Angha/Simurgh

Part of an art challenge going on right now at alphabeastiary, for anyone who wants to check it out. I was curious to see if my art was up to snuff for their standards, so I asked and they told me to send in my art of the first creature for them to judge by, since they weren't sure. This took the better part of my afternoon and I'm not even sure it will make it in, but it will still look nice in the collection.

For anyone who isn't familiar with the angha, or simurgh, it is a mythological animal from Persia that roosts in the Tree of Life and is large enough to eat elephants or whales. It's supposed to be a dog with peacock wings and tail as well as lion's claws. Some of the stuff I read for it on wikipedia noted that a variant on the myth claims that the simurgh had copper feathers, hence my choice of orange (I hope it doesn't look too skewed on bright, warm-toned screens :\ )

Done in Gimp with the good old tablet, and ohhh my poor hand.

Germosh

Here's a drawing I finished yesterday, and I was so happy to have it done, too. This is supposed to be one of the deities from my books, specifically, the one indirectly responsible for giving wings to giant wolves. I had quite a bit of fun with his patterns and coloration, as I was trying to give him a very distinct, fantastical look (I almost did the brown points in a dark violet blue, but I sure seem to use blue in a lot of things, so I scrapped that idea)

Originally this was a pencil sketch, but I wanted to color it so I ended up inking him. Done in Micron pen and colored pencil, then touched up in Gimp to make it easier on the eyes.



Also for a bit of fun, here's a picture of a couple of jack-o-lanterns I carved last night, since Halloween is almost here.

How to waste 5 minutes...

Soooo I wasn't happy with the header I had up for this blog. Can you tell? The black one was just a placeholder, but it was getting on my nerves. I don't think it's far fetched to say that anyone coming to look at my blog would glance at the banner and go, "Hm, another mediochre one. Not impressed."

And I know my art isn't the utmost, jaw-droppingly fantastic stuff out there, but I like to think I'm NOT mediochre. But when your advertising looks that way, why in the world would anyone want to have you create artwork for them? So anyway, the new banner is somewhat better at least. :|

Went to the art critique group again tonight and got some helpful pointers on human composition, which I must try. Ever wondered why I draw a bunch of dragons and beasties? C'mere, it's a secret..............It's because I can't draw the flaming HUMANS like I want! Someday I'll be better. Someday the peoples in my brain will come out on paper the way I want........Someday I'll go sit somewhere in public and weird people out while I sketch rough references for size and anatomy, muahaha.

Also I've been trying to figure out a way to get word around a little more that I'm actually accepting commissions. I think two out of the three people who know about it have forgotten :\ And I'm leery of places like dA, FA, or epilogue.net because of bad experiences and the kind of content one can find on there. Seriously, it's great that people can draw anatomy of humans or anthro's so well, but I don't want to see quite as much of the detail as they tend to put into it. Like the risque, jiggly kinds. If you catch my drift. In other words, this means I'm marooned on my own island of blogland, which is not to belittle the couple of friends who actually read this blog. You guys are awesome and you make me feel loved and warm and fuzzy!

I've been wanting to do more art since going to the critique group in the summer, but part of my problem is that I get horrible eyestrain or handstrain, so I've had to back off of things for a while. I never thought I'd be much into the critiquing (sp?) but just being able to see other peoples' styles, sketches, completed art and receiving advice from those people does wonders for motivation. I think I also have a lot of that thing going on, you know, the thing? What I mean is where you become so used to what you can do that you feel like everyone must be able to do that, then you see what others are capable of (in this case, their art) and you feel like you're pretty bad. I'm working on it, as I very much like my own art, but sometimes I really feel like others have an established, professional style, and mine is pretty wibbly and immature.

Well I have to say, I do feel a little better for having gotten all that off my chest. Now for bed........

Bleh

The latest distraction. Uber fire color fail - mayhaps I need to study some fire references :/ Why must you elude me, fire, WHY?!?!?!

This is just a thumbnail of a rough sketch, so that's why it looks crappy. Two hours down the drain.....I am so stupid for staying up this late. I'm going to BED.

projects...

Just a little something I'm working on. I had finished this image several months ago, then decided that I wasn't happy with some of the lighting. I've been meaning to get to it for a while and today I finally did. I have to say, I'm having a lot of fun with it, now that I know a few new tricks to try :)

The top screenshot is of the version I'm currently working with. The bottom one is what the former coloring looked like with the intended background. See how the lighting on the gray wyvern just isn't working that well? It looks like he got kool-aid or something splashed on him.

The entire image will be used as a book cover for my current writing project, so I want it to be as spiffy as it can. And let me tell you, I lurvs the dark lighting with bright splashes of color!