A Dragon Portrait: Artegal

Took a short break today from the projects and did a quick portrait of Artegal the dragon as inspired from Carrie Vaughn's recent YA book, Voices of Dragons. As always, color above and the original sketch below. :)


Here's the initial sketch on one of my 9x12 Strathmore Drawing Pad 400 series with my favorite blue pencil (before Photoshop clean-up).

SCBWI-AR Conference

I'll be attending a regional Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators Spring conference this weekend -- Yay!

Mutation Nation: Zebrupine or "Spiny Ass"

I participated in my second ArtOrder Challenge by creating a quick concept for the topic "Mutation Nation" Path 1 (Gene Splicing). Above is the color final, below is the original sketch.

Sneak Peek: Painting in Progress

I know it will take me about another week and quite possibly longer to finalize this particular digital painting, ("The Mountain") since I'm working on a couple of other personal projects and the book projects and wrapping up a product design project as well (not to mention those pesky taxes) -- so I've posted a sneak peek detail up above.

I'm just about ready to post this painting in the small fantasy illustrator group I belong to so that I can get some constructive feedback and recommendations on lighting and composition. "Kelpie's Rider" is getting a major overall with the composition so that's on a brief painting hiatus while I revise the underdrawing for that, but I will continue painting on "The Mountain" and "Gorgon's Daughter" in addition to developing my book projects....

My SCBWI regional conference is at the end of next month -- whee! :)

Gorgon's Daughter: painting progress

Did more work on this illustration yesterday, the one I've been calling "Gorgon's Daughter". Still in the middle of revising the left arm (especially the hand), finishing the skirt and further developing the background. Much more fine-tuning to go before I call this one final!

Kelpie's Rider: color progress

Another update on this particular illustration. Added mermaids, but then took them away again to rethink their addition to the composition. Working on other things at the moment, but should have some more time with this over the next few days.

Kelpie's Rider: progress

Here is one of several new personal works I'm developing this year, as a way to improve my digital painting skills outside of my usual cute and cheery children's book illustrations and product concept art projects; and as a way to have some new fantasy art and/or urban fairy tale illustrations.

I started working last week on this illustration I'm calling "Kelpie's Rider" from a quick drawing I did back in 2007 and originally posted about here. This is the near final under drawing I'll be painting over. Decided last night, after some consideration and recalling the story that inspired this concept in the first place, to add in a few of the mermaids and some other underwater elements, but in a somewhat subliminal fashion. I want the viewer's attention to be mostly directed to the Kelpie and his rider.

A Happy Chameleon

Been keeping busy -- yay!

In the meantime, here is another "before and after" illustration I did. The concept drawing was originally scanned from my sketchbook and shown in an earlier blog post here.

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. :)

Winter Projects

Here is one of several illustrations that I am working on at the moment. This one happens to be a WIP of a new fantasy digital painting based on a rough sketch and color concept I had done last year.

Other February winter projects currently in progress from my "to-be-completed" list include:
- a new picture book which I'm sending out at the end of February as part of my agent review package (writing/illustrating). At the top of my goals list this year is to start a partnership with an art rep for children's book publication...
- I also have an ongoing comic book experiment (pencils, ink, color) which is in the draft stages.
- two fantasy-related illustrations -- one with a rather testy wyvern, and one urban fairy tale with hints of Baba Yaga.

And as always there are various digital and traditional illustrations and paintings either personal or client related that I'll be scheduling here and there.

But let's not forget the online portfolio updates... :)

Happy Halloween 2009!

Busy, busy, busy! Still keeping my head to the drawing board -- for the most part wrapping up client projects, but that doesn't mean I'm also not working to get further along on my own various story projects and the portfolio updates (yay!).

To celebrate the day, I posted a quick Halloween concept -- as always, initial sketch is below and the color version at the top. Have a hauntingly happy All Hallow's Eve! :)

Dragon in the Rough

More character sketchings. The little group below is maybe a Selkie trying to protect a trio of water nymphs...or maybe they're mermaids; I haven't decided yet. Need to fix the Selkie tail; I haven't drawn a seal in a long while (hmm...not since high school I think) and didn't have a reference when I was sketching these, obviously -- ha. And another dragon attempt. Just keeping busy between other things for work.

More Sketchings: Fearful Fairies

Here are a couple of characters from "Some of My Favorite Things": Fairies and Fairy Tales. The rough sketches are part of an illustration that I've been working on for the past week, in-between other things (as usual). However, there's a Monday deadline for this particular little project so I'll be posting more stuff from this...eventually. :)

Quirky Chameleon

A different kind of character sketch, one from a series that I'm developing. I'll post the color version once I've had a chance to finish it. I seem to be surprisingly busy this week. Probably a good thing. :)

Tomorrow will be a focused day of drawing. The weather is supposed to be a bit stormy which is when I usually keep the computer shut off, and I have enough projects going on that will keep me sharpening my pencils at the drawing board. Don't like those power surges from lightening strikes, although I love a good and noisy thunderstorm. The nearby mountains make the thunder seem even louder here than in Texas, although I miss watching the rolling clouds approaching -- too many trees here crowd the sky. But I do like listening to them whisper when the wind blows, and the shade is definitely appreciated from the hot summer sun. Interesting creatures hide there, too; I sometimes see them on my daily walks. I'll have to post a few of the sketches that I've done of them...one day.

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. :)

Artist in Retreat

I moved at the end of May to a location that I am currently calling my "Artist's Retreat", and that is where I settled in as of June 1st. Everything is still very green. I'm also surrounded by trees of all sorts, mostly pine and oak with a scattering of dogwood. The new environment is already being reflected in the art that I'm doing. The digitally colored illustration I posted above was inspired by the little tree-covered court in front of my new home; and includes a glimpse of one of the white-tailed deer that I see now and then in the late afternoon, early evening. The original blue pencil sketch that I did in my little black sketchbook is posted below.

Fairy Tale Progress: Puss in Boots

Spent a few hours yesterday and today sketching up and finishing a character concept for this week's CHOW over on conceptart.org. Below is the line-art in pencil; the above is the "final" colored in Photoshop.

Gorgon: coloring in progress

Here is an update to one of the sketches that I originally did for a conceptart CHOW topic a few months ago (see, I told you there was opportunity for inspiration). Medusa, in case you can't tell. At this stage, I'd just erased her mouth in order to fix it a bit as I thought her upper lip was too short. I'm in the process of finalizing it so this is definitely an early "progress" image. It's also been posted in my CA sketchbook to hopefully get some feedback. :)

Character Design Concepts

One of my updated portfolio sections is for character design concepts. I've been pulling together various concepts that I've worked on for CHOW over on conceptart.org, even if I didn't have time to participate due to other projects. There's always a nice variation of character topics to be get inspired from in the community activities over on CA. I'm also adding characters from some of the concepts developed for picture books or other stories to show a good range of my character art development.

In any case, I'll be including a selection of initial sketches and turnarounds of various characters that I post, and then the final color concepts in that section of the Concept Art portfolio category. Much like what's included for a character sheet when developing characters from a comic book script. Which reminds me...back to work!

More sketchings

Studies of a character in progress. The plan is to finish this up over the weekend and then do the final selections of images for my updated portfolio.

I'm also in search of an art agent to work with me to expand my client list in childrens book publishing, and possibly additional companies that contract for product concept art development -- need to broaden my illustration and concept art markets!