Arya & Firnen - WIP 5

I'm starting to get there on this piece, yay! :-) I'm really liking the merging of scales to skin on the wings. I dunno, the contrast of it (or lack of, I suppose) is a feel I wish I could give more of my painting work. :)

Arya & Firnen - WIP 4

Life has been consumed by essays since I last posted!! Aaaaah essays, my brain feels like sludge right now haha. But I suddenly realised I only have a couple days before the contest deadline on this!! So I will have to work hard to get this done. Here's today's contribution, fingers crossed I can get this done before Saturday! Scales, so many scales...!

Arya & Firnen - WIP 3

Wip 3. Scales, scales... and more scales!

Arya & Firnen - WIP 2

WIP 2! I have started the painstaking job of Firnen's scales now! This could take a while!

Arya & Firnen - WIP 1

A painting for a contest run by an Eragon fanclub on DA. I saw the contest theme of Arya and Firnen, and this idea popped into my head! Since I love the Inheritence Cycle, and I love dragons, and I miss painting so much, I really wanted to get this idea out. This picture is the moment that Firnen hatches for Arya, and she bonds with him as his rider the first time she touches him. The hand was modelled by myself. :-) This is obviously nowhere near done! But I wanted to share it all the same. :-)

Contentment - WIP 2

Ink for the sketch I finished yesterday :-)

Farewell - WIP 5

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

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

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

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

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.

Lilith & Diana WIP 9

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

Lilith & Diana WIP 8

Worked on Lilith's hair here.

Lilith & Diana WIP 7

Have worked on Lilith's face this time!

Lilith & Diana WIP 6

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

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

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

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 - WIP 7

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

Arya Svitkona - WIP 6

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).