I have been working on a lot of art

... But you won't get to see any of it :D

I've been having a bit of trouble with the Drop of Sunlight painting I was working on. For some reason, I just can't seem to get the facial features right. I've started and restarted the skin five times now. It's beginning to feel a lot like my book series... So I think I'm going to take a siesta from that one and do something else. If you don't feel it, you just don't feel it.

I've also been working on a notebook cover for my new school class, but have taken a break from THAT one to do a computer wallpaper for my brother for his birthday. But since he's usually lurking in my room, I can only work at it late at night. Which is why I'm writing this at 2:30 AM.

Then I have to write the lessons for my students and that requires a lot of time because I'm nitpicky. But they're all available on my DA page and also on the group I created for my students. They post their work there, so drop by from time to time to check them out.

OH! My portrait of Tarja Turunen was part of a Member Feature on DeviantArt. I was really surprised, since that's a fairly old painting and I can see a lot of mistakes on it now...

... That's really it. You can't see any of my new stuff yet. I'll post the wallpaper after my bro's b-day since I know of at least several people who will appreciate it, but of course I can't until then or he might see it.

In the meantime, here's a speedpaint of a butterfly. I'm getting better at speedpainting and I really enjoy it.

Just a sketch

I have had almost no time to do anything lately, but I did throw down some quick character sketches from that series I've been trying to write for over half my life. For the series' latest development, I altered the timeline a bit - it now takes place in a society on the brink of industry. I have no idea why I thought it would be a good idea to switch it, but it actually gives it a less cliche period dynamic.

Anyway, to see if I could work with the concept change, I did a few quick character sketches and thought I might as well post them for no reason.

That's that.

Drop of Sunlight WIP - basic coloring and some shading begun

I'm much faster than I used to be. Half a year ago, this would have taken me at least three days. I can already see one serious problem that I am going to obsess over for at least that much time, though: The nose. I am abysmal at noses. They're so weird looking. But anyway, here's the update.

Also, random tip: If you ever want to color anything black or white, DO NOT actually use black or white! Your blacks should really be dark blues, purples, browns, etc depending on your work. Your whites should reflect the color of your light source in very light yellows, blues, pinks, etc (unless they're in the shadows, in which case they should reflect your shadow colors).

Of course, that doesn't apply if you're actually doing a black and white picture.

New WIP - Drop of Sunlight

Just a line concept sketch I did a few weeks ago. Decided to go with non-character based, marketable artwork for once. I'm also going to turn it into a digital painting tutorial now that I'm good enough to give legitimate advice, so I'm screenshotting basically everything, but I won't snowball you.

I don't know when I'll have a chance to work on it since things have been so crazy, but I'll do my best.

I've been reconnecting with my roots, so this is a Gothic type concept. Where most people use umbrellas to stay out of the rain, we tend to use them to stay out of the sun. Pretty simple, really. I think it will be fun.

I don't know that I'm going to go so fullbody. I may cut it down to just the top right quarter. But I really like drawing clothing and ours can be so beautiful, I'm a bit conflicted. I guess I'll just have to wait and see what happens XD

But anyway, there you have it! My new work in progress, Drop of Sunlight. Simple, but hopefully it will be elegant. And marketable. I want to be as good as Dianae.

Finished!

I don't even want to talk about how long this stupid thing took. It makes me sad. So here it is:

Click to fullview, of course.

YES I fudged out on the background. I got completely sick of it. I would paint, erase, paint, erase and six months later I still wasn't finished. So I did this. If you complain, I will probably grant you a very painful and slow death.

So that's it!

A fun thing: I love watching it evolve XD

Some rocks

I painted them.

After about a month and a half of doing no art at all, I painted rocks. Fascinating.

In my defense, I am rather busy with music related tripe. In the next few months, I'm going to go bother the Lubbock Theater until they eventually hire me. I'm just happy I can sing again. If I can sing as a career, all the crap from the last few years will be totally worth it.

Anyway, here's the rocks. And my random floating lightsource.

No, they don't have texture yet. No, the ones on the right and left are not curved the way they should be. But I'm not finished! Clearly.

The post with no art

I have nothing for you today. Sorry.

I'm afraid I hit that wall that I do with all of my artwork. I begin to panic because no matter what I do, the background always fails me. It turns me into a simpering child.

In the past week or so since I last updated, I've gone a bit out of my mind. At best, I pop around the house with an insane smile somewhat like this,

not really accomplishing anything, but at least staying on the far corner of my right mind.

But at worst, I more commonly resemble Ryuk, electrified hairdo and all.

In order to save what remains of my sanity, I decided to, once again, take a break from Chaos and do another contest prize on deviantART, this time for the IchiRuki club for their Valentine's Day contest. Since I hate VDay and would never participate in any contests, I figured I might as well contribute this way. Also, I wanted to try out a new painting technique and am using this as an excuse to practice it.

Naturally, since it's a prize, I can't post updates. But whatever XD

Adieu!

Chaos WIP - starting effects

I fixed hair issues and stuff, so now I'm officially moving on to the background and effects portion of my painting. Figured I'd start with getting the light solidified so I have something definite to base the background lighting on, instead of just a vague "top left corner" kind of thing.  All I've got is the main light source, and I'm going to add little swirly tendrils to it to make it more interesting. So it looks kind of silly now XD

Obligatory detail shots:

I am so ready to be finished with this D:

Chaos WIP - The beginning of refinement and the conquering of Gilbert

That's kind of an epic title for a pointless update. Well, it's not pointless to ME - I need these to chronicle my improvement XD

Speaking of improvement, I'm afraid I hit a snag. I spent most of the day repainting the dress because of weird off-color marks that would suddenly become massively visible blights if I tried to add any advanced shading or highlights. Not just little spots either - the entire left sleeve was ripe with them. It looked like it had the plague.

This was caused by poor color blending. I had stretched and blotted the color pigments in such a way that it created a whole new blueish-greyish-reddish color somehow that would NOT disappear no matter how many times I colored it with another color. I'll call this color Gilbert because I hate that name so much (sorry, Gilberts). Anyway, anytime I would try to add shadows or color variations, Gilbert would be like LOOK AT ME NOW! So I had to redo it.

The problem was that when I started this before Christmas, my blending style consisted of circles, blots, and strokes. Messy messy. However, when I started working on the prize for my Christmas raffle winner, I noticed how horrendous Kisuke's jacket looked with this technique. No matter how many times I tried to refine it and make it look smooth, Gilbert would not go away.

See what I mean?

So I refined my stroking style to this, using lighter strokes going all one direction instead of just blots:

Smooth!

I hope all of that made even a bit of sense XD It's all rather important. Well, if you care about it anyway. If you don't, I just wasted five minutes of your life.

But don't worry, I'll make it up to you. Here's the actual update:

NO GILBERTS! :D

Did some skin refinement, too, so here's a detail shot:

Hair is looking kind of kooky now, but that's what I'm working on tomorrow.

I guess as far as problems go, having to repaint something because you got better is a good one to have.

Chaos WIP - epic scythe pwnage

HA! I finished it finally! Just the scythe, I mean. I still have a lot of work to do on the whole thing.

Next on my project list is to repaint the sleeves of the dress. They are bugging me. I tried to fix the left one and only made it worse -_- So that's the next thing. It shouldn't take too long though. Hopefully. I also need to add textures and lighting effects throughout, since I had decided halfway through the scythe that I wanted to have more intense light than I had originally planned for. That won't be too hard, either. All I have to do is add stronger highlights and darken the shadows a bit.

And of course, finish the background, add a foreground, and create the light that is invisibly making everything brighter at the moment. And add effects. I've spent so much time on this now that I might as well go all the way :|

Estimate of when will I finish it? Never.