Dany and Drogon

As anyone who knows me or has been following my blog, I am a huge A Song of Ice and Fire fan. Henceforth, last semester when we could illustrate anything for Digital Painting I went to one of my favorite characters. 

This was the original drawing done on bristol before I took it into the computer and expanded on Drogon some more, changing the size and proportion of the illustration. Much was learned.

I tweaked the drawing quite a bit and this was my first time ever drawing a dragon, so it was a definite learning experience. Will practice dragon-drawing more in the future!

And the finished product! One breast flying in the breeze. ~_^

King in the North : Reprise

And so came the time for me to finish the drawing inspired by A Song of Ice and Fire, "The King in the North!"

The sad part was that the sheet of bristol the drawing was originally on (drawing on the left) started falling apart after the first wash and lifting of whites. Yikes! So I had to transfer the drawing to some hot press illustration board I had. So begins the laborous process!

Since I lack both the epic light table I so desire, as well as that fancy stuff called transfer paper, I went the old, cheap faithful method I learned from Fred Nelson: graphite on the back, then trace over. The only thing is it was exceptionally light, and of course I needed to work on the line art again anyway, but now it REALLY needed more definition.

However, I must say I like how his expression and face came ut better this time. Watch the drawing appear out of thin air!

Tada! The finished line art in H pencil with shadows. Now for that sweet, sweet ink....

Blue wash in process... this was what the bristol just would not stand for...

Finished blue! But I wanted to add a touch more color; I do enjoy working in a limited palette but I wanted the light source to have a bit more feeling.

The finished product! I ended up going over some parts with a black carbon pencil to darken up, add more contrast and attention to the main points of interest. I plan on experimenting how different pencils, pastels, and charcoal hold up with ink wash. Time for further experimentation!

The King in the North ; Winter is Coming.

Ba-da-bum-bum, Ba-da-bum-bum

That's meant to be the opening tune to A Game of Thrones.. phonetically sung via type.

Yes, you could say I'm a bit obsessed... absorbed... but there's nothing like getting swept up into a new series and taken away by it.

Having said that, of course when the assignment of a still life for my Expressive Drawing course came up, I was in my A Song of Ice and Fire throes. And so I give you... "Winter is Coming"

One of the most interesting things I learned about this Summer semester was the wonder that is Matte medium and collage. Of course this technique sprung to mind when I thought of my still life subject matter. Words! Glorious words!

And here is the finished result.