Wolf Painting In Progress

A painting that I am currently working on in photoshop. The battle of wills and spirits between two dangerous foes of the canine variety. It is quite obviously not completed yet, but I figured I can use this to show a bit of my process.

A lot of the time, when I'm working on things like this, the very basic picture is in my head, but I let whatever muse has me to tap out the fine details. Like right now, I have no idea what the other wolf is going to be colored like, but I'm having thoughts of making it something of a yin-yang realism, since the above wolf is mostly silver with a little black.

My first step was to create a very rough sketch. I put them on two separate layers so that I wouldn't have to worry about messing up one while I did the other, and so that I could position them the way I wanted to after I finished sketching.




I start with basic shapes, usually circles, and then I just draw outward from the head and torso to define the body. I might use the warp tool if I find something slightly amiss.

 Afterwards I take the rough sketches and I fine tune much of the lineart. I'm still loose, since because this is a painting, the lineart isn't going to be visible in the end, but it helps me define where the muscles are, and it finalizes the shapes of the bodies and limbs.

Currently I'm working on painting the silver wolf, as you saw in the first image. I have the basics down, at this point I've started working on fine tuning details and replacing the lineart with digital paint.

I'm looking forward to finishing this piece! I can't wait to show you when it's done.

Clover Belatrix

This cute little feline is my cat. Her name is Clover.
She has been constant inspiration for me throughout my time as an aspiring artist, not only because she is such a pretty girl with an adorable coat, her quirky personality has also inspired me in thinking of new ideas for new interactions, stories, and even an entire new character concept.

Clover in Mercenary armor based on an armor set in Earth Eternal

Meet Clover Belatrix:

I first created her concept from an MMORPG which has sadly been discontinued due to lack of support, once called Earth Eternal. The game was a really cute concept, had a really unique world and characters, but alas, adorableness is not always a sure fire way to make sure something lasts.

After that game though, I really started playing with the character I created. In the beginning, because of the game, Clover was a mercenary and a magic user, which worked well in the universe of the video game. After I began to really build on her though, I wanted to bring more of my own pet's personality back into the character.

Clover, my cat, is a very unique animal. Unlike most cats, who take pride in their independence, their hunting prowess, their often sadistic, uncouth, selfish, demanding, territorial tendencies, Clover is a cat who, if I didn't know better, one would swear she was actually a dog or a two year old human child trapped in a feline body. She is very dependent, needy, gentle, shy, awkward, naive, she begs for treats and affection, she is polite and won't even walk on my keyboard or steal things out of my hands unless I hold them in front of her face. I am even in the process of teaching her to sit before she receives her wet-food treats.



Those very unique, adorable, and admirable traits that belong to my cat were what I wanted to see in my character. She wasn't just the rough and tumble mage that I created for some computer game, she was a unique cat, a loving and affectionate, naive and innocent, silly and rambunctious girl and I wanted those traits to shine in the character.

As I went further into the character development, I realized that, while my cat is an amazingly unique little girl, to put her into an anthropomorphic world, where she becomes a furry human, she is rather flat. She needed a history, she needed goals and fears and wants and loves and likes and dislikes and irritants that my little kitty just wouldn't comprehend living in her little world that is the inside of my house. My girl thrives on affection, food and water, treats, and the occasional movie (yes, she does indeed watch tv).

Clover Belatrix would need much more than that to survive in a harsh fantasy world where she would have to defend herself from more than just the evil toaster shoots burnt bread out of its metal mouth of doom.

Clover Belatrix, who is still a work in progress, has turned into a bright, impish, naive little fire mage. She was separated from her family as a kitten, surviving on her own in the harsh marshlands of her world (for those who know the real Clover's past, that should bring about a giggle). She loves whacking things that attack her with sticks, and running for her life, as well as making things go boom. She is a survivor, though she doesn't often look far ahead to know what she's surviving for. She's a glutton for sweet candies and kindness, her innocent nature often brings her to trust people too quickly, which often gets her hurt in the process. Her child-like attention span makes it hard for her to sit down and pay attention to even the most important things for very long.


Some day, this young lady feline will find her way into an excellent story, where her true colors will shine and people will love her as much as her creator does.

Illustrations for Raven

 These two pieces of art were projects I did for my boyfriend for a couple of his novels. In the next couple weeks you'll be seeing some sketches for the next project I'm doing with him for one of my classes, designing a graphic novel based on another of his stories.

The first image is the cover of his journal/biography, called Andy's Hologram. It recounts the days in his high school youth and is a most excellent example of the silly things that high schoolers do.



The second, below, is the cover for the short story Salacious Steak, about a diner going under that is saved by the mysteries steak from their cook, Ricky.


My man has tons of amazing ideas, seeing as he's a writer and all, and he loves taking advantage of my artistic talents to create visuals for his stories.

These were both made in photoshop. I had tons of fun with the demonic sky above the school in Andy's Hologram, and I was experimenting with a new way to color for the image for Salacious Steak. Instead of just using swatches of color, I made the entire image in gray-scale first, to get the values correct, and then applied different washes of color over it.

Overall, these two pieces were pretty fun to do. I enjoyed being able to get someone else's ideas out visualized, and he loved how they turned out, too.

Cats!

 Cats! Do you like cats? Do you like the Broadway play Cats?
I did these about a year ago in an illustration class. We were to make an illustrated alphabet, much like the ones you see in children's books, only you could make them with any medium and using any subject. One classmate did hers on phobias; it was pretty interesting. I decided, since I hadn't seen much art out there to do with Cats, to make my alphabet based on the characters in that play.

They were quite fun to figure out the poses that would make them fit into or resemble the letter they were representing. Not to mention being able to draw all of the characters with accurate costume coat patterns and seeing them realistically represented as the people in costume and not cat-people like most fan-art does.

It was all done in Photoshop, with photo reference, though I couldn't find pictures for most of the specific poses, so the project really pushed my understanding of the human figure and how it moves and fits together.

My personal favorites are Alonzo, Bombalurina, Etcetra, Grizabella, Munkastrap, Mungojerri and Rumpleteazer, Macavity, Pouncival,  Victoria, and Tumblebrutus' poses and characters.

The images themselves are HUGE! I have separate files for all of the characters that are 5x5 inches at 300 dpi, and these two posters themselves are 11x17 in at 300 dpi. At some point I might post close-ups of a few of the individual characters.

I've been told that I should send this to whoever runs the Broadway marketing materials and see if they'd like to use it. I don't know if I will though.

Awkward Introductions

Beginnings are always difficult. What do I say? Should I just start like everyone just knows what I'm talking about, or should I write an introduction? What sort of introduction? Should I say hello or should I treat this like a journal? Do you say hello to your journal? Journals aren't usually public though, so there is quite a bit of a difference I suppose.

All of this introspective is making my brain hurt though.

To make things simple, this is my art blog. This is the first posting. I've decided to journal my exploits as an art student and aspiring artist. Documenting artwork I make, attempts (maybe, if I'm not too embarrassed about them), the processes I go through and the life torments that plague people like me who aren't part of mainstream society.



To add more about myself, I am an art student, enrolled at the Art Institute of Portland under the degree program Media Arts and Animation. I'm specializing in illustration, concept art, and graphic design. I live with my boyfriend in the Portland suburbs, surviving on an income of selling art and delivering pizzas, and a little help from my friends (mainly my parents). Can it be hard sometimes?  Most definitely. Is it worth it? Sometimes that's debatable, but I haven't given up yet, and while I know I have quite a stubborn streak in me sometimes I feel like my goals and dreams will pay out soon.


 Each journal entry, I'll try to include at least one small piece of art, either a photograph of a sculpture - in progress or finished, or a sketch, or a full fledged drawing, occasionally a video of an animatic, reel, or animation. I may even post sound clips of some musical projects I might work on. I love, appreciate, and encourage comments on my blogs, to hear from people and get insight on my artwork and everything else.

Looking forward to sharing my experiences with all my potential readers, and hearing back from all of you!