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!

5/30/15 - Cardinal Portrait Comparison

Today's a smaller update, as I don't have all that much more to show. I touched up the portrait I was working on last time, and now I have this:

 Compare with two weeks ago:

Or compare with two months ago:

That looks like solid progress to me.

Be back tomorrow!

5/29/15 - Cardinal Portrait...Again...But with Progress this time!

Hey! So I have a portrait, but as I said yesterday, with color! And a process!

I feel like I say this all the time, but I still wouldn't consider it done. There are many things to fix and a lot of touchup that could be done, but I think it's a decent enough progression!

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

5/28/15 - Last sketchy portraits for a while, promise

Yeah, I've been posting too much of the same thing. It's for the mentorship! And because I need the help on this step. I've neglected it for too long. So sorry for the lineart portrait spam. Here's one more:

I'm still trying to find a style that's mine and that I'm happy with. I think I'm getting damn close with the bottom one, which I duplicated and reversed to try more value.

So yeah, just more of the same this time. Tomorrow, my goal is to post another color portrait or maybe a bust to test fabric. I still need work on this step, but I could also use practice with taking said lineart and continuing the illustration with it. So I'm going to test that, hopefully tomorrow.

Be back then!

5/27/15 - Even Moretraits

I did just make that pun again. This time I don't apologize for it.

I do apologize for the lack of diversity in my recent uploads, but it's for the sake of improvement (and mentorship homework). Speaking of which, here's my first attempt at improvement after meeting with him:

I need to rediscover my own style in this work method, but I do like the results a lot. Now I'm thinking I should tweak the process and stylization a bit to fit me and then call it 'gut genug' (that would be "good enough" in German).

Yeah. So that's all for today, and tomorrow will likely consist of more facial exploration pieces! Probably with more Fire Emblem characters again!

See you then!

5/26/15 - Back on Track

Whoops! Forgot that it was going to be Memorial Day weekend and ended up being far busier than I thought! Well, hopefully I'll be back on track this week. Here's the rest of that portrait page I was working on. It's not much, but I plan to do more with these sketches:

I'm testing style and trying to get good at using these as a base. I'm also trying to avoid same-face syndrome and also trying to get a better grasp on understanding how the face works. These are the best examples of the bunch.

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

Memorial Weekend Break

I meant to post this earlier, but I will be taking a break this weekend for the holiday. Posting will resume on Tuesday!

5/21/15 - Some Mostly Line Portraits

And by some I mean two. I've been rather lazy these past few days; still adjusting to the freedom of break. I really aught to do more. Sadly, all I've got is this for today:

Basically, I'm going to be doing a LARGE amount of these kind of quick portraits over the next few week. Judging off of these two...I really could stand to improve my line portraits. A lot. A whole ton.

So these are here for me to laugh at in a week. Hopefully.

Till tomorrow!

5/20/15 - Busy days

Yikes! Missed one, and today's a phone update so I go no pretty pictures :/

It's been somewhat all over the place these past few days. I'm still getting used to being back home. I will have pretty pictures tomorrow, though!

5/18/15 - Moretraits

That is a terrible pun but I had to do it. Today's piece is just a three quarters version of last portrait; done for practice and mentorship:

Again, the hair is just a rough block in for now. I'm happy with it...below the eyes. I think I struggle with this angle so it was good practice but I still need more work. More studies are likely to follow.

Till tomorrow!

5/17/15 - Bad Days

Today, every single piece of technology I touched decided to malfunction somehow.
So I have no computer today and therefore no way to upload images. So sorry about that. I should be back to business tomorrow.

5/16/15 - Portraits Comparison

So today I did this:

As a portrait test for Cardinal. It isn't finished yet (I haven't really touched the hair and there's still a bit of cleanup that needs to be done, especially around the ears and somewhat around the other major facial features), but I did a decent amount and I have to say I'm pretty happy with it so far.


 And for some fun, compare it to a different portrait of the (almost) same character design I did six weeks ago:

Six weeks makes a pretty big difference apparently.

5/15/15 - Face Studies Start

I took some notes on face planes and facial structure:

I'm working on portraits again and I'd rather not show it in the state it's in now, so here's the prep work. I'll be posting more tomorrow!

Be back then!

5/14/15 - Two more old dailies

Hey! I moved back home today, so not much work done. So instead, I have two older dailies I did:

Both of them were tree studies of sorts. The first was a leaf brush test and the second was an experimentation with counterbalance. Both were very quick studies done for a small project. Sorry, but that's all I've got for now, be back tomorrow!

5/13/15 - Character Designs Again

Hey! So I painted over one of the characters from before:

And I'm likely to go back and change it a little more in the coming days, so I'm putting it here for posterity. And because I think it shows decent progress.

So stay tuned, cause I'll have an overpaint of this (probably) coming soon and more cool stuff again tomorrow!

5/12/15 - Red, Finished for Real

Okay, okay, I know I said it was finished last time but I made a few more changes to it and put it up on my dA, so here's the final final version:

Most notably I tightened up the edges on a lot of things, fixed some of the shading and clarity issues and did a bit of color rebalancing.

I'm going to be moving back home for the summer in the next few days, so things are going to stay hectic for a while (till Sunday maybe?). I will do my very best to post something interesting here everyday, so I hope to see you again tomorrow!

5/11/15 - Colossus Redo start

So I'm thinking about redoing the Colossus piece, as both the image and title suggests. I'm still not entirely happy with this sketch, but I thought it was cool and worth a post.

Since I'm still in the midst of finishing classes and packing to leave, I don't really have much else to add. Be back tomorrow!

EDIT: Just realized  missed a few days.,. :(
Finals week sucks, man.

5/9/15 - Not the Thumbnails!

Yeah, some thumbnails.

I was trying to avoid posting thumbs but again, it's finals week so I'm stretched for time, and I don't feel like showing character design sketches every day so this is how I'm mixing it up.

I want to actually work on some of these, namely the top left, bottom left and the one above the bottom left. I might also do the bottom center as a quick "mood test" at some point. That shouldn't take long.

But yeah, that's all for today and I'll be back again tomorrow!

5/8/15 - Even More Character Sketches

You were warned!

Ignore the date; I had that signature on it since I did the first rough line version and I just forgot the update it. But uh, yeah. I'll be working on this one and the last one, and some facial studies, and an illustration. Oh, and I have to study for finals and prepare a final essay. And finish the reading for the final unit in one class. And finish a colored pencil illustration.

It's gonna be a busy weekend. I don't know what's going to happen, but I do know that I will be back with something to show, tomorrow!

5/7/15 - More character designs

Hey! So this is a character design for a friend project gift thing:

I'm going to be doing a lot of these over the next few weeks, so expect a lot of that. Obviously it's not done, but I finished the line and I'll most likely be valuing it up tomorrow or the day after. I've got many more of these in progress and in queue, so again, there's a lot of figures and costumes in the future. I'll try to space them out with two other illustrations, Colossus and Radiance, that I've also got on the production line. So stay tuned!

I'll be back again tomorrow!

5/6/15 - Halo Story

So today was more reflection than work. I started a few small projects, did a few small studies and got an awesome lesson, but I don't have anything particularly interesting or new to show today. Well, not as far as my usually illustration goes.

I did make this though:

As you may be able to tell, it's a CaveStory and Halo crossover! I decided for no good reason to recreate it all from scratch, so the text, hud and sprites are all "hand painted". It was a small little thing for a daily post that turned into a much bigger project than I had planned, but two and a half hours later I had this. It was fun! I don't usually do pixel art, so it was interesting.

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

5/5/15 - Radiance Start

So I started up my next big-ish Illustration after Olivia:

I started using a lot more reference for poses, which I think has been extraordinarily helpful. It also gives me a head start on the lighting. There's a lot of linework this time around because I learned my lesson last time - any problems I don't solve early will come back to haunt me later, and for longer and harder when I get to the later stages of the painting. So I'm trying to solve all of the perspective and surface problems now.

As for the subject itself, well, it's Destiny! That new chestpiece, Purifier Robes, looks amazing, so I had to try my hand at it. And if you play Destiny a bit, you might realize I'm cheating here: I have two exotics equipped: the Purifier Robes and Light Beyond Nemesis. This wouldn't be possible in game, but I thought the feathers on LBN (the helm) matched the robes well and I couldn't think of a better helmet to match. And if you're really curious, the gloves are Tengu Operant I, which is from a really cool early blue armor set. So yeah, in game, this wouldn't make any sense but I thought it looked cool, so it stays. There's gonna be a lot of fire too, because this would be a moment after the Warlock here has cast Radiance, so there's bound to be flames everywhere, such as the that composing wings that I've lightly sketched out or fire coming from the hand in the foreground, which I have not yet drawn in.

So yeah, that's all for today. Be back tomorrow!

5/4/15 - Olivia Finished!

It's done!

Not much else to say. I'd like to sharpen up the image a bit more, but I've grown a bit tired of this piece and feel like I could be more productive practicing a sharper brush on a new piece, so that's what I'll do. Also, I think I'd like to lean a little closer to realism - right now it looks like I'm on the fence. I haven't yet fully figured out how to do stylized figures really well. Maybe next time!

So yeah, that's it for today; I'll be back again tomorrow!

5/3/15 - Olivia, Part Three

So I'm very, very close to finishing this piece but again, I can't take an up to date screenshot. I do have one that's much further along than the last one though:

So tomorrow, I should be able to post the completed one! Till then!

5/2/15 - Some small studies

I've had to devote a lot of my time to final projects recently, so that's why the big updates on major paintings have practically come to a halt. After Wednesday next week I'll be done, so then the painting will be back in full swing!

Till then, I'll post what I can. Like this study of dice and the Inception totem:

I guess I messed up the date on the totem. Oops.

Anyway, be back again tomorrow!

5/1/15 - Olivia Progress

Hey! I figure it's been a few days since I did a daily on Olivia, so I'll post a quick update on that. I'm actually a couple hours further into this piece than the picture shows, but I don't have that file available at the moment. I fixed up colors and began polishing it. But here's what I've got to show:

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