Hey everyone, it's time for a new update! This is being typed by my amazing partner, Lee, because I have food poisoning  :c

Anyway, on with the post! Tonight I'll be sharing some concept sketches I did for a contest. The theme was "Dia de los Muertos". Have a look!

I was designing a character based on a young woman that rides horses in traditional Mexican garb. This was the result. i wanted her to look undead, which is why she is just bones to stick with the theme.

That's all for tonight! I'm sorry I couldn't continue my ant sketch. Hopefully I'll be well enough to do that tomorrow! Check back then for another update!

Hey everyone, it's time for a new post!

I didn't get to do a whole lot today, but this is what I've got.

I'm really proud of how the legs turned out, it got a little confusing drawing them, but they look super cool!

That's all for tonight, check back tomorrow for more!

Hey everyone, it's time for another new post!

Got a new insect for you tonight, check it out!

If you guessed that it was a carpenter ant, no relation to Karen and Richard, then you're right! I tried to pay closer attention to the parts that made up the ant, instead of drawing the larger shapes like I did with the dragonfly. I'm really happy that I did that because I think the end result will be a bit better thanks to that effort.

That's all for this post, check back tomorrow to see how this stud progresses!

Hey everyone, it's time for a new post!

Here are the final details from my dragonfly study, take a look!

I wanted to add in a couple notes about the dragonfly itself, and a few observations about my drawing as well. I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out though, I definitely think that taking my time with this was the right way to go!

Tomorrow I'll start a new insect study, so check back to see it!

Hey everyone, it's time for another update!

I'm gonna keep this one short and sweet, take a look!

I was able to finish all of the detail sections today, but I've still got a few more things to do. Check back tomorrow to see how it all gets wrapped up!

Hey everyone, it's time again for an update!

It's not much, but I was able to work on my dragonfly a little more today, take a look!

I kinda did this while working, so I didn't have a lot of time to look at references for details, which is why this didn't really develop too much since yesterday. I think it's looking alright though. My main gripe is that the legs are just a little too thick, but I'm gonna try to make the best of it.

That's all for this post, check back tomorrow for something new!

Hey everyone, it's time for another update!

I decided to give my dragonfly study another go, take a look.

I'm pretty proud of the way this turned out, it's not finished, but I'm going to work on it over the next few days. I feel like I've been putting a lot of pressure on myself to produce a new piece ever day, and I think that was affecting how I felt about blogging in a really negative way.

I'm just gonna take this a day at a time, and I know in the end I'll have something worth showing off. Check back tomorrow to see more progress!

Hey everyone, it's time for another update.

I wish I could say I have something fantastic for you this evening, but unfortunately that's not really the case. I'm gonna share with you what I did come up with, then talk a little bit more about how I'm feeling. Here's what I've got.

These aren't particularly bad, but they're not finished, and they're not great. When 2015 began I was determined to post one piece of artwork each and every day for this entire year on this blog, and though I'm so close to achieving that goal, I feel like I'm running out of steam.

I've produced more art this year than in any of the years prior, and I've done a ton of stuff I'm super proud of, but this last month or so has been a struggle. I want to continue posting because I'm proud of the work I'm producing, I don't want to just throw something up here every day out of obligation.

So that's where I'm at right now. Tomorrow's a new day, and I really want to approach this with a different attitude, because I'm not yet ready to admit defeat.

I'm gonna give this another go tomorrow, so check back then!

Hey everyone, it's time for a new post!

I'd like to start off by saying that I usually think of the artwork I post here as a nice juicy filet mignon. Well I'm sorry to serve this, but all I was able to muster this evening was a school lunch chicken patty. Here it go.

It's still technically food, but you're not gonna pay top dollar for it at a restaurant. Tonight's bugs are a katydid, a wasp, a dragonfly, and a horse fly. The one hurdle I'm gonna have to overcome with these exercises is finding good references, just to clarify the references were not at fault here, I was rushing. Bad artist, bad! I'll make up for it though, I promise.

Tomorrow I'll start my first detailed study of one of these bugs, then a new study will follow each day after that! Make sure to check back tomorrow to see how one of these lucky little critters will turn out!

Hey everyone, it's time for a new post and a new theme!

Since I now have some cool plant studies under my belt I'm ready to draw something a little more complex, insects! Have a look.

Here we've got a beetle, an ant, a cicada, and a mantis (which appears to have angry eyebrows). These guys were sketched rather simply so I could get a feel for their forms. I'll be doing one more page like this tomorrow, and then after that I'll be devoting a page to each insect where I draw them with more detail.

I'm hoping to find some really wacky bugs to draw for tomorrow, though it has been pretty tough finding high quality references, I shall try my best!

That's all for this post, check back tomorrow for something new!

Hey everyone, it's time for another update!

Tonight marks the end of my plant studies! For that reason I wanted to go out with a bang, though considering the flower I chose, it's really more of a stench. Take a look!

This is Rafflesia arnoldii, and it's probably best known (if you're a Pokemon fan) as the flower found growing atop of a Vileplume's head. While Vileplume's special ability is chlorophyll, this flower doesn't actually produce any, nor does it have any roots or leaves! It's pretty bizarre, and that's how I like my plants!

Drawing the center of the flower was pretty simple, it's just a hollow sphere with a hole on the top, however the petals were a bit more of a challenge. After some careful sketching on many scraps of paper I figured out how to draw them. By dividing the flower into five parts, a part for each petal, I plotted out where I wanted them to be. Once that was done I drew a line in between each of those sections up from the bottom of the flower to the top, then pulled that line outward. I used that line as my guide and then drew the edges of each petal. Since everything was now laid out, I just rendered in the details and scrawled some notes to the right.

I learned an immense amount working on these past few plant studies. I think the best part was the fact that all those seemingly odd exercises I was working on before jumped right to the front of my brain when I encountered a problem I thought I couldn't overcome. I'm really glad I ended up doing some extra practice with those arrow exercises, because they really came in handy with this drawing in particular.

Well that's all for tonight's post, thanks for checking it out! Tomorrow's gonna mark the start of a new theme, so don't forget to stop by again then, see you soon!

Hey everyone, it's time again for a new post!

I've got another neat fungus to show you tonight, and this one's not "bleeding!" Check it out.

This is artomyces pyxidatus, or coral fungus, and it's really pretty looking (well I think it is at least)! They're usually found growing in larger clusters than this, but I didn't want to fill the page with a giant lump of these things, because I really wanted the viewer to be able to appreciate its structure. I picked this particular fungus because the way I went about drawing it was similar to how I approached yesterday's post. This was all about lines! I'm really quite pleased with the way this turned out. I felt stumped by this at first, but I kept plugging away and ended up with something I'm really happy with.

That's all for tonight, check back tomorrow for something new!

Hey everyone, it's time for a new post!

I've got a really strange and awesome flower for tonight's post, check it out!

This is a black bat flower (tacca chantrieri), it's super cool, and it was also the most difficult thing I've drawn thus for for these exercises! I had difficulty initially finding good references for it, because there are several different kinds, and also because everyone was only posting pictures of it from the front. Since I'm thinking about these forms in three dimensions, and then drawing them in two, it's really important to be able to see what I'm drawing all the way around. I eventually just threw caution to the wind and drew it without a reference. Luckily I correctly picked up on how the flower formed by analyzing it. I only know this because about halfway through drawing it I finally found an image of it from behind!

Drawing this particular flower was much more difficult than all of the others before it. Everything else I've drawn were pretty large simple shapes, and this is really just a bunch of lines. Once I figured that out I was alright, but it took a couple doodles to work that out. I'm really happy that I tried drawing something different and benefited so greatly from it.

That's all for this post, check back tomorrow for something new!

Hey everyone, it's time for a new post!

So did you know that there's a type of mushroom known colloquially as "bleeding tooth fungus?" Well now you do, and here's what it looks like!

Luckily it's in grey-scale, so it looks a lot less graphic, but these things do look eerily like bleeding teeth. Or maybe marshmallows speckled with strawberry jam, either way, I'm really happy with the way these turned out! On the left is what a young specimen of this particular species looks like, and on the right is a mature version, the older mushroom lacks the younger's gory appearance however. Like last night I didn't really have too much trouble rendering this guy, it did take me a moment to figure out how I wanted to describe the surface detail, but I figured that out rather quick. I was mostly just afraid of stippling, because it can be extremely tedious, but I actually had some fun with it!

This'll mark the fifth plant study I've done, my goal was to do eight, but I might do more 'cause I'm kinda enjoying these. That's all for tonight, check back tomorrow for something new!

Hey everyone, it's time again for another plant study, this'll be number four. If you like, you can view my last plant study here!

Here's what I've got for you tonight.

My subject for this post was a pitcher plant, this variety is also know as a "monkey cup." Each time I do one of these studies I'm shocked by how simple things are in their construction. I noted on the right that this plant is basically just an elongated sphere with a small cylinder on top, and the tendril at the bottom is a thin elongated cylinder. The ellipsis on top of the form where I rendered detail show just how much the minutia of something can distract from its overall shape, I remember looking at stuff like this when I was younger and thinking it'd be so hard to replicate! I guess I'm still a little gobsmacked by how much this means of analyzing a subject has really helped me as an artist.

Well, that's all for this post! Check back tomorrow for something new!

Hey everyone, it's time for a new post!

After a whole bunch of work, my sunflower painting's finally done, take a look.

As you can see I added in the center portion of each sunflower in the foreground, detailed that, then painted in a little shadow to describe the petals of each flower. I also added a bit of a darker yellow to some of the sunflowers in the midground to give them a little more depth.

I realize that I could probably keep working on this for another fifteen days, but it's time to get back to what I've been doing, studies that will help me improve my overall skill! This was a fun little break, but it's time to get back to business!

That's all for this post, check back tomorrow for something new!

Hey everyone, time for another update!

Here's what I've got for you tonight.

The work I did this evening is pretty subtle, but that's because I realized it needed to be while I was doing it. I put in a little too much effort detailing the path at first, but I decided to scale it back because I felt like it was detracting attention from the sunflowers. Since they're the what I want to showcase, I need to make sure that nothing else outshines them. I added a few lines to give the dirt some more depth, and I feathered in some greenish browns to help blend the grass into the path.

Well, that's all for this post! Check back tomorrow to see what happens next!

Hey everyone, it's time for a new post!

I feel like I was being a little too optimistic when I mentioned I'd be working on the grass and the path today, because I only got the grass done, here's how it came out!

It might only look slightly different in the thumbnail view, but at full resolution there was a lot of detail added in. I foolishly thought I could paint in every blade of grass by hand and complete this in a timely manner, but that was not going to happen. I needed to change my brush settings in Photoshop to help me get the job done, and I'm very glad that it's finished!

Tomorrow I should be able to completely render the path, so look forward to seeing that then!

Hey everyone, time for a new update!

Here's what I've got for you tonight.

Unfortunately I was only able to work on the sunflower stalks, fortunately they came out beautifully! I used a brush with a very low opacity to "wash" some of the detail over what I had already painted, this is accomplished traditionally by thinning the pigment you're working with (either with water or a paint thinner), but today I found out you can basically achieve the same effect with a low opacity brush! Pretty cool!

Tomorrow I should be able to knock out the grass and the path, after that I've just got the sunflowers in the foreground to do, and one final pass to get all the details right!

Keep checking back for more progress!

Hey everyone, time for another update!

Finally back on track tonight, take a look!

Finished blocking in the sunflowers in the middle ground, they're not quite done yet though, I'm gonna get through everything else in the piece and then do one last pass for details. Next I'll be working on the stalks of the flowers, and hopefully I'll have time for the grass underneath too!

That's all for this evening, check back tomorrow for something new!

Hey everyone, it's time for another update!

Tonight I'm gonna share with you a doodle I did, check it out!

I was trying to play with depth of field a bit to create a photographic look, and I think it turned out alright. What's in the background appears softer, and the area in focus is sharper. That's pretty much what you get when shooting with a lens wide open, so in that respect it was successful! I didn't plan the subject matter out, and it was just done as a sketch to try out the idea, but it was a fun little exercise.

I apologize that I didn't continue work on my previous piece today, I've been feeling pretty crappy all day, so it was a bit hard to focus. I should be back on track tomorrow though, so stop by then to see what progress I've made!

Hey everyone, time for another update!

The details here might be kinda hard to discern, but they took a really long time to render, and they're something I needed to do to add realism to the piece. Take a look.

I touched up the cloud on the left, there were some harsh edges on the bottom of it I didn't like, so I softened them a bit. The next thing I did was add a little bit of light to the foliage in front of the mountain range, it helps to push those trees back some in the image, and also works to make them look less flat. As crazy as it seems that was a few hours worth of work, so that's why I'm stopping here tonight.

Tomorrow I'll be steadily working forward in the image so that I can get it to a finished state! Check back to see more progress then!

Hey everyone, it's time again for a new update!

Finally got around to doing some detail work, take a look!

I'm starting from the top down, so what I worked on today were the clouds, and I'm really happy with the way they turned out! I blended everything together so that there were smooth color transitions, and I made the cloud edges a little more prominent so they popped out from the background.

Tomorrow I'll be working my way to the middle-ground area, so don't forget to check back to see how that looks!

Hey everyone, it's time again for another post!

Here's what I've got for you today.

I decided the bottom of the image needed some sunflowers too, so I added those in today. I also started cleaning up a few of the spots where the canvas was showing through as well. Now that I've got everything laid in, I can start working on rendering all the details, starting with those clouds up top!

Check back tomorrow to see how they turn out!

Hey everyone, it's time again for a new post!

I only got to work a little bit on this piece today, here's what I came up with.

I added a little dark green between the yellow splotches, which will become sunflowers, to add some more contrast. They're ultimately the focus of the image, so the difference in contrast there is important to draw your eye to them.

That's all for tonight, check back tomorrow for something new!

Hey everyone, it's time again for a new post!

It doesn't seem like much progress, but it actually took quite a bit of time!

I filled in a the white gaps on the dirt road and the green space below the sunflowers, I've still got quite a bit of detail work to do, but that'll get accomplished once all of the groundwork is laid.

That's all for tonight, check back tomorrow for something new!

Hey everyone, it's time for a new post!

Here's the latest on the painting I've been working on.

I just worked a bit more on the foreground today, there are still a few gaps I have to paint in, but I think it's looking pretty good overall. I'm really trying to pace myself here because I don't want to get too stuck on rendering every little detail right away. I think this is a good stopping point for today.

Well that's all for this update, check back tomorrow for something new!

Hey everyone, it's time again for another update!

Tonight's gonna be a quick one, here's the progress on the picture from last night.

I started detailing the clouds a bit, I also worked on the mountains in the background, and added a bit more depth to the foliage behind the sunflower field.

That's all for this evening! I'll have more for ya tomorrow, check back then!

Hey everyone, it's time again for another update!

Tonight I'll be sharing with you the process of creating a different version of the painting my last post was about, let's get started!

Last night I was mixing the color on my canvas, which is sort of a no-no, that's why my first step this evening was establishing a color palette. You'll find what I came up with below.

I think it's pretty lovely, don't you? I only selected five colors, then simply blended those together to create the various hues you see there. Once I had my palette sorted out, it was time to do a quick sketch, and here it is!

It's pretty different from what I posted yesterday, but I like it. I couldn't quite figure out how I wanted to arrange a close-up of a sunflower, so I thought it best to show them in a field where they're probably happiest. Now that the sketch has been created it was time to start adding in some color, take a look.

And this is where I stopped. I might put a few more flowers down at the bottom, and position them so that they appear a bit closer to the viewer, but that'll be for another night!

Check back tomorrow to see how this progresses, that's all for now!

Hey everyone, time for a new post!

Yesterday I did an imagined still life to try and showcase what I've learned thus far, tonight I tried to do something similar, but I didn't quite get it finished. Let me show you what I was working on and then I'll explain.

 

Since I drew a sunflower, I figured it might be fun to try my hand at painting some. I really like how the look of this painting was turning out, it almost seems as if it were created using traditional materials, it's completely digital though! There's always a benefit in changing brush settings in Photoshop it seems, anyway, back to the picture. I like it stylistically, but the flowers aren't quite working for some reason, that's when I tried this.

Now these are less developed than the first ones, but I sort of liked having more of them. I think the main issue now is that they don't really appear to be the focus of the image, because of that I decided to try this.

I added in some water behind them, because I think the yellow of the flower petals would contrast nicely against the blue of the lake in the middle ground. I'm still not completely sold on it though, I like where this was going, but I think this is something I'll be scrapping. I want to rework this idea and try something related tomorrow.

That's all for tonight, check back later to see what I come up with next time!