Miscellany

I get bored of the things I do quite often.  I think that's what prevents me from getting ahead with a lot of my projects, I work on everything for a few weeks, it doesn't get a response and then I run off after something else.  Here's a few uncategorized pictures I've managed to finish this year.

Orchids in ballpoint pen:

 

This was a fun little picture.  I like working in ballpoint, it has a quality you don't get out of any other kind of pen.

Orcish Cook:

A couple years ago The Art Order had a challenge to design either an orcish shaman or cook.  And who can resist drawing horrible orc cooks?  I tossed this sketch off and forgot about it.  Last year I dragged it out and got 90% of it done before I was interrupted by a job.  This year I finally got it done!

I snapped some photos of this downy woodpecker at Smith Crossing last fall:

The contrast between the red dogwood branches and the duller gray branches made me want to play around with a limited ink palette.

Then I worked on a children's illustration.  This one is titled "Survival"

I'm painting now so I won't be doing more of these for a bit.

Haturday - Valkyrie

I put together Haturday and Illustration Friday's topic "Wings" to get this fabulous opera valkyrie.  Who doesn't want a winged helmet?

Still working on colouring this one up.

Goldberry

A late Christmas present for a friend who is a Tolkien fan.  Pen & ink, 7.5x9.5".  Now that I have the new transfer technique down, I'll probably be doing more work like this to sell at Artwalk.

I'm pretty happy with it. :)

I used one of Faestock's gorgeous gown photos as reference for the folds.

Character Sketches

Acid Gummy

For a "kill someone else's character" thread on CA:

Werepug Sketch

Even a man who is pure in heart and says his prayers at night... might find himself a werepug.

Take This With You Roughs

Roughs for a double illustration I'm doing for the old porkfolio:

Titania

Last time I posted a half-finished CHOW redesign, and this one is an old CHOW I never finished, Titania the Fairy Queen:

I think I'm going to be working on this one for a while, I'm in no rush to finish and I'd like to try for detail

Harajuku Warrior Redux

I've been noodling around on some old CHOW entries. Here was one of my other designs for the Harajuku Warrior:

Beauty

From Tanith Lee's short story "Wolfland".

Faun

No new paintings until this week's comic pages are done. But I am trying to do a bit more sketching again. I've gotten out of the habit since I don't spend long hours doing nothing much any more.

I was thinking of joining in on Spike's Sketch Bet but I don't think I have the time right now.

Cats

Cats with personalities!

Guardian of Atlantis

Creepy

Two Cats

Cleaned-up doodles!

Myconids

Well, I've always claimed my coworkers are a pack of mushrooms and now I get a chance to show it:

For CHOW 237, Fantasy Modern.

Snowmancer Final

This is doing really badly over at CHOW right now but looking at it again in the clear light of day it doesn't look so terrible.

I was really depressed about it yesterday but apart from the foreground not matching the background (which was a last-minute hack) and the pose being static and a bit fucked up, it doesn't look so bad. I was planning to do one "standing around" pose to show off the costume and a little illo to show the guy in action but I ran out of time and had to throw the monster in the background, which didn't work so well. I was aiming for a watercolour-ish look to the guy which I think I achieved and the texture on the monster looks okay. It's just too bad that everything didn't come together. Also, nobody appreciates a really good set of wizard clothes. Nobody. :P

I was also looking back at my abandoned graphic novel in progress and you know what? I did a good job on some of those pages. I even made myself laugh a few times. I should get back into it. I wasn't a terrible comic artist, only lazy and prone to depression. I'm going to finish that fucker up this next year. Because Lord knows I can't get anybody excited about my illustration and there's at least a chance I can support myself doing comics. :P

Snowmancer Rough 3

I did a better sketch of my design and decided I wanted to try inking it traditionally. Now that I've moved my drawing board into the new office it was fairly easy to set it up for inking again. Apparently I missed the crow quills! I enjoyed working with them again. But man -- I have to do something to solve my tilt problems when doing traditional work. I may have to start sketching on tracing paper.

I also tried the transfer technique where you cover the back of your sketch in graphite and then trace it on top of a sheet of Bristol for the first time. I was like "It worked! It worked!" and called my husband up to look. He said "Huh. You know, I have actual carbon paper. Quite a lot of it." That was a bit funny. I guess I could have saved myself some trouble but at least I have found a use for my black col-erase pencil.

Anyway. I thought I'd try to do something bluefooted-ish with the colour and texture so I spent some time looking at her dA gallery yesterday. And of course right after I post this rough the next person who posts is bluefooted herself. I'm like "Shit! My textures are going to look like crap beside hers!" but it was so funny. But I think I'll just continue with my plan, my stuff ends up looking more like itself than anyone else's stuff anyway.

CHOW Snowmancer Rough 2

Workin' on the Snowmancer. Not sure about how he's rendering up. I liked the sketch better.

CHOW Snowmancer Rough 1

A design for a wizard who controls creatures made of snow.