Cloudscape

July 11, 2010, 9:30 pm

≫ Next: Commanding from Above

≪ Previous: One More Chapter -Temeraire

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Another quick practice piece. I'm back from the fencing tournament, and spent most of the plane ride looking out the window, studying the clouds.
So, I had to draw some.
The clouds were the quickest part of this piece, by far, but I think they turned out well. I did have to re-draw them a few times to get them right, but I'm glad I did.

The clouds on the bottom use the same method that I used in my last picture. I tried to make the ones on the top more feathery to represent cirrus clouds. The floating town was fun, too. I usually find forests, or natural backgrounds to be a bit easier, so this was a good challenge. I'm especially proud of how that sundial, and the stairs turned out.

Also, Pahul [link] helped me out with a rather helpful redline. That improved the composition and perspective in this piece rather nicely.

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Commanding from Above

December 29, 2009, 10:12 am

≫ Next: Village Guardian

≪ Previous: Cloudscape

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Art time! Yay!
The general idea is that he is a general or commander. The flag and sword are there to give direction, not for combat. Although, the dragon could probably handle that side of things without any difficulty.

This was a vector trace and Photoshop retouch I made off of an oekaki I drew recently. Here is the process behind that, in case anyone is wondering how it was drawn. After the end of this animation is where I switched to Photoshop.
Drawing Process: [link]

I'll have to do a few pictures with some more greens and earth tones. I've been using a lot of warm colors recently.
Comments and criticism are always welcome.

Color retouch done on 12/30/10

Village Guardian

May 26, 2009, 11:01 am

≫ Next: Charcoal Sunset -D.Retouch-

≪ Previous: Commanding from Above

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I've been working on this oekaki for the past week or so. I'm rather satisfied with how it turned out, even though I had to sacrifice all of the layer info, so I could finish it.

This was a fun idea to work with. Rather difficult in a few places, too. Those people are just small enough that I can't really draw much detail on them, and just large enough that I can't take the usual shortcuts associated with distant people. Overall, it was quite a difficult picture for me, but completing it makes me feel like I've improved a bit.

I always appreciate comments and criticism.

*Minor edit*
Improved shading on the path.
*Major edit*
Enhanced image quality with a vector trace and some Photoshop corrections.

Charcoal Sunset -D.Retouch-

August 27, 2009, 8:35 am

≫ Next: Daydream Visit

≪ Previous: Village Guardian

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This is a digital retouch made from the real media charcoal piece I finished a few days ago. [link]

Adding a bit more color than the orange paper was a lot of fun. I tried to smooth out areas that needed smoothing, while retaining a bit of texture from the paper.
I added a bit more precision and detail to the piece, in many areas. I'm still happy with the original piece. It looks quite nice. I think I was able to successfully improve upon it in this retouch, though.

Comments and criticism are always welcome.

*minor edit*
Strengthened anatomy of the dragon's back a bit, and added a bit more detail to the sky.

Daydream Visit

December 3, 2009, 5:38 pm

≫ Next: Thunderbird Returns

≪ Previous: Charcoal Sunset -D.Retouch-

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A daydream comes to visit. And it likes fish.

The landscape is based on the place where I go for vacation every year. There are a few more docks, and the land structure is a little bit different in real life, though.
I've been going there since I was very young, so I've had plenty of daydreams of my own while doing a bit of fishing.
This year, there was one morning where the water on the lake was so still you could use it as a mirror. It looked incredible.

I had a lot of fun with the fantasy world reflection in this one. It was a difficult picture to work on, because of perspective and focus problems.
I really like how it turned out, though.

Oekaki: 19h 36m
Inkscape: ~30 m
Photoshop Elements: ~2h 30m
All done with a mouse.
Not a speedpaint.

Comments and criticism are always welcome.

Thunderbird Returns

May 11, 2010, 2:53 pm

≫ Next: Gentle Eyes

≪ Previous: Daydream Visit

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A Thunderbird returns home, with a nice buildup of static electricity for the young ones.

It's actually another speedpaint. I was trying out some of the painting techniques from this walkthrough: [link]
It was a lot of fun. I'm quite happy with how it turned out, and it only took me three hours. That seems like no time at all. Also, those are probably the best feathered wings I've drawn so far.
That walkthrough really helped streamline my speedpaint process. I'll have to try working in some more lighting and color into the next one.

Comments and criticism are always welcome.

Gentle Eyes

November 19, 2009, 4:30 pm

≫ Next: Sky Serpent

≪ Previous: Thunderbird Returns

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Another speedpaint.
This one took around three and a half hours.

I was trying for a more detailed and a bit rougher dragon head, and to see if I could succeed at showing scales through texture, rather than individually drawing them.

This one was mostly inspired by one of my progress screenshots from the last picture I uploaded. I think I may have liked that one more when it was unfinished...
So, I tried to take some of the aspects I liked from that, and try to polish them a bit more in this speedpaint.

Overall, I'm rather proud of how well it turned out.

I'm also a fan of forward pointing horns. They frame the face nicely.

Sky Serpent

January 5, 2010, 2:23 pm

≫ Next: Evening Flight - Temeraire

≪ Previous: Gentle Eyes

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Sorry for the delete and re-upload. It wasn't showing up in my recent submissions, so I couldn't submit it to that Daily Challenge group thingy.



Anyway, it's a sky serpent, based off of sea serpent mythology. It probably eats skyfish or something, like those found in Skies of Arcadia. That game had one of the most entertaining settings I've seen.

I only used blue on the original oekaki, so I had a bit of fun adding a bit more color to the picture.

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Evening Flight - Temeraire

August 23, 2010, 6:17 pm

≫ Next: Panorama

≪ Previous: Sky Serpent

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This is what I've been working on lately. A while back, I decided to use one of the backgrounds from my quick sketches, and turn it into a piece of fanart.

I was having some difficulty making a sketch that I found satisfying, and I was searching for some new fantasy novels to read. I found out about Temeraire from the contest, and those books really hit the spot.

Lawrence is in there, too. If you can find him. I tried to size him appropriately.

The color scheme is one of my favorites, but it is one I have used before. The bright warm and cool colors looked much better on this picture than earthy tones. I'll have to make another one that uses those colors soon. Maybe I'll do some more speedpaints for a while.
There might be one more piece of fanart coming, too.

Buildings are one of my weak areas, but I think they turned out decently well in this one. I tried to use a bit more perspective and straighter lines. Comments and criticism are always welcome.

Edit: Improved building textures, using a brick texture from [link]
Download for 2225x1440 size.

Panorama

June 24, 2010, 3:01 pm

≫ Next: Respite

≪ Previous: Evening Flight - Temeraire

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Titles tend to be difficult for me.
Anyway, I thought I'd try a speedpaint in Photoshop. I also figured I'd give those brush things a try, because I've been using the default brushes so far. So, I downloaded a brush set by Luis Phelipe, [link]

There was a tree brush that I thought looked better as clouds, so I made some clouds with it.
This was intended to be a speedpaint, but I spent several hours tweaking the composition and color balance.

I'm sure the distant dragon was inspired by some of the awesome dragons drawn by


Like usual, I might upload retouched versions, if I decide to improve on this.

Respite

May 3, 2010, 8:24 pm

≫ Next: Golden Night

≪ Previous: Panorama

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Have some art.
I hate picking titles sometimes.

The background and setting were inspired by some of the scenery I came across when I went geocaching a while back. There was a rather fast moving river, and some neat rocks with easily visible strata. I'm quite happy with how those trees turned out as well.

The color scheme was a lot of fun, too. I spent more time on this color scheme than several of the others that I've made lately.

I'll probably follow this up with some quicker speedpaints. Right now, it's like I have all sorts of ideas, and not enough time to draw them all adequately.

I may re-upload this in a minute if DA's viewer over-saturates my image, or if I find details that need to be fixed.

Golden Night

March 14, 2010, 8:05 am

≫ Next: Stargazing

≪ Previous: Respite

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It's time for some new art again. I can't think of a good title for the picture, this time.

Anyway, this was a fun one to work on. I spent quite a while on it, with the large canvas size, and all. The downloadable version is 2400x1200.
The clouds gave me quite a bit of trouble early on, but I think they turned out well. I started with a normal night scene, with lots of blues and cool colors, but after playing around with the colors a bit, I found that it looked really awesome with some warm colors, so I decided to use a mix of them in the end. I think this is the best color combination that I've found.

I may update this to mess with the brightness and saturation. On one monitor, this looks great, but on another it was way to dark and oversaturated. I think I've fixed that, so that it looks good on multiple monitors.

Comments and criticism are always welcome.

Featured by !
Huzzah!

Stargazing

June 17, 2010, 3:04 pm

≫ Next: Forest Depths

≪ Previous: Golden Night

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It seems I have trouble speedpainting in Photoshop. Mainly because I get distracted, and keep improving a picture until it's no longer a speedpaint.

I spent quite a while fiddling around with the colors and composition on this picture. It looks fairly quick, but I think I must have went through at least three different backgrounds. And at least as many color schemes.

I tried adding buildings, trees, clouds to add a bit more shape to the sky. In the end, I removed all those things, and decided to go for a clear night sky.

As usual, I'll upload minor edits if I decide to improve anything.

Process Reel: [link]

Minor edit: slight color change.

Forest Depths

January 26, 2010, 9:04 pm

≫ Next: Wreathed in Flame -Retouch-

≪ Previous: Stargazing

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It's finished. This is what I've been working on for the last few days. This picture was made with Photoshop, in high res from beginning to end.
This started as a sketch for one of those daily challenges, but like before, it was a good enough sketch that I decided to put a bit more time into it. I'm glad I did. I'm quite satisfied with the result. Those deer were a lot of fun to put in there.

I think this may be my best picture yet, as far as technique goes.
The colors were a lot of fun to work with, too.

Process: [link]

Wreathed in Flame -Retouch-

December 8, 2009, 7:29 am

≫ Next: Guilmon Costume 2.0

≪ Previous: Forest Depths

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Now that the Dragon Contest is over, I went back to my "Wreathed in Flame" picture [link] , and tried using texture to show the scales, instead of drawing them individually. The wings are much more interesting in this one, I think.
I also attempted to fix a few contrast issues, too.

I think I like this version more, but I still need practice when using texture like this.
Now, on to new art!

Comments and criticism are always welcome.

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Guilmon Costume 2.0

April 25, 2010, 4:31 pm

≫ Next: Onyx

≪ Previous: Wreathed in Flame -Retouch-

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This is a small collage of three pictures of the new version of my Guilmon costume. I improved the shape to the belly piece, and completely remade head with better perspective and an articulated jaw. It looks much better than the first version, and it is much more comfortable to wear.
The jaw opens wider than what is shown in any of these pictures, too. I didn't have a good one of that, though. I might have to take one some time.

This has been worn at Anime Detour 2010, Sogen Con 2010 and ACEN 2011.
It was an awesome convention.

The Takato cosplay was done by
Thank you for walking around the con with me and joining in with the Digimon Tamers cosplay.
Other pictures people have taken of this costume:

[link][link][link][link][link][link]




This costume was originally inspired by
She's awesome!

Onyx

October 1, 2010, 8:34 am

≫ Next: Authority

≪ Previous: Guilmon Costume 2.0

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I've been working on several sketches lately, some with line art, some without. After the rushed line art on my last picture, I thought I'd take my time with this one, to add in some finer detail and hopefully take the quality of my art up another step.

I've uploaded the line art for coloring here : [link]

I also tried to add some more texture, in the brushes I used, and in how I spaced out the various details in the picture. Overall, I'm rather happy with how this picture turned out.
Comments and criticism are always welcome!

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Major Edit: Brightness Correction
I got to take a look at this one on a different computer, and it looked quite different. I played around with the lighting a bit more, and I think it looks much better now.
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Authority

May 29, 2010, 8:39 pm

≫ Next: A Wish for the Sky

≪ Previous: Onyx

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A hunter runs into something unexpected, and he isn't exactly given a warm reception. Actually, it's probably about time for him to start running.

This picture probably set a new time record for me. I've been putting in extra effort, to make this one my new best.
I'm rather proud of the result, especially in terms of anatomy, and that grass. I also tried to give the mother dragon a rather impressive and commanding pose.
Overall, I'm rather satisfied with the result.

I always appreciate comments and criticism. I'm constantly looking for new ways to improve my art.

Edit: Added a few more shadows. I think it's more dramatic now.

Edit: Reworked the textures, and added some rimlights, from the advice by
Thank you.

A Wish for the Sky

February 20, 2010, 4:17 pm

≫ Next: Red Dragon Mask

≪ Previous: Authority

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It's been a while since I've uploaded anything... I've been having a tough time getting sketches to look right, and there are some other projects I'm working on right now. I finally got a sketch to turn out well, though.

It's a bit of fan art. It's a merchant in Avernum just thinking about how he will probably never get to see the sky again...
In those games, some people are exiled into the cave system known as Avernum. They build cities, and some of the exiled mages engineer flora or fauna to make the caves more livable, like bio-luminescent fungi, for lighting, hence the green glow.
Anyway, the Avernum series of games is made by Spiderweb Software, and I've enjoyed them for a while. [link]

This picture was a challenge, because of the background, but I think it turned out decently in the end. Also, the human there may have the least awkward face I've drawn from that angle.
Coloring it was a lot of fun, though.

I'll probably do some more art closer to those digital painting pieces again, and take a break from the heavy line art.
Comments and criticism are always welcome.

Red Dragon Mask

July 10, 2014, 1:15 pm

≫ Next: Thank You, Everyone!

≪ Previous: A Wish for the Sky

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I made another mask!

I thought a more classic style red dragon would be fun, so I made this one, and painted it with red, black, and gold. The jaw is articulated, and the eyes are lit with LEDs. The leather is fit to my head, so the jaw moves when mine does, without requiring any extra straps, and I tried to leave some airflow between some of the scales. Overall, it's light and easy to wear. It's much more comfortable for me than the green mask was. The green one used elastic, so it is easier for other people to wear, though.

Feedback is always appreciated!