10: More Summer Meandering

I decided I needed to work on environments-- with Pokemon! Makes sense, amiright? Here's some progress shots. Corel Painter.

I went through my art supplies the other day and stuck a bunch into a 'test drive this or it goes' pile. They didn't perform too badly! This is another half-angel. I don't know if he's actually yellow or if it's just artistic license. White ink, russet ink, yellow brush pen, and gold ink.

An experiment with inking in the form of a comic panel. I've never even touched sequential art, so vague stuff like this might become more commonplace. India ink.

This is what happens when I should be doing other things like cleaning my carpet, repainting a desk, and detail cleaning the living room. Aardvarks are pretty much my favorite animal ever. Corel Painter and Photoshop pretty equally for this one.

9: Playing Around

I've had more time to experiment with little things lately.

Firstly, a few more icon commissions from Internet-land.

My dog slept for a few minutes!

I hope to do more with designs like this in the future; these were far too fun! India ink and nib linework, colored in Corel Painter.

Go right ahead and ignore those hands and arms, I won't blame ya. This was drawn in Paint Tool SAI, which is an interesting program that seems like a Painter/Photoshop baby. I'll probably stick to both of the other programs, but it's always refreshing to try something like this. Pictured is an Insuti (a human-like race of mine) hoisting a flag. My superior illustration skills give all sorts of reasons why. :]

A tiny experiment which turned out quite nicely for having no direction. I'll have to try this type of thing again...the look is very inspired by old illustrators such as Artuš Scheiner and Edmund Dulac.

8: Scribbly Backlog

Why the hell NOT post this today? This is non-Artslam stuff I've completed in the past month or so.

I was drawing a guy's coat and he moved. The usual thing happened to people who move: He became a giraffe.

I'm exceedingly fond of this lined paper guy I sketched right before going to bed one day. Perhaps I'll paint him soon.

A half-angel, half-man concept. I think he glows and stalks around rolling hills at night, staring at intruders unblinking until they lose their minds.

Last month's ACEO trade. I used mostly india ink and watercolor here, and no white gel pen. Gotta stop relying on those so much! But oh man, I need some masking fluid.

Some icons for people.

I was livestreaming and my audience suggested a giant anteater. Who could refuse? Here's a WIP, as I had to quit streaming mid-way. I tried a new coloring process...might try it again sometime. Corel Painter 10

Had the good fortune to visit the Animal Kingdom in Florida during a family vacation. I honest-to-God wish that the place was a full-out ZOO, but then no one would go and they'd close due to lack of funding. Pity, because it's a fantastic place for the animals and has a great climate for the more tropical species. It was hot and I was sweating everywhere/dropping my pen constantly, so this is all you're gonna get. xD That hippo was darling!

All righty. Gotta go to work and then a friend and I are going to the Nelson Atkin Museum of Art! Hot diggity for free admission. 8]

7: Artslam

HI, BLOG, I FORGOT ABOUT YOU. Summer has been both amazingly lackluster and exceedingly busy at the same time, probably due to my horrid time management. I participated in an art challenge over on Livejournal called "Artslam", in which you choose a topic and draw at least one sketch related to it every day for one, two, or three months. A few days back, I finished up the first month, but I've decided not to continue due to the lack of time I had for other projects!

That being said, here's a link to my Artslam album on Flickr for easy viewing of the whole project: http://www.flickr.com/photos/38971743@N05/sets/72157624193002228/ I'll stick a few of my favorites below.

My focus for the month was on my badly named Bongo people. My creativity knows no bounds, I know. They originated in 2006, when I was unabashedly obsessed with South American cultures and smashed them all together...with an African antelope. Fourteen year olds make SENSE! During the challenge I tried to move them away from being South American mash-ups, but didn't get very far in the end. :/ There's always the future!

A guy wrangles a young, wild male Korino. The Korino are huge dino-vultures which the bongofolk use as mounts and for draft work. The male here is tiny; females, pictured below, could kick everyones' asses if they weren't so submissive due to domestication. Female wild Korino are feared by pretty much everyone in bongoland. Corel Painter 10
Here are two domesticated female Korino varieties next to a bongo man and woman for scale. The skinny one in front is for speed messaging and recreational racing while the powerful bird in the back is bred for mountain draft work. Their stance here is awkward; they usually only 'stand' as such for running or pulling. All fours is preferred for grazing or walking. Corel Painter 10

For part of the week, I used reference images of trees from the Olympic National Park to create environments for my bongos. Scale was completely ignored, as this bongo would be about a foot tall if those trees were the right size. ;) Corel Painter 10

The anatomy is hilarious, but coloring these two was a blast. Corel Painter 10.

My final entry for the month. I was feeling very, very down when I sketched this, thus the lackluster expression and composition, but it was nice to challenge myself; I used only watercolors, and not my usual watercolor and gel pen embellishments.

An early sketch drawn with india ink (my new love) and colored with watercolors, gel pen, and marker. This ink is so exciting, you guys!

I'll post some non-artslam, ridiculously scribbly junk in a few days. Hopefully my productivity will pick back up!