Here, Have a Griffin!

I woke up yesterday and wanted to draw a griffin. This piece was good practice for me with Krita, as I'm learning how to better use the tools available to me. This is the first time I've been able to do line art with the program, and it's pretty much required me to draw my lines backwards from how I'm used to inking them. It was challenging, but fun. I'm so thankful heavenly father has blessed me to be able to draw the things that are in my head.

About 3.25 hours. Done in Krita.

Character sketch 24

Here's a sketch that I actually drew a few years ago. This is a character that shows up in my current writing project. I have been looking forward to working with them for a long time, now, and I'm excited to finally be working on this book.

Don't mind all the smudges and debris in the margins. That's just my smudgy hand and the scanner making sweet music together.

Current screenshot - Blayde

In addition to redesigning the covers for my trilogy, I'm brushing up on my painting skills with a program called Krita. My long-faithful tablet finally gave up on me last month, and I've been very fortunate to get a new Wacom Intuous Touch. I figured that it would be a good idea to practice on something before I start designing what will hopefully be high quality cover art.

Here's a shot of my practice project. This is the colored version of a sketch I posted here. This is still very much in progress, as you can see.

Rejected Cover - Path of a Hero

I have internet!! (sort of) Hoorah!

Though I have not been able to make blog posts in the past several months, I have been making art. Currently, my main project is a re-do of the covers for my trilogy. This is a huge project for me!

Pictured above is a rejected concept for Book 2, Path of a Hero. This is a drawing of the character Terezom, and while I think it gave me the chance to show some of his physical details, it just lacks the pizzazz I'm after. So, it gets filed away in my sketch folder.

I'm hoping to track down the software for my scanner without too much trouble. FYI, two halves of a software CD do not, unfortunately, make a whole. At least not so far as the CD reader is concerned :/ I would much prefer to scan these concepts into the computer, rather than taking pictures. the quality is just so much better.

Laiuna card

Yay, another one! It's been a while since I've worked on any of these. I've been busy with writing projects and have had to be careful about how much art I do right now for trading cards. I found that it was actually draining my energy and hindering my ability to write frequently. With Wayside Tales nearing completion, I've been able to come back and look at these cards a little more. It helps that I already had the graphic drawn for the lore drake, too.

Old Art: Wyvern Lantern

Some years ago, I posted this over on DeviantArt. I later deleted my account there, and it's been a long time since I've seen this picture. I ran across it the other day while backing up files from my external drive.

Readers familiar with the events in Taloner: Reima 2 may recognize this concept. It was for an object in the fantasy world called a Wyvern Lantern, which was a large statue that marked the borders of imperial territory.

I feel like I've improved a lot with my art since creating this piece, but this marked one of my first paintings done with a tablet. We've all gotta start somewhere.

Fox wings

 Recently finished image from my sketchbook. This is one of the Chaos Beasts.