Hey everyone, it's time for another update!

Now that I've got all the big forms blocked in I'll actually be able to start rendering! Here's how it's looking.

I'm really happy with the way the clouds around the "sun" are shaping up. I've got to round out their contours a bit more so that they look more three dimensional, but I'll get there. I also added in more detail to the rocks in the background on the left, and shaved down that spike that was jutting up into the sky in the foreground. It just looked a bit odd to me, so it had to go. One thing I definitely want to make note of, so that I can remember to actually do this, is to add more contrast to the image. The darkest part is the "sun" in the background, so I need to add some darker shades of grey to the image to give it a bit more punch.

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

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

Here's some more progress on that fantasy landscape, take a look!

Today I started laying in some basic lighting on the rocks and the clouds around the "sun" in the background. I also added a bit of detail to the foreground too. I've still got a little more rough work to do but once that's done I'll just be rendering this for a long time, haha!

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

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

Did a little more work on that fantasy landscape, here's how it's looking!

I fleshed out the cloud detail a bit more, and I also refined the edges of the mountains in the background. I'm trying to make a conscious effort to not bog myself down with too many extraneous layers in Photoshop because it can really slow down the process. That's why I flattened most of them so that I'm drawing on one layer and adding detail where needed. It's basically all going to be painted over anyway, so there's no sense in trying to preserve what will need to change. I'm really happy with the progress on this piece so far, I can't wait to see the finished product!

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

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

Here's how that fantasy landscape I was working on is taking shape, check it out!

Today I filled in all of the gaps where the original sketch was showing through, and since that's done I can finally start adding in more detail! I'm saving that for another day though, I think I've still got some kind of turkey related laziness going on, haha!

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

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

It's Thanksgiving today so between travelling, seeing family, and eating, I didn't get a whole lot of time to paint. I do have a little sketch to share with you though, take a look!

This was just a little something I scribbled in Photoshop while trying to make some progress on other projects. It's nice to have a distraction when you're working on just one thing for a long time! I think this is a pretty neat concept, I really like the character's face. He looks a bit like a rabbit, but instead of long ears I was thinking the protrusions coming from his head would be more like horns. It'd be kinda cool to flip the whole predator/prey dynamic on it's head and turn a bunny into a hunter! I guess that's something for another day though.

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

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

 I got a little more work done on the piece I started detailing in Photoshop yesterday, here's how it's coming along!

The only thing that took a lot of time tonight was drawing in the line detail on the rocks in the background. After that was finished I just painted under them with a lighter shade of grey. The big black "sun" in the background was just a simple selection marquee tool, so that took about a second, haha!

That's all for this post, check back tomorrow to see what's new!

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

Last night I mentioned I wanted to develop the sketch I posted a bit further and that's exactly what I did, take a look!

I first took the sketch I posted and converted it to black and white, after that I just added in different shades of grey. I'm trying to get all of the big forms in there first, then I'll refine the detail more once all of that stuff's done. I'm not sure if I want to actually color this piece, but I think I'm going to stick with black and white for now.

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

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

Got another sketch for you this evening, check it out!

I did a couple little doodles today that didn't really develop into anything, but when I drew the first lines on this page I knew I'd have something worthy of blogging about! Like I said last week, I really enjoy environmental sketches, they're just a blast to draw! This one is really surreal and crazy, which is probably why I like it so much. I think I might be working on this in Photoshop over the next few days so don't forget to check back and see how that goes!

That's all for this post, stop by tomorrow for something new!

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

Sorry last night's update was so short. I was at a wedding and didn't post earlier in the day so I had to scribble something quick at the reception then post it from my phone! I've got something cool for you tonight though, take a look!

You can't go wrong with crazy huge fantasy castles, right? They're always big winners in my book! I really wanted to put some more detail into this sketch, but I have yet to buy more ink for my markers. I think the design's pretty cool, but the composition could have been a little nicer looking if the castle was further to the left of the image.

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

Hey everyone! It's time for a new post!

Don't have a lot of time to talk tonight, but here's what I've got for you!

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

I've got more stuff from my sketchbook tonight!

I feel like I unintentionally drew my personal struggle to get through work today, haha! What can I say? It was a long week!

As far as the actual technical parts of the drawing go, I drew the figure extremely quickly, you can still see some of the gesture lines under all of the detail. Once I had those lines down I was able to flesh out his position relatively easily. Rendering everything in this piece was pretty tough though, because I really had to think about which lines were going to be adjacent to each other. If I hadn't done that then it might have appeared that separate surfaces were actually continuous, and that would have been confusing. I've also been making good use of the variety of pen thicknesses I have at my disposal. This has actually helped me a lot to complete pieces more expediently, but it's sort of an unusual behavior for me. I was always that person that drew with mechanical pencil and an infinitesimally small pencil-lead. It's no wonder I never used to finish anything!

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

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

Here's the newest addition to my sketchbook, take a look!

I only had a little time to sketch today, so this took a total of about twenty minutes, I really like the way it turned out though! I feel like I work best when I work quickly, and although I didn't have any particular thing to draw in mind, working in a speedy fashion got me this!

Instead of making the most detailed part of the sketch the faces in the center, I decided to focus my attention to rendering the space around them. I added lines in different directions and round shapes for visual interest. So even though the focal point of the image isn't "completely" rendered, it still draws in your attention because it's heavily contrasted by all of the detail around it.

That's all for this post, don't forget to check back tomorrow to see something new!

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

I've got another pen drawing for you tonight, what do you think?

A few sweeping lines to from the bottom left of the page turned into this! I guess I just really like drawing landscapes, haha! I tried to imagine what some immense alien buildings would look like after they had been long abandoned, and I'm pretty happy with the result. 

I was playing with using line direction yesterday to differentiate between different surfaces, and I really put that technique into practice with this drawing! I made sure all the lines I drew really wrapped around the surface of the forms to give them a sense of existing in three dimensions. I also like how I used a more gentle curved line for the clouds, I've never tried drawing them that way before but I think it's something I'll be doing again!

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

Hey everyone, it's time for another update!

This week's gonna be rather busy for me, so while I'll be doing my daily blog pots, I'm putting my current project on hold.

Since I've been ignoring my sketchbook lately I thought it might be time to show it some love, here's something I whipped up today!

I really love doing environmental sketches! There's something so fun about letting your imagination run wild and create a crazy landscape.

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

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

I thought I'd take a break from my current project to share with you something a little bit different. I managed to stumble upon this really cool program called Expresii while reading through my Twitter feed and decided to download it. It's an Eastern style watercolor painting program, and the colors mix in real time! I've only used it a little bit, but I managed to make something kind of neat, check it out!

I sort of can't believe it's digital, with this program you really achieve a level of realness I've never seen in digital watercolors before. I'm pretty proud of these little jellyfish, haha! I can't wait to see what else I might come up with using this program, maybe it might be cool to work this into my current project!

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

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

Tonight I've got a couple of thumbnail sketches for ya, take a look!

I did a little thinking after my post last night and came up with the story I wanted to convey in the final image. My idea for this character is that she's a spirit that watches over the forest she lives in and as the seasons change so does she. I want to make sure this seasonal shift comes across in the final piece, so it's going to be pretty interesting figuring that part out!

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

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

I retooled my design from yesterday a bit, what do you think?

I tried to work a few more floral elements into the design, and I'm really happy with how that turned out! The character looks quite youthful here, but I'm thinking I'd like her to appear a little bit older, I think it'll add a little mystique to her design!

Since I won't have any other obligations tomorrow, I think I'm gonna right a description for this character to help guide my design process. That's generally what most people do first, but I've just been doodling aimlessly until I got to a point where I found a story for her, and I guess that's okay too!

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

Hey everyone, it's time for another post!

Last night I posted a couple design possibilities for the face of the character I've been working on. Tonight I'll be sharing the preliminary work I've done on the final design, check it out!

After reviewing my options, and listening to a little feedback from friends (thank you Vivian), this is what I came up with. She's mostly based on the 4th head concept from yesterday, with a little sprinkling of concept number 2 and 5 in there. I really like the tri-tipped petal shape on top of her head, and the three wisps of fabric (or maybe leaves?) on either side of her neck, they really help to draw attention to her face. I definitely think I need to work on her expression a bit though. I managed to capture a really cool emotion and look with the face of the 4th concept, but I wasn't able to have it in front of me the entire time I was working on this, so I think that's why it's missing from here. That just means I've got a little more work to do tomorrow!

Well, that's all for this post. Check back again later to see something new!

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

Yesterday I shared the first draft of the character I've been working on, and tonight I wanted to iron out some details before I continued with the final design. I really think the character's body is looking super cool, but her head shape was feeling a bit strange to me, so that's why I came up with these! What do you think?

The first option represents what I've already drawn, and the others were alternatives that I just came up with. I'm not quite sure of the feeling I want the character to convey yet, so that's why these vary a bit in style and facial expression.

I don't want to say which one(s) I might be partial to, but I'm gonna be exploring some more options in the next few days to help get everything finalized.

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

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

Last night I picked out the silhouette I'd be developing further to then draw into its very own digital painting, and tonight I'll be sharing my first more detailed concept, check it out!

I think it's looking pretty neat! I was inspired by organic architecture and orchids, so that was what I was trying to showcase in the detailing on her figure. I think she looks a little too organic though, so I might have to tone down all of those curves with some harder lines to create something that looks a little more man-made.

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

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

Here's how my last figure's shaping up, take a look.

I'm not in love with it, but it's alright. I think that after working on these a bit the last few days, I've realized that the design I like the most is actually the first one that drew. Since I've come to that conclusion I'll be spending the next few posts refining her design, then maybe thinking up a little scene to draw her in. Sounds kinda cool, right?

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

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

Tonight I'll be sharing the progress I made with the middle silhouette, check it out!

I think these are looking good! I also added in the detail that was missing from the face of the character on the left, I was a little to sleepy to finish that last night, haha!

Once I've got the figure on the right developed a bit more I'll probably do some more detailed character sketches, and then paint those details onto these figures here.

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

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

Last night I shared a mood board, tonight I've got a little more character progress, have a look!

I'm working my way from left to right again and smoothing out the surface of the figures one by one. I put a little bit of detail into her abdomen, but that might change when I start adding in the rest of the detail. She still needs a little bit of work in the face and in the arms, but I'll be finishing that up in tomorrow's post. You can expect to see more progress with the middle figure then too!

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

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

Tonight I've got a little something different for you, it's a mood board, check it out!

Google tells me that this should "evoke or project a particular style or concept," and that's exactly what I'm trying to do! These are a few images I scribbled in Photoshop to help me figure out what motifs I wanted to use to develop the figures I'm working on. They're not super well drawn, but they're a gentle reminder to me about what direction I want to go in.

Tomorrow will mark the start of my first detail pass on the figures I've been working on, check back then to see how it turns out!

Hey everyone, it's time for another post!

Here's the final bit of groundwork before I detail my three concepts, check it out!

Now that I've got an idea of where I want the light to fall on these forms, I can start to add in detail to finalize each character design!

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

Hey everyone, it's time for another post!

This evening I've got a little more progress on my silhouettes to share with you, I just started figure number two, take a look!

It's pretty cool how much a little grey can give what's essentially a shadow form, right? I know everything's a little vague detail-wise at the moment, but that's gonna change once get the actual contour of the figures laid-in.

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

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

Here's what I've got for you this evening, check it out!

As you can see I've started to define the shape the figure on the left by adding a bit of grey on top of the black silhouette, I'll be doing this for each of the figures here, and then progressively adding more detail. At this point the process almost becomes sculpture, I'm carving in the form by adding light and shadow, this is gonna be fun!

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

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

Here's today's character sheet progress.

There you have it, all three completed silhouettes! As you can see I tried to make each one a bit different from the others, that way I could leave myself with three unique options to choose from. I might even end up mixing design elements from one or all of them in the final character!

Let's not forget today's progress gif.

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

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

Here's how my character sheet's progressing, take a look!

These are starting to look really good! I changed the position of the middle character's legs a bit, I figured since she's front and center it'd be cool to have her looking straight at the viewer. I'm excited to share the references I used for these characters, but I think it'll be more fun waiting until the silhouettes are completed!

And here's today's progress gif.

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

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

Today I did a little more work on the character sketches I posted yesterday, here's how they're coming along.

As you can see I'll be working through these left to right to refine their shape. I looked up a few references before I started today and I think that helped me a lot. My mind's a really good place for that initial spark of creation, but most of the time it's impossible to work entirely from what's in your head, that's why I'm learning that references are your friend. I'm taking my time on these silhouettes because they're really the most important part of the ideation process, these 'cut-outs' are what will set the overall tone for the character I'm trying to create.

Here's a little progress gif to show what I've done so far.

I think these are gonna be pretty cool looking once I get a little more work done, it's always fun to see how much progress you're making on something, right?

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