Massive Update!!

So... it's almost the end of February...

It's been a crazy busy (and embarrassing long) time since I updated this blog!  So since I'm online for the first time in a long long time, it's well-past time for blog updating!  Believe it or not - art has been happening!

Here's what I've been up to...

In November my work asked me to design and illustrate their company holiday card again.  Here's what I came up with:

This is the web-blast version so it's single-sided, but you get the idea.  Just for fun, these are my alternate thumbnails. I did three designs and the company chose the one they wanted illustrated for the card:

Then... in January I did a commissioned portrait of this adorable dog:

 

Which brings us up to present where I'm working on a project that is still top-secret (because it's not done yet), but has been in progress since late December! Hopefully that will be done soon so I'll try to add it if I get permission.

In the meantime...

Happy Holidays, Happy New Year, Happy Valentine's Day, President's Day, Anna Howard Shaw Day, Groundhog Day, and Happy Chinese New Year! 

Hopefully more to come soon!  Thanks for stopping by :) 

Finally Finished!

It's been a long time coming, but I finally finished this painting!

 

I learned a lot while working on this piece, most importantly: don't go crazy with the eraser unless you are absolutely sure you're on the right layer!

OK, maybe that wasn't the most important thing, but I think I'm finally narrowing in on a good process and technique so I'm excited to start the next project!

Thanks for stopping by :)

Still Working and Painting Backwards

Still not quite 100% on this painting, but definitely closer than I was before.  It's been a busy couple weeks so progress has been slow.

In other news, I finally understand why people flip their paintings upside down or reverse them horizontally - it's like a magic mistake-finding trick!

Rotating a painting is something my professors suggested when the class was working on oil paintings.  I did it a few times but eventually stopped because I wasn't seeing the benefit.  But, after watching a few videos on digital painting technique, I noticed that nearly all of the artists flip their work - usually several times during the process - so I decided I must be missing something and gave it another try... They were right, it works wonders!

Today I worked on this painting entirely flipped this way:

  

 

This is the current version flipped horizontally so I've fixed some of the errors, but it allowed me to see that the paint on the mountains was splotchy, the waves needed some work to be more defined, and the ships were blending in to the ocean, along with some lighting issues on the figures that needed to be addressed.  Clearly, I should have tried this a long time ago!

Here's the current version in the correct orientation:

  

And, here's last week's for comparison:

The differences are probably pretty subtle, but hopefully there is some noticeable improvement.  There are still a few more adjustments I want to make, just to tighten everything up, but should be done soon!

 

WIP - 99%!

So close!  I'm still adjusting here and there, but this is almost finished! 

I was hoping I could finish up tonight, but these last few stages always take me the longest! Just when I think I might be done, I notice something that needs a little bit more work ... and then find another thing... and another... and another... like when you give a moose a muffin.

Nonetheless, I think just a few tweaks here and there and this will be complete!

More to come! 

WIP Almost Done!

After a bit of a slow start this morning (I over-slept), today turned out to be a pretty productive day.  This WIP is not quite finished yet, but it's definitely getting there! 

  

I spent a lot of time refining the lines and details today so the changes since my last post are pretty minimal, but I think it is starting to look cleaner and more finished.  This is almost done, so more coming soon!

Viking WIP Continues...

Not sure how much further I'll get on this tonight, so here's the latest snapshot:

 

I'm still primarily working on rendering at this point, but I did experiment with texture a bit this afternoon.  I know technically that kind of detail is supposed be saved for the end, but I just couldn't resist! (Though, I did turn the texture layers off while I painted so I could pretend I wasn't skipping ahead, see what I was doing).  Textures are "on" in the screenshot above... I think they may just make it into the final painting :)

Still lots of work to do on this one, so more to come! 

Fluffy Cat!

Inspired by my kitty who is sitting on my sketchbook, just a quick painting of a happy cat and her paper.

Vikings - Almost Done

I can't decide if this painting is finished or not... so I thought I'd upload another progress picture (and/or start something new) while I make up my mind.

Illustration Friday: Zodiac

Success! My first-ever completed Illustration Friday!  And it's even before the deadline :)

I remember sometimes gathering up groups of toys like this when I little, so it seemed like my kind of interpretation of the theme.

Vikings

I'm not sure this is done yet, but after re-starting four times and trying three different compositions this is still a work in progress, but it's the closest I to what I pictured when I started this project.

Hopefully (and this may be wishful thinking), I'll have this finished by the end of this week, so more to come soon.

On an unrelated note, my computer thinks I saved this on 4/8 but today is 4/13, but that's another problem.

Tea with a Kitty

If you have a cat... or have ever spent time with a cat... this might look familiar!

This is watercolor.  I may have overdone the layers just a bit, which is why the scan isn't exactly true to life, but I'm pretty happy with it.  (I have a problem with stopping a painting once I've started).

And, discovered the magical effects of adding a layer of water over a water color painting! It worked so well I tried it three or four (or five) more times... until the paper just wouldn't absorb any more water... or paint for that matter. 

But all in all, I'm pretty happy with this... I think I'd go for a more dynamic composition next time but, I think it's an overall improvement in the watercolor department, so I'll take it!

More to come! (Still working on those vikings... I've restarted twice and I think it may take one or two more passes before it's suitable for the internet :) ).