This painting has been sitting on my desk of over a month and I'm happy to share a new painting. Lately I've been drawing many tree folk in my sketch book and am planning a small long term project with the wandering trees.
I experimented with some new techniques on this piece. The red watercolor was becoming more pink then I wanted, I then mixed some Doc Martins ink to create red. For the Tree Folk, I tried a different bark pattern then I usually use and it turned out great.
This watercolor was made for my Mom for mother's day/her birthday. I finished it over the weekend as a warm up to getting back into painting more and creating finished work again.
This creature is a water sprite. He hangs out by bodies of water collecting pearls and leaving them as good fortune to people they deem worthy. The design was inspired by frogs.
I just finished another painting last night that I will share in the next few days.
I've been back in Asbury for a while now and finally got my work space set up the way I wanted, thanks to a day of cleaning the third floor completely. Now I have 2 desks! Which makes switching between painting, drawing, and working on the computer much easier.
I use my drafting table to paint at. It has a large surface area for all my palettes, brushes, and other supplies. In the upper left corner is my tiny light box and for some reason my portfolio is sitting on the edge of the table. Above my desk are my white boards.
The white boards are a new addition. The boards are also magnetic and have cork around the edges, multipurpose is great. I use clips to hold sets of sketches together for ideas that are close to becoming finished pieces and to remind me that there is always something to do. There are some notes as well for projects ideas and lists. I want to get a white board calendar next.
Here's my new desk just for drawing. The left side of the table has my large format scanner, now I don't have to pull it off my dresser then plug it in under my drafting table. It makes me more inclined to scan and I've actually started using photoshop to help color comp paintings. Its nice to be able to have my sketchbook open on a flat surface to switch to drawing as I'm waiting for a watercolor to dry.
Right next to my drawing desk is my book collection or at least part of it. This is where most of my art and comic books are. My D&D books are located close by in a large plastic crate. On top of the shelf are some finished sketchbooks for quick reference and an old tool box with extra ink in it. There's some sculptures on the shelf as well, one of a Satyr I've made, a satyr from the Narnia films, and Gollum.
I don't get lonely working because my dog Abby (she's a mutt, we rescued her 6 years ago) is right behind me watching (more often sleeping) on my bed. She hangs out with me most of the time when I'm at home and really likes to cover my blanket in dog hair. She is a great dog, very gentle and sensitive, but not very graceful. Abby is great company while I work. Sometimes Claire hangs out with me and we talk about the illustrations we are working on and our summer jobs.
That's it for the next work space, soon to have a new painting to post, new legendary monster, and a boat load of sketches.
Finished the illustration earlier in the week. My summer job was/is keeping me busy. But that doesn't mean I'll be slowing done my illustration work. I'm excited to start saving money to get both 'The Other People' and my new 'Legendary Monsters' book printed for the next Con season. All those days standing in the sun, helping tourists pays off.
Remember to pick up 'Against the Slave Lords' to see my hobgoblin illustration
I've had this idea of a goblin assassin in my sketchbook for a while now (since the winter). But I knew with all the work on my book and classes that I wouldn't have time to work on it. Luckily I created a list of pieces I wanted to complete and this was on the top. I created this piece with the thought it could be used in a role playing book. It would go well next to a character class/race or maybe even a NPC involved in an adventure to assassinate a party member or ruler of a city.
Soon I'll create a process post of this piece from sketches to painting. My watercolor skills are getting better with each illustration I create.
I have many paintings lined up for the next few weeks and wanted to get some of the pieces that are close to done finished. Here is a little practice piece I started a few weeks back at school. Elf armor found it's way into my sketch book after I created a ink drawing for my friend Ginette's birthday. As I have stated before, I don't draw elves often, so it was a nice change.
The elf knight was great practice for the larger pieces that I have planned to be working on in the next few weeks. I have a goblin assassin piece and I need to finish The Green Man as well. Plenty to keep busy as I continue the search for a part time summer job.
I received my printed copies of my book over the weekend when I went home for free comic book day. I was very excited to see that the print quality was great, though pricey for the resale so I wasn't able to buy extra copies to sell at Free Comic Book day. Lots of customers were asking for copies and got me thinking I might do a kick starter or indie go-go for people interested in purchasing a copy and allow me to get a bulk order so it will cost less per book. But that's for the future.
Here's some snap shots of the book.
Over the next few weeks I'll post some of the illustrations I've created for the book. But now to get back to painting.
Finished inking this piece a while back and the painting process has already started. It's a green man wondering through the forrest at night. I had a lot of fun designing the character with a leaf beard, tree hand, and log horns. I'm still debating if I want to design a patterned frame as a boarder, I guess I'll figure it out as it get's closer to finial stages.
A new painting to share
First of 4 paintings I created last semester for my independent study. Finally got the illustration scanned and learned of a new tool in photoshop that combines 2 files seamlessly into 1.
The Hobbit is written by professor JRR Tolkien and has been a favorite book of mine since childhood. The project was created from a book report I did in 7th grade where I drew images to include with the report. I've always had strong images set in my head for Tolkien's creations and I used the independent study to create large rendered watercolor illustrations.
This is 'The Unexpected Party' of the dwarves arriving at Bilbo's hobbit hole in order to plan the journey to reclaim their treasure.
Here's a little Satyr Portrait I made while I was at work. I spend 6 hours in the illustration room and decide to relax with a painting that is not involve with my senior thesis. It was a nice break, but back to working on my book. Got two weeks left to finish my paintings before production then sending the book off to print.