Monster Monday- February 18, 2013
2 cyclops portraits
Orc Chief Watercolor
created over my winter break as a practice piece.
Making of Goblin Traveler
An illustration, for me, always starts with an idea. It doesn't have to be earth shattering but has to have enough content to create an image. During the Hurricane in late October/ early November, I wasn't able to work on any of my school projects. So it was a create time to catch up on some personal work. In my sketch book I drew this goblin.
This sketch was created after a few pages of drawing expressions, poses, and props. I like to have a collection of references I can look at when I create a sketch for a painting. Most of the time they are my own drawings, but sometimes I use photos of things I've never seen before so I know that it will be drawn correctly.
After the sketch is done, I use a light box to trace the image onto watercolor paper. Light boxes help reduce the time of transfering the image, I don't want to spend 2 hours redrawing the image on a sturdier surface. Next I ink the sketch.
Many people ink with different things. I have used pens and nibs, but I like to use a brush. The brush I like is a synthetic round 0, its small, nimble, and can create varied line weights. My favorite ink to use is FW, I use nothing else. FW gives true black lines, it doesn't fade to gray and is waterproof. Let it dry for an hour, while setting up to paint.
For my watercolors I use Winsor Newton. It's better to spend money on tubes with good pigments then to waste money of cheaper brands with little or bad pigments. I haven't had to buy a new tube in 2 years, as long as a palette is used, its easy to save and reuse watercolor.
This is the illustration after I have built up enough pigments to create a base layer that I will then render on top of. I don't let alot of the paper show threw my paints. I like a more bold painting style. The basing can take a while. It's all about waiting for layers to dry in order to build up a layers so its flat and even. But most importantly patience.
After rendering on top of the base coats its finished. Once again this involves lots of patience since building up solid layers takes awhile. I spent a few hours on and off the piece to make sure the paper is dry before creating a new layer. A good way to save alot of time is to use a brush that is proportional to the are you are painting. So in the beginning I start with a large brush, then moves to a small brush at the end when I am ready to put down a high amount of pigment to a small area. Now I have a finished portfolio piece, this personal piece was started in October of 2012 and finished in January of 2013.
Monster Monday- Feb 4, 2013
Shaman Troll
Sketch Book Drawings
With the new year, comes more drawing. I have one semester left of my thesis and a large amount of paintings to accomplish. Here are some recent drawings from my sketch book.
A drawing I did for 'Goblin Week' started by Evan Dahm (Vattu, Rice Boy, Order of Tales)
A drawing of a Troll. I decided that ink lines help make the drawing stand out then just pencil. I like this dude's outfit as well. I have plans for using this design in a future illustration.
A recent drawing, I tried to play with some more textures. I like the carrots, Trolls like carrots... and sticks
A new creature I designed. Its a Froglin, an aquatic goblin. They are rather large about a foot and a half tall. They prefer the water and tend to steal bait off the end of fishing lines. I've been having a fun time drawing these guys.
The Hobbit
Tonight I am going to see 'The Hobbit' at midnight. Its a good way of ending the semester since I have been working on 5 illustrations as an independent study. I currently have 3 paintings done, and 2 left to finish. I have really enjoyed illustrating the text and already have plans on continuing some pieces that didn't move past the sketches. Scenes I am looking forward to illustrating are: when Gandalf meets Bilbo outside his hobbit hole, the trolls, and the goblins. I also want to illustrate the scene where Bilbo steals gold from Smaug. But those are ideas for larger illustrations, I also have a list of smaller illustrations I want to complete like Bard, single paintings of the dwarves, and an impossibly long illustration of the whole party crossing the misty mountains.
There is enough work to keep me satisfied in the mean time since I have an ever growing list of non-Tolkien inspired pieces to accomplish as well. Starting in January I will be doing process posts for the creation of 'the Hobbit' illustrations. They will go through each stage of the creative process; sketches, comps, pencils, inks, and painting.
The drawing above was drawn while waiting for paint to dry, its based off a little drawing in my sketchbook.
Toned Paper Drawings
It's been a while since I posted. Ever since the hurricane I have been working extra hard to make up for the week I have lost and there are only a few weeks left of the semester. And of course I still have a lot of work to do. But I have been able to find extra time between waiting for paint to dry to sketch. And I have decided to try some new techniques to make finished drawings that don't have inked lines.
I decided to try drawing on a non-white piece of paper. I have seen other illustrators I admire do drawings on toned paper like Justin Gerard and Brian Froud. It was alot different then working on white paper because I could use white charcoal to add another value along with the values from a variety of pencils.
I've only had a chance to do a few drawing on the toned paper, but look forward to using this medium and technique to explore another way to create a finished piece.
Catch up Time
Last week Hurricane Sandy hit the east coast and since I live in New Jersey, it has greatly effected me the past 2 weeks. When the storm hit, like most of the population, I lost power. I had a crazy adventure being evacuated from my apartment then traveling all over New Jersey.
With out power, I had a hard time working on my school projects. I spent alot of the time sitting next to the fire sketching and helping my grandparents out. I did manage to get a finished drawing done of a Goblin.
I will hopefully get a chance to watercolor this piece before Thanksgiving. I want to use it as a warm up piece before I paint the Hobbit illustrations for Independent Study. The semester is more then halfway over and I can't believe how much work I have to accomplish and personal pieces I still want to start.
I have been keeping a small moleskin like this one.
I tend to draw rather large and moleskin sketchbooks are rather expensive. So I use mine for jotting down ideas and little sketches that come to me on the go. It's usually in my backpack or sitting on my desk. The ideas that I put into this book are usually for the long term since I use a larger, hardcover, sketch for my personal work. This way I can hold onto ideas for longer with out having to search in past sketchbooks for a thumbnail or paragraph I haven written about for an illustration.
As for Senior Thesis and Independent Study, I probably won't be posting many of the works in progress until illustrations are done.
Duk
October has always been a good month, nice and cool, leaves around, and of course Halloween. For a folklore enthusiast and monster illustrator, October is a month for the creatures of times passed to be mischievous again.
Luckily after all the studying for midterms, piles of sketches for senior thesis, and continuation of the illustrations for the Hobbit, I found some time for free sketching. During work today, I let my mind wonder, knowing only that I wanted to combine a jester/clown like character with a goblin. 
What I wanted with this character was not to play into cliches of goblins being green, savage, and dumb. I wanted my goblin to have more substance and have more of a folkloric background then one based in pop culture knowledge and basic fantasy knowledge.
This is Duk. He is a goblin who lives under beds in rural country sides, often hiding in piles of toys to disguise himself with his clown like appearance. But don't let that trick you, for he is a ruthless little creature. Only standing at 2 feet tall, he waits for a child to sleep, then with his very large blade he cuts off fingers and toes. He doesn't attack all children, for there is a way to keep Duk in hiding. One way is to keep a copper coin under the bed or pillow. It burns his skin. Or create a barrier of salt on the floor around the bed like a little wall. It will immediately scare Duk, He'll leave the residence, and no fingers or toes will be lost. He will flee with any lost fingers and toes to sell in Goblin markets for magical use. It will most likely end up with a witch, wizard, or relic to some other creature.
I am planning on using Duk in a little project I want to complete this semester. Its a small narrative book, written in a nursery rhyme style, of his adventure of stealing fingers and toes then venturing to the market. It's still in early stages. I want to have a smaller book, that isn't a comic, to sell when I go to conventions, and hopefully some book fairs this year.
Piles of Books
Books have always been something I've hoarded. I have stacks and stacks filling my shelves at home and my very favorite books here at school. Its an understatement to say that books did not influence me as an illustrator and eventually find myself working towards a career in book illustration
A lesser known fact about me is that I didn't learn to really read until fourth grade. I struggled in elementary school and depended on the illustrations to explain the stories to me. Dr. Seuss was my favorite, no surprise I was attracted to his bizarre creature designs and strange contraptions, I often looked forward to eating green eggs and ham at school.
The first book I ever finished front to back on my own when I was in 5th grade was 'The Magician's Nephew' by C.S. Lewis. Those books were the gateway to discovering other authors. The books had an amount of escapism that I needed at that age (in order to survive school) and inspired many drawings for years.
But the most important piece of literature I encountered as a child was 'The Lord of The Rings' by J.R.R. Tolkien. The films were released when I was in middle school and soon I was begging my Mom for a copy of the books at age 10. I didn't have the reading skills for the books, it took me 2 years to read 'The Fellowship of the Ring'. I carried it with me everyday to school and would read it when I had a free chance. The books introduced me to many fantasy artists like John Howe and Alan lee (who both worked on the films) and inspired me to work hard at becoming a serious artist.
In High School, I read the series again by Tolkien and it inspired me to take a shot at writing. I was not very good at it, but I did get a scholarship to attend 'Arts High School' for creative writing. Books became a comfort for me in high school as I slowly realized I was out growing the town I grew up in and was preparing to attend college.
At college, when I wasn't in class I enjoyed reading (besides DRAWING). My first semester I was not an illustration major, but had an epiphany. I liked reading and liked to draw things inspired by words, I was always inspired by words and imaginary worlds. I just never had a name to attach to the art I liked to create until illustration came into the picture.
Now that I am a senior, its time to think the direction I want to go with my career. Once again, books inspired me. I have always enjoyed illustrated chapter books like Narnia, A Series of Unfortunate Events, Spiderwick Chronicles, and Coraline. So I decide that is the direction I am going to take, starting with my independent study where I am illustrating 'The Hobbit' and my senior thesis, where I am creating a mystical world of creatures in the style of an illuminated manuscript.
Here's to little sleep, lots of drawing, and reading a great book.
Dragons
I am not one of those people who have a natural talent for dragons. Its like horses, you are either awesome at it, or have to struggle to grasp the anatomy by pages and pages of studies. For my independent study, where I am illustrating scenes of 'The Hobbit' as a portfolio exercise, I am drawing the great Dragon himself, Smaug attacking Lake Town. When I first thought of illustrating the scene I wasn't thinking of how I haven't drawn a Dragon since maybe the beginning of high school,( and even then I was drawing japanese dragons based off of wood block prints, not European Dragons.)
Luckily, there are many illustrators who are great at Dragons to study. My favorite was William O'Connor, who happened to have 2 books called Dracopedia, that are filled with Dragons of all designs. After a few days of studying his books and doing pages of studies in my sketchbook, I worked up the courage to draw a large scale drawing of Smaug.
It would have been difficult to start Smaug 
with out the studies to work off of. Unfortunately this drawing was to large for the scanner, so enjoy the poor quality iphone photo. After completing the drawing, I realized it was a good first try, but needed more work to make him unique and not a standard dragon, after all he is SMAUG.
The 2nd drawing of Smaug turned out much better. After more studies of anatomy I got the feeling I wanted, I gave him a longer head to balance out the body and lost some of the other parts, like those little wing things on his tail. Over all, a more simple design. But now I have to draw all the scales on this guy... its going to be time consuming, but it will pay off when I use this image as reference for the final illustration.
Don't forget to check out my tumblr. ThinkillustrationPaige.tumblr.com
For more sketches and a back log of illustrations.
New Blog
I have had an art blog ever since I started college. First at blogspot and then at Tumblr. But now I am looking at Wordpress because of it's more of an actual blogging platform then just a bunch of reposts of kittens doing silly things. But I will keep my tumblr updated with work, but here on this blog, there will be more information about process, sketches, and final pieces. Also there will be Con updates, shop visits, and illustrators that are inspiring me at any moment. So heres to a new blog!