Imaeko's Artage Blog - The Art and Designs of Megan Cowley

Sketches

2012-01-29T11:55:00.003Z

Hey, look, I'm actually drawing!! This was a post I meant to make a few days ago haha. But look. A photo. To prove I'm actually drawing! You can probably guess from what's laid out on my desk what I'm drawing, bwaha. I do love Mr O'Connor's "Dracopedia" book. Really helps with pinning down dragon anatomy.

These are some doodles I did in college the other day. The latter is a random image of Evelyn that popped into my brain. She does not wear such impractical but kickass clothes in real life lol. Well, in real life in my fictional world.... lol.

Contentment - WIP 2

2012-01-28T10:28:00.001Z

Ink for the sketch I finished yesterday :-)

Contentment - WIP 1

2012-01-27T16:46:00.003Z

Goodness, it's been a while; I'm sorry! I truly am. I really haven't been drawing; I've been focusing on writing my book, or generally just too busy. But, yesterday a wondrous thing happened... I drew three times in one day! (I'll upload the first two doodles at another time). The first was because I was a little bit bored in a lecture. The second was because I had an art class and we had to draw portraits of each other (this was for part of my degree, and thus to illustrate a point rather than practice any art skills), and the second made me really want to draw a portrait! so I started doing a very stylised portrait based on some stock I found on DA (link). Here's the sketch. Enjoy. :-)

Farewell - WIP 5

2011-12-19T11:53:00.002Z

Ok, so I reverted the size of the piece back to how it was. I think it's for the best... though I worry that without a sky-scape in the back, that I will detract from the piece. I might end up having to switch it from landscape to portrait orientation later on in the piece and paint in the surrounding mountains and sky. But I'll see how I go on! I would prefer to avoid that, because this orientation ensures that Evelyn is the prime focus of the piece. Anyway. This is the sketch, done. I'll lay down some basic colours next and see how it looks.

Farewell - WIP 4

2011-12-18T18:30:00.002Z

Today hasn't been a particular productive day in terms of art or anything else! But I have managed to transfer the sketch I made of the castle into a digital lineart (on a different layer to the sketch of Evelyn and her horse, I will erase the overlap when I decide on final positioning!). It's neater, more geometrically accurate, and I've included some perspective distortions in it so hopefully it will sit well within the final picture.

I have also changed the size of the canvas, because it really didn't feel right as it was... I'm not sure though, I feel like I still haven't quite nailed the size/shape of the canvas... hmm.... Might need to take a breather to re-evaluate this piece. Anyway, hope you like the lineart so far.

Farewell - WIP 3

2011-12-18T13:36:00.003Z

So I designed a basic outlook for the castle/keep for the background... It's the castle at Arlyn (fictional place from my book) where Evelyn (one of the main characters) says goodbye to her father.

I looked around at lots of different places to reference for this, but in the end the one most close to how I picture the castle turned out to be Raby Castle, which is in County Durham I believe. I drew some of it freehand, and some of using a ruler just to make straighter lines! I only drew in one window as it's a basic sketch for now, though I think I will tweak the design slightly. Think I will enlarge and move the door too. It doesnt fit as well into the design as I thought it would sat there. I took inspiration from the door from a beautiful local church.

You can see how it fits in to the drawing as well. I will re-line it in Photoshop to make the lines both neater and darker, and to cut out some of the noise from the scan I took from my sketchbook. Wish I had picked a bigger sketchbook to draw this in - I ended up running out of room! I need to extend the building to the left.

Farewell - WIP 2

2011-12-17T12:26:00.005Z

Oh goodness me. Horses.... are REALLY hard to draw! I used to draw horses (and foxes) all the time when I was a kid! I got pretty good, actually. But that was... *cringe* over a decade ago so I'm 100% rusty!

I will be glad when I can get some colour down on this piece, because that's when humans really start to look like humans, and hopefully horses will actually start to look like horses! Still got the background to lay down in sketch form though. Hmm. Just trying to decide about layout. Drawing the bakcground required designing a fort.... which I can't say I've had any experience with! I need to pin down my vague ideas. :) It's going well so far though. I am enjoying this piece. It's always lovely to draw something that I have had in my head for a while. :-)

Farewell - WIP 1

2011-12-16T22:13:00.003Z

This is a work in progress of what I plan to be my next "big" picture, a.k.a. one I'll go all the way on, painting and everything, or so I plan to at this stage. This is a scene from my book. When I was writing it, and when I read back over that particular bit I just see this particular still image really vividly. The colours, the lighting... I have, of course, no hope of capturing what my minds eye sees, but I'll give it my best shot. :) It's a chance to attempt movement, horse anatomy, buildings, perspective, composition, and atmospheric lighting all at once! Frankly, that's quite scary! Wish me luck, haha.

Sketches

2011-12-11T11:57:00.004Z

I've wanted for some time to make a small head/shoulders bust of a dragon (out of polymer clay). But I just can't seem to get the plans right! This was me having another failed attempt. I don't know why I can't draw a really nice dragon head. So back to the drawing board with this one. I'm debating as to whether I should skip the planning stage and go straight to sculpting?

The dwarf is just a random doodle I felt like drawing! ImagineFX magazine had a great dwarf drawing in the Christmas issue which I had just read at the time.

So yes. Random sketches, enjoy. Hopefully I will post something better soon, eh? :-P

Gesture Sketches 3

2011-12-11T11:42:00.002Z

I didn't feel like doing more than one gesture sketch this day (Wednesday 7th December), so I spent time developing the shading instead. It's a hand, cut off by the edge of the page because I'm an idiot and didn't leave enough room to develop it! Hands are something I need significant amounts more practice on though, that's for sure!

40k Kiriban Art - 1

2011-12-09T17:40:00.005Z

I recently passed the 40,000 pageview mark on DeviantART, and two people caught the kiriban. This is the first of the two kiribans I've done art for (the second is to come). It was based on the first persons sketch (that person being this person!), which I've lined and coloured in. I picked this sketch of his because the feeling behind it really came through on the sketch. I thought it was lovely. :) Ooh it was nice to do cell shading, I think it's years since I have done!

Credit for the lovely sketch must go to : Tom Kiely

Gesture Sketches 2

2011-12-07T12:14:00.002Z

Some gesture sketches from yesterday. I used the same resource as last time; http://lovecastle.org/draw/

Gesture Sketches 1

2011-12-02T15:46:00.003Z

I'm alive! Ok, so assignments aren't quite done yet but the end is in sight. Anyway, I decided I should really start getting back into basics, and experiment with some gesture sketches. So hopefully this will become a regular thing. I hope to be doing a couple every few days as and when I can fit them in. I spent 10 minutes on each of these, but I definitely aim to cut that down significantly with practice. Hopefully over time I can become a pro at creating gesture sketches and poses! :-) This is the site I used for this set of gesture sketches, it's really good! http://lovecastle.org/draw/ Enjoy. :-)

P.s. I am unsure whether to watermark these gesture sketches. They're not exactly a big deal, I know, but eh. I can't decide whether it's still worth it to. I'll see how it goes for now.

Note

2011-11-20T16:38:00.002Z

To those who wonder why my art blog has fallen silent of late, I'm still alive!

It's November, and thus, university assignments own my soul (send help!). I don't even have time to write my book, let alone sit down and draw. It's very depressing! :-|

I hope to be back with a vengeance in December, doing a lot more writing and getting some sketches penned out to share with the world. But until then, if you don't see me, you know why!

Take care, all. :)

Lilith & Diana

2011-10-29T15:42:00.005+01:00

Hmm, well I've finished this, so now it's just subject to client's final approvement. :)

I'm quite happy with this. I really enjoyed making the background in this painting session. :)

These are a few edits that were required by the client.

Lilith & Diana WIP 9

2011-10-27T19:31:00.001+01:00

Ok, so this is practically finished apart from final touches now... :)

Lilith & Diana WIP 8

2011-10-21T09:14:00.002+01:00

Worked on Lilith's hair here.

Lilith & Diana WIP 7

2011-10-15T18:14:00.002+01:00

Have worked on Lilith's face this time!

Lilith & Diana WIP 6

2011-10-12T20:47:00.002+01:00

Here I've spent time ageing Diana... so I hope this has worked. I've added a lot of hand drawn texture to the skin, wrinkles and folds (subtle and not so subtle).

Lilith & Diana WIP 5

2011-10-08T13:30:00.002+01:00

I've worked on Diana's face & skin, which are pretty much done now apart from the lips and some final definitions. I'll work on her red robes next but first... it's lunch time! It would be great if I could get Diana finished off today, actually! :-)

Lilith & Diana WIP 3 & 4

2011-10-08T12:35:00.003+01:00

The next two WIPs from a commission I'm working on of two original characters (who are twins). Basic colours, and then work on Diana's hair. Actually really happy with the hair and enjoyed doing it, which makes a change! :-)

Lilith & Diana WIP 1 & 2

2011-10-04T14:47:00.003+01:00

The start of a commission of some original characters, identical twins. The preliminary gesture sketch for the pose, and also the detailed sketch. I had better get this approved as is, actually, before I continue with the colouring!

Arya Svitkona - Final

2011-09-28T15:33:00.003+01:00

10 and a half hours.... and it's finished!! This was a real labour of love. :)

Full post on DeviantART: http://imaeko.deviantart.com/art/Arya-Svitkona-260633765

Arya Svitkona - WIP 7

2011-09-28T13:37:00.002+01:00

Half an hours work finishing off the top! Quite like that... :)

Arya Svitkona - WIP 6

2011-09-26T21:52:00.002+01:00

Another hour and a half; done 9 hours on this now. Considering whether or not to redo the hair. I just see her with quite wavy hair, really... it's just not quite right. Unsure if I will have the time to amend it.. Anyway, enjoy. Worked on the outfit (except the billowing white sleeve).

Arya Svitkona - WIP 5

2011-09-25T19:40:00.002+01:00

Another hour on this doing some work on the hair. I'm really not satisfied with the hair. Find it very hard to draw and I really haven't done it well here so I will have to come back to it at some point although I haven't finished the first painting of it yet. Hmm. Frustrating... Anyway, that's all for today. I will have to get a move on if I want this done by Thursdays book signing!

Arya Svitkona - WIP 4

2011-09-25T18:32:00.002+01:00

Another hour and a halfs work on this (so now a total of 6 and a half hours work on this piece) - texturing the skin with a dappling brush and doing those lovely eyes! Have had to do some anatomical corrections - I flip the canvas occasionally to pick up such errors (when you flip the canvas, small errors you wouldnt normally see stick out like a sore thumb!). Not sure what to do next... hair or outfit!

Arya Svitkona - WIP 3

2011-09-24T19:13:00.003+01:00

Erm... I wish I could show you some more steps inbetween this one and WIP 2but to be honest I've just been absorbed in this I've lost track of the progress made and haven't been able to put it down!

This is another 3 hours of work, on the face as you can see, bringing the total time now spent drawing this up to 5 hours; still a long way to go. I am having so much fun drawing this though, it's just... amazing to be able to paint someone I see in my head and it actually coming out how it's supposed to. I have such a clear image when I think of Arya as I read the books.. it's odd! I also feel like this has reopened the floodgates for my inspiration, and I feel so enthusiastic about this piece like I haven't about my art in a while. I'd also like to note I'm not using a reference for this... I'm just trying to put down what's in my head.. So thus far I'm pretty proud of it. Can you tell I'm not using a reference?

Arya Svitkona - WIPs 1 & 2

2011-09-23T18:03:00.002+01:00

So I get to meet my favourite male author next Thursday for a talk and book signing! I am beyond excited! Naturally of course, I have to do some fanart...! So this is how I have alwasy pictured Arya Svitkona from his Inheritence Cycle when I read the book... :-) I actually really like this roughly coloured version. I think when you refine an image you often lose that potency of the sketch, that raw feeling of what someone is like. So.. I hope to retain that but I know that it will be hard. Anyway. Yes, I am alive, yes I am drawing again, and yes this drawing will be addictive haha. :)

Familiar

2011-09-16T19:28:00.002+01:00

I've been trying to spend a bit more time drawing on the go lately, in a small A6 sketchbook. This is a quick drawing of me and my bf, which I did in the past week. I quite like it.. I'm no good at drawing a realistic self portrait (no idea why) but this seemed much easier. It was lovely to pick up my markers and colour pencils again though mainly. I've also included the part completed one as it has a nice simplicity about it, I think. :)

Wedding Invite Graphics

2011-08-25T19:37:00.003+01:00

These are some graphics I drew for some wedding invites. There's some celtic knotwork corner pieces for the invites, and as focal pieces, the family crests of the groom (top) and bride (bottom). I had fun on this, it was quite a unique set of drawings to have done! :) All in all, six hours work. These images are subject to final client approval currently. :)

Loved Ones 2 - Tattoo Design

2011-08-16T21:54:00.001+01:00

So the last tattoo was for my boyfriend, this one is for his brother. Haha. :) Enjoy.

Loved Ones - Tattoo Design

2011-08-13T18:51:00.003+01:00

I actually designed this back in February but for some reason never posted it anywhere. This was a design I did for my boyfriend for his next tattoo. Might do a colour version, not sure. I think he would prefer black and white. Please don't use this, it's obviously a personal piece. I wrote the first four lines of the verse myself, he picked the last two from a quote he liked. Enjoy. :)

Georgina and the Dragon - Final!

2011-07-16T18:43:00.000+01:00

The finished version. Original DeviantART post here!

Masquerade - Repaint/Version 2

2011-07-15T17:19:00.002+01:00

This is a repaint of my Masquerade piece. Needed a bit of a breather from Georgina and the Dragon! Still far from perfect but looks nicer in my opinion. :) Original piece is here.

Georgina and the Dragon WIP 14

2011-07-15T16:08:00.002+01:00

I've refined the background here! Another hour - 19 and a half hours up to now. Wow, its adding up! You can compare this to WIP3 for the basic background. Much nicer now, methinks!

Georgina and the Dragon WIP 13

2011-07-15T15:06:00.001+01:00

Another hour... Wings done and some of the other markings. :)

Georgina and the Dragon WIP 12

2011-07-15T13:04:00.003+01:00

Another half an hour, quite impressed with how quickly I've got these scales done! (17 and a half hours so far)

Georgina and the Dragon WIP 11

2011-07-12T19:50:00.004+01:00

Another hour and a half on this; total tally 17 hours so far. Still quite a way to go! But as you can see I'm making headway with the scales. :) Theyre actually quite theraputic to draw! Theyre not ideal (ie not quite how I imagined them) but I'm still liking how its turning out. :) I actually lost all of last nights work as Photoshop crashed so... that really gutted me. I feel like I cant trust my darling Photoshop anymore. :( It was lagging tonight even as it saved the files into jpeg format so I was nervous, but it didnt crash again, phew... gonna have to take it easy with such a huge file size perhaps!

Georgina and the Dragon WIP 10

2011-07-10T18:05:00.002+01:00

Another three hours, so up to 16 hours now... I've shaded the dragon's hide. Now I'm adding scale detail and also refining things like claws, etc. I am too tired to work on this anymore today so I will come back to it tomorrow, now. :-) I'm sad that I've only been able to do this this weekend, but unfortunately for drawing, it's been pretty busy! I have Friday off work so I am determined to finish it by then though.

Georgina and the Dragon WIP 9

2011-07-07T22:06:00.002+01:00

13 hours done on this so far... I didnt quite manage to get Georgina finished tonight but I've got pretty far at least! :) The armour was hard to do - I really dont know how to draw that... But I had fun making her tunic all dirty haha. This was really theraputic... cant wait to get back to it tomorrow :)

Georgina and the Dragon WIP 8

2011-07-07T19:40:00.003+01:00

Up to just under 11 and a half hours on this now. I'm hoping to get Georgina painted totally tonight though that may be a bit ambitious! :)

Georgina and the Dragon WIP 7

2011-07-05T19:21:00.004+01:00

Another half an hours work last night (yes it took me half an hour to paint that teeny bit of chain mail lol. Told you it was time consuming!).... Making a grand total of 10 hours so far!! It's scary that this is so nowhere near finished haha. I long to paint more on this tonight but unfortunately I dont have the time. Fingers crossed I can put at least a good hour down on this tomorrow night though. :)

Georgina and the Dragon WIP 6

2011-07-04T19:32:00.000+01:00

Another hours work on this. Chainmail is very time consuming to paint!

Georgina and the Dragon WIP 4 & 5

2011-07-03T19:09:00.002+01:00

I painted another hour to get to WIP 4, working on the skin. Then I have spent a further hour and a half on the rest of the skin and the hair. Up to a whopping 8 and a half hours on this so far and I'm nowhere near finished!

Next I want to paint the chainmail - I can't wait for that! :D I'm really happy with how this is turning out, thus far. :-)

Georgina and the Dragon WIP 3

2011-07-02T20:59:00.003+01:00

Painted a rough background for the piece! Wow am I proud of this. I combined three photos for the reference for this (for of course I am hideous at backgrounds and definitely needed a reference to get what I wanted!) - one for the sky (the view from my hill), one for the middle ground (the view from the top of Simon's Seat over Appletreewick and the Yorkshire Dales), and one for the foreground (the moorland on the top of Pen-Y-Ghent, one of the Three Peaks). I didn't stick exactly to the reference but it really helped guide my hand. I took 2 hours to paint just this. I hope to refine the ground work though especially but I will wait til later to do that.

Hope you like this!

Georgina and the Dragon WIP 2

2011-06-30T22:12:00.003+01:00

Spent 2 hours just laying down the base colours on this. Good gosh I can't believe it's taken so long! Next, to shade. But it will have to wait for another day - bedtime now!

Georgina and the Dragon WIP 1

2011-06-30T20:02:00.003+01:00

Technically this should probably be WIP 2 - the sketch being WIP one - but oh well! Technicalities, haha. Going to start painting this one now. No idea how long I've spent on this concept so far but lets say about 2 hours for good measure. I took care sketching and inking this out, tweaking here and there. :-)

Brian Cox Digital Portrait WIP 9

2011-06-23T19:32:00.002+01:00

Another hour. I'm really enjoying this... :) Rendered the lips - which I find really hard, but I think I've done a decent job?

Brian Cox Digital Portrait WIP 8

2011-06-19T11:50:00.003+01:00

Ok I just couldnt stop drawing, so have another WIP! This is the most fun I have had drawing a chin, ever, period lol. Which is amazing given I hate facial hair (incl. stubble!). I feel like I have made a really good go of this. :) I loooove my new custom skin brush :D

PS I'm up to five hours on this so far. :)

Brian Cox Digital Portrait WIP 7

2011-06-19T11:18:00.001+01:00

Started painting abit more on this whilst listening to a Brian Cox interview on Youtube that a friend linked me to. Just fancied painting some more on it! Here I experimented with a dual brush incorporating some texture to give the skin a much less plastic feel. :)

Georgina and the Dragon

2011-06-18T19:05:00.004+01:00

Sorry I haven't posted in ages! Life has been busy and I've been working crazy hours lately so I dont have any time to draw really. But today I felt the need to re-sketch out a concept I dreamed up absolutely ages ago - Of George and the dragon, only with a female heroine (I mean why can't girls kick ass, right!?). I have two versions to paint up but I'm really not sure which one to paint up!! :S

I really want to do the whole one but I think the top one where its more cropped gives a greater kind of impact. I dunno. Thoughts??

Simplicity - Sketch

2011-05-22T21:48:00.002+01:00

A sketch I just did. I just had this image come into my head today of a girl in a simple white dress kneeling very ... elegantly but simply, holding a red rose. I sketched it. I may paint it at some point, but at least its sketched now so I wont forget about it. :)

Brithilca and the Abbot - Background Test

2011-05-18T14:57:00.003+01:00

I doodled a quick background for the sketch I did the other day. I say doodled; it actually took about an hours work. I really hate drawing landscapes and architecture; mainly because I'm rubbish at it. But, practice makes perfect so I really need to try harder. I just cannot fathom why some people are just so good at that kind of thing and my every attempt looks dire. I really hope practice will get me there - I honestly hate this background but am going to have to use it as I simply can't seem to do better. What a pain! How on earth do you do GOOD backgrounds!?

Anyway, you can see here the placement of the characters in the scene. :/ I am kind of losing interest in developing this piece further, just because of how crappy I am at backgrounds. Really not sure how to get better at them. I didnt do any work on the floor 'cause I'm not sure what surface to use yet.

Sketch - Brithilca and the Abbot

2011-05-17T19:13:00.004+01:00

It would be nice to draw this one up! This was a theraputic neat sketch I did today, about an hours work. This is a scene from my story where Brithilca the dragon takes the crown of the Dragon Kings from where it is kept. ... I wont spoil any more of the story. ;)

It would be lovely to digitally paint this one up (with a background, I imagine this to be in a main hall of the monastery... But I wasnt creative enough to sketch it on!) to practice scenery and to paint all those delicious dragon scales! I've yet to digitally paint Brithilca, I have only ever coloured him traditionally before. :) And also, I have never drawn the abbot before so it would be nice to paint him... :)

The main point of this was really to practice my dragon anatomy. I always wish I could draw them better! I think have pinned down Bri's design / anatomy a bit more realistically here than in past attempts. I have been thinking about his anatomy and scale arrangements... Dragons are hard cause they dont really exist in real life so theres no definitive references to them. So I have been considering the features and functions of his anatomy, how he evolved to require certain muscles, and armous, etc. Haaard lol. I used the Dracopedia by William O'Connor for some assistance. That really is a great book for dragon fans. :)

(PS Bri's tail got cut off by the edge of the page. Whoops!)

Luke - Final

2011-05-14T22:15:00.004+01:00

Well, this is the first time in ages, maybe ever that I've done one drawing in a sitting - About 5 hours maybe a little more, with appropriate food/drink/toilet breaks! This is a quick character concept for Luke, a character in my novel. He's not the main character but I just fancied drawing him first as he is the clearest in my mind. This is pretty much how he looks in my head but I dont think I have *quite* nailed it yet. Hmm!

I really enjoyed this though! His concept is based on Ashton Kutcher, so I referenced this from photos of him; he's simply the person I found who looks most like Luke does in my mind. But after blocking in the main featured I ditched the reference and hopefully managed to make Luke my own. Enjoy! :)

Luke WIP 5

2011-05-14T21:15:00.002+01:00

Hmm isnt it amazing how much of a difference tweaking the colours can make! I have darkened his eyes and lightened his hair. Now this looks more like the character in my head! Yay. :-)

Luke WIPs 3 & 4

2011-05-14T21:02:00.003+01:00

Two more wips, and about 2 hours more work. :-) So not doing badly on this. The only problem is it doesnt look as much like the Luke in my head as I'd hoped. Guess I rushed it a bit too much or maybe I'm just not meant to be able to draw him yet! Practice makes perfect (I hope).

Luke WIPs 1 & 2

2011-05-14T17:26:00.005+01:00

So at the moment I've gotten back into writing my book. I've come to a bit of a lull with the writing; for now the well of inspiration has run a little dry but I am really inspired to try and draw all the characters.

So here is Luke one of the main few characters. I have gathered reference photos to use for all my characters; I know what they look like in my head but pinning down all that detail isnt easy. So for help with this one... none other than Ashton Kutcher. He looks sort of like the Luke in my head! The best match I found, anyway. I went through a lot of people before I settled on him as the best Luke lookalike. Anyway, I'm not sure how far I will take each of these portraits.

To note on this one, this is I think will be the first time I've painted a beard. I hate facial hair! Its hard!

Here is about 2 hours work on the sketch and basic colour/shade. I might do this on all the characters I've nailed so far and then maybe develop some/all from there. Of I might continue with this one. Who knows. :) I dont intent to spend too long on these if I can help it. :)

Zanthi - Ink

2011-05-10T15:44:00.001+01:00

So I decided I liked this sketch enough to ink! Colour may follow lol.

10 minute doodle - Zanthi

2011-05-09T17:22:00.004+01:00

Have been meaning to draw my friends character Zanthi for a while now! Was just struck by sudden inspiration. :) I hope my friend likes this,..... I had fun doing it but its only rough. I might draw / paint / neaten this one up. Enjoy. :)

PS. Visit http://thali-n.deviantart.com/ she draws amazingly!

30 Minute Speedpaint

2011-05-03T20:35:00.002+01:00

Just what the title says. A 30 minute speed paint based on this beautiful reference. I didnt do any sketch first, I just started slapping down colours. Worked out pretty well but I'm aware it's not so anatomically precise as I would normally make a portrait (still looks human though, so bonus points there methinks) as I was concentrating on the time/speed factor here. Hmm. Hope it still is a nice portrait. :)

Oscar & Marco : Final Piece

2011-04-25T21:52:00.004+01:00

Final piece, approved by the client. Got some prints of this done today and they look great! <3 I think I will start to offer prints of my digital work. Theyre actually pretty easy to do.. :) You can see the animated WIPS here: http://imaeko.deviantart.com/art/Marco-and-Oscar-WIPs-Animation-205903500

Oscar & Marco WIP9

2011-04-22T15:02:00.002+01:00

About another half hour, so 9 hours in total on this now. I am hoping this is the final draft - currently awaiting client approval on this. Once received I'll post up a larger final version. :-) This has been a really different challenge to normal, but I've definitely enjoyed it! :)

Oscar & Marco WIP8

2011-04-22T12:58:00.004+01:00

Another hour working on Marco's ear and eyes - just his chest & general tidying up to do now! :) Up to 8 and a half hours now.

Oscar & Marco WIP7

2011-04-20T19:16:00.003+01:00

Another hmm.. I'd say half hour on this, working on Marco's face. Just really got his eyes, upper right quadrant of the face, and chest to do now. :-)

Oscar & Marco WIP6

2011-04-17T17:27:00.001+01:00

Another hour on this now. Marco is starting to take shape. :-)

Oscar & Marco WIP5

2011-04-17T13:54:00.003+01:00

Another hours work on this - I have started Marco here. I have a feeling he will be pretty hard to draw! We shall see. :-)

Book Illustration - 'Caris'

2011-04-15T19:01:00.003+01:00

This is a book illustration I worked on this week, of "Caris" the angel. A few hours in photoshop. Hopefully more illustrations from this book to follow. :-)

(p.s. I know the wings are not anatomically correct - it was the client's wish that they be drawn this way).

Oscar & Marco WIP4

2011-04-11T22:26:00.003+01:00

About another hour and a halfs work and Oscar is done! :-) 5 hours so far; roughly on target with where I want to be with this piece.

Oscar & Marco WIP3

2011-04-10T20:07:00.002+01:00

About another hmm.. half an hour on this? I'd say 3 and a half hours so far on this piece. Have detailed the middle of Oscar's face and the left side around and including his eye. I really dont want to stop drawing this but I shall have to put it down for tonight..! Can't wait to pick this up tomorrow. :-D

Oscar & Marco WIP2

2011-04-10T20:05:00.002+01:00

So, WIP 2 after another session yesterday. Here I've spent time detailing Oscar's left ear and upper face. Another hour and a bit here? I'd probably say 3 hours so far on this now.

Oscar & Marco WIP1

2011-04-10T20:02:00.002+01:00

So I had to drop my Brian Cox drawing for the moment, to do a commission of two siamese cats, but I don't mind as this should be a fun and interesting challenge! I'll come back to you soon Brian, lol. :)

Lots of work will go into this as I'm not really an animal artist. So lots of practice, here! I've started drawing Oscar here (Marco is currently the big white space... lol). Have blocked in the very rough colours. I'd say an hour and a bit to this stage, perhaps?

Brian Cox Digital Portrait WIP 6

2011-04-07T21:50:00.003+01:00

About another hours work. Have defined the right eye (right eye as you look at it, his left eye), and the nose. I'm up to 4 hours on this so far. :)

Brian Cox Digital Portrait WIP 5

2011-04-05T22:06:00.003+01:00

Another half an hour. Zoomed in on the face this time - worked on the forehead/nose/right eye area. :)

Brian Cox Digital Portrait WIP 4

2011-04-05T21:37:00.001+01:00

Another 20 minute session this lunchtime. Have shaded the jacket and started on the hair! :-)

Brian Cox Portrait WIP 3

2011-03-29T13:32:00.002+01:00

Sorry for my recent absence! I've been busy lately. I haven't actually drawn anything since I last uploaded here. :-( So anyway, half an hours more speedpainting work on my Brian Cox portrait this lunchtime. Loving it so far! Really nice to slap lots of colours down roughly, can't wait to start refining now!

Brian Cox Digital Portrait WIP 2

2011-03-11T19:46:00.002Z

This is after half an hour of slapping on colour in my lunchbreak. Here I am just laying down some colours and very rough shading. :-)

Brian Cox Digital Portrait WIP 1

2011-03-10T22:08:00.004Z

So I have started a picture of the one and only Dr Brian Cox, the "rock star" physicist.

Here's my sketch - about an hour - an hour and a halfs work. I have gridded the reference picture and my canvas and drawn in the detail that way. I find it less intuitive than freehand sketching, but overall favour it as it gives a more accurate sketch in terms of proportions. :-) Overlaying this on my reference image, it's almost spot on, so I'm happy with that!

The sketch is always the very scary stage where it looks nothing like the person!! Lots of fingers crossed at this stage! :-)

Field of Lilies Redo - FINAL!

2011-02-20T12:02:00.002Z

This piece has been so so long in the making, I can't quite believe it's done!

The original concept was born in December 2008 when my Grandma passed away as something to remember her by and this is the second reincarnation of the original concept (which was cute but this is heaps better). You may remember the original concept from way back in my gallery?

I'm glad its finished, anyway. Although I realise there are some areas which could be improved, I'm happy to call this piece done. I think any improvement will be made in future pieces, rather than me coming back to this one. I've certainly not drawn so much fabric before, but I think I did ok on that.. I hope, anyway!

So.. countless hours on Photoshop, over countless months, but it's done, so, enjoy.

Does anyone want me to post up any detail shots?

Field of Lilies Redo WIP 13

2011-02-19T15:44:00.002Z

A good few more hours on this one. Not much progress but, I'm finding the last bits of fabric really heavy going. I hope to finish it soon...

Field of Lilies Redo WIP 12

2011-02-05T18:40:00.002Z

A little bit more work, done over my work lunchbreaks.. :-)

Field of Lilies Redo WIP 11

2011-01-30T19:20:00.003Z

I managed to do a teeny tiny bit more work yesterday (Saturday morning).. :-)

Field of Lilies Redo WIP 10

2011-01-27T19:29:00.004Z

Its been two whole months since I last worked on this piece, but I saw it sat in my art file on my PC the other day and wondered how I could have ever forgotten it or lost the will to work on it. so I have picked it up as something to work on hopefully to fruition this time. This concept has now been over two years in the making, and this is the second incarnation. Its a joy to work on. Theres still work to do but I'm really gettting there with this piece. :-)

Photoshop however has randomly erased all of my custom brushes. I am very unimpressed with this! I was really proud of my new grass brush and my painting brushes were all JUST how I liked them, now I cant seem to find that perfection again. What a pain computers can be!!

Portrait Commission Final

2011-01-22T15:21:00.002Z

Can't believe I forgot to post this here.. sorry! Enjoy :-) This is a commission I finished a few weeks ago now.

Portrait Commission WIPs

2011-01-08T20:57:00.002Z

Some WIPs of a commission I just finished. This is the son of a guy I shoot with (competition archery, not archery/guns for hunting. Guns/hunting are bad, kids!).

First two were taken on my phone (hence poor quality), the second two were taken on my camera (hence better quality). Final piece will be posted in my nest blog update.

Had quite a bit of fun on this, this little chappie has a nice cheeky grin which was quite a challenge to capture, but I think I have done well! :-) Fingers crossed my client likes it. :-)

Took roughly the usual amount of time for a portrait this size, though to be honest I wasn't too on the ball about keeping track of my time on it this time so I may have gone over a bit, I'm not sure. Used the usual mechanical pencil for it all, and deepened the shading with some nice soft B pencils, up to 4B this time. :-)

Enjoy! :D

Mistletoe - WIP 8

2010-12-08T22:00:00.002Z

Have finished the male character now, going to move onto colouring the female character next! :-)

Mistletoe - WIP 7

2010-12-06T21:47:00.002Z

Done some character painting this time. Still really enjoying this!

Mistletoe - WIP 6

2010-12-05T13:05:00.002Z

Now you can see I've added the final lighting effects and also the fire! I need to add the christmas decor and the background will be finished. I will be hiding the lighting effects whilst I paint the characters, though, and just showing them on the final result. I'm really liking how this is turning out already... :-)

I think to date I've spent 7 hours on this piece so far.

Mistletoe - WIP 4 & 5

2010-12-05T12:20:00.002Z

Ok, at the top is WIP 4! I've painted in most of the background now (just need to add a cosy fire to that fireplace and some Christmas decorations!).

The bottom picture, WIP5, shows how I've changed the colour scheme. I like this one more, its warmer and more appealing so I will stick with this one for now, methinks.

Mistletoe - Flat Colours

2010-12-04T22:22:00.004Z

Flat colours for the commission I'm working on. Next, for the background. :-)

Mistletoe - Sketch

2010-12-04T19:58:00.002Z

This is (hopefully) the final sketch for the commission I submitted concepts for yesterday. I really like this! God bless Posemaniacs.com though, that site is great for pose stock to help with anatomy! I'm having a lot of fun on this piece so far!

Subject to the commissioners approval I can start painting this up. I'm really looking forward to it!

Mistletoe - Concepts

2010-12-03T19:30:00.003Z

Some concepts for a commission.. :-)

Ok so, Concept 1 (top) is meant to be the two characters laying down (on a bed?) with the male dangling some mistletoe! I thought maybe they could also be laying ona rug with a fire in the background, or a window to a snowy scene, etc etc.

Concept 2 (bottom left) is meant to be the characters snuggled up in bed.

Concept 3 (bottom right) could be a more easily adapted scene in terms of location. Indoors, next to a roaring fire? On a snowy hill? (etc etc)

Field of Lilies Redo WIP 9

2010-11-20T20:05:00.004Z

Took the afternoon off to draw today - its been bliss!

This is a personal project that I havent had time to work on for so long... Its finally taking shape. Think I may share my new custom grass brush on my website at some point when I have time to compile a ZIP file to upload with instructions :) The lilies were fun to do :D

Havent finished the background yet, but have run out of time for now! Can't wait to get back to this.. :-)

Revision is chasing me - send help!

2010-11-17T20:37:00.002Z

Exams are taking over my life - apologies for my absence.... - freedom approaches on December 2nd!!!

Art Clay Exploits: Part 3

2010-10-31T21:03:00.008Z

Polishing, firing & Finishing: a.k.a. Ultimate Disaster Occurs!

After leaving my piece to dry from Friday night until Saturday afternoon, with a couple of bursts of the hairdryer too for help, I sanded down my piece, using a simple nail file. I was able to easily remove most of the imperfections and lumps and bumps - I spent a few hours on this section; picking it up, doing a few minutes until it looked "fine", then leaving it for a while, coming back to it, seeing all the new imperfections I hadnt noticed, refiling it... rinse and repeat. Like you would with an art piece, leave it and return several times, and hold it at arms length, honestly criticising it to try and make the best of your piece. :-)

To make sure it was truly dry I did not fire it until Sunday afternoon.

I fired my piece on my gas hob. As such, I purchased this handy metal net to rest my piece over the hob on. The smaller finer piece, is cut specially so you may bend it into a box shape (shown a few steps below), which means that if, for whatever reason your piece spits, or explodes (etc) its contained.

I filled a stainless steel bowl with some water to finish off cooling the piece (I dont know how important the stainless steel part is really, my instruction sheet specified it, so seeing as we had some in the cupboard I used it.... might try it without though).

Timing is important - I took off my watch so I could observe the time easier. I fired for a total of five minutes.

I switched on the hob, to find the hottest part of the steel net (which part glowed red), picked a red spot to put my piece on, then turned off the hob so I could safely lay my piece on it, with a pair of cheap tweezers I bought from Tescos the other day for the purpose. Very handy!

I laid on my piece, formed the little box from the smaller steel mesh as shown about and placed it over the piece, lighting the hob again after. Now, there are two things to note here; firstly, my piece looked rather unremarkable for the whole firing. No burning, spitting, glowing.... absolutely zilch. Did I do it right? Who knows. The piece shrunk by the recommended 10% so.. I can only hope so!

Secondly to note; the smell. Oh my god the smell. THE SMELL WAS HORRENDOUS...... Now, as it turns out this was *not* the fault of the silver clay, but rather the mother of pearl setting.. which as you can see below.... does not have a very high tolerance of temperature.

That is to say, it was totally, utterly destroyed. Such a shame.. Lucky that it was a cheap gem to buy, but its still a sad shame. It was so so beautiful. :-( Needless to say, that was unsalvageable. As you can also see, the silver shrunk so much it cracked noticeably. I'm not sure how to get around that..?? Maybe you have to use it in much thicker quaitities (I shall certainly try that..) to avoid this. So, a disaster all round, really.

Then one of the leaves fell off. Oh bother, was that the final straw! After leaving it to cool for the recommended 15 minutes, I dunked it in the bowl of water, and dried it off, before setting about to see if I could salvage it.

Well beyond repair.

Um.... really... REALLY... beyond repair. The shattering of the mother of pearl was actually quite pretty (the internal layers had retained normal pearlescent sheens) but unfortunately not suitable for me to use anymore...

Firstly, I took off the mother of pearl (it came away easily), and chipped away the raised border I had creates, as totally as I could.

Using the magical polishing cloth I bought, and also the steel toothbrush too, I furiously scrubbed and rubbed until my piece polished up (this is the front, you can see the remains of the border...). The nice matte silver finish was quite pretty (but I do wonder how to get it truly shiny..).

You can also see two fracture lines: as the piece was, let face it, ruined, I decided to test the strength of my piece. Disappointingly, it snapped under very little pressure from my hands, very brittle and fragile (again, must make thicker next time..). Glued it back together - bless super glue! It was to become my good friend during this most hard of rescue missions!! I actually quite like the fracture lines, nice addition of character...

This was the back of the piece, polished. Scrubbed up quite nice actually, very smooth finish. Quite liked this.

In the end, I cut a piece of copper sheet the same size and shape as the mother of pearl, and super glued it in place on the front of the cabochon. This became a two sided piece; this was the back, where I reattached the leaves. Simple, but nice, I think.

I didnt want to leave the front to be a mess though! I also couldnt leave it bare with just he copper sheet on it, as the remains of the border were quite ugly. So, I got out my super huge beading kit, and rifled through it to find something suitable to add on. In the end I went for small turquoise chips (again, glued on).

Overall I think the final pendant is *ok*, but obviously compared to the initial ambition, concept and ideas I had, its nothing in comparison. A disappointment really, but I'm glad I was able to salvage it to soemthing unique and useable (especially since theres about £7 of pure 99.9% silver in the piece....).

Overall, with regards the silver clay, there is obviously a LOT of room for improvement. I'm viewing this experience with mixed emotions.

On the one hand; I failed at something I experimented in, in essence. That incenses me to try harder, and succeed. I do not like to be beaten!! This is a puzzle I will endeavour to solve - at least until I run out of silverclay to work with!

On the other hand; this material is a veritable NIGHTMARE to work with, no shadow of a lie. This may be partly down to my own inexperience, but let face it, when the apparent *slow dry* clay seems to be totally dry within a minute or two of removing from the pack, and the *normal* (i.e. faster) dry clay seems like it will never flipping dry, theres some head scratching and panic on my part! I have learned the hard way never to fire stones/gems - you may lose them (and they may stink out your house in the process...). Don't do it kids, just don't do it!

In conclusion though, would I do it again? Definitely. Like I said, I don't like to be beaten! Its an intruiging material to work with, for sure. Give it a try if you can, but be prepared to lose your money if and when it goes wrong.. then again, maybe just don't make the mistakes I did! ;-)

Kind regards from a beginner,

Let me know how it goes,

Meg!

Silver Clay Exploits: Part 2

2010-10-29T19:05:00.012+01:00

Design & Sculpting

Ok, this is the part where I did the bulk of the making of the piece, which for reference took about 45 mins. Firstly, I produced quite a few sketches, see below, and ended up choosing the one on the far right (drawn to size) as it had a more simplistic design. I was, in the end very glad I had chosen a more simple design, as I was quite overfaced by getting used to the clay. After making my first piece with this material I can safely say don't jump in on the deep end with this material, not least because it takes time getting used to, but also because its too expensive to waste!!

Ok, so, sketches done, I got a handy bit of tracing paper, and traced out the outside of the shape, drew where I would put a hole (so I could put in a bail to hang it from a chain), and also drew where the gem would sit on the centre of design - for this design I picked a 25mm x 18mm Mother of Pearl cabochon (cabochon = a flat backed gem, so its easier to mount). I cut out this design for later.

Here's what the silver clay looks like in person.. not very silver! For this piece, I used about a fifth of this teeny lump, I would estimate, maybe a tiny bit more.

Here's where the tracing paper came in very handy. Firstly, I rolled my lump of clay into a little ball. I put that inbetween two sheets of baking paper (so it wouldnt stick to my roller), and rolled it out quite thinly. I would estimate that the thickness of this base is about 0.75 - 1.00 mm thick. I don't know how good or bad that is as a thickness - I will find out upon firing!

After rolling, I put my cut out tracing paper on top of the shape and cut around it using a sharp scalpel blade to get the basic shape. I tried to be careful but it isnt very neat at this point. As you can see from the very small ball, this amount of clay was only just able to make my shape (it really doesn't go far...).

In this piece, I thought it would be nice if, from the back of the piece you could see through to the stone, so as you can see I cut out a leaf shape from the rolled out silver to make a little window.

I think its important to note at this point I was finding the material quite hard to work with! The clay I purchased was Slow Dry clay but, to be honest this dried out immensely quickly. I could honestly do very little with it at all and it was so so hard to work with once it had dried. I suppose I could have added some water though to see if that helped. Note to self, I'll try that next time! As such I decided to simplify my design further on this piece (rather that than ruin it at this stage!). I made the cutout piece, and the spare blob from the last step into small leaf shapes.

I also purchased some silver clay in a syringe (which they advertise as very helpful for making patterns and such). It was, but I found it a really really hard material to work with. Oddly, this was not slow dry clay in the syringe, and seemed to be much wetter and stickier than the slow dry clay. This seemed VERY backwards to me!!! So yes, the syringe clay was a nightmare to work with. It was immensely sticky, and blobby, and I found that it came out of the syringe in a far thicker blob than I would have liked.

There aren't any photos of this stage cause I was too busy getting covered in clay and having a nightmare!

I placed the stone in the middle of the design, and dragged the syringe around the stone to form a border (shown below) which would hold the stone in place. It came out very irregularly, but, seeing as the clay was too unpredictable and unhelpful to work with, being this wet and sticky, I felt I had to leave it a few minutes, then returned to it, and began smoothing out the border around the stone into some sort of consistent flow. I also sat the two little leaf shapes onto the border (where the stickyness of the stuff proved helpful as it cemented the leaves onto the piece)

As you can see it looks kinda messy. I smoothed it out as best I could to say the syringe clay was basically like paste and left it to dry.

This is a shot of the same step from above. The mother of pearl has a really pretty sheen to it :)

Thats all for now but stay tuned! Next time, I'll be filing & refining the dried design and.. gulp... firing it!

Silver Clay Exploits: Part 1

2010-10-29T15:51:00.009+01:00

Internet Shopping

So, I excitedly ordered myself some silver clay from the internet, and couldn't wait to begin my experimentations into creating wonderful works! I have seen some stunning metal clay works on DeviantART, and wow oh wow, do I want in on that! I've always wanted to work with metal and heat and never realised that metal clays even existed!

Now, this is my first try with metal clay, and since I'm not sure what its like, and whether I'll truly enjoy it, I bought the minimum amount of things I could, really, my logic being that I should spend a lot of money on something I will never do again.

So, for the sum of £63.50 I purchased the following:
1. 1 x Gas Hob Firing Mesh - With Cover £6.95
2. 1 x Art Clay Silver 650 Slow Dry Clay - 20gm £28.50
3. 1 x Art Clay Silver 650 Syringe - 1 tip - 10gm £19.95
4. 1 x 3M Polishing Paper - Blue - 9 Micron £1.20
5. 1 x Modelling Knife £2.95
6. 1 x Stainless Steel Brush - Long Bristles £3.95

The artclay itself was by far the most expensive, surprisingly so, but, upon receiving my package in the post, my initital thoughts were overwhelming disappointment.... As you can see below, yes I have an array of new tools to use (which will complement my super sculpey tools from my polymer clay work) which will be very useful but, the silver was very disappointing.

As you can see in the picture below, which shows the 20g portion of silver clay next to my thumb, the portion of silver you get is absolutely miniscule.... It made me very worried to think that I might not be able to get much out of it in terms of seperate pieces (and also quite upset at the need to have to spent *so* much money to get so little!) . But, I will endeavour to make the most economic use of it that I can and see how far I can stretch it!

That's all for now, but stay tuned! Next time, I'll be finalising my designs and delving into my silver clay...!

My Photo Got Featured on the Telly!

2010-10-25T19:11:00.002+01:00

This is so exciting haha! :D My photo, that I took last night (can be found here, clicky clicky!) was featured minutes ago on Look North, the local news program! Wooooooow its so exciting! Hehe! :D

Cross Tattoo

2010-10-22T18:05:00.002+01:00

This is hopefully the final concept. I really like this, hope John does too.

I really love doing tattoo designs :D