New home for my art

It's been a while since I've posted, but I've not been idle.  Going forward I'll be placing my work here: https://www.deviantart.com/seenoht/gallery

You can flip between the different galleries once you're there.  Eventually I'll be adding loads of photographs from various travels.

Thanks to everyone who checked out my art; hope you come see some more!

Smaugust 2018

Skeletal Study

Bedtime Tails

Found an old sketch that I liked and already had my first smaugust piece done so why not.

Envy

This is an idea I've had bouncing around my head for years now: a young dragon being enticed by the flame he's not yet able to create.  Made the initial sketches months ago from photos that I found (not something I'd do if I were to monetize this piece) and when #smaugust rolled around again, I decided to try and finish it. 

Feel like I could spend more time rendering it, but really everything I wanted to show is present and readable.  Baby is cutely fascinated, the environment is sparse and atmospheric, and momma is looming with her own fire abilities clearly hinted at.

Also just discovered how to make GIF files, so I can show my process from pen drawing to final painting.

Entwash

Was reading LotR this spring and while I'm not that big a fan of the books, they do have a ton of imagery to them.  Sat down to read Two Towers one Saturday and got inspired about 3 pages into my reading so I photobashed 7 or 8 images from our mini-honeymoon to Beaver's Bend state park.  Spent another 30 hours painting over the top of that to get the final image.

Master Studies

Inktober 2016

31 days, 31 pen and paper drawings.

#Smaugust

Wouldn't have felt right to not participate in this event.  Cheers for the inspiration out there.

Pick a Mood

Now I get to take some time and decide which of these I like the best.  Good weekend for art overall. 

Busy day

More to come on these.  Have some specific experimentation planned.

Outer Rim

Two tones.

Been doing these as warmups and ideation sketches.  Only using black and white breaks the image down to the simplest expressions of light and shadow.  These are pretty fun too.  Not much to stress about, and they don't take long.  I like how abstract some of the images turned out.

My 21 days of painting.

So doing this exercise was a great way to force some practice into my schedule.  I only barely found myself looking forward to it, but I think that was due to the goal of 1 image per night.  Trying to do an entire painting, especially of photorealistic scenes, is a daunting endeavour on its own; doing it in 60 minutes is stressful. 

So the two big things I took away from this are:

Fabrics are everywhere.

Rim lighting is everywhere.

I never would have guessed that I would have painted so many folds and creases.  I don't feel that I mastered the skill, but I improved.  Seeing the prevalence of rim light and thinking of why it occurs so much has given me some knowledge to experiment with when I get back to making images from imagination.  Those kind of touches of getting light and shadow right on the forms can really make a difference.

Studying paintings didn't teach me any of this.  Sitting down and painting did.  That was the true benefit of setting a goal and sticking with it.  The 21 hours of painting practice I got made a real difference in my confidence and skill AND workflow.  I'll be much more efficient going forward. 

Silhouettes are the key.  Getting the shape right is worth the time.  Very hard to mess up after that.  Even worst case scenario, can wipe the silhouette clean and paint it again. 

Have two more exercises planned.  21 days of 3d perspective drawing, then 21 days of painting studies of other paintings.  Neither of these will be 21 images.  Perspective takes time.  I'll be using each as a catalyst to actually sit down and work.  It'll be worth it. 

Empire Strikes Back

District 9

Independence Day