Happy Halloween! Here's a non-festive painting

Happy Halloween everybody!

I haven't really been all that festive these past few years. Maybe that'll change in the future. We'll see. So I didn't take time to create any really spooky or halloween-ish paintings or drawings this year. But here's a post of a painting that is currently in progress. Its a zoomed in shot, so there is more to the painting than what is shown. You'll have to wait and see :)

I hope you enjoy! Keep up the drawing!

Landscape sketching!

Hi All!

Here are some landscapes that i've decided to paint sketch. I've been needing some practice with landscapes and scenery. So I've decided to finally jump into working on them. Here are 3 that I've done.

They are quite loose and painterly, as they are also quick sketches. So anyone who has seen my previous work, this is quite different from that. I hope you enjoy!

Keep on drawing!

CHOW 265 Completed! Mutant!

Hi everyone! Here's what I've got to show for my first ever finished Character of the Week!

Thank you! Keep on drawing!

CHOW WIP Painting

Rawr!

Work in progress on the Character of the week @ conceptart.org .
Keep on drawing!

Conceptart.org Posting!

Hi everyone!

I've been wanting to do this for a long time. And now I'm finally able to participate in one of the conceptart.org 's community activities. I'm working on an illustration for the Character of the week. Here's my front and back sketches of the character!

Thanks for checking out my blog! Keep up the drawing!

Spider Warlord

Welcome!

Today I've been finishing up some work on a new character design. I say finishing up, but it still has a lot more to go. There will be another design of his face to the left of this image shown below.

I've been spending a lot of time watching some video tutorials by the famous Feng Zhu, of Singapore. He's a tremendously talented individual and he's an amazing teacher (I can tell even tho I've never taken one of his classes... but I would eventually love to.). His videos can be seen at http://www.fzdschool.com/free_tutorials.htm which is related to the FZD School of Design which he started and teaches at. I've learned a lot from his tutorials and I hope to learn a lot more.

Until next time, Keep up the drawing!

Book Dummy Cover, plus a Wizard

I've been super busy recently, working up to 55 hours a week at a day job (not illustrating), but with what little time I do have free I've been drawing and painting.

I'm almost complete with a book dummy that I'm preparing to send out to publishers. The dummy itself I suppose is done. But I was advised to create a decent looking cover before doing so, which I felt was great advice. So here's a picture of that, without the cover text.

And for those unable to get a hand on my book dummy I'll post another sketch of the interior work here ...

Because I prefer to keep my attentions on at least 2 projects at the same time, usually, I've been working on another painting. This one is of a wizard. Probably inspired by both the anime that I'm watching (Fairy Tail) as well as the book I'm reading (Belgarath).  Both involve either wizardry or sorcery. It's still in progress. Keep checking back to see how it turns out!

Until next time, Keep drawing!

Paint Sketches

 Here are just a few paint sketches that I've been doing every once in a while.

Some Insectoid creature.

 Some rock type creature.

And some tank machine.

Machines are new to me in painting. I don't draw many of them. Probably something I should practice more often. These aren't as developed as some of the previous photoshop paint sketches. But they're mostly just intended as things to get me painting. To get some ideas flowing, or just a warm up.

Keep drawing!

Sketching

Story book page sketches.

The main character (the boy) walking to bed.

The main characters walking together 

as they see a house in the distance.

I've bee working slowly on a children's book idea. I think I started the first drawing, where the idea started from, in January of this year. I have since then worked out the story (currently in its editing process by friends), and worked out nearly all the sketches. Soon I'll be ready to set up book dummies and then I'll send them off to see what will come of it. 

That's it for now.

Happy drawing!

Creature Madness!

The dinosaur.

A flying creature.

And some Giant Alien Cyborg.

The three images shown above are some creature designs that I've been working on over the past week. It amazes me how much faster I've gotten at painting these kinds of things. 8 months ago just painting one of these would have taken me at least a full week. Now I can do one of these creature designs in about an hour. I never used to be very good at creating creatures. But I've found recently that for me, the best way to make some creatures is to have no plan or idea of what its going to look like. Just start sketching odd lines and then try to make something out of the linework you see before you. It keeps it fresh and uninhibits the mind I feel. Until next time. Keep Drawing!

Creature in the Closet!

This is just a quick (very quick) creature design that I did in photoshop. I built it off of a silhouette based on a quick gesture warm up that i do before I start drawing each day. I'm pleased with the way it turned out. But as all artists usually do, even tho I called it done for this phase, there are still things that I'd like to fix or re-arrange or add. But I'm restraining myself haha. Still working on a book storyboard and book dummy. More things to come! Happy drawing!

I've been watching some online tutorials and learning a few techniques which have been useful. In this image I tried fusing a man's face with a bear. It came out ok, but could use a few different variations if I was working to develop the character further. But for now it was just a quick study. Which is also why it looks fairly rough. I'm pleased with it, especially being that it was created, to this point, in about an hour and a half. Thats my quickest time yet. This new technique I'm using might be utilized a lot more.



Here I just tried a few different color variations. The two ends I realized afterwards that they looked very similar. I was trying different approaches for the colors but in the end I kept thinking fur, so i edged towards the brown.