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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.

Sean for Shinmaxwell

Just a quick sketch, because I was so proud of myself on this one. Humans are perhaps one of my worst weaknesses when it comes to art, and I've been pushing myself to improve at them. This sketch was done for a member on the sketch exchange community over on Livejournal.

There's more gray hanging around in this than I wanted, but because of the sketchbook I did the line work in, I couldn't scan it like I normally would, and therefor had to adjust the B/W levels. So.........yeah. That's my excuse for that gray.

The Meaning of the Name

Well, I'm not dead. But somehow, my personal life has gone from bad to worse. Funny how that happens.

If your memory is sharp, you may remember this. What did I tell you? It never got finished, just like every other picture of this that I have tried to draw......except for this one. I kept it loose and messy on purpose in hopes that I would enjoy it more.

Alright, you're probably wondering, "The meaning of what name?"

The answer is - my name. Taelifoe.

So some years ago, after I was out of high school, I had a dream that left a strong impression on me. To sum it up, I dreamed that I was one of three angels of judgment at the end of the world, and I was dressed all in red. Not long after I woke, I tried to think of a name for that representation of myself, and the name "Taelifoe" popped clearly into my head. Since then, the name has stuck. This is also where my favorite color, crimson, began to develop. It's rare that you will see me attach my screen name to this angelic persona online, but I figured some history might be fun.

And on a side note, this is also where my gamertag came from, but that's for another time.

Timewarp: Hawk

Since I'm taking a break from drawing for a while, I figured I would put up some old art lovin's. This is a traditional piece I did back in 2008 that was very fun, but oh so detailed. I love drawing machines - at least, when I don't run out of energy before I'm even halfway through with them.

Done in micron pen, watercolor pencil, and silver colored pencil.

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.

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.......

You dirty --

If I ever meet Cupid, I'm gonna punch him in the mouth .......... or .... something.

Just venting a bit. I've been feeling pretty upset about certain aspects of Life lately. Can you guess what they are?

Like really upset.