9/6/15 - Betta Glass

Hey, I missed yesterday and I have progress on one of the thumbs I showed over the last few days instead of Ilyana progress today:

But Ilyana is one of a few pieces I'm gonna be working on tomorrow for sure so I should have something to show then!

Till tomorrow!

9/4/15 - More Thumbs

Just as the title says, I really only have more thumbs right now. I hope to have more Ilyana progress tomorrow, so look for that!

Be back then!

9/3/15 - Some Thumbs

I missed yesterday, but today I've got some work from my other classes:

That's all for now. I'll be back and with more explanation (probably) tomorrow!

8/31/15 - Ilyana Thumbs

So I started work on the thumbnail sketches, generating ideas for the full composition. I'm likely going to take the top right one and flesh it out a lot more. I like that pose for her, as it's based on her attack animation in the game increasing familiarity and it's a powerful pose.

Tomorrow I'll probably have a very different set of thumbnails, as I'm now juggling a lot of different projects thanks to uni. This means more diverse work but it might get a bit confusing as I jump back and forward. There's a lot of different pieces I need to work on now.

And I'll show the start of one of them tomorrow!

8/30/15 - Ilyana Design Final

So this is the design I went with:

After I took some mentorship suggestions. I'm pretty happy with it, I think it looks pretty cool. Now it's on to the composition and rough sketch!

Which I will show progress on tomorrow!

8/29/15 - Prep sketches

So I started prep work for the next character a few days back:

This time, I wanted to do a bit more of a study on the costume, so I drew out a few variations that kept the same core themes I saw in the original design. Not much to say besides that. I've got a few days of work for this piece saved up so I'll definitely have stuff ready to share for the next few days!

Till tomorrow!

8/28/15 - Fiora Finish!

Ho damn that break was longer than I thought it was. But here I am, finally settled back in and ready for another semester. I'll begin posting daily again.

And to celebrate, I uploaded the Fiora piece!

Not much to say besides that. I've started the next piece (another FE piece) and I'll be uploading progress on that one starting tomorrow!

So I'll be back tomorrow with new stuff!

8/10/15 - Short Hold Again

Hello,

So it might be obvious by my really spotty posting recently, but things have been getting rather busy as I prepare to go back to school, visit up family and friends again while wrapping up summer projects. I'm inconsistent with my work schedule right now, so I can't promise consistent updates for a while. I'll update when I can (I expect the Fiora piece to be done REALLY SOON and some more FE concept stuff done shortly afterwards) but I can't promise a daily update for a while. My estimate is 14 days, as that's when I'll be back in the rhythm at uni, like earlier this year.

So hang tight and I'll be back again soon!

8/7/15 - Even Closer to Done

I finally got around to work on the wings and spear. I still have a few small changes, a refine pass and some effects left, but it's looking pretty close to done!

Once I'm done I'm probably going to do a few more smaller sketches and design stuff first, and then I'll dive back into another full fledged piece like this. And hopefully I'll work faster.

That said, I learned a LOT while working on this thanks to Kienan and I'm excited to both finish this one and see what the next piece will bring!

8/4/15 - Almost Done

Hey, sorry I keep dropping updates; internet has been on and off. I'd like to restate that I'll be much more consistent come September. So bear with me here. In another news, I'm almost done with the Fiora piece!

The face and breastplate are mostly done and I fixed up some other things around the image. The rest should just be polish and cleaning lines!

I hope to have it done by tomorrow but I'll just have to see. Till then!

8/1/15 - Fiora Again

I'm getting really close now! And I have an actual update!

This step, the cleanup phase, is easily the most boring and also the most time consuming. It takes a long time to polish and is far harder to notice the amount of progress when I'm making it. So it's a bit of a drag, but here's what I got done:

Most of the changes this time were in the face and breastplate. I am almost done with the latter but I think I'll be spending a bit more time on the former.

So that's all for today and with any luck, I'll be finished with this piece within the week!

7/31/15 - Quick Update

Whew, that vacation really messed up my posting schedule. Sorry.

I have not had consistent access to my files and workspace for the last few days so I've got no digital work to show today. Sorry again. I wanted to post to provide some sort of update and say that this should be changing back to a more regular schedule soon: I'm likely to have a few art related jobs and projects lined up in the near future and classes tend to mean I become far more productive. So hang in there, I'll be back at full steam within the month!

7/27/15 - Small Fiora Update

Hey! Sorry I missed yesterday; I lost power and thus my modem was off, meaning no internet and no blog. I felt okay enough with the small warmups to start doing a bit of work on Fiora, so I'm trying to take out all the black lines. I got a good number of em:

Sadly I also hurt my wrist a bit while lifting some stuff outside, so I'm going somewhat light on the arting for the next few days. I REALLY don't want to end up with a more serious issue so I'd rather play it safe now than pay for it later. The result is that I'll probably have smaller updates now, but I won't take any chances as far as long term injuries if I have to.

So that's all for today. I'll be back tomorrow!

7/25/15 - Back to Business

I'm back!

So something to sort out:

I was rather naive to assume that I'd have lots of time to do work...while on vacation. I did a ton of sightseeing and came back to the hotel far too tired and far too late to do any work on just about every day. So it was foolish to assume I'd have lots of work done. Plus, it was vacation.

So I'm likely to be spending the next couple of days just getting all the cobwebs out. I feel pretty dang rusty after just two weeks, so I don't want to work on anything big like the Fiora piece till I feel confident enough in my ability again. So I did a bunch of smaller sketches and such today. Here's two more sketches of the "royal family siblings" for the story I was working on:

So that's all for today, and I'll be back tomorrow!

7/9/15 - Tiny Update

Today was another day looming closer to vacation, leaving less time to art. I didn't make huge progress on Fiora, so here's another small sketch:

Now I may or may not be back again tomorrow, so in case I'm not able to post tomorrow:

I will be on vacation from Friday, July 10th until Friday, July 24th. For those two weeks I will not have steady internet and hence not be able to post. Posts will resume on Saturday, July 25th and I should have a decent about of new material as I will hopefully be able to do some drawing while on vacation. So until then, have a good one!

7/8/15 - Fiora Color Update

These updates get a bit smaller as I get closer to vacation. After another meet with Kienan, I changed the colors a bit to better reflect the lighting:

He's been really instrumental in this piece so far, but the rest is up to me! Tomorrow will be the last update before vacation, but I hope to get some work done on this and maybe start a second piece while I'm overseas. So hopefully I'll have lots of content when I get back!

Till tomorrow!

7/7/15 - Fiora Update

So I got some great feedback from Kienan again and worked more on the Fiora piece, shown here:

I think it's come a long way, and now it's really just down to polish!

Be back again tomorrow!

7/5/15 - Quick Notice

I don't have anything to show today, so sorry.

I do have a bit of an announcement - I'm going to be on vacation and without consistent internet access for two weeks or so starting on Saturday, July 11th, so there will be no updates on that day and for the next two weeks afterwards.

I will resume normal posting upon return, which should be the 24th or the 25th.

So that's all for now. Tomorrow will be a normal post.

7/4/15 - Peg Knight Update

I did have time to work on the piece today, so I roughed in the lighting:

Because I just started with the darkest value for any given material, this was simply an additive process and it was much simpler. There's still more to do, but I think it looks pretty nifty so far.

Be back again tomorrow!

7/3/15 - Anatomy Sketches Pt 2

So my tablet was being screwy today, meaning I didn't get much done on the Fiora piece. So here's some of the anatomy sketches I did back when I was studying for Rising and Fiora. It's not much, but it's more interesting than another tiny update. I thiiiiiiink I'll be able to get stuff done tomorrow, but it is the 4th of July...

So we'll see. Hopefully I'll have a better update then!

7/2/15 - Yikes!

I'm missing quite a few now! That's not good. Progress has been slow due to family obligations taking up a lot more time this week, with my faraway family visiting.

That said, I've got the first batch of color down pat:

And yes, it is very, very dark, because I haven't added back in the direct or reflected light yet, nor has it been refined. I think this step will make for a cool comparison to (hopefully tomorrow's) next update on this where I do add that light back in and it "pops".

I'm trying something a bit different this time so I'll see how it plays out!

Till tomorrow!

6/30/15 - Met Trip

I took another trip to the met today, so that was an all day thing, and I didn't have time to work on anything.

I do however have three simple color variations on the Peg Knight piece. I need to decide what I want the ambient color to be before I proceed, so I tested out a few and now I have to pick one and start going at it. Here's the three I liked:

I think I also need a midground object too, but I'll work on that after I pick out a color scheme. Hopefully I can work on that tomorrow.

Be back then!

6/29/15 - Breaking the Slump

I've been in a bit of a slump recently (and feeling rather sick), so I doodled a couple of smaller things to try to get back to a good state of mind to draw. I can't really say it was all that successful but I got a couple of little sketches out of it.

Here's one:

Until tomorrow!

6/28/15 - Basic Colors In

Sorry, I missed yesterday again! I sounds like a broken record but my summer is far more hectic than my school season so I apologize if I miss days without warning now and again. Usually its social or family obligations or spur of the moment things.

Anyway, I got around to starting color on the Peg Knight piece, so I'll show that off:

I don't know if I want to keep this color scheme for the background or not...hm...

I'll probably be trying a couple alternatives tomorrow. I do need to figure out the ambient color first as the rest of the palette depends on the ambient light, so that's next I suppose.

Well, I'll be back tomorrow!

6/26/15 - Post Mentorship Update

So I got some sound advice from my mentor (his dA can be found here: http://knockwurst.deviantart.com/) about the piece I was working on in addition to a bit of paintover. I took his advice and paintover, spent about an hour and a half on it and arrived here:

I'm looking forward to how this piece will turn out. Both the advice and paintover were very helpful and I will hopefully take this to completion within the next week or two. I should be done with value in a day or so, and then I can move on to color!

Till tomorrow,

6/23/15 - Family Break

I've got family visiting from we'll out of state and it is my brother's birthday tomorrow, so I've been kept away from as much art. I will return to normal update scedhule (which is to say an art update with pictures every day) on Friday. Sorry!

6/22/15 - Some Actual Progress

I made progress!

Almost done with the line/value stuff! I just gotta finish the hand/lance, work on the pegasus a bit then give it a quick polish coat and I'll move on to bigger and more colorful steps!

The rest of this should come relatively quickly as I don't foresee as many changes and iterations once I've gotten out of this value step.

So I'll be back tomorrow, hopefully with even more progress!

6/21/15 - Fathers Day Mini-Update

As it was Father's Day, I spent the day working and hanging out with my dad, so I didn't really do any arting, nor do I have any reserves to show at the moment. Since the last picture I put up of the Peg Knight, I changed the face AGAIN and then actually moved on to the rest of the drawing, so that's a good sign. I should have significant progress by tomorrow!

So I hope Father's Day was good, and I'll be back tomorrow!

6/20/15 - More Flier Progress

This is a slow slog. My time off really did a number on my arting, even if it was a few days. Either that, or I'm just not happy with my current ability and as such I keep attempting to redo it better.

Whatever the case, I'm somewhat locked in on this right now:

I think I need to reorient the features a bit, but this works, and is a bit more anatomically sound. I just need to get a head that I like, and the rest should come pretty quickly.

Well, that's it for now. I'll be back tomorrow!

6/19/15 - More Fail Days

I'm in a bit of a rut at the moment...I tried for hours to make significant progress on any of the pieces I was working on before but I'm not happy with any of them and hence have nothing significant to show. And it kind of sucks. So sorry, but this little blurb is all I've got for today. Hopefully, I'll have something tomorrow.

6/18/15 - Start of Pegasus Knight piece

So I have the base sketch figured out for the peg knight:

I think I'll need to fix the angle of the head and change a few things, but I think it's a good start. It fell together pretty quickly, except for the spear arm. Initially, I had it in an impossible position. It took a bit of mirror acrobatics and a webcam, but I got it to a largely possible, if not ideal, throwing position.

Well, that's all for today, I'll be back again tomorrow!

6/17/15 - Color on Rising

I'm starting to go back to the Fiora piece so I don't have as big of an update on Rising today:

I'm spending so much time redoing the same parts over and over again, so I think it's best if I set it aside, work more on the Fiora piece and come back to this later. So that's the plan.

And with that, I'll be back tomorrow!

6/16/15 - Back to "Rising"

I got a face that I was at least somewhat happy with!

The rest wasn't much time. Now that I've got that roughed in, the next bit of progress should come much faster (provided I get the time to work on it tomorrow), so we'll see how it goes.

That's all for today, I'll be back tomorrow!

6/15/15 - Enviro Thumbs

I've been rather busy these past couple of days and hadn't had time to sit down and spend a lot of time at the tablet. I'm on vacation, you know?

That said, I have a series of thumbnails I did a while back that I believe are fine to post. It was a test - I took a bunch of images, collaged them together and painted on top of the resulting forms. It was an interesting way to spark creativity.

Well, that's it for today, hopefully I'll be back tomorrow!

6/13/15 - On Failing to Draw a Face

Damn this stupid face.

I blocked in the armor I want for the figure and then went to do the face and I took a stab at it...and again...and again...and again...

Several hours later and I'm no closer than when I started. So that's fun.

Well, I'll be back tomorrow.

6/12/15 - Thumbnail for Illustration?

Hey! As I mentioned earlier, I'm working on a lot of figure drawing and anatomy stuff, and seeing as a lot of that ends up being NSFW, I'm not gonna post most of it here, in hopes of keeping this more tame. That said, I came up with this figure and, well, it should be passable:

I liked the post and think I might take this one a bit further. Maybe full illustration? It has been a while...

Well, I've got nothing else to show, so that's it for now. Be back again tomorrow!

6/11/15 - Hints at the next big project

In the form of a portrait! Well, really it's more of a bust, but still.

I had problems with my tablet again today...this time the nub wore down and I had to hunt down my replacement nubs. This was both a test for a new type of nub and a test of style/likeness of a character, of whom I will be making a much more interesting and larger piece! So come back for progress on that sometime in the near future.

Till tomorrow!

6/10/15 - Expanded Anatomy Studies

Not much exciting again today; I just have two more sketches to add to the anatomy group:

So yeah. I'm not sure how much of the next couple weeks of study I will be putting up on the blog as I'd like to keep it SFW and I'm going to be doing a lot more anatomy studies so...I'll have to find something interesting to post instead. Which is good news for you guys.

Well, I'll be back again tomorrow!

6/9/15 - Begin Anatomy Studies

As the title says, I started doing some studies. Here's one such sketch:

It started as a simple torso test (you might notice that it got the most attention) but I decided to take a bit of time to sketch out the rest of the figure as well, with major muscle masses indicated.

Well, that's it for today. Be back again tomorrow!

6/8/15 - Portrait Finished!

Well, I think I'm going to call it finished at least. I did what I wanted to do. As always, there are things I might change but this looks pretty good so I'll stay with this for now:

Overall, I'm fairly happy with it!

Tomorrow, I will have something more full bodied (or maybe parts of bodies but not heads).

So I'll be back tomorrow!

6/7/15 - Further Progress on this portrait

Oh I've got a fun and hopefully cool idea in store. But for today, all I have is another update on the portrait:

I started to realize just how badly diminishing returns affects detail in Illustration. I did a lot more work on this, but the level of detail means that each bit I refine adds less value per time spent than it did on the last pass.

Well, that aside, I'll hopefully be done with this piece by tomorrow, and from there I hope to have enough of this "cool idea" to show. If not, it'll be anatomy/figure drawing studies.

So I'll be back tomorrow!

6/6/15 - One Final Portrait Progress

Yep! Quick update again; it's a busy week. Hell, it's a busy summer. So here's the progress I made in an hour or so:

Mostly figuring out where I want all the facial features. I still think I need to adjust proportion a bit more. I'll start on that tomorrow.

Till then!

6/5/15 - One Final Portrait

Yes I'm doing it again. One last time. For now.

So yeah, I'm doing a Cardinal portrait again. Here's the beginnings of the value stage. I redid it as I'm not all that happy with my previous attempt.

So, that's all for now. I got my tablet working again and this was all I could muster for now. More progress on this piece tomorrow!

6/4/15 - Even Further Comparison

So I'm redoing one final portrait here. Okay? One more. I'm redoing Cardinal again. For the mentorship! It's worth!

Well, I would be, but my tablet's being temperamental today. So sadly I don't have anything digital to show.

So I'm going to show another comparison. I found a similar portrait that I did one year (well, two days shy of a year; it was done on 6/6/14) ago. And I'll compare with that last portrait again:

Haha. Just about the same amount of time too.

Well, that's my daily motivation. I'll be back again (with something new this time) tomorrow!

6/3/15 - Still Portraiting

I'll be mixing it up soon, as I'll be moving on to anatomy at large. Almost done with the faces! Till then, enjoy four more rough ones:

Yeah. These updates have been getting somewhat monotonous and I apologize. I'm devoting more of my art time to this mentorship which means that I'm sticking to one subject and concentrating my time on this. Recently, that means practicing working in line, through repeated portrait sketches. I'm trying to ensure that I can handle a wide variety of faces and expressions. In addition, I found that my art time of late is actually more limited over the summer than it was during the schoolyear. So sorry for the repeated use of a single topic. But again, I'm going to be moving on this week, so there's that.

And I'll be back with the beginnings of these new studies...tomorrow!

6/2/15 - Coloring Yesterday's

All I've got today are rough color versions of yesterday's and the beginning of a Cardinal redo alongside them:

Not much else to say. I've got to fix my sleep and work schedule. That's on the agenda for this week.

Till tomorrow!

6/1/15 - Royal Sibling Portrait Exploration 1

Hey! Back to portraits, I'm afraid. I've got two more today:

The two are siblings in a story I'm working on. I tried to get a similar likeness yet still obviously the appearance of two different people, one older, one younger. As with most of the stuff here, not finished, and I'll likely be revisiting it, as well as more portraits, tomorrow.

So be back then!

5/31/15 - Colossus Color Rough

All I've got today is a rough color of an older lineart drawing and more portraits. So, well, I'll skip the portraits again. Tomorrow, it will likely continue. I need to work on them, so that's pretty much the majority of what I've devoted time to recently. That said, here's today's piece:

I used a lot of the original's colors but I changed some. The hand needs adjustment.

I'll be back again tomorrow!