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.

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.

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....

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.

Color study

Here is the color study for my next painting...I thought I would be ambitious and work on my color, figures, and landscapes all in one.

Sketchbook Drawings

So while at work I have had lot of time recently to do some drawing in my sketchbook. Since coming back from Illuxcon I have been focused on not only improving my art, but also having a renewed focus on my drawing skills. I noticed at the show great some of the drawings were, and I decided then and there to spend more time drawing in my sketchbook. I noticed that I often work on a sketch for a couple of minutes and then move on to a new sketch/abandon it. I have not been trying to spend more time on my individual drawings, focusing on generating better ideas and better rendering skills. So now after I finish my lunch I spend the rest of my lunch break (I get an hour) to just draw in my sketchbook. In the few months that I have been doing this I have noticed a huge improvement in my rendering skills, also I have been coming up with a bunch of new ideas for future paintings. I thought that I would share some of the better ones and hopefully I will be posting new ones consistently.

Inspiration Art Order Challenge

So here is my submitted painting for the Art Order Inspiration challenge.  My inspiration is one of my favorite artists of all time, Alphonse Mucha.  The only artist I have made a specific pilgrimage to go see, I went to see all of his major works in the Czech Republic including my favorite series of his work, the Slavic Epic.  I have always loved Mucha and Art Nouveau, and have wanted to do my own Art Nouveau piece for a long time, this challenge was the perfect impetus to recharge my artistic mind and take a break from my illustration portfolio work and just do a painting for the sheer enjoyment of myself.