Winter in progress

This is a small section of a much larger illustration that I'm drawing at the moment. One of several versions of the rough layout is posted below. Seemed appropriate that this week's Illustration Friday topic was also "Winter" since that is the theme of this illustration as well. I intend to have a majority of the detailed pencil completed by this evening. This will be finished as a watercolor project rather than digital. :)

Illustration Friday: Star Gazing

A quick concept developed for this week's IF topic "Star Gazing." Inspired by memories of summertime star gazing dreams. :)

Original sketch posted below; final art above was completed in Photoshop.

Illustration Friday: "Muddy"

This week's IF topic is "Muddy" from the following quote:
Muddy water, let stand, becomes clear. ~ Lao-tzu

Original sketch is below. The color version above was completed in Photoshop 7. A muddy topic with muddy colors. :)

IF: Hollow

I'd hoped to color the above sketch that I did for this week's IF "Hollow", but unfortunately work has kept me too busy to do that. However, I plan on getting back to it as soon as I have some free time again. :)

Illustration Friday: Climbing

This past week's Illustration Friday word was "climbing".

At first I thought about sketching one of the many kinds of climbing that I've done when I was a kid (mostly trees). But likely because I did some concepts based on McCaffrey's Pern last month, I was inspired to do a quick illustration of Menolly (from the book Dragonsong) climbing up the cliffs in order to rescue the fire lizard clutch from the sudden high tides covering the small beach below.

And here's the original sketch I did before coloring in Photoshop 7:
(sketching - about 1/2 hr.; painting - 1 hr)

Illustration Friday: Canned

Initial sketch for the latest Illustration Friday project, "Canned".

Illustration Friday: Wide

Possibly not the most comfortable way to travel far and wide, but certainly would be one of the most interesting -- held securely in the massive claws of a flying dragon. Above is the color concept, and just below is the final pencil.

The initial sketch is posted at the bottom. I had a bit of trouble figuring out how the right wing should be properly drawn when I started sketching, so I did a smaller thumbnail to help me. In any case, I think what I ended up with works fine. If (or when) I do a more finished version, though, I think I'll do a quick sculpey of the dragon first so I can see how the wings should be positioned. All in all about four hours total of creative fun!