New WIP - Conflict of Interest

Well, since no one objected to me spamming with my blog updates, I'll continue posting my WIPs.

I redeemed myself with the last finished work, but I can't allow that, can I? If I'm not an insatiable nerd, I'm no one.

Besides, I've been neglecting two of my favorite series characters of all time: Sunako and Kyohei of The Wallflower. 

But don't fret! This new art will be much more than me just having a fit of nerdiness. It's actually aimed at improving my background/foreground and fullbody painting skillz. 

Here's the concept sketch:

I love the early process bits XD They always look so funny. 

Bit of foreshadowing for the rest of the piece: As you might notice, I've divided it into two distinct halves. I'm really going to capitalize on the light/dark dimensions of these two (Kyohei=light; Sunako=dark) so I separated the sketch into shadow and lighting realms. Also, Sunako's half of the garden background --a WIP in itself-- will be withered. It's not obvious in the sketch, but she's holding John, her skull "friend."

I'm using Kame as the model for Kyohei since he looked the part so well in the live-action (even if the writers should be shot, dragged behind a horse, and shot again for making him emo). I'm adding Kyohei's hair to the list of things that are far more difficult to draw than they should be. :|

That's enough ranting for now, I guess. I'm tired.

The Dragon Queen - Finished!

I overworked myself to finish this so I can move on to the next project. But I tried hard not to rush!

WIP day 6 - The Dragon Queen

Bet you're getting tired of this one, aren't you??? Well, so am I. I want to finish it up tomorrow or Friday at the latest! I have other stuff I want to work on XD

Pretty much worked exclusively on the background today. I am notoriously bad at painting clouds. It shows. I'm not finished with them yet, though, so hopefully I can make them presentable D:

My artz and Pyralis are ©Me. Do not use without permission!

WIP day 5 - The Dragon Queen

DO NOT USE MY ARTZ PLZ!

Mostly worked on texturizing the armor and adding highlights, though you can see I'm hinting at the idea of a background. I would have gotten more done except for a bad case of Cursed Texture Brush. My favorite little brush hates being used if there are more than 15 layers. It will say "screw you" and immediately crash Photoshop beyond repair. I lost a lot of work in the past until I figured out its limits.

Scrolling on the armor is gone. I may add more, but I'm not sure. I love the detail, but I really suck at it XD

Fireball is currently absent. The one I had was too cartoony and didn't fit, so I'm experimenting with painting it different ways. It'll be back once I figure it out.

WIP day 4 - The Dragon Queen

Technically, it's day 6, but I wasn't able to work on it this weekend. I was tired!

Updated:
*Blended the armor and began adding highlights and textures
*Tried to decide on a scrollwork to use as armor detail (it's not going well; apparently, I suck at scrollwork).

There was some other minor stuff, but I don't feel like listing every dot I plopped on XD Since it's getting close to resembling finished work, I stuck in a watermark. As we say on deviantART, "Do not use my artz plz."

I also picked a great and dramatic background reference photo, but I'm not posting it. Since I'm only going to use the concept of it (copyright courtesy and all that) I can't post it. I'd be using someone else's artz! But I think you'll love it. I hope I can paint it. Got a long way to go until then, though D:

PS, If you wonder why my art is blurry, it's because it's a screenshot. The whole painting is 7500x7500 pixels, so you can imagine how long it would take to load lulz.

WIP day 3 - The Dragon Queen

I didn't have a lot of time to work on this today. I mainly just focused on the hair. I deleted the crown and started a tiara made of finger bones, but it looked a little off. So I deleted that, too. But since I like the finger bones idea, I added Chinese sticks to the bun in her hair and I'm going to paint them like the bones. I'll also probably drape some gold chains and beads around in her hair to make it more interesting.

I started blending the armor, but didn't get very far. Most of that time was taken up by researching good armor painting techniques, like this armor tutorial from IDG-sensei. He's so awesome. I love him *almost* as much as I love Kubo-sama and that is quite a bit XD

LOL layer line. I just noticed it. Call it a watermark.

Oh, and I moved the body/arm down and to the left just a hair. I thought she looked a little squatty and it wasn't working for me. Ah, the magic of digital art.

I actually want to paint my mom a big traditional painting of a sakura branch, since she liked the one in the store so much. If anyone has any tips on traditional color blending, I'd love to hear them! I'm pretty much exclusively a digital artist, so I'm a noob at "real" painting.

WIP day 2 - The Dragon Queen

An update on my current WIP. Click to make it larger, BTW

*Dropped in the armor and some basic coloration
*Hair outline
*Fireball basic
*Fussy details in places

I'm unsure about the crown. I haven't made up my mind yet. Opinions would be nice. :D

The Dragon Queen - WIP

Since I don't finish a lot of art, I might as well post my works in progress.

Like this one.

Before you see it, though, I have to explain why this is significant. I had stopped painting for awhile because I felt like I had reached a point where I couldn't improve any more. So, I decided to go back to the beginning of my progress and restudy the tutorials that I had used to improve.

Previous to this incident, I had been using an airbrush to paint instead of a hard brush. While it was easier in the beginning because airbrushes blend more easily, it was actually preventing me from adding the detail necessary to improve beyond what I had already accomplished. Since the blending and the colors were soft, hard detail looked foreign and unnatural whenever I tried to add it.

The tutorial I restudied taught me how to use hard brushes, which in turn vastly improved my detail capabilities. The original painting I tested this new method on was a failure (bad undertone color - long story) but this one is going quite well, if I do say so myself. Now if I could just successfully draw the shoulder armor...

The Dragon Queen
(she will be holding a fireball, which is why the lighting is weird)

Fail rendering brought to you by Blogger. I assure you, it looks much better than that XD

But that's it for now! I'm working hard, if I could just get that armor right. *pout*

I'm breaking all my rules now

Maybe it's cause I feel guilty about not updating the blog like I should. Maybe it's cause I'm lonely and typing makes me feel like I'm communicating. Maybe I just want to show off.

Whatever the reason, I'm doing something I've never done before. I'm giving a preview of my work! That's right, an early-development sneak peek of what I'm working on. Oh, and if my words are mixed up, it's because I'm tired; in the last sentence alone, I originally typed "peak" instead of "peek" and "looking" instead of "working." If anything sneaks through, just ignore it.

PS Not just one preview, either. I'll continue to post new bits of it whenever I work on it.

Anyway, this painting is a very special landscape. For years, I've always said that I wished I could paint so I could paint the inside of my mind. The Fifth Plane, or creative plane, of my mind, to be exact. I want to use art to create a window so other people can share in my madness :D

My goal is to finish it by my 21st b-day in January so I can get it printed on a big canvas and hung in my room.

Without further ado, here is the first element of the painting which took me all afternoon:

Click for full!

It's a tree. And it's watermarked so don't even try to steal it >:O

It's still unfinished, but I'm happy with it for now. I need to add more leaves and leaf layers so it won't look so sparse, but that's all easy stuff. The main thing was the trunk. I tend to make them a bit too smooth, so I spent awhile applying textures.

At first, I tried to make it too difficult by using hard/soft/linear light like all the tutorials said, but in the end, my Adonihs 400 pt Shattered brush at 60-ish% opacity with a Gaussian blur 3 pt filter worked just as well. That makes me sound smart doesn't it? Well, don't get your hopes up. I haven't heard what the pros have to say yet.

The tree was based off a stock photo I found while searching for "ancient English oak" or something like that, but it's not a carbon copy. I like how it's a little lopsided.

I'll probably add two or three small jack-o-lantern lights in the branches, but I don't want it to look too much like a Halloween picture.

So that's it for now! Hopefully, I'll keep plowing forward with this because I'm actually having fun :D

I'm the worst blogger ever.

More like the worst artist ever XD

That portrait commission still has me bummed. I hate failing. So I haven't been working on anything remotely art related in a long time. I spent all the time I normally spend on painting on over 240 hours of Oblivion. <-- That is epic nolifesville, that is. I have also become re-addicted to Bleach now that the promise of FINALLY getting to the last battle is on the horizon. Although I will hate to see it end, knowing Kubo-sensei, it will be another two years before the battle is finished XD Normally, I would hate to admit all that, but it was my nerdy happiness that made me brush the dust off my tablet and draw a comic strip.

Painting is a no-go. I feel like I've hit a wall. I'm not really seeing anymore improvement and that's slowing me down. Where before, every piece was leaps and bounds greater than the last, I just don't see that anymore. Not to mention, I've been trying to improve my speed a little. Bah...

Planning to go aaaaall the way back to my hometown this fall to go to the Renaissance Festival with my dear friend that I knew since I was five (or four, don't remember lol), but lost contact with in high school. I love the Ren Fest XD

And that's it! Aren't you glad I took the time to write about nothing???