goblin Rocketeer
A new 11x14 tone paper drawing of Goblin Rocketeer. This was recently completed after sitting on my desk for a while. The first drawing became to busy and dark, needing more contrast and less confusion. I took time before starting the image to study the first drawing to see what worked and what didn't. Which led to the finished drawing. The idea of the Goblin Rocketeer started in my sketchbook, pretty much like everything else I create. I'll have to do another sketchbook post again soon since I am nearly done with my current book.
The Goblin Rocketeer drawing will be traveling with me to the Illuxcon Showcase Friday and Saturday night were I will be displaying my work along with other illustrators.
Monster Monday- July 21, 2014
This week's monster is a Hobgoblin based off of a similar design I created a month back inspired by AD&D. The design follows more classic idea of pig nosed orcs and goblins with a nonstandard nose. In this case a bat nose. These goblins live in dark caves and have larger ears to hear better down the tunnel systems. They also can see better in the dark then other goblins. In the caves the goblins mine for different metals to create armor and use rocks to create weapons. The bat nose goblins are rare and are only seen if one ventures into the tunnels they inhabit.
Monster Monday- July 7, 2014
This week's monster is a goblin mechanic. It's a revisit of an idea from a while back and thought the idea would fit well into the Goblin Guild. It's done similarly with inks and a little clean up digitally after it was scanned. Next week, I will post another requested monster. Just have to work on bird anatomy first.
Monster Monday- June 23, 2013
Late Night Monster Monday, the past few days have been busy between working shifts at work and creating new drawings. The last post was a Hobgoblin and decided to draw a Bugbear that would match. Added similar textures like the other piece. So far, I like adding more texture then normally. I was browsing notes from Illuxcon last year and was reading over the portfolio review notes from Chris Seaman. He talked about adding texture and pattern, which I am applying to my drawings. The textures also look good when I am coloring in photoshop. I prefer to create the texture with line then adding textures digitally. Next I plan to draw a goblin to match the hobgoblin and bugbear.
Next week I will continue with more requests, still working out some anatomy and design on creatures.
Monster Monday- May 26, 2014
Another goblin, sometimes I feel like I draw them too often. This goblin is a shield striker. It can block with the shields on it's arms as well as hit opponents with the spikes or sides of the shield. Shield Strikers are heavily armored since they move slow due to the weight on their arms.
Later this week, I'll post the digitally colored piece that I am currently working on.
Monster Monday- February 24, 2014
This week's monster is based on drawing I created last year for Illustration Friday of the Goblin on War pig (can be seen in my portfolio). I wanted to draw a companion piece for the brown paper drawing for my sketch book I'm printing for convention season. The weekend provided time to design, draw, and ink the piece and I added color in the early afternoon today. This character spot isn't for a project but an exploration to a fantasy setting in the African savanna.
Process Post- Goblin Climber
During Goblin Week I drew a mining goblin repelling in a crystal cavern. It was my favorite drawing I created that week and decided to take it to a finished piece and documented the creation of the illustration while working.
The theme I added to Goblin Week was to create a mining company. In the beginning it's all little drawings of poses and ideas. It helps to layout the shapes before deciding details. Sketchbooks aren't meant to be pretty so I scribble down any idea that comes to mind even if it doesn't end up working because it might be useful later on. After sketching the repelling idea on the left page, I took the idea and scaled it up to a larger sketch. Then I took that sketch and cleaned up the idea on a piece of bristol to prepare to ink.
Having a solid drawing makes inking much easier. I don't leave anything blank to 'fix later'. It always ends with taking more time to fix later then just doing it right the first time. I get out my lining brush and ink bottle and get to work. After doing the first ink pass, I let it dry then tackle detailing. When the piece is completely dry, I scan it and clean up any mistakes or random ink blobs to prepare it for digital flats.
The cleaned up ink drawing becomes the lines for the digital piece. In photoshop the base colors are laid down on multiple layers, this is the time I experiment with different palettes. I want to nail down the palette before I end up adding shadows and highlights. But that doesn't always happen so I adjust some colors. For this piece, the character came together easily but the rocks and crystals had a lot of experimenting.
The final step in to add the highlights and shadows. Those are also done on their own layers in a new folder. Labeling layers and folders makes it much easier to keep track of things for me. After adding shadows, the highlights come next. Since the back of the crystals are black, I added a strong purplish white highlight to add punch.
I'm still learning how to use photoshop more efficiently and am enjoying learning to use photoshop as a medium. Though I am experimenting with new ways to apply watercolor in a flat manner similar to my digital work. More pieces are in the work.