New idea

The initial sketch evolved in my sketchbook a couple months ago, inspired by a stock photo from deviantart. It sat in my sketchbook, just waiting for me to use it. So finally, I dug it out, redrew it in my other sketchbook and fine tuned it, making it pretty. Then I thought, gee... what on earth can I possibly do with this drawing to take it from the page to a painting? So I spent a few days pondering. AHA! The serpentine coils around her initially was just fabric, but I started thinking of it as a vine, with thorns. So she'll be coming out in bloom from the flower that I drew, composited from a couple flower photos I found. The question at hand is what will be in the background? I want the horizon line to be low. She's high up in the air coming out of this thing, we're looking at her and down at whatever. Mountains perhaps? Those sound good since I want to try using muted colors and a limited palette, reserving accent tones for her and the flower only. Maybe a galaxy? Or a planet being slowly eaten up by a black hole? I'm still doing sketches for that, but here are the 3 initial stages of this personal project. Enjoy!

News

No art posting today. The Conan painting from the last post is going to be scrapped and started anew. I'll finish this one more for practice to get skin tones and fire and background, etc. After the fantabulous criticisms of Donato Giancola and Todd Lockwood, two phenomenal illustrators of the fantasy/sci-fi genre, I've decided to start the subject from scratch and make it 100 times better than this current incarnation. So stay tuned for surprises. Also, this month is dedicated to my relearning of anatomy and to better grasp certain areas that give me a hard time to render (namely hands and feet) and also to strengthen my visual memory so when I embellish my photo reference, it doesn't look forced or lame. Another bit of news... I want to create a portfolio of portraits so I can begin advertising myself as a portrait artist as well as an illustrator. So thats all for now. I don't know how much I'll be posting this month except for a few portraits and a finished painting that hasn't seen the light of day for a loooong time.

Conan progress

Here is Conan in its current, about 65% done phase. I just need to finish his arms, his head, the severed head and some armor detail that'll be added in, as well as the middle ground. I need to figure out that middle ground. His head and helmet won't take very long since its already blocked in pretty nicely. I'm adding a gauntlet to his arms because it looks better than a plain arm. His scars haven't been painted in yet, nor has his necklace, so all in due time. The middleground is what bugs me... rabble rabble rabble

Criticism

I'm open to criticism from anyone even if you hate my work, I honestly don't care what you say as long as there is merit and knowledge behind your dislike. Just don't be an ignorant idiot like this anonymous moron named "The Hand of God" and leave me comments as unenlightening as this critique:

"WOW THIS SHIT BLOWZ ASSSSS, like holy damn son.



...damn this shit sux.


p.s. holy shit this painting blows major aSS"

I wanna insult him/her, but its not worth it :) So bash me all you want so long as you know what you're talking about, otherwise comments like this will just be deleted

teaser

The good part of a painting I'm doing for Primordial Traditions :)

Anatomy for Artists

Anthony Apesos was my painting teacher in my last semester in art school. I fine tuned almost everything I know about oil painting in his class and learned so much more as well. Maybe its because he was my teacher that I held off in buying his book on artistic anatomy titled "Anatomy for Artists: a new approach to discovering, learning, and remembering the body." I've read or skimmed about 20 some odd books on human anatomy. Some blow me away (as do their price tag, yikes) and some i quickly put down. Tony's is a book I always pick up with the intent to buy, but never get to it. So finally after several months of being out and getting great reviews on Amazon and other book markets, I decided to get it. And effing A Cotton, it was worth every penny. I know a good amount of anatomy, names, functions etc etc etc but Tony's book is an incredibly practical and really unique approach to learning human anatomy. Simply put, he asks us, the reader, to point out bones and muscles on our own body and explore their functions so as to fully appreciate their complexity and abilities. As artists this is a gem, an invaluable piece of artistic knowledge that no matter what level of anatomical understanding one has it will open your eyes. So, to everyone who reads this I highly suggest it. Its a great read. And besides, he gives a mean recipe on how to cook a leg of lamb in the first chapter ;)

Conan

So i'm in a Conan binge, reading the original stories that Howard wrote. Conan of Cimmeria is an interesting guy I tell you what. So I decided, as a fantasy artist, to do my first Conan piece. Now bear with me here. This is a very simple, portrait-esque image of him. My goal for painting is to shoot for a Rembrandt warmth and glow, using very earthy colors and impasto strokes and glazing and all that crazy shit (at least for the times) that Mr. Ran Rijn achieved. I think it works well with Conan too. So here is the finished drawing (might add some more details and minutiae in the paint stage). The photo reference was from the stock art of http://mjranum-stock.deviantart.com/ whose stock is absolutely stunning. Unfortunately right now I do not have the money to hire my own models nor do I know anyone who has the stature and build of Conan. So for the photos used, all credit goes to one Marcus J. Ranum whose site I linked. Without further ado, here's the drawing. A note however, the reddish pink tinge is a byproduct of the scanning process. I have no idea why it does it, but I really don't mind it in this case. That is the first finish, Jamierose however pointed out that his eyes look wonky and I agreed with her (after disagreeing with a million other things :p ) SO I redid his face, rescanned it, and the b/w one i the official finish. I made his scares more prominent and overall I think it just looks better.

Tony DiTerlizzi

For anyone in the NY/NJ are, tomorrow the monstrously talented Tony DiTerlizzi will be present with co-creator and author of the Spiderwick Chronicles Holly Black at Book World in West Caldwell, NJ. They have a new Spiderwick coming out, which should be exciting, and Tony recently came out with another children's book written and illustrated by himself called Kenny and the Dragon which is probably crazy fun to read. Anywho, if anyone in there area cares to go meet them and have them sign your books I think this would be a great chance to do so. I'll probably go there with my kid brother. Just wanted to share the news with fellow budding illustrators and fans of the books.

Smaller Jpeg

Of the lady in the water with magical lines drawing. Also thought I should mention I have made a plan to create 4 new pieces of art by November, in time for Illuxcon.

New Drawing

New drawing. Feels like its missing something. She needs tattoos or jewelry or something. Any ideas?