Paintings from magazines

I love my Tuesday night watercolor workshop.
Here are a few paintings from our last session, all painted fairly quickly from random magazine clippings.

It's been a very long while since I've painted people in a non-digital setting, so I was a bit unsure at the start of the exercise. But I'm happy with how they turned out and have been collecting images all day that I might be able to use to make a few more tonight :)

Little ChickenBrick Update

It's been awhile since I've shared what I do as Lead Artist for ChickenBrick Studios.
We just started work on a nifty little tip calculator - - and I got to create a robot.

I love robots.

It's a really simple little app, mostly just for fun. Should be on the market soon!

Gray Wolf in ink -- Step by Step

I was out and about this afternoon and felt a *real* cold breeze. Being in Miami, one can experience the occasional "ocean breeze" which is a refreshing degree or two cooler than the current temperature, but a true 'cold breeze' is rather hard to find.

WELL I found one today :)

And as soon as it washed over me and encouraged me to bunch up my sweatshirt against my neck, my head was swimming with thoughts of cinnamon, cider, snow drifts and wet crunchy ice. So, as soon as I got in the door - I lit my 'winter' candle (from bath and body works!), put cider on the stove and started to draw out something from a colder climate.

It had been awhile since I've done a purely ink painting, so I got my trusty pen out and ready to go.

From there, I taped down my canson bristol board,lightly made a pencil sketch and went over it with my pen.

Adding the water!! I am using a #14 watercolor brush and not really paying a lot of attention to where I spread the inky water, just making sure I leave the highlights white. Here is a good place to put down some masking fluid - if I was ever good about keeping masking fluid. The goal on this pass is to complete the majority of the middle tones so everything is basically a light wash. I'll add the darker values next time.

I've started to darken a few areas, namely the mouth/nose and the area around the eyes.

Even darker! Here I am actively trying to shape the puddles of color to emphasize the volume in the skull and fur.

Woo finished.

I scanned it and did a test run of the print and it works out very well, I am very happy with this final product. Which, at the end of a run of several failed paintings is a very nice feeling.

Prints of the Gray Wolf are available on from my store!
Also, make sure to check back in a few days -- I am hoping to have some coupon codes for the upcoming weekend of shopping posted :)

Fus Ro Halloween!

I'm sure there is a better shout to combine with Halloween, infact - I am positive there is one, I just don't know what it would be. Suggestions?

So my freetime for the last few weeks was mostly devoted to the creation of my Dovahkiin halloween costume. I can't really sew and have never actually made a costume before (cutting a shower curtain into a tabbard doesn't count) so this was some pretty new territory for me. The helmet and shield took the majority of my time and were made from cardboard, masking tape, hot glue, mod podge and acrylic medium. (And paint, of course!)

Starting the helmet.

Creating the horns from twisted masking tape.

Construction of the shield.

Gauntlet and painted shield. 

Finished Helmet!

Unfortunately, I ran out of time at the end and had to purchase the midsection piece as well as the rubber gauntlet/shin guards. The "fur" beneath it was chopped up six dollar bathmats from Target.

We headed out to Lincoln Road which is the hub of Halloween night here on the beach. The streets fill up with terrific costumes and everyone has a blast, ourselves included.

Now that I've washed and packed up my costume (totally going to wear it next year too!) I spent a bit more time with another piece of Skyrim-related art; the poster I haven't touched in weeks.

I think it's almost ready for color. After adding the eyes, it's feeling a bit cartoony to me, so I'll probably go back into each of the faces and tweak their expressions a bit. Uthgerd also looks a bit *too* pretty, need to make her a bit more rugged. After ignoring this piece for so long, I am pretty pumped to finish it :)

Progress on 2013 Sketchbook Project

I signed up for this project last year and really enjoyed the process but wished that I had blocked off more time to complete it. This year, I've made a promise to start AND finish well before the deadline. I am really hoping I can keep this promise to myself... last year was a race to finish.

Thus far I think I am making fairly decent headway, *knocks on wood* so I'm just hoping I can keep it up!

Progress thus far on my 2013 Sketchbook Project; BIRDS!!! I've been exploring birds a lot as a subject matter recently and really wanted to continue working with this as a theme.

I've got the majority of the book planned out, in terms of what birds I want to sketch - I just need to make sure I block out the time to complete it.

Woo time management skills :)

Gotye and Kimbra --- on CANVAS!

Yesterday I went to pick up the 20 x 25 canvas print of my Gotye and Kimbra illustration. Not only was it finished early, but the shop (Tropicolor) did a gorgeous job. When I unrolled it at the counter I literally danced. My apologies to the man finishing my order, I occasionally break into dance when supremely happy.

I'll sign it, re-roll it and then it ships out to California. Great timing too, as tomorrow is the Gotye concert here in Miami. Pretty excited, should be a good show :)

Swan Sketch

Had a free moment today after dinner (soy cabbage rolls - yay) and decided to sketch out a swan.

I did this particular quick painting on ancient, really cheap watercolor paper, and it shows. Sadly, the whole page is super warped which doesn't lend itself to being scanned too well. I haven't had much luck flattening it with any of my normal methods, perhaps I'll try ironing it? Running over it in my car? (I joke, I joke)

In other news, I'm about to get my first canvas print created! I was approached by an awesome guy who would like my Gotye and Kimbra painting printed on a giant, 20 x 25 canvas. After many days of research I settled on a local printer to produce the piece and I am finalizing everything with them tomorrow. I can't wait to see the final product!
Pictures will definitely follow :)