A few Skyrim WIPs

I finally picked up Dawnguard, the expansion for Skyrim last weekend.

A few minutes into my illusion-based thief's story and I was already itching to make a new piece of Skyrim art.

I started thinking about my character's journey and how incredibly movie-like the last 45 minutes of play time had been. With that in mind I decided to try my hand at a Drew Struzan-esque movie poster.

Drew Struzan was one of my childhood favorites. His work is probably most recognized in his massive collection of illustrated movie posters, like the late 90's StarWars collection. Mind blowing stuff. And all done on gessoed illustration board too... so incredibly impressive.

On Friday night, I started sketching out a movie type poster using characters from Skyrim that had a major part to play in my Dragonborn's story.

This has taken most of my weekend, and is still super, mega WIP (What is going on with Ulfric's forehead!!??) But I am excited to continue it. Please ignore the eyelessness of the characters -- I like to save those for last :)

Ulfric Stormcloack.

Brynjolf, my fellow thief.

Uthgerd, probably my favorite follower.

My Imperial.

When I finished my tribute to Mordin, from Mass Effect I made a mental note to avoid complicated armor sets the next time around. And what do I decide to do next? Dragonscale armor. It's like I enjoy the frustration of teeny details or something.

I'm hoping to finish up the value study this week and start adding color by the weekend. Lofty goals indeed :)

Little Blue Flowers

Last summer I remember hiking around the Flat Irons in Colorado and coming upon a man who was painting along the base of one of the trails. He had his work laid out on the ground around him, some for sale and some just to dry out. I watched him work for a while (as long as my friends were patient for!) and was entranced by his technique.

In one flick of his fat bamboo brush, he laid out an entire patch of trees, or one blade of grass. His whole arm moved in sweeping gestures, splattering water and paint in a way that made the clouds appear in one flash of the brush. It was dance and it was beautiful.

I've always been interested in learning more about this asian-influenced method of painting, (generally associated with bamboo and cherry blossom paintings). But it wasn't until I started taking classes at the ArtCenter here in Miami that I felt I might be starting to grasp the seriousness of that endeavor. Learning from those who had spent time in China and Japan working under the masters of that type of painting has been an eye-opener. Hearing about the rigidity of their instruction, the countless hours in repetition of key forms to learn to create in that style has been really, really interesting. I know I certainly wouldn't have the fortitude for that kind of strict education, so I'll try to gobble up any bits of knowledge I can while here.

I did this little painting last week attempting to work from my (admittedly very small) knowledge base of asian-styled brushwork.

So much learn, so few hours in a day!

Framed Show Pieces

I finished the matting/framing of the show pieces this morning -- less than 24 hours before they need to be dropped off. Nothing like down to wire...

The show is next week and needless to say, I'm pretty excited. I can't wait to catch up with everyone and see what other work has been submitted.

Also I'm in love with natural frames. I ended up buying 4 extra (of the smallest sizes) to frame some of my recent birds.

In other news, I made the final updates my to my new site! Next up is a new storefront complete with new originals, updated prints and a few framed pieces.

My to do list is still pretty long, but it feels so good to get a few of the items checked off :)