Monday, September 1, 2014

The Conjuring


So I am in the final stretch of getting everything ready for Illuxcon in 2.5 weeks and I though it would be cool to show a little bit of my process on how I completed this most recent oil painting.  This was a piece that I have been working on and off on since May, it is my first oil painting in about 9 months or so, I have to say it felt great to getting back to painting in oil and smelling all of those wonderful toxic fumes, I had a lot less fun constantly picking out dust and hair from my image as I was working on it, that is probably at the top of my list of things that I hate most about painting traditionally, (and the fact that you cannot use adjustment layers!) 
At my previous job working in the mail room of a law office I had lots and lots of down time either during my hour lunch or towards the end of my shift (I worked closing shift) and I would spend that time drawing in my sketchbook.  I have almost an entire sketchbook of drawings from while I was at my day job, many were pieces that I wanted to elaborate further and turn into finished pieces.
In May I finally got around to scanning the images into my computer and begin turning some of the sketches into finished pieces and 1 small sketch/doodle caught my eye, I thought there was something interesting in the sketch that made me want to develop the image further.  This is my initial sketch from my sketchbook.

I then started to gather reference and refining my drawing, the initial inspiration for this piece was a sample Magic the Gathering card, (I am a huge fan of the game and have always wanted to work for Wizards of the Coast illustrating cards for Magic).  I was imagining a Blue creature or spell, that the character is drawing energy to cast powerful magic or sorcery.  With that idea I went about expanding the image, making the horns more graphic and ornate and adding a torso and hands so my evil sorceress isnt just standing there with a scowl on her face, that she was actually doing something. 
I made this rough line drawing in Photoshop, paying extra close attention to the face and hands.  In this stage I wanted to get all of the major forms and proportions in place.  I then printed this out on my 13X19 printer and printed it on newsprint, I then used a light box to transfer the line drawing onto bristol paper so I could render the final drawing.  I do it this way so I can make changes to the drawing without the lines from the printed image getting in my way, there is nothing worse than being half way though a finished drawing realizing you want to make a change to the drawing but realizing you cannot because you are drawing on top of your printed line drawing.


After hours and hours of drawing (and even more hours) I finished my drawing and scanned it back into the computer and began playing around with color and getting a color under painting.  I kept it really lose, I used all multiply layers and never painted on top of my drawing so the pencil lines stayed visible through or on top of the color under painting.

After I was happy with the colors I then had my image printed out onto watercolor paper from a local printer.  I then mounted the drawing onto a piece of hardboard or masonite using matte medium.  I then coated the top of the piece with matte medium and I began to render the final image with oil paint.  And after several weeks and some long hours painting I got to my final image here



Saturday, August 16, 2014

Malmar the Apocryphal

So I realized I completely forgot to post this up on my blog, here is a card art I did for Romance of the Nine Empires expansion pack, Malmar the Apocryphal.  I can say I had a total blast painting the frosted/foggy window in the back.  This is my first interior piece and I have to say I am really happy with how it turned out.

Sunday, April 27, 2014

A Soul of Fire

For months now I have been doing tons of sketches in my sketchbook while on my lunch break at work and have been meaning to turn some of them into some finished paintings.  This started as a fun little sketch and I have been wanting to flesh it out for a while now.  I dont have a lot experience painting monsters and it is something that I plan on working on, so plan on seeing a lot more monsters from me.

Saturday, March 22, 2014

A Coming Storm

So this painting is finally finished.  I feel that I took a major step forward with this piece.  Looking back at my portfolio one the the glaring things that I noticed is that I have way to many saturated colors in my paintings, there is subtly to my color pallets.  With this painting I was determined to keep my colors under control and keep the majority of the pallet in the green and violet range.  Another major focus of this painting was to work on my rendering and detail,  I wanted this painting to have tons detail on the rocks, wall, the figures, and the wolves.  The goal going into this painting was to do something ambitious that focused on everything; landscapes, architecture, figures, detail, animals, and atmosphere and I think I accomplished it.  Now I have to come up with an ever better painting next, no pressure....

Saturday, January 25, 2014

Progress

So I have been chugging along working on this new painting and thought I would post a progress shot of it so far.  I feel I still have a long ways to go, I dont think there is any part of the painting that I would call finish; though that being said when I looked at my color study I am really surprised how far it has come so far.  Looking forward to getting this piece finished and to start working on some more ideas that I have for paintings.