Monster Monday- August 25, 2014

The past week has been busy preparing for Illuxcon along with working on new drawings and illustrations and a part time job. But that didn't stop Monster Monday from happening, this week's monster is a Fate Spirit. A Fate Spirit is a creature I imagine that lives in ancient tombs to protect secrets or treasures. It uses the ancient rock to craft armor and weapons that it used in their former life. The Fate Spirit reminds me of a creature that could be used in a role playing game where a group of adventurers have to enter an ancient city or tomb. It would have multiple levels in order to create different challenges for the party and end with a battle with a fate spirit of a king or warlord. 

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.

Hobgoblin Dungeon Crawler

Yesterday after I got home from work, I was checking out twitter to see that Sketch Dailies topic was Hobgoblin. I haven't drawn a Hobgoblin since the ink drawing that was published in Dungeons and Dragons: Against the Slave Lords book. This piece became a nice break from working on larger pieces. Tony DiTerlizzi's D&D work are some of my favorite illustrations and I was inspired by his ink drawings to work on adding more texture to my own work. So far I liked the results of playing with adding texture and pattern to my work.

Monster Monday- June 9, 2014

When in doubt, draw a Satyr, this week's monster was created as a practice for inking. I bought a few new brushes to try out to see if the brushes would be an improvement from the Blick brush I usually use. I bought a Princeton Preferred synthetic brush and really liked the way the brush moved on paper. After the ink test I began to use it to ink larger illustrations I am currently finishing up. Later this week will be a process post on a new toned paper drawing. Stay tune.

Monster Monday- June 2, 2014

A little creature inspired by insects of many kind. A little drawing I inked for practice and turned out well. This design will be done on toned paper and inked maybe even colored. This creature is very small and lives inside trees with a larger colony of its kind. They work together collecting pollen to create a honey that can heal even the worse wounds. Many people wander the woods looking for the honey to help the injured or sell to a doctor.

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- May 19, 2014

This week's monster is a Minotaur. I've drawn minotaurs in the past but wanted to have a more unique looking design with long ape like arms. When it rests, it lays it's hands down on the ground similar to a gorilla. This design is one of the creatures of Fable Wood, which I have two stories on their first draft. Minotaurs will play a role in a few of the short stories and are helpful builders because of their strength.

Monster Monday- April 7, 2014

For this week's monster it's a forest elemental. Orbis has very few elementals in the world. There are rumors of more but their shy personalities keep them hidden in there home lands. There are 2 forest elementals in the western woods who guard the forest from lumber companies demolishing the land and habitat of other creatures. Even as guardians they tend to attack from afar or blend in so well with the forest, they remain unseen. Some of the city dwellers believe that the elementals are just myths that people believe in from ancient religions and texts.

Over the next few weeks I plan on drawing some other elemental guardians of Orbis.

Monster Monday- February 3, 2014

A Tarasque is a dragon of the swamps. It does not resemble the common image of what a dragon usually is. It spends it's time on the ground, hiding in large bodies of muddy water. Camouflage is the technique the creature uses in order to hide it's massive body from armies that could take it down. It prefers to snap out of the water, grabbing it's pretty then drags it into the water to both drown and eat. The large club at the end of it's tail is it's defense from being attacked from behind and it's horns can pierce the best armor. Legend tells of the Tarasque slicing a knight in half with the power of it's jaws. 

In Orbis, only one Tarasque remains in the bogs of the North. All others have been killed and kingdoms displays the horns and shells as relics of battle. That last Tarasque has not been seen in hundreds of years. Lots of people believe that none are left, but few believe that the harsh stench of the bogs is the Tarasque breath and don't venture into the swamps.

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.

Monster Monday-January 27, 2014

After a week of drawing goblins, it's time to get back into personal projects for the upcoming convention season. This drawing of a Starken is going to be included in a book I'm creating of wizards in the world of Orbis. I plan it to showcase the different races and magic that exist in Orbis. So far I have 6 drawings inked and I have to color them. This book is going to be in color unlike other zines or comics I've made in the past. 

Starken have already had a post about them, but I'll add some new information. This is Master Lo'grom, he is considered an oracle [able to see the future in the smoke of herbs]. The herbs are burned in a specially made caldron created by Starken metal crafters. There's a port on the side of the caldron that a pipe can be attached to breath in the smoke as well as increase the fire. The Oracle often has an assistant to aid by collecting herbs and preparing the cauldron for predictions. It's considered a high honor to have a personal prediction by a Starken Oracle. 

Goblin Week Day 7

It's the last day of Goblin Week and I've finished this drawing in the last hour. Goblin Week is a great challenge in world building a goblin society. I didn't let myself to create concepts until Goblin Week started, making each a day a new problem to solve in drawing and writing. It really helped me just throw down any ideas I had in my sketchbook and weed out the best. There are many pages of sketches (maybe I'll do a post of Goblin Week Concepts). 

For the last image of The Goblin Mining Company is a sad, beat up Goblin taking a break. Working in the mines is not always an enjoyable time, its hard labor and it doesn't always pay off in finding crystals. Goblins can get defeated when weeks or months go by with out physically finding anything. And this Goblin is wishing to be at home with a bowl of rat stew in his favorite arm chair.

Goblin Week Day 6

The Goblin Mining Company owns many caves in a wide area of Orbis. Not all caves are active at the same time. To protect the cave from being mined before the company has a chance to, goblin guards are set up at the locations to protect the property. A watch tower is constructed at the mouth of the cave as well as a wooden gate; Two guards at the gate and three in the watch tower.  The goblins that work at the sites are sword for hires, meaning they are trained in combat but don't owe allegiance to a person of power. The company pays the hires as well as provides them with food and a place to live with in the watch tower. Most of the time, there isn't anyone trying to enter the cave with out permission from the company. But there have been times of slaying thieves and competitor companies spies. 

Goblin Week Day 5

I was busy today starting a new job and cooked dinner poorly. But drawing goblins is a way to improve a negative mood.

Being alone is the caves can be a scary place. Goblins carry a brass lamp with a stand to light the tunnels in travel then be stuck into the ground to light their work area. Some goblins get superstitious about leaving their lamps behind, telling that the cave will seek its revenge with out the protection of the candle (which are supposedly enchanted by wizards). Believing in the superstition makes sense due to many goblins hurting themselves by hurting themselves and being found dead later on. So having the lantern keeps 'protect' by lighting their way out at the end of a work day. And no goblin wants to be left behind at the end of the day.

Goblin Week Day 4

With great wealth being carted out of the caves, some goblins want to get the riches with out having to do the labor. Thieves are fairly common sneaking around in the darkness of the caves. Though many of them don't have the knowledge or skill to navigate the system of tunnels. Many fall into trenches far away from where the miners are working and never make it out. A few have actually been able to steal a few crystals to pawn to jewelers. Other thieves have tried to force a cart worker to hand over the goods, but then they suffer the burden of pushing the heavy weight to the mouth of the cave. Most of the time, each goblin takes a few and runs, and get caught by the BugBear guards to hand over the stollen crystals. 

Goblin Week day 2/ Monster Monday- January 20, 2014

Next Goblin for the Goblin Mining Company is a crystal collector. Crystal collectors wander around the caves recently minded to pick up crystals to be transported to the carts to be brought out of the caves. These Goblins carry small pick axes to gently remove the crystals from the rocks and try to keep the crystals in the quality state. They place the crystals in their packs and walk back to the rails, where the carts are ready to transport the crystals out of the cave to the jewelers. 

I started to flat the piece out in photoshop and have to make some adjustments to some of the colors, then render it. I plan on coloring all the pieces for Goblin Week, it just may not be possible with the other work I need to get done.

Monster Monday- January 13, 2014

This week is a rock elemental from Orbis, my fictional world I'm currently building. Elementals of all types can vary in looks. Some may be giant and others can be very small. They are born of the element and land around them. Natural magic is the only way of creating elementals, most wizards have a difficult time conjuring elementals. Natural magic from the land can create an elemental with out help from a Wizard. Those tend to be avatars and are large. (The Dwarves of the Iron Halls believe that Dwarves were crafted from stone by a rock avatar.) Most avatars are peaceful and are the guardian of the land they in habit.

Elementals crafted by Wizards are often used as helpers or guards. Some leaders use elementals as guards because of their size and stature, often being feared since elementals are uncommon. Some Wizards use Elementals as guides to find new ingredients for potions because of their vast knowledge of nature. 

Monster Monday- December 30, 2013

Last Monster Monday of 2013, since I started Monster Monday in February I've only missed 2 Mondays. That was mostly due to the fact that my thesis was taking up my time. Missing 2 out of how many weeks is pretty good and I hope to create a new monster for every Monday of 2014! 

This week I created an orc. I'm entering it to be included in a zine, but the zine version has gray values, rendered digitally. I usually have trouble getting started on an orc drawing because it always starts out a little too goblinish. But this time I started out bulkier so I wouldn't run into that problem. To make this orc different from my other ones, this guy has fur armor of a barbarian. Hopefully, this will make it to print.

Monster Monday- August 19, 2013

Here's the ink drawing for a watercolor I'm about half way done with. Its a part of series of 3 paintings about Tree Folk. This is the last piece in the series. I am experimenting with textures in the current 3 watercolors I'm working on and it's really adding to the pieces.

Next week I will have a new drawing for monster monday. The past 2 weeks have been really crazy.

Monster Monday- March 18th, 2013

A goblin alchemist bomber. Sorry for posting a day late, its been crazy this past 2 weeks.