Lovely Lady

Aaaand here's my last sketch of 2008, a lovely lady I found on dA. I wish I'd saved the link to her gallery.

I was experimenting with a square brush and opacity jitter here.



I'm also scanning a few of the other sketches I've done in 2008 and slotting them in in approximately the right places in the blog, starting with February 2008.

Fish Santa

This was going to be my Christmas card this year, but I didn't get it done in time. Still needs a bit more shading and colour overlay.



I'm sure it's offensive to someone somewhere, but I just love this guy.

Secret Agent Cat

Bettie Page

Finished up painting Bettie Page for the CHOW tribute thread. I'll have to throw some colour on after the holidays.



Progress (didn't save as many layers this time, since I've been incredibly busy cleaning and cooking and preparing for the holidays):

Bettie

She looked like she had fun in her photos, which made her fun to look at. For this week's CHOW:

Faces

More October sketches, faces found on Flickr.



Just 83 more and I'll have finished my hundred faces. :)

Actually, I've done a few more last week, so I need fewer than 83 -- but I exchanged sketchbooks, so the one at work will have to be filled a little more before coming home.

Capybaras!

From October. I did a whole bunch of sketching in October.

Oh yes -- and these all come from various photos on the Net, which are easy enough to find if you search for "capybara" on Google. Next summer I'm going to bike to the zoo again and do a few live capybara studies. (I've already done a couple, but the capybaras were sleeping, so they look like furry logs in my sketches. Not very interesting.)

Anyway -- capybaras are cool-looking! They are the world's largest rodent (about the size of a small pig) and they spend a lot of their time in the water. Their feet are webbed and rubbery, and their eyes and nostrils are located on the top of their head so that they can breathe and look around while swimming.

Meeting Sketches

Just some ballpoint pen stuff from a meeting last week.

Oh No!

Something out of my sketchbook.



Quickie lines and colours. I needed to do something that was unrelated to my comic or to NaNo.

Abominable

I'm involved in an ATC (artist trading card) trade with some people I know on the comic forum I frequent. One of the cards actually arrived where it was meant to go (Swindon! I keep wanting to ask the artist if she knows Thursday Next...), so I can finally post it here! (It's been hanging around the house for months now... I'm so happy it went to a good home.)

My theme for this trade is "Mythological Creatures", and this is ATC #3, The Yeti:



It's marker, ink and pencil crayon on coloured cardstock. I have two other cards that just went out, and I'll post them when the recipients get them.

Other than that, not much art-ing is going on in November, because I'm doing NaNo again.

Paint Pots

Photo speedpaint. From our hike to the Paint Pots near Banff. Photoshop, about an hour.

I think I might have to take a real painting class in the new year.

Crabapple

I think I'm getting better.



From a photo Neil took some years ago.

Ragin' Orchids

Sorry that this one looks a bit crappy, but Photoshop ate my speedpainting yesterday so I'm experimenting with ArtRage.



Simulated oil brushes are weird.

Stilgar Final

Okay, I think this one is done:



The pose is still kinda stiff (I stayed up waaay too late last night trying to fix the bent leg), the silhouette is uninteresting and he still looks kinda like Gordon Freeman sans glasses, but I think I'm definitely improving. I think I've got a reasonable range of values, and I'm really pleased with the lighting.

Stilgar WIP

This week's CHOW. What do you guys think -- more Gordon Freeman than Fremen?



I based the stillsuit design on what I'd like to have in the desert: a bunch of Camelbaks.

Garden Rock

Another speed painting from my Devonian Garden photos.



I was trying to not stick to the colours in the photo as closely this time around.

Structural Engineering

Speed painting of the day:



I think this is the structural engineering lab on campus. From a photo I took back in 2002, when I first got my film camera. This was about an hour and a half, and I screwed up the perspective and details a bit. I'm not so hot at man-made objects.

Japanese Garden

One-hour speed painting of a photo I took of the Japanese Garden at the Devonian Gardens near Devon, Alberta.

Dr. Watson

To go with Holmes.

Desert Bloom

The wife from the short comic I'm working on. A retired gardening enthusiast living in the desert.

221B Baker Street

Well, it took all bloody weekend but it's finally done!



Of course I alternate between thinking "this fucking rocks!" and "holy crap, I need to stop over-rendering things."

Also, I now have a craving to do a picture of Hercule Poirot. Perhaps him talking to "Nick" Buckley on the terrace of the Majestic Hotel at the beginning of Peril at End House. Actually, that would be the second scene from "Peril" that I wanted to illustrate, and it's not even one of my favourite Christie books.

It's Elementary

This week's CHOW is Sherlock Holmes, and it just so happens that I am married to a tall, skinny, chisel-faced man with a largeish nose. I added some hair, took away the glasses, stuffed him into a Victorian waistcoat and viola! We've got Sherlock.



Man, Holmes is totally hot. Is there an SCA for the late 1800s/early 1900s?

Aztec Sacrifice, Coloured

Eventually I got around to putting some colour on this. Not too bad, although still a little flat.

I removed the eye paint in the end. I thought it made her look too much like a ninja turtle.



Click for bigger.

Fzow!

Wizzart in training!

Audrey

I think I might be starting to get slightly better at caricatures.



(Although I'm working on a more deformed, Katie-Rice-ish style. I start off every such drawing with the thought "how can I make this person look like a manga character?")

Pen Sketches

A couple reworkings of sketches I did earlier this year. A mask inspired by photos of the Carnival in Venice:



and a leezardman:

Demons in Their Divers Shapes

Click for bigger.



Practicing basing creatures on silhouettes. I tried robots today. Robots are much harder for me than demons. Demons practically draw themselves.

Mermaid WIP

Won't finish this CHOW. It's Sunday and this is what I've got, haven't even started the human form.



Stupid friends and their stupid parties. :P

Still, I'm doing this to set up a portfolio (or maybe a portfoolio) so I might as well finish what I start. I'm trying a new painting technique here, based on Julie Dillon's process.

Moar Chow!

This week's CHOW is the Little Mermaid. Must design the mermaid and human form. Some concept sketchies:



I discarded the idea of the lion-fish mermaid because I thought "pfff, everyone's gonna have one of those". Besides, the anemone flapper mermaid is pretty awesome.

Ink 'n' Markers

I've been wrestling with the temptation to get a tablet PC. While I'm thinking about it some more, I bought a few of the Staedtler Mars Duo markers. They have a satisfyingly brushy tip, and don't cost $1600.

Mosh for the Drawingboard's Drawing Jam:



and a local alley from a photo I took a few years ago:

Chow!

I should really start posting to this thing again.

This week I was working on my first submission to ConceptArt's Character of the Week (ChOW). It was a really great experience! There are lots of things I do quite well and lots of other things I have problems with.

Anyway, this week's topic was Tlaloc's Sacrifice, and here is what I ended up submitting:



Starting with the greyscale version has really improved my contrast. When I work with colour, I think I have the tendency to make the colours too similar to one another. I'd like to throw some colour on this when I get the chance.

Oh, and since I had to post WIPs for this, people might be interested in seeing the picture's progression (I think you can click for bigger version):

University Farmhouse

I've gotten back into life sketching a bit lately because I'm going on vacation soon, and I hope to get a bunch of environment-type drawing done while I'm away. I'm also trying to do most of these directly in pen, so they're bound to be on the messy side until I get better again.

Anyway -- the spring days have been pretty windy (things I don't notice unless I happen to be biking upwind), and I liked the look of the tall trees rippling like banners.

Even Zombies Think

I've been trying to get a few more finished pieces going in between frantically building up a comic backlog before my vacation in June.

This was one of the early sketches posted on my blog, now a digital painting:



It's got a few problems, but overall I'm pretty pleased with it. There's a larger version here, in my DeviantArt gallery. I've made it available as a print on the off-chance someone wants it.

Funky Bus Girl

Sketchbook Page

Filling Holes In

My husband, reading in the cafe:

Three Squirrel Witches

Still thinking about doing a version of Macbeth as acted by squirrels. Here's the three witches!

Beaver Widow

Enne

An old comic and role-playing character of mine:



A priestess of chaos.

Dinosauruses

Playing around with ballpoint pens. The comic Odd-Fish does some nice work with ballpoints. Or "biros" as some people on the other side of the pond like to call them.



This is totally me:

I'm Not Dead Yet!

So, yes. My New Year's Resolution didn't even last two months. I am alive, though, and still sketching, so I'll be backfilling some of the stuff I didn't post in February because of dooooom and general exhaustion, and updating again.

Cartoon Girls

Playing around with random shapes and letting them give me ideas.

Bananaman

Dancers

Not Enough Hours

Elfin Face

A caricature from some photo I found on the web: