Swoopfire thumbnail

Been having a bit of a dryspell over the last little while. My creative outlets have really been put on hold, including drawing, writing, crafting ...... really, just about anything creative. I decided to draw a little something tonight to unwind from the day.

The angel: part 2

Still working on this one! Haven't been able to do much with it because of time over the last couple of weeks, but here's my progress as of today.

I thought it might be interesting to put this up at the size that I work at. So be warned if you click the thumbnail, it IS quite large. The canvas size I am using for this one is 2800 pixels across. At this point, I am working on highlighting and smoothing out the hair, after which I'll start filling in more of the base color for the armor. Normally, when I set up my layers, I use separate layers for a basic color, usually a mid-tone, and then I'll do another layer on top of it for the lighting and shadows. This is because when I get to light and shadow, I select the area according to the base color, then switch to the detail layer and lighten or darken that area. Make sense?

Right now, I actually have the layer that has the wing color hidden, just because I'll worry about that more after I've gotten a bunch of the figure's gear and body done. I won't work on the details of the face and skin until then, either. And at some point, I really need to do that background.......

Angel rough thumb

Wow sorry guys, this one is pretty rough, even for a thumbnail. I just don't have the energy to do any more tonight.

I'd like to try a couple of different things style wise as I work on this, one of them being to make it look more like concept art. I've been looking at some stuff lately for video games, all of which reminds me of some of the art I'd seen Alan Lee do for the LotR movies. It's going to be a job, but I think I can pull it off.

Gradients are our friends :)

End....

Meaning...

I wanted to do some writing when I got home from work, but it's been a mighty crappy day with no great prospects, so I decided to draw one of the ideas that's been in my head. There's a story behind this picture, but I'll save that for when I get the completed image up.

At least I hope I get it up. Every time I've tried to draw this figure, I get partway and then fizzle out. Every time.

Behold ...

I've really been hankering to draw something mechanical of late. This image popped into my head tonight, so I did a mad dash to get the concept down before bed time.....I'm a little late to bed, but I think this is a good start, albeit a very sloppy thumbnail, muahaha.

I can tell already that I'm going to have a lot of fun with the lighting on this one. I just have to take it easy and pace myself so I don't kill my hand.

Was listening to a couple of tracks off of the Halo 2 soundtrack while working on some of it, for anyone interested. In particular, "High Charity" from Vol. 1, and the latter half of "Cairo Suite" from Vol. 2 (the sub-tracks are called Jeweled Hull and Chill Exposure, the last being one of my all-time favorite pieces of music)

As always, suggestions or comments are welcome! I'm trying to decide if I want to scale that robot up or down a little, as it seems to be taking up an awkward amount of space in the picture. I'd love to be able to see the entire form of it, but right now it might also seem like "Look, I painted a picture! And then I slapped my android right over the top of it!"

Um yes, that's how it goes in my head, anyway.......

That thingy again!

So you may remember this. Yes, I got some very helpful pointers on it.......but let's be honest. I was not happy with it. The pose of the creature felt too flat to me, like some giant shoe had come and stomped it into the page.

Yeah. Not what I wanted when I started working on it. But I'm not about to just flush it down the toilet without getting what I want! Hence, this new thumbnail. May I say this is MUCH more what I had in mind. I think I'd like to take it to the next critique group and see what kinds of suggestions I can get from others before moving to the inking stage. Not that I think it's horrible at this stage. Like I said, I am a lot happier with my newest try.

Alright, so I went and found me a nice ref pic of gold, then shrank it down to get a pixel palette out of it. Boy, let me tell you, I was way off on the whole gold thing. I was a little shocked at just how much orange is actually up in your face when viewing gold. It looked too vibrant when I started painting it into this picture, but once I got a few different shades down, I realized just how much better it looked than my previous brassy-hued attempts. Kudos again to Nasan for suggesting that method of picking colors.

Power...

Playing with pose and perspective in this thumbnail. I have to say that I like the pose, but the perspective is a little off. I'm thinking I may have to shift the "floor" a bit further up into the picture to get more of the effect I'm looking for. The race that this creature hails from is known for its arrogance, so I tried giving him a stuck up, disinterested attitude - you know, kind of like when some snot is purposefully ignoring everything you say just to tick you off.

There are a couple of elements here that make this picture different from the other Neth drawings I've been putting up. The differences are turning out to be both fun to work with and challenging, and here's what they are:

First, this guy has actual flames around his hand, rather than an orb of light in his grasp. Second, I'm trying to incorporate something more solid than smoke/mist into his surroundings, which is also different from the other Neth thumbnails I've been doing. Both of these differences are for particular reasons, though I don't think I can really say anything else about them just yet. This character could possibly show up in a project some time in the future, however near or far that may be, and I don't want to spoil things. Sorry!

Shadowed...

I forgot I had this one. Still playing with some things on the lighting, and I was going to put that hand in a different position, but the more I look at it, the more I like it how it is right now.

I could have done green lighting in the middle area or the clouds to help add to the green of the eyes, but I don't want it to look like a Christmas-themed image.....although, that would be kind of a nightmarish Christmas. Eh, sometimes that time of year is like a nightmare for me, I guess. Depends on how much I'm forced to overdose on candy and elves and red-and-green stripes.

Happily, however, this guy is not an elf. Go team villain!

Dark...

Another one!

The lighting in this is going to need some more tweaking, as I think it's detracting the focus from the main figure right now. I already adjusted the levels some to help intensify the darkness and focus more of the silver by the hand, but......I'll work on it.

This is another of the anthro newts (or Neth) I'm excited to be working on these, partly because I will be dealing with these guys more in the near future as I write. For anyone wondering, no, this is not Nenenusa from the Rebirth Trilogy. It's an entirely different Neth.

The coloration of this one is based off of the Red-spotted newt (or Eastern newt)

Thumby thumb

I might take this to the next critique group. I just can't seem to get those cloud colors bright enough, yet have them dark enough along some spots so that they really contrast with the guy in the middle (admittedly, there's a lot of red, but I think some light/dark adjustments could help) My guess right now is that there's not enough yellows and too much pink. I could possibly stick some dusky purples in there at some points, too.

Mind you, this is a thumbnail, thus the ultra messy quality. Just look at those feathers!

Thoughts, anyone?

Smoke....

Thumbnail for another project. I do so love the attitude, especially with villains.

If you can't quite tell what you're looking at, this is an anthro newt. The race is one from my books that I absolutely love for the poisonous skin colorations. I am unsure of which species of frog the patterns on this guy are based off of - the picture I was looking at didn't have any info on it.

Some of the lighting is skeewompous, but it's only a rough, after all.

And I won't lie, I did this partly for the background :)

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.