Sketches

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.

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.

Winter Romance - Final piece!

Its finished.. yaaaaay!

For my general comments on the piece, please read the artists comments on my DeviantART post... and you can also view all of the WIPS together on a walkthrough. :-)

Winter Romance WIP 9 & WIP 10

Well I have spent about another hour and a half on this at the very least today, so probably up to about 8 hours by now? Its hard to keep track!

This is really coming along. I'm fairly happy with this - I realise there are a lot of things wrong but this really is my first major digital piece since probably Secret World in 2008, and I'm definitely happier with this piece than I was with that one. Its all a case of practice, everyone has got to start somewhere and I guess I'm still pretty close to that starting point! So, though there are things wrong I'm not being too harsh on myself. Its all practice. I just wish I could have portrayed Luke a bit more like how he is in my head! Perhaps the next time.. ^^;

Winter Romance WIP 8 - Please Crit!

God I need help. Luke is just not turning out how he is in my head, on account of the fact I really cannot draw guys! I totally need to practice male realism more, boo. Hope this one ends up turning out ok, he could really be the thing that spoils it, because of my inexperience... Please crit on Luke specifically if you can!

Winter Romance WIP 7

WIP 7 for you.. I have worked a little more on her dress/cloak, his top and visible arm, and painted in his hand.... Getting there slowly but surely! Up to 5 and a half hours on this, and I have to finish this this weekend otherwise I will miss the deadline. Pressue's on!

Winter Romance WIP 6

Painted in the collar and added her other arm.. only 15 minutes working on this though I had hoped to be able to have a longer session :(

Winter Romance WIP 5

I think I've spent about 4 and a half hours on this so far. I am really running out of time on this one, deadline is the 14th Feb so gonna have to hurry it along! I get the feeling I havent gotten enough contract in the face but I will come back to it later. I definitely had fun painting this stage :-)

Winter Romance WIP 4

Here I have added the basic shading to the characters. Now I can start to refine them :-)

Winter Romance WIP 3 + Anne Hathaway WIPS 2 & 3

Ok, two WIPS firstly here for the Anne Hathaway portrait I am doing :) Probably spent about 2 hours on this by now which isnt bad - its a pretty small piece by the way, only 16 cm x 12 cm!

Firstly I coloured in the skin basically, and started on the hair. In the second picture you can see how I have worked more on the skin to give it more depth, and also lend it a more rosy tint (before it was a bit too yellow... although on my screen the second picture looks more yellow than the first..... whoops lol. Thats just the photo of it I promise!). I have also added more to the hair.

In terms of the Winter Romance piece, this is a massive transition from the last stage, a bare sketch, and about an hour more work (which considering, isnt too bad! Up to about 2 and a half hours on this now, maybe 3) - I have fixed her face for starters, but also flipped the sketch horizantally, shrunk it and placed it slightly differently. However, as you may notice I have not painted in her left arm (the right arm as we look at it). I just cant get the anatomy right. This I think will probably be one of the last things I end up painting!

I have put in a background - which hopefully I can refine a little more (this is not a definite, backgroudns arent my forte, and it might look better being left as this). But, I'm pretty happy with this so far. I like the mood it gives the picture so far!

I also laid down basic colour blocks. This is in preparation for basic shading, after which I will merge the sketch layer with the colour layer and begin the refining process. Wish me luck with that!

Winter Romance WIP2 & Anne Hathaway WIP 1

Well here is where I reached with the restart of Winter Romance last night! I got most of the anatomy hashed out, and time is probably up to 1 and a half hours by this point.

I need some help though please! Particular points I'm struggling with are:
1. Her face (she just... doesnt look very nice lol... she has a much kinder, innocent face in my head, here she just seems too worldly wise, for lack of another way to put it..)
2. Her arm (the left one as we look at it, down by her side). I cant get this to look natural!

I humbly request red-lines!

I am also starting a new colour pencil portrait because I direly need the practice. It is Anne Hathaway, a very beautiful actress whose looks I have always admired. I like how wide her smile is and how large her eyes are - and when she smiles it looks so sincere and her eyes really light up.. I dont think I've ever really got that feeling of sincerity and pure radiating joy from many other actors / actresses when I've seen them on the big screen. So, I was going to do one with her trademark smile... but then I found an amazing reference picture (clickie here to see!) where the contrast was just a whole new way of photography that I had never seen before. It definitely made me wow, more than any of the other photos I googled of her, so I had to pick this one!

Just a sketch so far though:

Winter Romance Restart *TWO*! WIP 1!

So.. Um.. I restarted the Winter Romance piece.. Again....! This is the last restart I promise haha! The other one just wasnt working out. I loved the background I created, dont get me wrong but I spent so long on it that.. I just couldnt see past it anymore. Suddenly the character sdidnt fit in anymore. Hopefully I can still use the pic for something though.

This time I am sketching the characters with a definite romantic pose in mind. Whereas the other image was going to focus on the period just before they fall in love, where the feelings are just beginning to emerge, this one is all about Luke and Evelyn being all ~*~lovey dovey~*~ How sweet =P

Anyway, only a figure sketch here, probably half an hour to this point. I am finding poses and anatomy ridiculously challenging at the moment. Bleh.

Enjoy :) Crits VERY welcome, befor eI start painting this up!!

Winter Romance Restart

Well, you may have seen my WIP on Deviantart for a contest entry with the theme "Winter Romance". (see below)


I decided today that, rather than re-working the sketch I'd start completely from scratch with a whole new tack. Now, I intend to do this piece digitally :) I hope that will give me greater control and manipulation of the anatomy which I found so challenging in the pencil sketch, and also hopefully it will allow me to be much more adventorous with my background, knowing I can always paint over it if needs be!

So, the top picture is the new first WIP of the piece - fear my rough stick figures! Haha :) This is a sketch of the background. Mmmm I love those windows <333 The stance of the character will remain the same though but I will redraw them :)

I used perspective I learnt way back in Graphic design class at school (wow. School did come in handy in a real life situation! Whaddaya know lol), I forget what its called but it works on 30 degree angles. I dont have a protractor, so I'm guessing but I'm trying to use the principle. I have made sure that all of the lines line up the same. I.e. the floor lines up with the top of the fireplace etc. Some of it looks wierd but I have actually checked it and it all matches up. Kooky! :O

Anyway. Enough rambling :D Enjoy! Crits as always appreciated :)