dragon age

i dont do much fan art. generally i dislike it because i feel uncreative. i'm struggling to find the motivation to finnish my roselina picture due to this. blah i really should finnish it.

anyway i ended up drawing dragon age fan art... i actually have another piece started. quite a big project in the form of a fan comic... 4 chapters of it written so far one page drawn... needs text addig though and 15 pages planned outy so far... what i'm a big fan. besides it doesnt hurt to draw other peopes creations for practiceing fitting your drawings around a fixed brief.... thats my excuse and i'm sticking to it.

oh and i have 2 post cards sketched out ready for tweeking and inking

anyway so here we are my warden Neria and Alistair.

Alistair: "Maker's Breath! What are these darkspawn doing ahead of the rest of the horde? There wasn't supposed to be any resistance here!"

Neria (Warden): "You could try telling them they're in the wrong place."

don't know if i mentioned but i'm doing some art course at the moment. the illustration ones sadly got cancelled but i'm enjoying the portrait and oil painting ones... i like oil paints a lot which is surprising. still cant stand acrylic though...and i love watercolours been doing watercolour portraits and there so fun and relaxing. maybe more watercolour in the future for you. i'll have to scan all my work for this course and show you guys. will probably do that at the end though ^^.

grant us one more hour to perform our art and perfect our lives.

people may take my title to be a negitive thing accosiated with death, but i dont mean it that way sometimes when i paint i kinda go through this feeling of give me just 1 more hour and then i'll stop, it often feels like i never have enough time, especially with the multiple projects i have running at once.

i finished 1 of my 4 digital pics that i have on the go... i am very pleased with myself. i especially love the accordian, really glad i decided to colour this sketch :D

i'm hoping to dedicate 1 day a week to drawing from life, i need to get myself organised but its needed. i want to manage my time better. i'm going to plan everything on one of the free calenders my boyfriend got from work. only art related things are going on there. also i'm applying for a couple of illustration courses one is in children's illustration the other is fantasy illustration. i'm also considering taking a portrait drawing and painting class to to improve my drawing of faces. need to get moving and apply, but at least i've found some courses to take right :D theres a few that i was interested in but have been and gone hopefully they'll do them again next school year

winters lullaby is going to be the first picture for a calender, with my spring awakening, and my autumn gathering idea, its feeling pretty appropriate for a calender. i'm also going to start selling prints of my work soon, mainly because the imagine fx forumites club wants to do a catologue of everyone's prints and update it every month and advertise them, and been a sucker for group participation i'm defiantly considering it.

anyway time to sleep, happy drawing/writing/whatever you guys do

haggis

shadowscapes and using purple as a skin tone.

i'm going to talk about another awesome artist i recently descoved. i was at this shop called sacred space gifts buying a couple of oracle packs (which the artwork was lovely) and the owners who i have talked to before and are very friendly mentioned a Stephanie Pui-Min Law which she was waiting to buy her tarot deck as its not for sale but she had recently bought a book of hers. she even kindly wrote her name down for me so i could look her up. i'm glad i did.

her watercolours are beautiful. I've even already learned of a new technique to try out (throwing rubbing alcohol onto the page) obviously i have been useing watercolour for some time now, since i was 13 i belive and love water colour works by john howe and alen lee. it was nice to finally find another artist who works with watercolour i like.

cycles: moonbathing

i love the purple she uses, i went on the site she linked and by the sounds of it i can buy my own pigment and make my own paint, which is an interesting thought. i don't know if i have the space to make my own paint yet though.

Autumn foxfire

I'm concidering ordering her tarot major acanea book with the picture drawn inside (each pictures an origanal sketch. as it would be lovely to own. and i'm definatly buying her tarot set, even though i havent read tarot cards in a long time. the art work is very pretty. heres a preview of the books inside http://www.shadowscapes.com/details.php?lineid=21&bid=555

you can see more of her work here http://www.shadowscapes.com/ and her blog herehttp://shadowscapes-stephanielaw.blogspot.com/

on other note i have started colouring my winters lullaby picture. this is one huge eperiment for me as i'm using purple for the skin shadows. hopefully this once finished will give a night time feel to the picture. the photo has some what lost alot of the texture in her fur, hopefully when i scan it it will look better. though i might have to get a new scanner if i cant get the drivers working on the new pc.

and a sneaky peek at the videos i have been recording this one is of skin, and inst completed properly yet. it will need cleaning up that sought of thing, hence why its a sneaky peak.

so stay tuned for more videos on this piece though might take a week or so to finish recording and then theres the actual edit. but still i hope to get it up in the next couple of weeks :) gotta spring one forming in my head too, hopefully i can draw all the seasons or even do 12 related to each other and print my own calender to sell. we shall see.

makes you want to paint

man i have been busy with my next picture. its another traditional piece. i really need to get back to those digital pics but i cant resist my traditioanal mediums calling, there way to fun. i like digital too but i think i like traditional more, proberbly because i feel like i actually know what i'm doing with my traditional works. anyway it already has a title and is called winters lullaby heres a sneaky peak of one of the charecters in sketch form.

thats right fauns playing music theres 3 of them in total one singing, one playing the harp and one playing some weired double flute. hopefully its gonna be awsome. i'm recording it and making video tutorials for it. i think i should recorded it all first then edit it. i have edited most of the sketch to line art video together but so far i am not happy with it so its gonna need a re think. so i have decided to film all the colouring process then edit the thing together (in 10 min sections for youtube etc. of course... man i hate time limits so much sometimes. maybe i should use vimeo? i donno more poeople likely to see it on you tube.

next i'm going to talk about an artist i find inspirational called Michael Shapcott i clicked on his work because he was linking a video in his comments and me been me cant resist videos of art. and omg this was amazing. i have never wanted to paint so much in my life watching him paint made me want to paint. and i'm really looking forward to his next video.

this was the fist video i watched

this is the final piece. its called Onawa.

i found it interesting that he uses a rag to wipe some of the paint off, he also in some of his pictures lets the paint run which creates an interesting look. i used this technique on my sanctuary picture for the ice and it worked really well. it was really messy but fun. i may play around with that technique again :D

for more of his art workhttp://michaelshapcott.deviantart.com/ and his videos http://www.youtube.com/user/redlung.

anyway its late and i have work in the morning.

happy drawing/writing/whatever you guys do.

haggis

the endless in between

hello again. two posts from me today how rare. i have another one in my head that i want to write about as well about an artist that i recently discovered and like, especially his painting videos. i find him very inspirational. i should right more about artists i like. its a good way to discuss influences and Art in general, its good to look at other peoples work and not get wrapped up in your own.

but more of that next time. i finished a piece today, added the highlights. i am very pleased with myself. I'm hoping to work on my organization more though. i did however work on this everyday till it was done, even though i did mess around on the Internet for to long at times. i need to work on my self control and my time planning.

this piece was created using drawing pens, alcohol based markers, watercolour paint, acrylic and white in on Bristol board. its title is sanctuary:- the endless in between. well it is for the moment. I'm not 100% on the title. i would like to become better at titling my pieces. shame I'm not good with my words :/ i have talked about this piece in other journals and will do my best not to repeat myself. i thought it would be nice to have all the process pictures in one place.

this piece has been quite trouble some. i messed up on the colouring of the first line art (can be seen here http://wildhaggisis.blogspot.com/2009/09/one-of-3-pieces-im-currently-working-on.html) and started again, didn't like the second one so i started again (as mentioned in this blog http://wildhaggisis.blogspot.com/2010/01/how-to-be-illustrator-and-late-new.html) so this is the third attempt. than there was the fact my masking fluid peeled all the marker work i did on the chains D:<

no just line art to show you guys, so strieght to the marker work, everything here except the chains is at the stage you'll see in the finnished picture.

i finished the marker work on the chain. and masked it off. i decided to go for purple based storm clouds because it was unnatural. i wanted it to be a glimpse into her psyche, the storm clouds being the tension that's been building up from the outside world and unnatural clouds seemed to be appropriate. i added Payne's grey (which i'm running out of), rose madder and Prussian blue to the mix to add volume. to the clouds splattering it onto the background at times. i then took my white ink and added the highlights to the clouds, washing it out to blend the colours better with the background.

here i took the masking fluid off which removed the chain work with it :( i went over the chains with white acrylic to define where the chains where so i could paint them easier later. next came the ice. i tried a new painting technique here. i made the paint exceptionally watery and painted it on an upright easel. most watercolourists paint there work flat due to the nature of watercolour. this technique however requires the surface to be tilted. i applied the watercolour in thin layers of blues an purples, i also added really watery acrylic to it which created an interesting look. as you paint you take a cloth and wipe some of the paint off, and keep repeating this process again and again till a number of light washes have been layered over the top of each other.

this technique lost a lot of the original line work, so i went in defined where the bottom layer of spikes where added shadows where they where i wanted parts to be darker and then started my drizzling technique again. i then when though the painting and added bright white highlights using acrylic paint straight from the tube as i wanted the texture of it at that point. here's a close up of the ice been worked on.


next i pained all the chain work. i mixed black and White with silver paint to create various shades of a metallic grey colour. after i applied it it was to metallic and reflected a lot of light and looked out of place. so i went through the painting with watered down white acrylic over the chains and wiped it off with a cloth so that enough paint was left behind to not affect the colours but to take away the shine. next time i think i will mix my greys instead of relaying on silver paint. once the painting was dry i removed the masking tape leaving a nice white outline around the picture.

so that's some of the process i went though with this picture. I'm hoping to update again tomorrow with an update about those inspirational vids i talked about. they really made me want to paint. but its getting late here so i should stop writing now.

happy drawing/writing/ whatever you guys do

haggis

Practise what you know, and it will help to make clear what now you do not know.

i'm uploading some more of my sketches, well the last of them i should say, i am finally up to date. well i probably wont be for long. i first wanted to share my practice line drawings. i often sit down and just draw lines and shapes, its often not very interesting but i find its important for drawing. it makes a good warm up exercise, i find especially when i draw digitally i draw tons of lines and shapes before erasing everything and starting my sketches. i did save a couple of the digital ones (the first 2) drawing a straight line most people see as not important as they can whip out a ruler and ta daa a straight line however i find if you can draw a pretty straight line with confidence and without a ruler you can pretty much ink absolutely anything. i wasn't aloud to use a ruler in my product design class except for creating final designs... even in tests and the exam we didn't use them for quick designs and only when instructed. i guess from that class (and the fact my ruler was the most lost item of my pencil case) i never really used them since then. i will occasionally if i need a really straight line such as a boarder but other then that it stays in the back of my art draw.

okay more sketches now. the first is titled scary eyes, because well like my sister said she has scary eyes

now we have some weird helmet. i don't have a clue what was going through my mind when i scribbled it XD

a dude smoking. smoking kills kids, don't do it. i don't smoke by the way just thought the pose suited smoking...

a girl with a... i think it could either be a cocktail drink or a stuffed rabbit... i cant remember what it was, i'll let you guys come to your own decisions

woo a bin lid for a hat, i was thinking how fox girls etc. go about hiding there ears, it was at the time i started creating my masquerade character and at that time she isn't hiding her ears or face, while everyone else wheres a mask, and i was thinking how would she normally hide her ears? big hat like this works, though it could do with some hanging fabric and decoration.

yey sweetles and pretztails... i don't know what the otter type thing is but i was watching my boyfriend play viva pinata trouble in paradise as i was drawing. i love the paper texture and think rare are an awesome company :)

a person with glasses, i quite like her hairstyle. i also realise i need to do more really curly characters as i either draw straight or wavy haired people

very rare fan art. this is Marta and Emil from tales of symphonia dawn of the new world. i like this game, it was fun and i enjoyed it, it was a nice sequel, though why you couldn't play as anyone else other then Marta and Emil as player one i don't know. but Emil is really floaty which is fun so that wasn't to much of a problem. gotta play through it again and get the other endings still and go through the extra dungeon that unlocks after you complete your first play through.

really bad marker colouring practice, at the time i just didn't have enough markers, i have a lot more now but still filling in the gaps in my collection.

the dragon and the wolf. i plan of taking these pictures somewhere though i currently prefer the second picture for this. i like the wolfs sad face. think it would be awesome to show the cocky dragon and the lonely wolf in a dance of some sought. we shall see what comes of it.

i drew this on the bus i believe i had been reading about Japanese mythology at the time. though her design isn't very Japanese.

hyugoman chibi, he needs bigger boots. bigger boots are vital. my chibi's usually have tiny feet though.

and last but not least a actual charcoal drawing. stock image taken from comic artists photo reference: Women and girls by Buddy Scalera. charcoal is one of my weaker mediums so its not as good as some of my figure drawing from reference it was fun non the least.

so thats all my sketches from my sketch books. lets hope this years sketch book is even better :)

happy drawing/writing/whatever you guys do

"Believe it or not, I can actually draw."

this quote i thought very fitting title. i always feel very awkward sharing my sketch from my sketch book. my digital sketches are a lot more refined, probably because i want to practice drawing line art on the PC. my sister commented the other week when looking through my sketch book "its hard to believe that your ideas and sketches for a final piece start off looking like that," as flipped through my other sketch book (I'll update its drawings another day.) Believe it or not, i can actually draw defiantly sums it up. my sketch book doesn't show off my abilities much, probably because i rarely (there is a few cases here) spend more then 5 min's sketching a picture in it. and see it more as a gesture process quick character design, even ideas occasionally.

these are all gesture drawing. i tend to draw from photo reference books but don't get bogged down in details. i do this by setting a time limit on the drawing so that i concentrate more on the pose and gesture then every little detail, i don't like pencil much hence why there drawn in pencil crayon or pen most of the time.

these are drawn from Comic Artist's Photo Reference: Women and Girls by Buddy Scalera

Comic Artist's Reference: People and Poses by Buddy Scalera, origin spirits of the past anime DVD cover, some woman which was talking on the phone in Starbucks and someone leaning on a wall across the street (waiting for shops to open is a good time to sit and have a cup of chocolate or tea and draw.)

these are ideas for possible characters, i was practicing character design for a few of them, there's an unfinished dragon, a fat super saiyan (my boyfriends words) , an old man, a girl holding a paper hot air balloon, a guy with steam pun goggles, and a girl who's hair style changes from picture to picture who also wears goggles and usually a hat.

i don't use a rubber so a lot of the original sketch lines are left from the initial sketch

and i'm ending on a 1 mint doodle which i did on the last page of my sketch book. happy drawing/writing/whatever you guys do