For this pic, since it was supposed to be dark with a brilliantly-lit magic circle in the background, I went with the dramatic lighting. And it lets me be lazy. No troublesome skintones here, just straight-up positive and negative space.
Click to enlarge
I couldn’t find a reference of the exact pose I needed, so I had my husband pose for me and took pictures. Works like a charm! Why have I never done this before?
And a closeup of the face.
While this might have given me trouble with full-on color, as positive/negative space, it just becomes fun. And I can even get close to the likeness, too.
Tags: blocked in colors, commission, humans, light
The next character for my commission is a non-human (let’s just call him an elf, too) who is based on Sean Connery.
*jumps for joy*
I get to draw Sean Connery looking sarcastic!
Click to enlarge
“We named the dog Indiana.”
And even if I don’t peg the likeness exactly, I still get to use Sean Connery as reference. /fangirl
Because I just love robots. I made up a whole robot world for them, intentionally nothing like the Matrix. The setting is that Xironi, a catgirl, is taking Esca, her little broken robot, back to her homeworld for repairs.
Xironi clasped Esca to her chest and stepped into the portal.
For a moment there was an unpleasant floating sensation, and Xironi thought she was back inside the Nightmare Crystal, watching that blade bury itself in her ribs. Then the world blinked into being, and they arrived on Unross Prime.
Xironi stared around in pleasant surprise. She had expected some dark, bleak robotic future so popular in movies, with a dark sky, black buildings, creepy robots everywhere, and no nature left to speak of.
Instead she saw a blue sky overhead, sprinkled with white clouds. She had arrived on a wide paved circle decorated with blue and white stones in geometric patterns. Nearby stood three Unrossi, two small and humanoid, and one ten feet tall and patterned after some kind of carnivorous dinosaur.
Tags: spacetime complex, writing
I toyed with the elf chick’s eyes quite a bit tonight.
Too big.
A little better.
And then loads and loads of flowers.
Click for fullview
I now have the world’s worst artist cramp. Similar to writer’s cramp, except that instead of your fingers being all sore, it’s the entire back of your hand and your palm.
Tags: commission, detail, flower, humans
I worked 3 hours on this pic tonight, and this is how far I got. Especially after I realized that the pic was supposed to be 12″ x 18″, and I was working in 12″ x 8″. Oops.
Click for fullview
So I expanded out the background, which is actually kind of nice, because now it doesn’t feel so squished. I busted out the Artists > Impressionist brush for the foreground leaves. Gosh, I love that brush. Makes the best leaves!
Also did a bunch of work on the girl herself. Take a look.
I had already sketched all the designs, so I just traced them in white on a new layer, locked the transparency, grabbed a big soft brush (I believe I used Gouache > Opaque Smooth Brush 30 with the opacity set to 5%), and made the shading match the rest of her body.
Her chest has a unicorn and a dragon facing each other, with a griffin head up above. I found a bunch of really spiffy Celtic designs of each critter, but I couldn’t exactly copy them in such a small space, so I just improvised.
Her face is still a bit funky. I’m trying to put detail into her eyes and mouth, and understate her nose. As you can see from the fullview pic up there, it looks fine from a distance. I have trouble with noses. I either overstate them or understate them.
Tags: background, corel painter, details, humans, shading
We have color! And more refined sketches! I’m pleased with how she’s coming.
Tags: blocked in colors, humans, sketch
Continuing the commission from my previous post of the elf chick. My commissioner preferred sketch #1, so I started work on it.
And realized that I simply cannot draw good humanoids without reference.
A while back, I found a good archive of stock human photos on DA, because I knew I would need it at such a time as this. I dug around in there, and presto, found a reference!
Now she looks much more natural and less like a posed doll. Also she’s gained a bit o’ weight, so I think I’ll have to slim her back down. Elves aren’t supposed to look robust and healthy, they’re more on the anorexic side. Must be the vegetarian diet.
Tags: commission, fantasy, humans, sketch