I'm not obsessive, I'm just... focused.

It feels like that time where I should blog about a selection of recent art before the recent art reaches critical mass!

Finished this commission for Jackal. 10 hours in total, Paint Tool SAI per usual for my digital paintings. Really enjoyed working on this one.

I made a set of Magic: the Gathering themed avatars for myself and my boyfriend, and I wound up saving step-by-step work in progress files of the painting process to be all educational for some people on the internets. So I might as well walk through them in brief here, too! First I sketch, usually over the course of multiple layers. This sketch was two layers - a rough figuring it out layer and the above less rough "okay let's clarify what the firth is happening here" layer. Also since this particular piece was meant to be connecting icons/avatars, I visually divided the canvas in half by toning one side, in order to compose them both together and separately.

Then I slap down flat colors in a layer beneath the sketch. In SAI, I use the pen tool and the watercolor tool for this.

Next I map out the shadows and, in this case because magical hijinks are ensuing, the glowing using layer styles. I work on luminosity layers for highlights/glowing and multiply layers for shading. This is just a nice, quick way to define light sources and begin to pull overlapping color into them.

True painting begins. I tend to first attack my subjects with larger, textured brushes - "bristle" for fur, "xcross_arrow" for landscape and mechnical stuff, "fuzistatic" for certain cloths, and so forth. Or just a large, lower opacity watercolor brush.

Ta-da! Our fuzzy alter egos cosplaying as Jace Beleren and Chandra Nalaar complete. The remainder of painting involves smaller and smaller brush sizes and more particular brush strokes. The longer I work on a piece the more texture and detail I can work into it. Occasionally I attack the canvas with more overlay or luminosity layers to get a sense for blending larger areas of color, then compulsively paint over them some more.

 Anyway! More commissions. Here's a quick color a fellow ordered for his tentacle bird lady on Valentine's Day.

And an 11 hour painting of a chakat checking the oil dipstick on a truck. I am incidentally getting better at handling cars/trucks/spaceships, thanks to people commissioning them lately.

Also hey whoa sometimes I work in traditional media too. Not often because paints, palettes and drawing boards are less portable than simply working on my 12" tablet pc, but if someone asks I will gladly acquiesce them. This is acrylic and prismacolor pencil on 13"x10" matte board.

Cheeky D&D blink dog/gnoll pin up commission in progress. Acrylic on 16"x12" matte board.

Personal doodle, acrylic on bristol vellum.

Back to the digital world... today I hosted a for fun stream in which a friend of mine ran a Dresden Files trivia contest and I dished out art prizes to the winners. This is a 3 hour speedpaint for the first place winner; they requested Demonreach in the crystal caverns beneath the island.

This is a 2 hour speedpaint for the second place winner, of their DFRPG character Gilitine. Apparently I was destined to paint all the hooded/cloaked figures with no real faces today.

Lastly, speaking of the Dresden Files, I decided this is finished. Most intense heavy inking practice ever. I might poke it more later if I decide to put it in my portfolio proper.

Sleep beckons. Enjoy the arts, anyone who happens to view this blog!

Wow dang.

Just finished that commissioned painting of the chakat diving, and out of curiosity went back through my FA gallery and...

The recently completely commission. 12 hours, Paint Tool SAI.

A painting commission also containing chakats, circa October 2011. 16 months ago. 18 hours also perpetrated in Paint Tool SAI if I recall correctly.

I have become a much more competent digital painter over the past year or so, geez. Ladies and gentlefolk, I present the result of drawing almost literally everyday. I always find it kind of bizarre to behold.

Getting better about updating this regularly.

Exercises! Had to draw an animal I never had before x10. Such a silly little plover. I love that its face appears to sport a lemon peel fashioned into a masquerade mask and its got little awkward candy corn thumbs on its wings. Nature is glorious.

Feet because they are awkward mutant hands and I am bad at them.

This is my coffee machine as a dude. Mr. Coffee AKA Mr. Automatic Drip. He's one of my best friends in the morning okay.

Finished this commission! Only 5 hours total in the end, but it was one requested to be done live so I had to catch the commissioner online and such. Colorsss.

Obligatory inclusion of a quick color commission and extra limbs, ahaha. Also fluff.

Doodle. I am trying to actually use textured brushes more often in my digital art, in an effort to just go with having accidentally become a digital illustrator.

And now for some work-in-progress things, because I always feel like I have a million billion of them, and have decided to share them more often!

Heavy inking practice on a wizard and a polka-loving medical examiner riding a zombie dinosaur through Chicago. If you don't know why I drew this you should probably read the Dresden Files because they are of quality. I'll finish this soon.

This is a big group commission I've been working on forever. I poke it and poke it and eventually it will be done. So many characters.

7 hours into a commissioned painting, probably only a few more to go to finish this one up.

2 hours into an aborted commission. But this is apparently what infrared light looks like to cameras, which is kind of neat to know!

The commission the fellow from the previous decided to have done instead, 5 hours into it. I'm glad because I really am enjoying this one.

I spend my days doing nothing but making art.

It feels like late night art posting time.

First, a few selections from that ongoing art challenge. Here's a worm's eye view of a tree. One hour.

And here's a still life of unusual objects. Mostly I had the song "Bad to the Bone" stuck in my head and couldn't pass up the opportunity for a terrible pun. I debated with myself briefly about whether or not to share this one here, but eh. I'm an artist, I'll own up to doing ridiculous things. I fancy how it turned out. Hour and a half, Paint Tool SAI.

Ted, my demon built from the results of a random character generator, makes a reappearance. Poor, misunderstood Ted. He really dislikes cute things, because they get hugs and he does not. Particularly teddy bears, what with their names so close to his as added insult. Everybody needs hugs. Even demons.

Most recent challenge was a 5-7 panel comic page. Based directly on a thing my cat really did the other day. He's never climbed on that book shelf before, but as soon as I put his brush up there, he climbed up, knocked it down, and stood by it meowing for brushings. He is the cutest.

So yeah. That's been entertaining. Have also done lots of perspective studies and derp speedpaints, refer to the challenge blog itself for all the things I suppose. I post my art to two galleries and multiple blogs, but none of them ever all contain the exact same things. Also I feel a bit big-headed saying that just now but I guess throwing my art all over the place is just good business or professional or something.

Sharing a random selection of commissions time! Have a stagtaur. I've gotten to do a few taurs lately that were departures from the usual cattaurs/chakats people tend to pay me for. Including skunktaurs.

Nude pinup commission for a hyena/maned wolf kind of dude. 6 hours.

Snow leopard taking a tiny fox out for a run. Refined sketch commission.

Commission in which I had the delightful opportunity to paint a modified Defiant-class starship. Close to 16 hours, only charged customer around 12 because this was a learning experience and I had to do a lot of fiddling.

Now, how about some work-in-progress things, I should put those on this blog more.

Still far from done. Fan art I perpetrated in the name of the challenge (I had to do an action scene that day) which is far from actually done. I'd love to put more time into this. It's depicting a scene from Cold Days, a Dresden Files novel by Jim Butcher. Expect more Dresden artwork in the future, I have an itch to use his gloriously described epic moments as guinea pigs for all kinds of painting/composition practice.

And a super fresh WIP set. Here's one hour into a commission from tonight.

And here's two hours into it! Familiar subjects can go really fast sometimes. I sure do draw a lot of animal people.