Caught_drawing

My KickStarter project is almost up! Just a bit more artwork to make and my video to put together. I was hoping to have it all up by today, but I'm still confident that I can have it ready to go before this week is over.

Here is a page from the book I'm currently coloring. This little guy ought to be more careful! 

Caught_WIP

Today's project. Watch me transform it into something AWESOME.

Paint Tool Sai... what would I do without you?

How I Speed Paint

 Step 1: Choose the most amazing, most beautiful, most breath-taking photo you can find. The lovely lady would be me.

 Block in the big shapes.

 Start blocking in the slightly smaller shapes.

 When I say "shapes" I mean the different colors. Think of the painting as a map, and the borders are between the areas of color.

 Let's focus on this area for a moment.

 I have blocked in the relatively larger areas of color.

 I'm sure it looks like I'm blending, but what I'm really doing is lightly blocking in smaller and smaller areas of detail until they all kinda mesh together on their own.

 Let's try it again here.

 Big shapes.

 Smaller shapes.

 Move along.

 Aaaaand keep going.

 If I ever turn into a zombie, I hope to be this pretty.

 So let's see what we can do for that eye.

 Block in the big shapes first.

 Then add in all the little shapes until everything blends on its own.

 Moving on to the hair and background.

 Big shapes, then little shapes. Same concept.

 Added a quick background and did a bit of work on the hoodie.

 Sign it.

 Play with it.

Hope you learned something.

If nothing else, learn not to take life too seriously. <3

Made in Paint Tool Sai with a Wacom tablet.

Sock Gnomes studies

 I am still determined and excited to make my Sock Gnomes book, and it's been going through quite a few changes recently. The story has improved and I'm having fun with designing the characters. These are outdated but it's still fun to post these studies to show my thought process.

The Great Fairy, who is telling the story, has a face with strong features, and yet looks gentle and motherly.

 These features are certainly strong, but look a bit too masculine for my taste.

 Here is one of my very first drawings of her. She's worried because she has to decide between keeping the gnomes safe or keeping them happy. She loves them as her own children.

From the start I knew I wanted her to have dark skin and coarse hair, natural and long. She needs a veil as to not blind others with her radiance. She's angelic and graceful.

 These are very old, but I'm still fond of them. I've decided against having them be extremely thin with round pudgy faces. At first some even had horns or special facial markings.

Character designing is such fun, you just have to be prepared to scrap your ideas to make room for new and better ones.

Please stay tuned for more updates on my book. :)

Beautiful Boy

This is my significant other when he was little. He reminds me of the children Normal Rockwell painted. He has that nostalgic aura to him, doesn't he? This is a gift for his mom for Mother's Day.

He is a good man - that's really the bottom line. He treats me better than royalty. He's hard working and dedicated. He loves deeply and never hesitates to help wherever needed. He's a good friend who is always willing to listen. Our dates are always fun and relaxed, often including my siblings and friends. I'm grateful to have him in my life.

Happy Birthday Fauxy

This is the process of my gift for my PHENOMENAL friend, Faux (redfauxofenigmas on deviantart). We met in high school in art class of my Senior year. She instantly befriended me and I fell in love with her humour, kindness and zest. She is mature, sensitive to others, forgiving, free of malice, grateful, thoughtful and so hard working. I wish everyone could know her. She's on the left, I'm on the right. This is a photo from my last day of our art class together.

SWock Gnomes WIP 28

Now just to finish the mermaids and I'll officially have completed my first spread for my first book!

Sock Gnomes WIP 27

I got this far just to close it and then realise I had saved it as a .PNG file so the layers were merged. In artist language it means I need to start over.

Ah well, I've been getting rusty this week so the extra practice can only help me.

Sock Gnomes WIP 26

Everything for the video is now officially inked!

Sock Gnomes WIP 25

Just one more to ink!

Sock Gnomes WIP 24

 I'm almost all done inking everything needed for the KickStarter video. Earlier I was thinking I ought to wait to promote it but one of the rewards is to be a character, so now I'm thinking I ought to wait and see how many pledgers I get for that option before continuing on with the book.