Monday, August 29, 2011

Wagh!

For shaaaame! I have not updated since May! In my defense, some of my projects have been NDA or not-yet-published, can't post them for a bit. But still! I have been drawing! I promise. I have come forth from my freelance batcave to post my painting of Ser Barristan the Bold from Game of Thrones (awesome books + show!) that I did for funsies. Done all in photoshop, start to finish.



Doing this piece and a few others made me realize that I never really knew how to finish or polish anything for the longest time. He's definitely not 100% finished but it's a lot less messy than a lot of past digital stuff. I did 20 illustrations for a young adult fantasy novel this past month and a half, and I think soldiering through all that painting has helped me learn to render a little better.
Anyhow, for anyone who wants a little glimpse into the process for this guy, here's a breakdown of my four major increments:



Also, here's some stuff I was working on for a personal project, just developing the look of it a bit. I feel like my rendering has already gotten a bit less crappy since painting this guy 2-3 months ago, I was super terrified to break from completely lineart-based stuff. I'm so used to separating shapes with lineart and not value relationships.



Oh and also? Critiques from friends are the best! They will only make your art better. The best thing I learned at AAU was to always accept critique freely. You don't always have to follow it, but you never know when they'll suggest an improvement that you wish you'd thought of. :3
[edit] Whoops! I hope I don't sound like I'm fishing for critique/comment on that last part, hahah. I mean that the critiques I get voluntarily/arbitrarily from friends/peers/my boyfriend are always valuable, even if sometimes you're like, grumble grumble more work grumble grumble. I thought I'd give them a shout out. :)

9 comments:

miles said...

Wow, both of those are awesome! It's cool seeing the stages of the first one and the color studies for the second one are really impressive too.

Kelly said...

Thanks Miles! I feel like taking pics of my progress helps me refine my painting process a little more. :) Glad you like!

Emerson Tung said...

these are great, Kelly. The knight is really nice, very well finished I'd say.

And liking what I'm seeing for the project so far. I'll love to help you out with critiques on it though it would help to have an idea of the story first. lol. but everything looks really goooooooooooood. especially them color/mood studies. i liiiike.

Kelly said...

Thanks Emerson! Totally was not meant to sound like I was fishing with that last comment, hahah, my buddy Mitch and Jacob among others helped me out a lot with this as I worked on it, so I thought I'd give them a shout out. :)

Edward Foster said...

The Game of Thrones piece is definitely a step up! Great personality and confident rendering.

Kelly said...

Thanks Eddddddd! I am glad my rendering looks confident! The ruse worked! 8D

Unknown said...

Hello! Random linkage found me to your art blog. I typed my screenname in google, saw that my livejournal was still floating around, read a comment from your sister, saw that you guys had a vegan blog, and it said you had an art blog.

Oh and this is Glen. You knew me very briefly once in a distant life. Your art has come along incredibly. Congrats.

I guess email me or find me on facebook if you feel like catching up some time.
glipzcom at Gmail.com

Eve Skylar said...

Kelly, your stuff is awesome! Love the color studies. Keep rocking!

Kelly said...

Thanks Glen and Eve! :) :)