Saturday, April 26, 2008

Me sketching...me


Hey look! Wasn't I a cute kid?! I've been looking for free sources of reference photos for my illustration work, ie., photos that myself, my family or my friend took and don't mind if I use for reference, and I thought what better to use then photos of myself. I've always liked this image of me climbing the fence, and I had fun drawing it freehand, particularly with the fence.

Sketched in a moleskin, the one sketchbook I seem to adore, especially the purse-sized version.

Second vector illustration


This is my second trial illustration using Illustrator. The reference photo is of my niece, Bella, although I primarily used her face/upper shoulders for the reference. Oh, and the outfit, because she always has really cute outfits on. The only thing I'm not fully happy with is the kneecap, but since this is digital, and I work on layers, this is infinitely editable and I can fiddle and fuss till my perfectionist heart is content. Yay me :) If I wanted to be particular, her eyes have no color and her hair has no shading, but I still like it a lot, as is.

I did this for a sample for a possible illustration job that I'm hoping to get. More news on that if I get the job.

Belated finished sketch...



It's been over 2 weeks since I finished the quick little samples of the young girl sketch that I posted last time. I should have posted them long since, but here they are now. I did a total of 4 in one night, which is quite different then my usual pace. 3 were traditional ink and watercolor (with a little color pencil thrown in) and the one with the solid green background is digital using illustrator (vector illustration, woohoo!). My favorite freehand one didn't get saved correctly, and I am not going to scan it again now. I am not 100% satisfied with the dress folds where her leg is coming forward. I liked the folds in the sketch better, but you could also SEE her legs in the sketch. I want to start taking drawing classes again, particularly classes that focus on a) heads, hands, and feet; b) fabric folds and drapery; and c) animation classes that focus on expression. I think that will help my illustrations out a lot in the long run.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Sketch in progress...


I'm working on samples of my illustrations using both traditional and digital media. I will be working on the same set of illustrations in both media. Tonight I worked on the digital version of one of my sketches from last year that I really like. This is the illustrator traced version of the image. I will be trying out both blocking in color with illustrator and using photoshop to "brush" in color behind the "ink" lines. I will also be using both a pen and a quill in my traditional ink and watercolor samples.

Thursday, March 06, 2008

Achoo! complete

Tonight was a very productive night, as I finished the last little bit on my illustration for the CSUN illustration club student show Affliction, which opens tomorrow night. It is called Achoo! and it is very cute. I did it in a very rough format, working rapidly (for me, if not for the rest of the art world). I don't like the blending quite as much as the other pieces, but I really like the color and contrast in this piece: very rich, vivid color (for all it being a muted palette) and better contrast than my work normally has. I will consider doing more pieces like this as I finish in about 1/3 the time. But I will not make any decisions without trying more techniques out on my demo board. Even then i'll probably continue to experiment and grow and develop even newer techniques. Hopefully by that stage i'll have also purchased a Cintiq and Painter and will be working on digital art as well as traditional.

In addition to finishing up an illustration, I have done a quick sketch/color comp of the next piece I'm working on: a knight charging a monster, as seen from the knight's viewpoint. I think the end piece will be wider then what I sketched out, and I'm not so fond of the monster at the moment, since i am not very good at scary looking monsters (CUTE monsters, no problem) but I like it so far. I think it is more dynamic then what I usually do, and I can even push the final drawing a bit more then what I have so far.

All in all, the only disappointing news I have tonight is that I won't get an image of Achoo! on the website until a week from now when the show comes down and (hopefully) my scanner is installed on my computer once again.

Monday, January 28, 2008

Post or else...

I apparently HAVE to post, because I haven't posted in nearly a year. I guess time flies when you're busy....A new job, a NEW new job...a new nephew when we were expecting a new niece...I guess life happens. :)

Two new pieces of art currently ongoing...a dragon for Jan, almost done...if I can ever figure out what to put behind him. And a CUTE (really serious here) entry for the disease/sickness/affliction themed illustration gallery show at CSUN in March. When Scott saw it and I told him the story behind it, all he had to say was I was "...seriously well adjusted..." You'll get the full story when I post the art. And one day, Scott WILL actually get artwork created for him by me...sorry Scott, I must be too well adjusted for the first 5 or so tries on your artwork.

I'll post more later when it's not past my bedtime.

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Site temporarily down

This is Deathshade posting for Nightengail, I took our home web server down to repurpose the hardware. I'll try to bring her site up again soon.