Day 15?

Hey guys!
So my hands are hurting a bit from work today so instead of drawing a new sketch I'll be sharing a never before seen illustration that I did a few months ago. This is part of my Elder Scrolls fan book project collecting illustrations and comics, as well as photos of props I've made, having to do with the Elder Scrolls games (as well as showing my love for them).

This illustration features my Oblivion character Mureil the Shadow Bard. Its my personal headcannon that she is the grandmother of my Skyrim character Merion the Lioness.
Here she is offering glow dust to the shrine of Azura while she is also being rewarded for completing Azura's quest by receiving 'Azura's Star.'

In other news it turns out I'm going to have over time ALL WEEK starting tomorrow so I'll be working 10 hour days and getting home by about 1am every night. Which will be taking up the night hours that I usually work on these sketches so I'm hoping I'll have time in the mornings to get these done but just in case I don't I'll try to share more finished works that I've been unable to share previously (or have just forgotten about) so you'll have something nice to look at while I'm gone. So bare with me, this week will be a bit rough :/

In the mean time be sure to keep up with podcasting machine El Goro, as he reviews a movie every day with "31 Days of Halloween."

Of Eladrin and Amulets

Hey Everyone!
I'm back from Megacon and finally settling back into regular old life again :P I'm securing another second job (and possibly one full time job if the stars align in my favor) so I've been busy since getting back. However I did have a super fun awesome time and even got to see some old friends.

Here is the illustration I got to give to Wil Wheaton of his D&D Character Aeofel.



And here is the autograph I got from him too. The whole thing was a proud moment for me and I'll never forget it.


Next is an inked sketch from my sketchbook. I was having fun drawing my Dovakin, Merion, while waiting for the plane to arrive. This scene is from a quest in the game where she discovers this powerful book and while looking at it realized it was made of various kinds of skin (blood samples from each race of elves was needed to open the container it was in so looking back it probably didn't have human skin on it) but when you open the book you can choose which 'path' you follow and it levels you up in a bunch of stats. I reached a whole new level just from reading it :P But then it disappears...



Upon getting home I had to do some inking with my brush once more. I dearly missed inking with it while I was gone. Ink brush withdrawls anyone? Also added some Typography for fun and tried to make Merion look a bit more scratched up and weather-worn.



ALSO managed to find the perfect beads I had been looking for for my Amulet of Dibella. I tried in furious vain last night to sculpt the little leaves that are meant to be strung with the beads but I just couldn't get them right. The amulet itself is sculpted smaller than it looks when worn by a character. I think it looks too big and garish in the game so I made it smaller. But now with the leaf charms it's backfiring on me. I can't make them to scale no matter what I try. The leaves will not look exactly the same I'm afraid. I'm going to come back to it and try again later. For now this is my 'simplified' version of the Amulet of Dibella.



Next will be the Amulet of Mara! One of my favorite items, and diety, in the game! Also one of the more complicated pieces but I'm confident if I pace myself with sculpting it I can make it look as nice as the original. I'd like to make it as part of an 'Agent of Mara' cosplay one day. The priest robes aren't too complicated and I can pass around the little Mara pamphlets from the game :P Here's a peek!

Exsocism by Tears

I lost my main job today (the one that actually gave me hours to work). Just as emotions swelled and overwhelmed me I painted this. And I honestly just feel so much better.

Watercolor, graphite, conte' pencil, ink pen on watercolor sketchbook paper.
5.5" x 8"

Tripple L

A little watercolor illustration in response to a comment from a friend about a wrestling name she made up for me.

THE LACEY LAMBASTING LOLITA!

The clothing designs are from various brands but I changed the colors to match a purple/lavender color pallet. I also wish I had that wig.

Maids and Dwarves

Had some time between jobs recently (before the black friday/weekend rush) so did some art-ing.

My maid character Alice during a service rush.
Pencil, Watercolor and Ink on 90lb watercolor paper, 5.5”x8”

Some digital WIP doodles of a new Dwarf guy and new costume for my poison brewer/necromancer Zona.

More to come soon, if I survive this weekend :P

Day 10- Hail Gozer!

Greetings all! Day 10's entry comes a little late in the day today since I wanted to finish it properly. Thanks to a suggestion from my handsome partner in crime Ryan, I tried my hand at painting Gozer the Gozerian of the first Ghost Busters movie. She was a lot of fun to paint and I had a good time playing with the colors.

Be sure to check out El Goro's newest "31 Days of Horror" movie review of THE DEADLY SPAWN!

Doubt Monster

Starting early today!
This illustration is a bit more conceptual in it's horror, and also a 'relief' drawing for me. I had a discussion with El Goro while I was struggling with the previous illustration and I expressed that while working on my projects I hear a little 'voice' that asks me probing questions and says things in a quest to get me to give up on what I'm doing. It's caused me over the years to drop projects and not get around to doing things that I'm actually excited about. He explained that your brain actually tries to end your 'suffering' by convincing you to stop doing things that stress you out or cause anxiety. So our brains are actually trying to sabotage us when we work! It made so much sense to me, I then became inspired to draw this big, looming, smoky monster that sits on my shoulders trying to convince me to give up. It represents the feelings of self doubt, fear, inadequacy, that lead to vulnerability, anxiety, and other frighting emotions that leave me feeling like a helpless failure.

I'm learning to beat those feelings back, because honestly nothing feels better than holding up a pile of drawings or comic pages and admiring all the hard work you've done. It outweighs the fear, the fear is just stickier to get past. So never give up!

While you're here I also suggest checking out El Goro's podcast today for a great review of the movie "Stanley."

Trickster Spirit

Today's Illustration is a creature I've designed for a future Alencia story. This creature is actually an enchanted mask that entraps the spirit of anyone who puts it on. In the story (so far at least) there are two of these masks that have spirits attached to them. They float around in the tomb they are imprisoned in collecting bones that they use to construct their 'bodies.' Because of this they can arrange the bones into what ever form they want. If they want to be snake-like they can, if they want lots of limbs they can. If they want to combine themselves into a bigger monster, THEY CAN. So I'm having lots of fun with them so far, but still have things to iron out. Today's illustration is one of them after it has torn apart some fresh prey to take its bones.

Also decided to stick to graphite and watercolor with this one. I think prefer the results when using ink and water color but I suspected a lot of the bone detail would be lost with the brush pen. Still quite happy with it and the layering I did with all the blood/gore.

El Goro's podcast today covers the 1960 movie "Jigoku." Check it out!

Note: Tomorrow's update might be late. I'll be out of town for the day, then going right into work that evening. I'll try to update that afternoon/night or twice on Saturday.

Watercolor Practice

A small watercolor painting I’ve been working on and off since the holidays. My character Alice from a comic that me and Ryan want to work on in the future. It’s not hugely important for us to get done soon so it might pop up in the next few years. Otherwise I’ll just keep drawing her for fun. I tweaked the colors to be brighter and more vibrant since my scanner ate them. I also forgot when I painted it that I wasnt' going to give her a pink nose anymore. Awell. It was fun to work on and I learned a lot from it.

Cold Press Illustration board, Mechanical Pencil, Watercolors, Colored Pencil, (8 3/4”x5 1/8”) 2011-2012.

Fall 2010 Update

Hey everyone! Now that my work for issue #1 of 'Kale: Lost & Found' is over I can finally get back to school work and preparing for Nekocon. And did I mention midterms this week? Heh, yeah. So before I dive headfirst into studying for midterms I want to share what I've been doing all semester. I'm gonna split this into two blog posts to avoid spamming; one for school work and one for personal art.

+Game Design
For my game design class we're all working on our own video game that we're doing concept art for. Mine is a free roaming mystery where you play a military scout exploring a newly discovered island that your kingdom hopes to conquer. But your team mates go missing and you explore the island to go find them. I'm trying to make the island a character of it's own and eventually create an unsettling environment from the sunny landscapes to the dark underground. I'm also trying out watercolor for the concept art with some colored pencils mixed in. It's good practice but I need to look up tutorials too.





(not complete, I still need to go over it with some colored pencils)






+Senior Portfolio

For this class we have four projects to work on that we get to choose. (We're still on the first one and its' technically midterms so you can tell I'm feeling antsy). Aside from those we've also been working on logos, letterheads, invoices, and now we're starting business cards.



Here is my logo.

As for the 1st project I am redesigning the album art for Blind Guardian's 'At the Edge of Time.' I really don't like the over CGed, and frankly bland feel of the album art so I'm hoping to do something worthy of them. To show just how hard I'm working, here is a collection of thumbnails I've been doing for the project over the last few weeks.




I am SO SICK of thumbnails. But its just as well since I'm now starting the actual project. Here's what I have so far of the pencil drawing. The concept is that I have a Norse goddess of virtue (Snotra) having triumphed over a tyrant ruler. I listened to the album and read the lyrics and one of the reoccurring themes was of a united people overthrowing a ruler or government. I also wanted to keep the subject matter somewhat rooted in fantasy because of Blind Guardian's influences and past album covers.

For the goddess herself there wasn't much I could find in the ways of art for her (as posed to Athena who I didn't' want her to look like). So I researched viking women's clothing and based her clothing on that. My reference before that was a toga-ish robe that I constructed from a bed-sheet and wrapped my room mate up in but that still helped immensely with the draping. I'm finding that the more research you do for something the more rooted in reality it is, and the more real it feels. Its' something I've been told by teachers recently that I need to do more of. I completely agree and now that I'm putting it into practice I'm finding it works ever so nicely!




Stay tuned for my post of personal work! For now I have some homework to do :P

Water Color Comic WIP

Finally went back and finished water coloring this comic. Next I'll clean it up and add text, then post it to DA. I'm also planning to experiment more with water color and comics this summer.