Oh man

I haven't been keeping up with this blog at all. D:

I've been much more active over on Tumblr than here. I also have more people following that blog than this one. :I Don't know how the Blogger community works, either, so I don't know how to put myself out there with this blog.

"Els Engel" - WIP

Something I was asked to work on for a family friend's mother, since she hasn't been doing so well and wont be among us in the very very near future. As far as I know, she's on her deathbed as I type this. I have no idea if she'll ever see the finished product.

I'm really pushing my boundaries with this one. I don't think I've done something this serious in a long time and as a painting to boot! It still has some (a lot?) of work that needs to be put into it, though.

Armour Design

Wanted to try drawing more elaborate clothing and what better to practice on than armour? I also decided to make it harder on myself and design my own. xD Not the best idea since I hardly know how armour works, for the most part. If I understood how it fits and how it moves, I would have had a better time designing this in a more authentic manner.
I also had this gloomy dark scene in mind that inspired this piece in the first place. I hope to complete it with this piece, if not, it would be a good learning experience.

Tears in a Dark Room

Something that started off as not so serious speedpainting but then it got more serious. Rendering is questionable in places, but I didn't use a reference when doing this, so that's okay. I do like how it turned out, though. I like dramatic lighting. I need to practice it more often.

Digital Reboot - Gatomon sketches

I've decided to call this little project 'Digital Reboot'.

I'm a little happier with how the design turned out for Gatomon. I think it's closer to what a human counterpart would look like.

Llamas!

I think Llamas are weird. But they're fun to draw in this stylized way. Someone had given me the nickname "Domma Llama" back in highschool. Don't know WHY, but you know. -shrugs- I prefered "Domnomnom" which was more of a play on the 'om nom nom' sound effect.

Some doodlings

Well, I did say I would start using this blog as more of a sketch dump, so here goes.

Tried out some ink washing. I'll have to experiment with it more.

Developing a new character that's more human. @w@ Of course I couldn't stay away from adding fantasy tidbits. =w=; I'm also biased on blonde hair, it seems. Probably largely due to myself being blonde.

Also, Korra! 

Some development on the varying facial structures of my Dhrakonians. I'm still tinkering with ideas on how to make them more realistic. (Designing their feet/legs is incredibly frustrating.) Also, a friend's character as the Koopa King. He's a grump face.

Digimon to Humans?

I see this every so often, where artists will take creatures from a series, like Pokemon or Digimon, and draw them as human characters. I wanted to try this out with this one, although I couldn't really get across that it was Agumon. Heh. I'm a fan of the first Digimon series, so I had to do him. I'll also need to do Gabumon. But I need to redo this guy. He doesn't come across as Agumon. I do like him as an individual character, though!

Digimon © Akiyoshi Hongo, Bandai

Study 01

Decided I should do a study today. I've never done a study on hands before. I need to do many more of those.

A little animation?

Just wanted to make an animated icon. This is the big version before it got scaled down.

Yes, it's the same image I used at the start of this blog. It's good to practice on, I guess. 

I need to start just drawing, every day. And post whatever crap I draw.

Something new

So I've been learning how to paint the past month or two. I think I've gotten pretty good at it, but still need to learn how to go from speedpaints to fully rendered pieces.

I also still have quite a few things more to learn about painting. Lighting, color theory, and what  have you. It's going to be a process and I'll constantly be learning something new. But that's how it's always been in art, eh?

Here are some pieces I've done recently that I'm sort of proud of in terms of having painted them, if not in quality. In order from newest to oldest.

"Fishman" is an unfinished piece. I might come back to it later on, but there's a lot in this that's needs to be fixed up. I need to find a good reference for the water surface, too. I tried rendering from memory/gut feeling, but it didn't really turn out too well, obviously. 

"Irish Wolfhound in a Suit with a Katana" was an idea thrown at me during a streaming session. There are a lot of mistakes in this piece, but it was a learning experience, I guess.

Something I really want to learn to paint is environments. It's a form of painting that I just really enjoy looking at. This piece, "Northlands", was inspired by the universe my characters live in. This is could be a depiction of the cold north of the continent they live on.

"Xantoucan" was a spin on one of my character's names, and also my usual internet alias, after some friends couldn't properly pronounce it in a Skype voice call. It kind of stuck and has become kind of a nickname, heh.

This piece was referenced from a photo of a red deer (found through Google). I like dhow it turned out and had at this point decided I really wanted to get better at painting. 

"Nature's Saviour" was my first real attempt at a speedpaint.

Gonna start to use this!

So I decided I'm actually going to start using this blog. Made it years ago when I was an immature brat and posted weird stuff, but now I'll be using it to post my art. Maybe someone will like it and hopefully it'll get interest. I really want to expand my horizons and not stay in my niche, which has been anthropomorphic characters for a long time. I want to experiment and try different mediums and programs.

So this blog will literally become my art bin. Where I post whatever crap I come up with. I'll also attempt to post drawings in my sketchbook(s) every week. Haven't decided on a day, though. Sundays, perhaps.

We'll see how this all works out. I think I'll steer clear of my other art sites for the time being and focus on my own work.