Dreaming

Wow, it's been a week or two, eh? Sorry about that, dear internet. I was in the depths of finals and then attacked by the laziness of the holidays. However, I wanted to get back to my treasured blog and you swell folks, so without further ado...

the last post of the year!

Here is the final work for my interior illustration for Philip K. Dick's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" Above is the lineart, inked traditionally on bristol with dip pens and India ink.

Then I took that baby into Photoshop...

Ta-da!

I'm still experimenting with applying texture in Photoshop and I want to keep it flat, more of a style than trying to be realistically rendered. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it, but I sure do love that owl! Man, that is one sweetass owl.

Have a great remainder of 2012 and I'll see you all in 2013!

Sneak Peek

Just a sneak peek at an illustration I've been laboring over the past few days. I really am working on getting the drawing tight and where I want it before moving along. Drawing is my favorite part of the illustration process and I think it's been shafted in the past sometimes when I try to rush things. Steady and with thought now!

And with the help of lots of NPR and This American Life especially. Ira Glass, your voice can calm my deepest frustrations sometimes...

Once the final is done it shall be posted!

Felurian of the Fae

Lineart for an interior illustration of Felurian, a fae sex goddess (or monster, depending how you look at it). The character is from The Wise Man's Fear of The Kingkiller Chronicles: Day Two by Patrick Rothfuss. If you're a fan of the fantasy genre, I super highly recommend you check out this series. It's super addicting and has some of my favorite characters I've read in awhile.

I'll be obsessively working on the finish of this illustration in color, as well as a cover illustration for the book, this week in the throes of finals. These are also for my thesis so it's time to draw, draw, draw.

And just the regular lineart. Hopefully I'll have enough time to clean this up for the final art. I got some sweet violet and purple Prismacolor Col-Erase pencils for the task ahead!

Landscapes

I'm back after my short hiatus over the holiday and my visit to Chicago. It was great to be home for a bit.

Now, without further ado, I have for you on this fine Tuesday... Landscapes!

Week 12 into the semester and I finally feel like I'm getting somewhere with landscape painting. There's still much more for me to practice, experiment, and develop, but I'm beginning to enjoy it more each day.

This is a master copy of a painting by Michael Workman. He is a great landscape painter and I really love his compositions and texture. I've found that one of the aspects of oil painting which I enjoy the most is the interesting and various textures that can be made. Sure, texture is in every medium, but I feel it comes more naturally to me with oil and also allows for much more variation in approach. Copying Workman's painting has definitely helped me in switching up compositions in future thumbnails and paintings, as well as think more about shape, texture, and atmospherical perspective.

Here is a study from a field painting at a winery in Sonoma. I like the patterns which were visible from above and also like that the painting has some cartoony, animation-like feeling to the colors and shapes. I still need to go back in with a few layers though, especially since you can still see the pencil lines I put down originally! A bit too thin of application, mayhaps.

Another study from a field painting, this time at Tennessee Valley in Marin County. It was a very foggy day and color were very subdued. Although it got pretty chilly painting so near to the ocean in the morning, I really enjoyed the setting and sweet reference photos I gained from this expedition.

There will be more landscape paintings to come. I'm thinking now about doing some of my thesis illustrations as landscapes.

More to come Thursday!