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. :)

Man with furry ears

I thought this guy was a nice stylistic departure from my normal stuff. The only part that stinks is that I can't seem to duplicate it at all on any other characters. Isn't that always how it goes? You get an awesome fluke drawing and then never reproduce it? :p Ah well, did it once, I can do it again! Right? :)
This guy was probably 5-10 hours sketch + colors, I think he might be the first completed painting I've done on my cintiq.

Char.027

Gehhh. Almost to 30! Here's a semi-finished guy I was working on. Supposed to be kind of a fancy villain, likes his fancy shoeses. Still messing with rendering, I'm not super fast at it. I've always done more linear/graphic stuff than rendering. First time for everything! Few hours in photoshop.

Char.026

Whoops! It's been like a month since posting. Busy busy busy! This guy's not really an original character but it's a take on King Midas that I was doofing around with at work last week. Few hours in p-shop.
Been trying to build up some freelance work/clients now that storyboarding is over. Been contributing some concepts to a neat iphone game project my friends are doing, feels good! Too bad I can't tell you about it. 8D

Char.025

The lady counterpart. More sure of herself. Her face and gesture didn't come out as independent/strong-willed as I was hoping, but the costume was fun. I don't like it as much as the last one. But she has nice gloveses. :B 3 hrs photoshop, approximately.

Char.024

Character 24. Sort of a revamped character from a steampunky western comic idea, extension from character 22. The idea is that he's a very educated doctor who ends up stuck on a frontier planet. I still can't decide whether i want to go a more linear route with my work, or stick to rendered/painted, but I'm happy with how this turned out. I think slapping a watercolor texture over the color adds some interest, and the pose was way fun to work out.

Char.022

Character 22! This guy is kind of a firefly inspired space cowboy. I suppose he lives in some cold system that requires him to wear heavy furs, I drew them to add some interesting texture. He's a scruffy down-on-his-luck Han Solo type. :p Sketch took about 30 mins, scanned and spent about an hour laying some rough colors down.

Char.021

Okay, so I guess the title of this show is changing from "Character a Day" to "Character every so often". At any rate, here's another - she's a spring/forest elemental of some sort. She was supposed to be the spring counterpart to the Autumn girl I did previously. She was about 3 hours in photoshop plus an hour or so in sketch form.

Char.020

Character number twenty. I scrapped so many character beginnings today, just wasn't at the top of my game, but I came out of it at least with this little pikeman dude. He's a bit sketchy and he's kind of vomit-colored but I dig the pose. About 2-3 hours in photoshop.
I feel like i should add some environments to my portfolio. I was thinking of doing an environment a day after I get to character number 30, but that also might drive me insane.

Char.019

Decided to do a revamp of Gazib, who was an anthro gazelle character in my webcomic in highschool. He was not at all african-looking before, which made no sense, so in this version he's kind of a combination of a Masai warrior and a Kudu bull. Definitely had fun revisiting my old character - might do that with some of the other anthro characters I used to draw :B About 3-4 hours in photoshop, based on a pen sketch.

Char.017

Yikes! 14 characters in like 20 days. Trying to get back on track.
Here's a sort of arabian/north african warrior guy inspired by the character Jaffa in Hidalgo. Am fascinated by all things arabian/turkish/persian, but not so much in a crazy bepierced Xerxes kind of way. He needs a little detail or pattern or something, not sure.

Char 13 redux

Decided to paint up one of the previous C.A.Ds. Trying to get better at stylized rendering. Took about 3 hours to polish, i think, in photoshop.

Baaaaaah

UGH! I know, I know, I have been bad about posting...I've been drawing, trust me! Anyway, here's a sneak peak of an illo i have spent a week or so on, it may or may not be related to a graphic novel coming soon :3

Char.016

Number 16. Sorta more western cyberpunk than steampunk. He's like a cross between Van Helsing and Captain Harlock. Fear his redness! About 2 hours sketch + color in potatoshop. Tried to ink this one like some of the first characters but it kind of lost something in translation. I wonder where this experiment will lead me. :p

Char.015

Is the one i messed up from yesterday. Still pretty sketchy, but I think i'll end up spending way too many hours on it if i try to detail out all the tech. She's got some kind of crazy propulsion device. Anywayyys. Did like a 30 min thumbnail and then spent an hour sketching over the top of the thumbnail.

Char.014

She's an armed escort! Get it? Nyuk nyuk.
A different steampunk char was taking a little too much time, maybe i'll post her tomorrow, so instead tonight i did this doodle of a steampunky redheaded western brothelgirl, kinda based on an old character. Took about an hour in photoshop.

Char.013

Okay! Back in the game. Here's number 13. I decided this week is steampunk week. I figured if one of them went really well i might submit it for the latest CHOW over at conceptart.org. But steampunk is just fun anyhow.
Tried a cooler palette and didn't ink over my digital sketch. Yay!

Char.012

He's kind of a rich philanthropist guy with a tinkering hobby :p And a fascination with minerals. I was inspired by the inventor/uncle character in Young Sherlock Holmes. Wanted to mess around with some different body types. About 1 hr 45 mins, all in photoshop.

Char.011

Char 11. Generated by seventh sanctum's deity generator - he's the god of keys! 30 min sketch, 1 hour inks in photoshop.

Char.010

Char number ten! Inspired by Seventh Sanctum prompt and also an old catguy character I had. The prompt was like, a confident anthro-cat spaceman. Mine looks more skittish, meh. Took about an hour and a half blue sketch + photoshop. I think my line quality is finally starting to go somewhere, although I don't like this one as much as the last two.