New Paintings for the New Year

Trolloc (mostly...) from Robert Jordan's "Eye of the World" series and a face practice. New Years resolution: paint MORE. also better.

Phoenix Handler

my new digital painting with my new Monoprice (Lapazz) tablet. LOVE IT

New Paintings

WIP Updated Perspective!

REDID THE PIECE ENTIRELY! I had to shift the vanishing points a little more further away... And, well, other stuff.

Perspective Update

(don't worry, I'll definitely change the fake Russian... I know what the first word is but "made up" the second...hope it's not something bad. XP)

Perspective WIP

SKETCH DUMP AGAIN

just a few sketches from my current sketchbook (I hope I haven't doubled up on these). oh, and I aced my midterm. Boosh. I can't quite figure out the full zoom in blogspot, so use this link or at my deviantart: here or at my deviantart here

Half Dragon

little bit of Pathfinder to decompress after my midterm

One Point Perspective Hangar

One point perspective homework from my online CGMA (or is it CGMW?) class. My teacher's advice for the finished one involved taking out a couple of elements, making the "blocky" forms a bit more complex and broken up, and adding a few dings (since it IS and airship hangar..). If I have time I really want to put those changes in :) I am just trying my hardest not to rip out my hair with a midterm I have tomorrow...... UGH why must UCLA continue to..well...be there. Just 3 more weeks and just 2 more quarters... so close...

Magician + Other

Castle Lightning

If you're wondering why I haven't posted pretty much anything, my computer has been in repair because the backlight and other junk broke. BUT NOW IT'S ALL BETTER!!! So to celebrate, here's me practicing something a little different.



and some messing around with figures

Mermaid and a 'Borg

So, turns out one of my essays was pushed back a week. To celebrate, I drew this:



this was a gift to my friend who requested it :)

Amethyst

So it's my sister's birthday today, and her being a February birthday made me think of her birthstone, amethyst. The fish is completely unrelated to her birthday.

I haven't painted in a while and I've really really really been dying to, so in this brief eye of the storm with my ok. About 2.5 hours in photoshop (probably woulda been less if my computer weren't so glitchy right now XP)

I know I need serious work on my values and stuff T___T
critique appreciated!

(it's supposed to be a fantastical serpent in a fish bowl on a dude's desk)

enjoy!

on another note, as awesome as erasable gel pens are, beware placing them near anything hot. I now have a blank spot in the middle of about 10 pages because something hot was set on my sketchbook. It's in the freezer now recouping. At least it's only sketches, BUT STILL >.<

FEBRUARY?!

Happy V-day, y'all! Well I know I've been crap about updating (it basically comes down to an unwillingness to take photos, edit them, and upload them XP) so here's a giant sketchdump and a sketch I drew for my boyfriend. I have been drawing a lot, though (No, Mom, it's not distracting from my homework :P ), but last week I didn't draw, well, pretty much at all because I had a theory paper, poetry paper (sounds oddly redundant) and a Russian midterm. So far, I only know that I aced my Russian midterm. YES. As for the essays, crap who knows. ANYWAYS not like you want to hear about my UCLA junk so here's some art!!!

I usually don't draw cartoony, but I wanted to draw this in the style of Adventure Time because it's my boyfriend's favorite show. Under my arm is (one of) my sketchbook, and he's holding onto his Pathfinder Core Rulebook book. (He's the one who usually suggests I draw high fantasy stuff because of that XD)

Dragon Skull In Progress

Making a dragon skull in progress! I'm using this instructable to make it http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-a-Drgon-Skull/

I want to turn it into a mask my roomie can wear for our English project, and then I'll likely steal it back for Ren faire.

Pathfinder Paladin

I'll probably be playing Pathfinder on Saturday and trying out playing a paladin for the first time. My boyfriend wanted me to draw my character, so here's what I came up with after around 2 hours in photoshop. Enjoy!

I promised sketches...

So here are most of my sketches from today and yesterday, touched up in photoshop. I used ballpoint pens for all of them (the photoshopping may make them look like pencil but it's all red and black pens). Come check it out AT MY NEW TUMBLR!

I really should be doing more of my homework now, so goodnight.

Mage update

UPDATED AND AWESOME! If I may say so myself, I'm so stoked at my improvement lately. Go me!

PS- I also made a tumblr the other day! Come find me there and check it out!
slkestrel.tumblr.com

Mage in progress

had no idea what I was painting when I started and so far it's turned into this! Actually pretty excited about how it's turned out so far, especially the anatomy and lighting on the guy. I want more contrast and values, though, so I'm thinking about making the sky much darker, maybe with some red tones, but I don't want to mess up the lighting I already set up on the guy or make it too dark. We'll see!

Monster thing Painted

just more practice for tonight :)

Older-Pierce Portrait Practice

haha...alliteration..

I realize that the skull/anatomy totally isn't correct. I just wanted to keep drawing and messing with flesh tones :) Though, now this one turned out LIGHTER than I wanted XP

Better Zan

Hi there! I'm in the 2nd week of Winter Quarter and not having all that much time to practice drawing amongst the homework for 20 units, but I still am finding time where ever I can! I'll try to post some sketches soon as well. Until then, here's a drawing I just did while looking into the Digital Painting Techniques vol 2 book. I really should practice this stuff more...especially color and light @__@ anyway, here's my first attempt at...well, something

Honu

Here's the honu or sea turtle I painted with watercolors and guache for my grandma last Christmas. By last, I mean the Christmas of 2011. Almost feels so long ago!

Enjoy :) First time working in traditional paint for a few years @__@

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Hey y'all! Ok so I know I keep saying that I'll post more stuff, and it's not that I'm not drawing (though I did have an awful block recently) but I just keep forgetting to actually scan or photograph the sketches XP A lot of em are just sketches, a little bit of Bridgeman work, etc.

First of all, this super cool thing happened: Someone actually got a tattoo of one of my element symbols from my story! While a lot of people have asked me if they could use my symbols for their tattoos, this was the first person who actually followed up like I asked and showed me the final product!!! She used the air symbol over the Gemini sign. I'm a huge fan of proper astrology philosophy so I love the mix she created. Turned out cool too!



K next this is the first really awesome thing I've drawn for the new year! :D I'm thinking I'll let it sit for at least a day before I ink it, and then maybe digi paint it. Sorry about the crappy photo of it @__@ bigger view here

Rosy Quartz and Jade

Trying more still life and realism. I'm gonna aim for one a day, though I think this one took me 2 hours today... so I don't know if they'll all look this good depending on how much time I have.

Zan WIP

Progress shot of the head of Zan. It's going to be a full body drawing once I'm done, but holy crap spending so much time on trying out new things and details...

Showing my work...

Just posting a progress shot of my latest Damien piece. If you can't zoom enough, just check the image at the link here

Random Practice

random practice and stuff. Trying to do still life and then do some hard surface stuff. GEEZ it's been a while since I painted something right in front of me XD TOMATO.

Damien WIP Progress

Still avoiding that last burst of studying for the night until I became remotely satisfied with this one... here's my update, hope you like it, enjoy!

after finals, I will definitely look into the secret to painting waves... Hm...

Damien WIP

I'm smack dab in the middle of finals right now with my brain oozing out of my ears, so stylus hit tablet and my sanity was regained. This idea came while listening to Davy Jones by Hans Zimmer super fun. I think it looks pretty cool so far for being a work in progress, and probably once more bit off more than I can chew with the water. But I'm still trying new things, trying to find a style for sure that works for me and that can grow to better realism as I learn.

With this one, I think I need to step back now at the point I'm at. I want to put in some darker values so Damien stands out more, and I'm really going to have to find some good reference pics so I can get the edge of that water looking moderately realistic!

Critiques desired!

Digi Practice: Pierce

Just needed to unwind a bit today so here's a quick piece of Pierce, the pyrolk

NANOWRIMO CHALLENGE: COMPLETED

OOFTA. WOWZA. SKADOOSH. Today is the last day of November, and I have just completed the National Novel Writing Month (NANOWRIMO) 50,000 words in a month challenge, ending at 50,159 words! I've been writing that mysterious story I keep talking about. I had optimistically and unrealistically hoped that 50000 words would cover the entire first draft of Book 1, but unfortunately it's about half, if not less. So I still have a LONGGG way to go before I even finish the crappy rough first draft. UGH. Oh well I'm still super proud of myself, because I conquered a lot of hurdles I normally experience about writing, like judging it and overthinking what to write. This challenge made me just sit down and pound it out, and though sometimes it was like pounding out teeth, other times I stumbled onto great ideas for new scenes and character developments. GO ME. I'm thinking about taking a break from writing, though. I feel like I've suffocated the project from obligation as well as enthusiasm, so I'll give it a breather. It'd be a good time for me to get back to drawing and reading like a normal person. Well, I say normal...

Anyway! Thanks to anyone who encouraged me to bang this out! I'll probably do my own nanowrimo in another month to bang out the rest of the first book. THIS THING NEEDS TO COME OUT ALREADY. However, I'm in no hurry to pass it around for advice/critique yet. I don't think I'm ready to pounce on the editing phase. But whatever. All I'm trying to say is I'm awesome and I completed the NANOWRIMO challenge!

(congrats to anyone out there who also did, or completed the no-shave november challenge. Way to go)

Damien and Pierce WIP update

Just an update on this practice piece. As usual, any advice is welcome.

Pierce and Damien WIP

Digital WIP practicing some good ol photoshop. Scene from my story with Damien and Pierce. Damien's holding water daggers and Pierce has sort of fire in his fist. I'll be trying to make that more clear :) Background will come later, too.
....Can anyone help me draw hair?

Two Posts in One Day? Surely Not...

BUT IT'S TRUE. 'Cause I hit a hardcore drawing mood! So here's one of my friends by request as a waterbender. Sketched, then totally edited/drawn in photoshop :) I forgot how smooth a wacom stylus on a proper tablet is!

NOVEMBER!?

Ok, so most of October (meaning, all of it) was spent working on my bomb-diggity costume, a Pathfinder barbarian. It's not to the level of completion that I want it to be, but it still turned out pretty cool. The armor, most of all, was amazing.. I'll post pics of my boyfriend's and my armor here, too, just so you can see what I was doing instead of drawing @__@


AAAAAAND now it's NOVEMBER!!! So instead of costuming, I should have all the time in the world now right? HAHAWRONG, because November is NANOWRIMO, NAtional NOvel WRIting MOnth!!! Remember that story I keep mentioning? Yeah, well it's time to get my butt in gear and whip out that first draft (though not out of my butt.. hopefully). I'm definitely trying to balance writing, drawing, school, and relationships, but bear with me I promise I'll post more artistic progress. Still uncomfortable about posting my writing though in the off-chance/likeliness that it'll get stolen. Anywho! Here's some of what I've done lately :)








MY ARMOR, in progress


MY ARMOR, done!

JUSTIN'S ARMOR (top, front)

JUSTIN'S ARMOR (top, back)

JUSTIN'S ARMOR, everything else