Omashu

Really immense project- my first stab at a cityscape.  Inspired by city "Omashu" in the Avatar cartoon.

Camping

I went camping on the Olympic Peninsula (which I insist on spelling Penninsula) recently and sketched a whole lot!  It was a really beautiful trip, complete with rare Washington sunshine.  Some very loose sketches of the trip can be found on a sideblog I have here, where I post daily environment doodles.  This is the most recent; I feel like I'm only now starting to scratch the surface of trees.  Sketching in the actual sunshine really helps (go figure, I know) though this one is more overcast.

Inspiration vs. Imitation

So I just finished the fourth piece in my inspired-by-Avatar war against the trials of Environmental Art, and it turned out much different from the episode of the show I was working with.  I realized that I ultimately like the picture because of what I added to the idea, as well as the associations attached to the inspiration.  I still consider these "fan art" because.. I'm a fan, and they're art, but at the same time I feel very confident when I call them my own.  I was actually worried for a little while during the process that I was going to disappoint someone, like "That hill is totally NOT like that in the show!" but then I realized how ridiculous that is.  Landscape art, like any other type of art, seems to be about immersion and believability, period.  It all kind of makes me feel bad for wailing about how Alice Cullen's hair was not the precise shade of black that it was supposed to be oh god.

Anyway, some shots!  You can see how I ran with one idea and then literally turned it on its head in a pique of frustration.

Alanna

Inspired by Tamora Pierce's "Lioness" quartet, this to me was basically about learning new ways to paint metal and my rekindled love for Pre-Raphaelite faces.  And hipcoins.

But seriously, it's a great book series.

Air Temple

Step-by-step stages of my newest "Avatar"-inspired landscape.  This one was really challenging and I'm not totally pleased with it, but I definitely learned a lot from experimenting with brushes and composition ideas and such.

  

    

New Processeses..ees

Spontaneous update!  First, a finished collaboration I colored for.  Second is my current project, which I'm working on mostly in Painter after going through about eight different composition ideas.  Last is another work in progress done in a sort of experimental way- more incorporation of drawing and reference, as you can see by the random hand photograph hanging out there.  

New projects

When I started GuildWars2 I was really excited about drawing new characters, but I've actually shelved game commissions for what I think will be a long time.  I'm really starting to enjoy environmental art, even though it reminds me of when I first started to draw and absolutely everything seemed impossible.  I guess I like a good challenge.  My trees are still sloppy and composition still eludes me nine times out of ten, BUT, I enjoy it all.

I'm also starting to doodle out the first tentative design ideas for a project that I've been outlining since the year began.  I think of these graphic novel ideas all the time and inevitably scrap them, but I think this one's the lightbulb that works.  I hashed out the two main characters, but right now there are at least eleven.  So more soon!

Oh, and I've also started messing around with watercolors.  SO hard.

Listening to: Too Afraid to Love by The Black Keys

Reading: A Dance with Dragons by George R.R. Martin

Watching:  Strip Search on Penny Arcade

Looking at: Craig Mullins