Anjel cave badge

So quite a while ago, I was a member of an art exchange community and had volunteered to create a piece of art for someone who didn't get their fair trade. Well, I made the piece, then neglected to send it for a long time. I did this as an apology for the recipient, who will be getting both the original piece I owed her and this new piece, since I feel bad that she had to wait for so long for her art.

I tried to incorporate some luminescent mushrooms on rocks, since the recipient is actually a cave biologist and has a fascination with things like mushrooms. It was pretty fun.

Done with microns, brush pen, gel pen, watercolor pencil and traditional colored pencil.

Character is copyright her owner.

Recon + A little request

Trade piece done for theNightFell of her character, Recon. I had a lot of fun with inks on here, since this gave me the excuse to go and purchase my first ever art marker, yahoo! I also used my black brush pen generously......oh, it will be a sad, sad day when that thing dies. Anyhow, it was mentioned that the character might fit the whole post-apocalyptic look. I will admit now that I had to look it up to see just what kind of style that was. I guess I didn't realize that Terminator could be considered part of that bracket, but it makes sense now.

Recon belongs to theNightFell. Remember children, no stealing! You don't want to make me release the ninjas.

Alright, I now have a question for you artsy people. Yes, I'm looking at you. When you are suffering from a lack of artistic inspiration, what do you do? What helps get your juices flowing again? Suffice it to say that I have been dealing with a great amount of stress lately, and it has been doing a good job of killing my muse. I am usually inspired by the beauty of the outdoors, by good music, by the random things I see like striking swatches of color or fun geometric designs. I still notice those things, but somehow they haven't been translating to the energy to draw. It could be that I've been overdoing things for a while and am suffering from prolonged burnout, but I thought I'd see what other folks do when they hit a road block like this.

PawPer badges

I got commissioned! HURRAY!! First drawn commissions ever, so I'm very excited. These turned out very well, too, and the recipient was pleased with them, so what more can I ask for?

Several weeks ago, I found some brush pens hidden in our art supply closet. I was so thrilled to find some form of markers to play with, but I didn't realize until I was working on these commissions just how wonderful those things are. It seems that depending upon the pressure used while coloring with them, a person can produce different textures. Texture! Do you know how much fun it is to find out that I scored like that with an inking tool?

All of these were done in micron pen, colored pencil, brush pen, and some gold gel pen thrown in to help with colors. Much of the black fur on the first two wolves was done with a black brush pen and then touched up with black colored pencil. Because of the nature of the pen, I was able to do the fur a lot better than I would have using just pencil. I also tried to do more of a comic book-type of lighting on the fur, meaning a stark difference between the lights and darks instead of the very blended look I usually go for. I'm really pleased with the result.

The first and third images are of a type of art/convention badge I'm thinking of offering for commissions that I'm referring to as "Paw Perspective" badges - in other words, they're supposed to look like the person's character is standing on a pane of glass above you, or something to that extent. It's a very different, challenging angle that I enjoy drawing from, I think partly because it forces me to think differently on some of the anatomy of the character. It's not an angle I see many people draw from.

HollyAnn badge

I have to say, I'm pretty proud of this one. Like really, really proud. I never draw anything at all from My Little Pony, though I did play with them when I was under three feet tall. This badge is for HollyAnn on the Livejournal comm, who apparently has a My Little Pony collection. Since I haven't looked at that kind of stuff for over twenty years, I had to do some research last night .... and the result was me sitting up far too late on a work night and giggling like a fiend while I sketched this out.

Done in micron and colored pencil.

Woha badge

Badge done for the April round at the conbadge community. I got someone this time who's character is a wolf, which made me excited because I have been into drawing wolves lately. I've never drawn them much before and just decided within the last half year or so that I wanted to learn how to sketch and shape them better. The person I got specifically requested a fairy theme, which made it all the more fun.

Scanner killed some of the color, but this was done in micron pen and colored pencil on computer paper and cardstock, with a little bit of gold and silver gel pen thrown in for the name and fairies.

If you'd like to know what kind of colored pencils I use, the answer is lots :) I have a big box of leftover pencils from school years and the like that have been gathered up, so I use a mix of Crayola, Enre, Templar, Berol, Four Seasons, and some others that have no brand stamp or are ones you've probably never heard of. I think the Enre's are my favorite. I tend to layer my colors, so really just about anything I color is going to be a good mix of the "herd".

Riley badge

You know, you'd think that with how long scanning devices have been around, the engineers behind them would be able to fix it so that they don't destroy so much of the color they're scanning.....Well, truth be told, my scanner is actually pretty good. I just need to figure out how to use the filters on it better.

Another badge done for the conbadge community, this time for Riley Costello. I had unbelievable fun with this one, partly because of the colors, partly because it was a cat and partly because of the pose. Yeah, I'm pretty proud of that pose. I don't do many like it and it came out shwell. Took me perhapse 3-4 hours to do, I think, which is not including the time I spent working on concept sketches. So if you thought you were a slow artist.....don't worry, lol. I like to take my time.

Kite badge

Wooo, got it colored before work! HOO-ah!

Conbadge done for gingerligress over at the badge exchange comm. on livejournal. I had fun with the camo....just wish the colors were a little more distinct on the vest.

Done in a few hours with micron pen, colored pencil, and then slapped on some card stock, yay!

Con badge

I never go to conventions, but I've seen some cool badges on the web lately and decided that I wanted one for myself. So, I sat down and did this one. Not too bad, considering it's my first one, eh? I'm really happy with how it turned out. I might get it laminated to help protect it.

The artwork was done on white computer paper with micron pen, graphite and colored pencils. After that I just cut it out (the worst phase, imo) and glued it to some cardstock.

The character here is my persona, of course. It's a cyborg-ish anthro dragon. I usually have trouble drawing this character and getting it to look right, as the dragon is long, lean, limber, and has a dash of attitude. I usually can't get the proportions estimated correctly when I start drawing it, which is what throws me off. I think I got it this time, though :)

I'd definately be up for doing more of these in the future, though I don't actually know any con-goers so it might be a while before I get the chance.