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WIP Art Journal
14 years ago
General
I recently realized that it's been a while since I've made a journal.
I have been doing well. I haven't been totally consumed by Skyrim.
There hasn't been much news with me lately. Next year, I might try and start attending the art show, or artist alley at cons, and maybe try and sell a few prints that aren't just done on a case by case basis. Also, I'm still planning on signing up for an actual painting class some time, because that sounds awesomely fun. Work can make my schedule a bit busy sometimes, though.
Anyway, I've been working on plenty of pieces of art lately, but they're mostly unfinished sketches.
Sometimes, when I start on a picture, I have a clear idea of what it's going to be, or what the point of the picture is. Other times, I just try and let things develop as I go. Here, I'm going to be talking about the latter type of piece.
One of my sketches turned out rather promising, but the background is my favorite part of the piece.
I've re-done many aspects of the subject and foreground and the background by now, but I haven't been totally satisfied with any of them. I just always think "That's nice, but it could be better."
Which leads me to re-work areas of the picture, of course.
I've seen several people brainstorm things on here, with good results, so I thought I'd post a journal, check in with everyone, show a WIP and a bit of my process, and hopefully do some brainstorming. Perhaps this will help me get the most out of this piece.
Anyway, here are some links to WIPs for everyone.
----
This is the most complete version I've made: http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/.....2/97899829.jpg
I have some hand drawn scales on the dragon, and a few from the brushes I've made. I tend to use the brushes or a few major scales as a "seed" and hand draw fitting scale patterns around them.
The background itself is http://img835.imageshack.us/img835/.....2/49157240.jpg
It almost works as a standalone, but it needs something to act as a focus.
The asymmetry of the dragon contrasts with the symmetry of the background a bit too much to be ideal, I think.
So, I've done some sketching with birds and other things. This one is rather rough, but should give you an idea of a phoenix pose... http://img46.imageshack.us/img46/9028/43546569.jpg
It has a bit more symmetry, to go along with the background. I'm doing some more sketching along those lines, at the moment.
----
Maybe I'll try a few more speedpaints to loosen up a bit, and play around with a few more digital painting techniques.
In trying to push every piece a bit farther than the last, I've been neglecting some of my simpler techniques, instead of finding ways to include them in my process.
How have all of you been?
I have been doing well. I haven't been totally consumed by Skyrim.
There hasn't been much news with me lately. Next year, I might try and start attending the art show, or artist alley at cons, and maybe try and sell a few prints that aren't just done on a case by case basis. Also, I'm still planning on signing up for an actual painting class some time, because that sounds awesomely fun. Work can make my schedule a bit busy sometimes, though.
Anyway, I've been working on plenty of pieces of art lately, but they're mostly unfinished sketches.
Sometimes, when I start on a picture, I have a clear idea of what it's going to be, or what the point of the picture is. Other times, I just try and let things develop as I go. Here, I'm going to be talking about the latter type of piece.
One of my sketches turned out rather promising, but the background is my favorite part of the piece.
I've re-done many aspects of the subject and foreground and the background by now, but I haven't been totally satisfied with any of them. I just always think "That's nice, but it could be better."
Which leads me to re-work areas of the picture, of course.
I've seen several people brainstorm things on here, with good results, so I thought I'd post a journal, check in with everyone, show a WIP and a bit of my process, and hopefully do some brainstorming. Perhaps this will help me get the most out of this piece.
Anyway, here are some links to WIPs for everyone.
----
This is the most complete version I've made: http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/.....2/97899829.jpg
I have some hand drawn scales on the dragon, and a few from the brushes I've made. I tend to use the brushes or a few major scales as a "seed" and hand draw fitting scale patterns around them.
The background itself is http://img835.imageshack.us/img835/.....2/49157240.jpg
It almost works as a standalone, but it needs something to act as a focus.
The asymmetry of the dragon contrasts with the symmetry of the background a bit too much to be ideal, I think.
So, I've done some sketching with birds and other things. This one is rather rough, but should give you an idea of a phoenix pose... http://img46.imageshack.us/img46/9028/43546569.jpg
It has a bit more symmetry, to go along with the background. I'm doing some more sketching along those lines, at the moment.
----
Maybe I'll try a few more speedpaints to loosen up a bit, and play around with a few more digital painting techniques.
In trying to push every piece a bit farther than the last, I've been neglecting some of my simpler techniques, instead of finding ways to include them in my process.
How have all of you been?
Warm tones are definitely fun to work with.
I didn't use them often for a while, but I think it's becoming my favorite base color scheme, for now, at least.
I have improved it since this journal.
Sometimes things take me a while, but I think that extra bit of patience and effort is worth it.
I have been working on this some more, and I think I'm going to stick with the dragon on this piece. I've added a bit more foreground, to maintain the symmetry, and I think it really adds to the piece.
Also, mentioning a phoenix and a dragon, I had a dream years ago that had what appeared to be a dragon/phoenix hybrid. Scales and shape of a dragon, but wings, claws and spine made of fire. Thankfully, in that dream, that dragon was a good guy.
This piece is coming along. Hopefully I'll have it ready to submit soon.
That sounds rather awesome. I had a character a while back with wings made of fire. That was always fun to draw...
I always enjoy cons. MFF was my first furry con, but I've been to plenty of anime and sci-fi cons before.
Conventions are always an interesting experience.
And it'll look much better, when it's ready to post.
I don't know if I've mentioned this, but last May I picked up a Tablet PC very similar to your modified Mac. It's a Motion Computing LE1600 I found on Craig's list for $150. And since June my artwork has gone all-digital. Perhaps we can compare notes at the next "Snowpocalypse."
Those sorts of tablet computers can be rather easy to use. Being able to essentially draw on the screen like that is fun.
That sounds good to me, as well. I'm looking forward to Snowpocalypse. Last year was fun.
I saw you at MFF at the brony panel, but I don't think I ran into you again afterwards.