My Arm Can Fly

Chinese Zodiac - Part Two

2011-01-27T19:06:00.002-05:00

More Chinese Zodiac animals! I really love this snake, oddly enough. It's super cute.

Chinese Zodiac - Part One

2011-01-26T17:57:00.002-05:00

Part one in an ongoing series of Chinese zodiac animals--here we have the traditional first four. The Rat comes first, then the Ox, then the Tiger, and then the adorable Rabbit--which is the current year, for those curious. I hope to post the next four tonight as well.

In more housekeeping business, ask and you shall receive. I've been asked several times if I have a deviantart account for easier contact with you guys, and I've finally made one for just such a purpose. News updates will happen there, including new print sales, contests, and potentially livestream announcements. So come check it out and watch me over on DA! http://myarmcanfly.deviantart.com/

Torchwood Cards!

2010-11-15T16:48:00.002-05:00

All of the Torchwood cards, together and finished at last! Top row: Toshiko Sato (Tosh), Dr. Owen Harper, Captain John Hart, and Captain Jack Harkness. Bottom row: Gwen Cooper, Ianto Jones, a blowfish/lionfish who drives a sports car, and a weevil. The first prints from the Doctor Who set arrived the other day, and these are all going to look STUNNING for Otakon!

You're in Good Company

2010-10-30T01:06:00.001-04:00

Last of the Doctor Who cards before I move on to Torchwood, Firefly, and all manner of good things. Also, there will be a poster of all these characters! These are all the (new) Doctor's Companions. Well, sometimes people count Jack, and Mickey, but I'm not one of those people.

Top: Rose Tyler and Martha Jones. Bottom: Donna Noble, Amy Pond, and Rory Williams

Bad Guys are Serious Business

2010-10-26T21:56:00.003-04:00

More Doctor Who cards for printing purposes! This time, we've got all the big bad guys the Doctor and his companions tend to square off with. Top row: the Master (Harold Saxon), a red-eyed Ood, a Cyberman, and a (dormant) weeping angel. Bottom row: the Empty Child, the Master (End of Time version), an (active) weeping angel, and a Dalek. Enjoy!

Doctor Cards!

2010-10-20T12:49:00.001-04:00

This is my Doctor set of postcard prints (as in, from Doctor Who). I would like to eventually tackle all the classic doctors, but for now my list of characters to draw is already over 100 so they'll have to wait. For now we've got 9, 10, alternate 10, and 11 :D I'm hoping to print the two colors of 10 as a double-sided card (because that would be awesome). If not that, I'll have to pick just one to print, because christ my printing costs are already through the roof as planned. So, enjoy!

LIttle Amaterasu

2010-10-17T12:34:00.003-04:00

This is the start of a grand endeavor. In preparation for my first Artist's Alley table at Otakon next year, I am doing huge massive piles of adorable fanart. I'm not generally a fanart person, but that doesn't mean I don't have plenty of series and games I love and would have fun drawing. So here's a start. I plan to draw pretty much every animal from Okami, plus Waka, and make a whole set of darling 5x7 postcards of them. Look forward to the rest!

For those not in the know, this is Amaterasu, the main character from the absolutely stunning video game Okami. You control this wolf and move through a gorgeous sumi ink styled world restoring goodness and light by means of a magical paintbrush that is your tail. Also you fight creepy monsters sometimes.

VAMPS?

2010-10-01T16:16:00.003-04:00

I realize comics aren't my forte--this, of course, being the same drawing four times--but I had to let the world know that this actually happened in my life. Illustrator and photoshop were both used, and the texture (like many that I use) came from bittbox.

Derp Derp Noel

2010-09-30T23:01:00.003-04:00

This is a realistic portrait of my dog. She's a maltese/poodle mix, about four and half years old, and looks exactly like this.

Less refined than the space pussy image, but I enjoy it nonetheless.

Space Pussy

2010-09-15T20:04:00.001-04:00

Hey, anyone remember my gigantic cat? His name is Finnegan. Captain Finnegan Wake, actually. And this is a drawing of him wearing a space suit. It clearly belongs on t-shirts.

The Fox's Daughter

2010-07-21T15:35:00.004-04:00

Obviously not the same setting as the other Fox and Fox's Children images, but this is a character named Jessamine Todd. She's been reinvented as a silver fox, black hair and copper eyes like shiny new pennies. This is all done in Illustrator with photoshop textures, even the "ink." I had fun playing around with this.

Fox's Children

2010-07-07T12:23:00.004-04:00

Another image from the designs for the book Meg and I are working on. These are some of Fox's many children--cute, aren't they? They are the central point of the plot, even if they're not the main characters. See, they're not very fast or strong--they're small, but they're cunning. In order for them to hunt like Wolf's children, they need to hunt at night and sneak up on their prey, and that's the reason Fox goes to steal light from the Sun. He wants his children to be able to see in the dark. There will probably be 12-20 Fox children in the final book, but these are a few preliminary images.

Also, faithful readers, check out my other new blog! Little Paws, Little Claws is just getting started, but it will be a dedicated space for discussion and new images based on my Book of Many Beasts and its future related projects. Some of the images are new, some are older but with more in depth and behind-the-scenes info, but all of them are cute! I'll be updating regularly on Tuesdays and Fridays, and the large backlog of images I have to post there will help me keep to that, so go check it out for twice weekly doses of adorable little animals!

The Wolf and the Fox

2010-06-02T12:33:00.004-04:00

So, the start of a new project! Meg and I are working on putting together a children's book as a (belated) baby shower gift for her aunt. It's kind of an Aesop's fables/traditional story about when animals were people, and the Fox stole light from the Sun to give to the Moon. These are some first designs for the main characters, the Wolf and the Fox. I still need a Crow, a Sun, a Moon, maybe a few more animals with capital letters, and the children of the Wolf and the Fox. Until I get the draft of the story and the breakdown, I can't start sketching any compositions, but I can work on character designs and basic look and feel. Right now my thought is generalized modern setting, but the Wolf, the Fox, and their children, all hunt in the wild woods, and not with guns.

Linocuts

2010-05-28T09:47:00.006-04:00

These should have been posted a while back, but it's been awfully busy with graduation, moving, etc. I finally managed to get some clear shots of my prints from last semester during the commencement show, so it's high time they got posted. These are all linoleum block prints, using bone black and a mixed red I made myself, and the two-color print is on two blocks hand printed with a registration system. Two of these are based on short stories by Neil Gaiman.

On the left is "Be Bold, Be Bold," created for the short story "The White Road." If you've never read it, you really should; it's a fairytale re-interpretation of the classic English story about a Bluebeard-style killer who was actually a Fox. The damning evidence thrown down at the end is a severed hand, but only the accused man realizes that it's actually a fox's paw.

This one is actually a re-print for commencement of a block cut my sophomore year. It was actually my first linocut, but I still really like it. This paper suits it a lot better, though; it's a paper called Nideggen, and I ended up printing on it all semester. The texture is really nice under the block ink, and gives almost a linen scroll look in person.

The last one here is called "Time Is Fluid Here," based on a mobius story called "Other People." It's about a demon who turns a man into a demon who turns a man into a demon who.... You get the picture. It can be read in round over and over, which I did once, it was really interesting. The description of the demon in the story doesn't match the one I drew, but I wanted to re-invent him a little and keep him more closely related to the human version.

I Wish I Knew You (Loved Me)

2010-05-04T01:51:00.005-04:00

Chronologically, this drawing actually came before Patron Saint of Rock 'n Roll, but I just finished up the final texturing and processing for print tonight. This was done entirely in illustrator before the textures, and though I have a lot of things I would change about it if I had the time I feel better about the end result than I did initially. This is a companion piece of sorts to the Patron Saint piece, since they feature the same character and related themes and looks. This was a really valuable learned experience for me, even if the final piece isn't my favorite.

With any luck, the next post here will be photos of the completed Book of Many Beasts and the Commencement show!

Patron Saint of Rock 'n Roll

2010-05-02T01:33:00.006-04:00

This is the companion to another piece I'm not quite finished with or particularly happy with, but I'm really pleased with the results on this one. This was surprisingly fast to complete, though I spent a lot of time fiddling with my texture layering. Rom makes a great rough-and-tumble angel, but I'm not sure he deserves that halo....

Oh, and just because I like it in this form too but it's not worth uploading to the main website, here's just the line work as well. Nice sharp pencils are one of my favorite things.

Mythos

2010-04-27T22:54:00.002-04:00

I think I may have used this title before, but I honestly can't remember. This is "Mythos" now, I guess. Last in-class drawing from Illusionism.... Ever. I'm really going to miss this class, though I can think of a few others I'm glad to be nearing the end of. The idea was to work with something intangible; vibrations, magnetism, gravity, emotion, etc. I chose to consider consciousness; specifically, the collective consciousness of mythology and fairy tales. My idea was to make an image that feels like a story, but you can't think of what it is. You think you've heard it, but you don't remember the details. This is probably my favorite piece out of this class all semester, I'm really proud of how it came out.

Works in Progress: Illusionism out-of-class

2010-04-13T18:11:00.003-04:00

So, for Advanced Illusionism, we have pretty much free rein on our out-of-class work. For me, that means I can devote some real and serious time to pieces I want to make but can't justify working on when I have homework to do. Right now I'm working on a couple of different things, and thought you all might enjoy seeing the sketches. The first is at the left, my current project, and is going to be heavily inspired and influenced by the work of vector artist Milk. I love her images, both in style and content, and wanted to try my hand at developing a distinctive and more realistic look in Illustrator. This is the image I'll be working on to achieve that.

Second sketch is below. This is a companion piece to the last one I posted with these characters; the greys are just to show a basic idea of the values, with the light grey being the darker skin tone and the dark grey being that same deep teal collage as was used in the previous background.

A Day in My Life

2010-04-07T19:08:00.003-04:00

An in-class drawing from Illusionism, based on the idea of time and the ways in which we perceive it. This is a map of my typical day. Interpret that as you will.

Business Card Designs

2010-04-04T15:07:00.005-04:00

As usual, exactly what the title says. Here are some new designs I'm working on for my business cards, and I could really use some feedback on these. I'm planning to print them by the end of this week, along with as-yet-undisclosed postcards (probably two). The beveled corner lines are where these will actually be cut; outside of that is bleed room. I'd really like to do all four, but money may necessitate just printing two or three of them. The plan is to do them glossy on the front (top row) and matte on the back. So, give me some feedback! Like the colors? The images? Yes or no on the gloss fronts, matte backs? Is something seriously wrong with the text? Which two should I pick out of these, if I can only print two? Should I scrap this idea entirely (say that, I'll probably ignore you, many hours have already gone into these).

Vinylmore 3

2010-04-01T15:15:00.005-04:00

Hey everbody! Are you in Baltimore right now? Do you have plans tomorrow night (april 2nd)? If you answered yes and then no, I have a solution for you! Vinylmore 3, Munnyland, is a show featuring a whole bunch of awesomely talented people who made excellent modified toys. My Tatanka is in the show, along with work from my friends Max, Taylor, Mike, and several of my department teachers. It's going to be a great show!

The location is Atomic Books, an awesome store in Hampden; 3620 Falls Rd. Baltimore, MD. The opening reception will be from 7 to 9 pm tomorrow, and everyone who comes will be able to vote for their favorite munny. If I know you in person, I'd love to hang out with all you cool people and have fun, and if I've never met you in person, I'd love to meet you, hang out, and have fun!

The image here was not made by me; this is the official poster for the show. My name is in the little sign on the right arm's side of town!

I don't know who you are (I don't want to know)

2010-04-01T00:59:00.004-04:00

New out-of-class piece for Illusionism. I'm really interested in the differences between basic vital statistics written about a person--in this case, of course, an imagined character--and the outward presentation of that person. For this piece, I chose two characters (one from Dungeons and Dragons 3.5, played by myself, and the other from the Pathfinder RPG and played by my fiancee) who look nearly identical on paper. Their stats, weapons, race, and purpose within a party are the same. However, as this presentation of them shows, they are also opposites. I may continue to work with them for my next piece, I already have a composition idea in mind....

Jessamine

2010-03-08T23:50:00.004-05:00

Finally, some out-of-class work for Illusionism that I'm happy with. This is my character from an RPG in development by my friend Pio (the game is called NoC, and the character is called Jessamine). The drawing was done in pencil without a smidge of smudging--all shading is crosshatched in various hardnesses of lead. Textures and stock come from cgtextures.com, except for the noise, which was added manually in photoshop. I'm not sure what this piece really is, but I am sure that I'm glad I made it. The print will be 10"x18"

Linoleum Block Prints

2010-03-01T00:15:00.005-05:00

I really like printmaking as a medium/technique/whatever. I have a lot of fun with the process, and find the end result very rewarding--especially because I do so much digital work, it's nice sometimes to end up with a finished piece you can hold in your hands, where the physical object is the original. Because I love it, and in spite of its time-consuming nature, I'm taking a class this semester called The Illustrative Print. As you can no doubt guess, it's a printmaking class with a narrative focus. So, here's some work from the class so far! On the left is my second piece for this class, which is titled "It Wasn't A Good Thing." My subject for the semester is Neil Gaiman's collection of short stories. This one is from "Closing Time," which is a very interesting sort of ghost story. It's a total of about 30 inches tall, hence the photograph instead of a scan, and I mixed that particular shade of red ink myself. Below is the first piece for the class, which was based on a limerick about a man with a beard and birds nest in it. Less compelling story, but I do like the piece.
And this is just something I thought people might be interested in, since those who don't do linocut often ask about the process. This is my current piece in progress--or rather, the sketch for it. When I work in lino, I like to do a super rough sketch on paper, then scan it in and go over it in photoshop to give me stark blacks and whites for a better idea of how the finished print will look. This one will be a two-layer print; the hand, in black, will be on one block, and the paw, in red, will be on another. Then I'll print both blocks, in their different colors, on a single sheet of paper for this layered effect. There's going to be a lot more texture, due to the cutting, but this is the actual image that I transfer onto the block and cut around. The source for this piece is a short story called "The White Road," which you should read. It's in Smoke and Mirrors, the earlier of Gaiman's two short story collections. I might upload a photo of the blocks while I'm still cutting them if people are interested.

Little Shields

2010-02-25T19:01:00.003-05:00

So, this semester, I'm using the same source material for my thesis work, but I'm taking it in a different direction entirely. I really love the pieces I made last semester, but I feel like I've taken them as far they can go; they show technical skill, but continuing in the same vein shows little else. So now that I've done them realistic, I've done nitpicky pencil work, and I've done subtle, understated, naturalistic colors, it's time to show my flexibility. From the same animal descriptions and similar kinds of information, I'm now creating a mass-market and child friendly body of work. These are being completed in illustrator, and will be presented at midterm with 6 to 9 more that I haven't finished yet. Each will be printed on heavy cardstock, around 5 or 6 inches high, and cut out around the shield and banner itself. I think I'm going to mount them with those little foam squares to give them a nice shadow on the wall. Enjoy!

Oh, and in other news, I'm entering Tatanka the mini munny centaur in this spring's Vinylmore show, so wish me luck!

Basil and Rolf

2010-02-02T22:54:00.006-05:00

Advanced illusionism is a great class. I highly recommend it for all MICA illustration students, seriously. This week, we had to bring in a childhood snack we haven't eaten in a long time and then do a drawing based on some of the memories that come to us while eating it. I ate an orange flavored Flintstones Push-Up--it was delicious, and it reminded me of Basil, the beagle I grew up with. It was a really pleasant experience to work on. To the left is a detail of the first little square panel, and below is the whole piece. Also in this post, the sketch for my out of class assignment. I'll be printing the sketch, lightboxing it to a charcoal drawing, and then scanning again for color and "old photo" treatment. Should be a lot of fun!

Nicolae (with and without coat)

2010-01-21T00:01:00.003-05:00

I'm terrible over breaks, okay? Sorry about the lack of updates. I did draw something, though, so I'll post that. I also drew lots of people on the subway, but I haven't gotten a chance to scan those yet. But I have a good excuse for being away--I got engaged over Christmas. So! That's a good excuse for anything.

Here's one drawing, to make up for the lack; he's a new DnD character, a sorcerer named Nicolae. Two different versions; with and without coat.

Vectoons Three Through Five (one of them is a plate of cupcakes)

2009-12-23T19:14:00.006-05:00

Yeah, I mean it's actually a plate of cupcakes, not a vector of a plate of cupcakes. Yesterday I didn't have time to do a vector because I was making those, and then we went to the NYC ASPCA and got ourselves a cat--the subject of the third vector. And the first was inspired by a shop between the apartment and the subway stop, where they sell some seriously bright wigs. I would look odd in one.

Vectoon One (Xanthe)

2009-12-19T16:32:00.004-05:00

So, I'm embarking on a little mini-project for myself over winter break. You see, I rarely draw much over breaks, and that is a real shame. But I also won't have a scanner, so I can't practically sketch-and-scan while I'm gone. So I've decided to do a little vector-cartoon (or Vectoon, if you like) every day while I'm on break. They may be incredibly simple. They may come from my sketchbook, or they may not. This one didn't, I just kinda winged it.

I like working in vectors, but it's hard to make flat shapes distinct, so this will also further my goal of developing a worthwhile and useful working style in vectors that will be entirely my own. Commentary on these pieces will be greatly appreciated, as vectors are eternally editable and these will mostly be simple enough to really get into some in-depth tweaking on. Be brutal.

First up is one of my DnD characters, probably the first of several to be done this way. This is Xanthe, who holds a special place in my heart; she's a centaur, duh, level 12 equivalent. Mostly ranger with her last level in barbarian, hence the sudden switch to breastplate armor.

Tatanka (modified munny)

2009-12-16T19:47:00.002-05:00

Yes! I even did an art final for Toys! He's been in the works a long time, too, but I'm proud to unveil my newest vinyl toy... Tatanka! He started life as a mini munny. I chopped him in half (his back legs are the original munny legs, I sculpted the front ones), pounded nails into his head, and boiled him in a pot of water in five-minute increments. I may post some in progress pictures later on, but for now I want to get him out there in all his native american biker glory! Materials include Super sculpy, Katsilk saran hair (original brunette color), Model Master acrylic paints, and Testor's enamel paints.

The Crane Wife

2009-12-16T19:42:00.003-05:00

I only got three prints done, but I had a lot of planning work behind my book project. So here's what I turned in at the final; three prints, two of them in page mock-ups along with the little page number illustrations that no one understood until I did these pages in full. There are little errors here and there, but I'm happy with the images and I think the book as a whole has a lot of potential.

Senior Thesis Finals

2009-12-16T19:22:00.003-05:00

I think I posted one of these in progress...? Well, these are the finals. The only final pieces I have coming out of my first semester--though I did seven pieces' worth of work. The first three, you see, I drew, digitally painted, made backgrounds for.... and then scrapped everything except the linework. I wasn't happy with the way they were coming out, and knew that for both my portfolio and myself I needed to be truly proud of the finished work. So I started over. I used the same lines, but the second time through I treated each creature to a lot more hand work. I did all the rendering with a pencil and a magnifying glass--no lie! They're all fully furred where appropriate, it's just hard to see at this size. The prints are gorgeous. The backgrounds were completed on separate pages, also in pencil, and then everything was compiled and given flat colors in photoshop. The result? Something I'm proud to call my work.

Illusionism Final

2009-12-16T17:54:00.002-05:00

This is a companion piece to the one I posted before I fell off the earth, which I completed as my final project for Illusionism. Usually I only go through a few sketches before I find the piece I want to finish, but this was a special case. The composition and idea came out in the first sketch, but it took 23 pages of drawing before I got the pose down to convey what I wanted through body language. Thankfully, if anyone in my class didn't get remorse from the figure, they didn't say anything.

Finals: Seminar

2009-12-16T17:50:00.001-05:00

WOW, I'm terrible at updates this semester! Due to it coming to and end, though, I finally have time to post all the things I've been neglecting to post. First up will be all my finals--these are my business card, short bio, and letterhead designs from my Senior Thesis Seminar. I'll be uploading all my finals work over the next few days, so keep an eye out!

Further Illusions

2009-09-29T02:00:00.005-04:00

More from Illusionism! The drawing on the left was a one-night in class exercise about the appearance of volume, in preparation for this week's model session. Mine got picked as one of the ones that looked most round, though I kinda cheated by picking a real light source.

Next, the two week drawing that proceeded it. While doing the Dallas Allegory for homework, this trompe l'oeil was our in class work. I themed it around Meg and my anniversary, which was coming up with gleeful speed when I started the drawing. Both of those are graphite.

So this week, the homework was to start a piece that contrasts illusionistic volume against something else--so I thought to myself, what is the absolute opposite of shaded, volumetric drawing? The answer was obvious. Nothing can be flatter than flat vector cartoons. Nothing. So this is the halfway point; the flat is done, and the space is there for a volumetrically shaded Dunny toy in the foreground! That'll be my task next week.

Dallas Allegory

2009-09-22T03:56:00.001-04:00

This new tablet (Intuos4 Medium) is amazing. And it's really late at night. And that's all I have to say right now, ask specific questions if you want more and I'll answer them when I'm awake again.

I am not the walrus

2009-09-14T15:35:00.002-04:00

Waistcoated Walruses Walloping a Wastrel.

Quick getting-to-know-eachother assignment for The Illustrated Book--create and illustrate an amusing 4-word alliteration. Hooray!

I actually don't have anything more to say about this piece. Watercolor and graphite, still planning to tweak a little in photoshop to push the bricks back, but overall I'm very happy. I think walruses should always have mutton chops and waistcoats.

Mantyger/Satryal Sketch

2009-09-10T15:21:00.003-04:00

First sketch for Senior Thesis! My plan is to illustrate ten (for the semester) of the craziest creatures in medieval heraldry, working on two digital paintings for each three-week block. I'm also working now on the Enfield Beast, but I don't have a sketch I'm happy with yet for that one, so I'm letting it sit on the back burner while I finish out this guy, who I'm totally crazy over. Going to lightbox him to a tight pencil drawing, then scan that in to spend many many hours paying digital homage to the image. The plan is full color figure, but no background--in the sensibility of the naturalist drawings of the 1700s. Fun times?

First Illusionism drawing!

2009-09-08T22:53:00.003-04:00

Ah, September. Time for classes! I'm really excited about all my classes this year, but Illusionism is the lucky class to have the first finished drawing I can post, so I'm talking about it first. It's all about fooling the eye; making things look real, or right if they're just not real. The first thing we did was spend 4 hours drawing ripped up pieces of paper, which I won't post, but then we got to apply the skills to a more interesting assignment for homework. We had to take a drawing we already had--in my case, a sketch I spent some time finishing, since I don't do many physical media drawings that would work for this--and make it look interrupted and/or disturbed in some way. I chose Edo-Period Kyu because I like it, so there. There are no actual rips, folds, or disturbances of any kind in this paper. Everything that looks wrinkled was drawn in, painstakingly, with a pencil and a brush of graphite powder. It's a completely smooth sheet of paper, I promise.

Fun stuff? Check it out full size to see the effects up close. (also, in the upper left, an unflattering sketch of Zach without his glasses. He's as blind as I am without them)

Enfield Beasts and Pilot Dolls

2009-07-30T22:05:00.004-04:00

Just some works in progress, really... But at least progress is happening? First, the logo/tattoo design? for a sort of mini-project I've been dreaming up, called Pilot Dolls. It's really more of a steampunk and costume design concept than anything, but if Pilot Dolls were being marketed, this would be their logo.

Then, in preparation for thesis, I've been doodling Enfield Beasts at work. The original sketch is about 1.5"x2.5", and then I digitally inked it in Sketchbook Pro 2.0, which is a beautiful little program. There's another one in the composition, but for now I wanted to post the one I do have inked.

Moonface WIP

2009-06-05T18:40:00.003-04:00

My work always slows down over the summer, even when I try not to let it. I won't be posting much, probably, but I want to do what I can. As seems to happen a lot, my inspiration is my muse/character, whom I call Moonface. Her head/face are generally the same, and she has the same feeling, but I don't know what her real anatomy is--she started out as just an odd girl with antlers. I like to draw her, for whatever reason.

And if there's one good thing to come of the "Mijn Schatje (real name Marie Blanco Hendrickx) is an unoriginal lying art thief" issue going on now, it's that it makes me want to work more in illustrator to prove that people who aren't crappy rip-offs can do some cool stuff with the program. So far, so good? I'm really learning a lot about the program, and that's saying something, because I think I already knew a lot about it.

The drawing also includes her lower body and legs, and a balloon with a fish in it, but I haven't finished overlaying the basic shapes for those. Bonus! A closeup of the face and hand, both of which I think are done. Might add a couple extra colors.

Heironeous

2009-05-07T23:09:00.003-04:00

IT IS DONE. Yes, that's right, I mean what I say; I do have a critique tomorrow, but all of my work for this semester is finished! I printed the god-portraits today, and believe you me; they are absolutely STUNNING at 17" tall.

In celebration, I give you the final of the four; Hieroneous! Hieroneous is the lawful good god of law, order, and valor. Sounds good, right? In practice, he's a good god, but a harsh master. Everything is very black and white to his followers, who include a lot of paladins and clerics, and if you're not fully and properly holy.... You're pretty much dead. They will eradicate scum like you. I wanted to show the duality of a very holy and yet very menacing figure; inspired by medieval saints, his banner impales a tiny demon to show triumph over evil, and the six wings allude to the Seraphin who directly guard the throne of god in christianity. His armor is my own invention, based on full plate mail.

As a bonus, here's the whol group as I printed them, fully complete with all edge treatments and adjustments.

Olidammara and Hextor

2009-05-04T16:29:00.003-04:00

Forgot to post Olidammara when I finished him, so here's both at once! Olidammara is the trickster god of rogues and bards. It's been a while since I actually did that one, so I don't have a whole lot to say. I really love some things about him, but am pretty ambivalent about others. Not my favorite, but not bad, either.

Hextor, on the other hand.... He's the god of tyranny, chaos, and evil things like that. This was somewhere in the realm of 12-15 hours in photoshop after the drawing was done. Pretty much a straight shot, too. I started yesterday afternoon and finished at 7am today. Hextor is specified as having 6 arms, and is traditionally made to look like some sort of goblin or big blue orc-thing. I wanted to go more of an oni-inspired direction, because I think it's visually more interesting and it'll give him and his brother Heironious a much more east-vs-west contrast in the end. Not all of his armor is Japanese inspired, for the sake of aesthetic chaos, but the over all shape is based off of a ronin type of costume. The arrows are because his symbol/insignia is a fist holding six really evil-looking arrows.

Legs

2009-04-22T23:19:00.004-04:00

Dear Tawny; This is a page of legs :D

Ehlonna (DnD Goddess)

2009-04-15T23:12:00.004-04:00

First of a series of five for my final project in Concepts 2; my self-designed project is to illustrate a selection of the deities from the Dungeons and Dragons universe in the tradition of medieval saint icons and images.

Here we have Ehlonna, the neutral good goddess of the woodlands. She represents balance, peace, and the natural world, uninterrupted. According to the Player's Handbook (I'm not looking at the deities book for this project, so as not to color my interpretations), her worshipers include elves, half-elves, rangers, druids, and those who live or make their livings in the woods. For this piece I chose to represent her as a traditional medieval hermaphrodite, an allegorical figure that represent balance by showing a single being that contains the range of human features. The hermaphrodite of this type of imagery has essentially two complete bodies, one male and one female, connected somewhere in the vicinity of the hip or ribcage. They're usually accompanied by other symbols of elements in balance, like the sun and moon, water and fire, or predators and prey at peace. I chose to take a light palette for this, along with simple costuming, to give the impression of light and purity. The backlighting was tricky to paint, but I wanted to give the figure a sense of luminescence even though technically the 'halo' is the light source. The textures applied to this are a collage of my own creation, which includes several prints of actual medieval images and a free texture from bittbox.

Edo-era Kyu

2009-04-14T22:45:00.003-04:00

He's not my character, but I sure enjoy drawing him XD This is Kyu, my girlfriend's Fox/kitsune character, in a largely invented but Edo Period inspired outfit. Comes complete with cloudfeet and smirk! I did touch up the purple a bit in photoshop, but otherwise this is unedited watercolor :)

Cute animals and a guy from the market

2009-04-14T01:26:00.005-04:00

Just wanted to post a little, though there's nothing too significant today--just two little creatures I doodled and liked well enough to finish, and one sketch from Visual Journalism, which is a class I need to post more work from. He was drawn from life, while we talked about art school and tattoos, at the market near Johns Hopkins Hospital. Today I spent my life on a sweet watercolor, so that'll be posted tomorrow or after, once I've gotten to a scanner.

Also, if you haven't done so already, I implore everyone to check out my website (http://myarmcanfly.net) for the massive gallery update and fixed up coding :D

Ruby

2009-04-02T20:29:00.003-04:00

Just practicing my digital painting techniques.... Warming up to maintain a consistent style for the next five weeks during my final projects for Concepts. I'll probably post my last concepts piece soon--I just haven't resized it anywhere between full print resolution and the tiny one on my website--speaking of which, http://myarmcanfly.net , check it out--very updated. Lots and lots of new images, many featured here but not all, and the lightbox code is working in full at last. Feedback always appreciated.

War Pig--Toy time!

2009-03-10T19:37:00.004-04:00

My info/blurb on this blog has always mentioned that I like/collect/paint vinyl toys, but I've never actually shown one of my toys here. This is in part due to my laziness with unfinished projects; I have a Baby Qee I've been intending to paint for ages, and my brass-look Munny/Qee hybrid is still not quite up to my satisfaction. But it's also because I often forget to photograph things like this well. So here's my trying to change that, with some good, detailed shots of my newest finished toy.

I call him War Pig. He's painted on a 4" Flying Fortress Teddy Trooper DIY blank, using aircraft and model paint, Tamiya enamel, and chalk pastels.

Armor Designs! (and a portrait)

2009-02-28T16:02:00.004-05:00

Have I mentioned often enough how big a dork I am for DnD? Now, I've been designing armor for both of my active characters. Arella is a Tiefling with levels in fighter and Bloodhound, and she wears leather armor and is armed with a falchion; Xanthe is a centaur (clearly) with levels in Ranger and Barbarian, and she wears breastplate armor with her dire flail. I think Arella is more or less as she'll stay, but I'm probably gonna try some quick digital painting on Xanthe.

Doctor Otani, on the other hand, is my Personal and Abnormal Psychology teacher, and a really cool, sweet guy who asked me to draw him. He wanted a copy (print) of it, too, so let's hope that giving him that helps with my midterm!

Painted and printed and DONE

2009-02-25T11:31:00.003-05:00

Now that I've got the prints in hand, properly adjusted, and ready for friday, I figured I'd go ahead and post this. I did do a few last adjustments after this version, but only minor edits to enhance the print quality, so this is essentially how it looks. I'd say this was about.... 2 hours on the pencils, and 12 on the digital painting. All photoshop, no unusual brushes or imported textures. Just me and mah round brush, on the tiniest tablet in the world.

Me, not procrastinating? How strange!

2009-02-22T22:38:00.002-05:00

Check it out! This isn't even due until friday! I'm really pumped up about this piece right now, I've been working on it all day.

Cute, quick, DnD

2009-02-22T03:12:00.002-05:00

My aforementioned DnD character, Arella, has a dog she's trying to train. She's failed her training checks with alarming frequency, and as a result, the dog has built up a reputation for peeing on things instead of obeying commands. That's pretty much all I have to say.

Godlings!

2009-02-20T23:58:00.005-05:00

FINALLY! This is my "Godlings" pitch packet, in full and finalized. I also did a box design using the panorama in black and white.

Depending on You

2009-02-20T19:34:00.004-05:00

I'm bad at uploading, I know. I have piles of stuff to show; not my last project, because it's not done to my satisfaction, but lots and lots of sketches. And the Godlings finals. Those, I'll try to get up tonight. But, for now, new sketches! These are for my Concepts II class. The assignment is to find an interesting and clear way to illustrate a complex concept, as though to accompany an article, though gallery pieces are also a legitimate way to go. I chose the conflict in Darfur for my topic. I have a list of 10 concepts/ideas, and then these are what came out; I started out with a more editorial mindset, but then I thought, "You know what, given the choice, I like to draw big weird monsters. Or skinny people in gas masks--yeah, that's it!" I didn't take the last two seriously, but my group/teacher actually all agreed on the gas mask sketch, so that's the one going to gloriously dark and creepy final!

Random sketches and vectors

2009-02-05T00:53:00.002-05:00

I'm a huge dork. I love DnD. And I love my new character. And I love Illustrator. And all of these things have combined into the unholy monstrosity that is my new DnD character (a tiefling fighter on her way to the Bloodhound prestige class), naked, rendered entirely in vectors.
Also included, my longest-running character, re-imagined as the half-fiend ancestor of my DnD tiefling. And last, another vector image, just because I enjoy them, his name's Dallas and he's a bassist in a band with several other characters of mine.

Also, all the girls are naked. Because DnD-verse clothing is really complicated and I'm really lazy.

Someday, I will actually remember to resize and upload the final page designs from my Norse Gods pitch packet from last semester. Someday is not tonight.

More lil' Norse Gods

2008-12-12T23:32:00.006-05:00

Yup yup. More sketches, from today, and the box design wrap-around illustration (above). Also, Huginnmuninngerifreki, and the color design images for Thor and Loki! Excitement! Pictures! Silly things! Cuteness! Yay!

Final Project for Concepts

2008-12-12T16:05:00.002-05:00

Well, this is it; I'm done with Illustration Concepts. Oh, sure, I have a final one-on-one critique with my teacher, but as far as work for the class, I'm done. So, before I dive headlong back into my final for Character Development (I've got some more sketches and progress to post later), here it is--my final series for Concepts I. I chose to do sourcebook-style illustrations and layouts of some of the fae races from one of my writing-worlds. The races illustrated here are the Daoine Sidhe, the Lesidhe, and the Cu Sidhe.

Character Design final sketches

2008-12-05T15:35:00.002-05:00

Oh god, finals time. So much work. But I really love my final projects, so it's all good! These are the design sketches for my final in Character Development, which is going to be the full drawings for a series of blind box vinyl toys based on Norse mythology. I'm only doing three finished designs, due to time constraints, maybe a fourth one next week, but I could see this as several sets of toys, which I may keep working on because I enjoy the challenge. These are meant to fit in a single uniform sized box, so that you can't tell what's what, even with shaking, and for homework this week I'll be illustrating that box as well as working on the final color designs for these guys in illustrator.

As an aside, I love the names of objects in Norse myths, they're CRAZY. And clearly, Odin's ravens and wolves should be combined into a single creature called Huginnmuninngerifreki. End of story.

Poster design--Tokyo

2008-12-03T12:27:00.002-05:00

So, I've been lame about updating--sorry all! Busy busy busy. But I'm back from Thanksgiving now, and embarking on various final projects and papers, so I have a little time now to post at least this. I've done other stuff, but it's not all scanned, so it'll have to be posted later. Might also post a cool photo or two I took on the morbid beach up by my cousin's place in Door county, if they turned out as well as I hope.

This assignment was to design a poster to advertise a city picked by name-out-of-a-hat, and lucky me, I got Tokyo! I wanted to portray it as a bustling, kinda crazy, but really fun place, so I chose to use some designer vinyl toys and this funky cityscape treatment. Left to right the toys are Ciao Ciao, by Tokidoki, Skull-kun, by Bounty Hunter, a Tinpo by UNKL, Shacho, a Takashi Murakami character toy, and a Bearbrick, by Mediacom. I realize they're not all exclusively Japanese designers, but as always with art some thing have to be chosen for aesthetics. I'm very happy with the end product; the final print is 18"x24", all digital from start to finish.

La Lucha Roller!

2008-11-15T22:51:00.003-05:00

Rollergirl poster, finished at last! Well, I mean, it was finished a few days ago, but I've been busy. As you may have noticed, I did change my idea from the original design, but I'm glad I did. She loves everybody.... You're next! (shameless theft from a Yellow Note album)

Most of this was done in Illustrator, but then I cheated and used photoshop to get the line details, shading on the pile, and shines. The print is 11x17"

More figure drawing

2008-11-11T02:18:00.004-05:00

Just one--this week's drawing from class--but I think this is definitely the most detailed and complete one yet. With 5 minute breaks every twenty (for the models), this was done over the course of about 5 hours. Vine charcoal on German Etch heavy rag paper--this stuff is 75% cotton and a dream to work on! Great texture and color. I'll have to get more--I just wish it wasn't almost $5 a sheet. The angled crop was interesting to work with.

Vectory, vectory goodness

2008-11-07T18:28:00.003-05:00

I have made it my personal goal to conquer Illustrator. I can do the fancy tricks with gradients and transparency; now, I'm trying to get together a coherent illustrative style with this program as my ally.

So, first, my Illustration Concepts book cover piece. I chose to re-do The Picture of Dorian Gray. The front cover and spine text is all hand-drawn, and the back is fonts. The gold leaf designs were free vectors from BenBlogged, but I did all the arrangement and patterning myself.

And then some fun for myself--I've been enjoying drawing little cute things like this, so I took my favorite one (a self portrait in my steampunk costume) in to play with more vectors.

More Roller Girl

2008-10-30T21:57:00.003-04:00

This is the finished design for the rollergirl character from those sketches--next week, we're doing a poster with our characters, and I'm really excited about it. I think that a spiked hula hoop would be one of the most terrifying things in the world to encounter at high speeds while wearing roller skates.

Forgot about that poster....

2008-10-30T21:39:00.010-04:00

Sorry guys, I totally forgot to show my final for the Halloween Poster project. So here it is; didn't win, as you can see by the posters that are actually posted, but I'm pretty happy with it.

Also, this week's in-class assignment for the same class; we had until 10:00 to do a complete, full-color, 4x4" illustration to accompany an article about the impracticality and awkwardness of the late-twenties-early-thirties "Birthday Dinner." This was mine.

Roller Derby! Go go go!

2008-10-24T17:49:00.007-04:00

Sketches! Lots of sketches! Sketches of a rollergirl! Awesome!
Very fun class today. Because having someone skate around your classroom and tell you about the type of rugburn you get while wearing fishnets is just plain cool.
So, have some (fairly quick) drawings.

I draw for myself too, you know

2008-10-23T22:16:00.008-04:00

I haven't taken pictures of my new Concepts piece, but I promise it'll be awesome when I do! So, to make up for lack of class work here, here's some stuff I colored just for my own amusement. Also, tattoo designs for my imaginary characters' imaginary skins.

One more figure....

2008-10-13T22:52:00.004-04:00

Just one drawing tonight, but I'm really pleased with how it came out. The usual, charcoal, 18x24", etc. The tattoo was cool. (and since I was asked, it's mostly sketching-hardness, pure willow, vine charcoal, with compressed sticks for the darkest blacks)

Figure drawing fun!

2008-10-07T14:24:00.008-04:00

So, I probably won't be posting much from this class. But here's a little sample of the work I've done so far in the Life Drawing class I'm auditing this semester. Since it's an audit, I only have drawings from in class, and since it's life drawing they're all 18x24" and way too big to scan. Hence the bad images. Oh well. I like how this class is going, the experience is really helpful.

Astronauts! Dinosaurs! Teenage tigers!

2008-10-04T23:16:00.004-04:00

More character development--the finished piece from those sketches! The assignment was 10 or more characters interacting, and some of the work we were shown for inspiration were some of Dan Witz's mosh pit paintings. They really struck me, and though of course my piece isn't nearly that epic I did like the idea of filling the entire page with nothing but figures. From this rose forth..... The Truth About Extinction. The left is the hand drawn piece I presented in class, and the right is an edited version I'll be printing out as well.

And then another in class assignment, though not one I liked as well as previous ones; design the hip sales icon niece or nephew of a well-known advertising character. We could choose from the Jolly Green Giant, Smokey the Bear, or Tony the Tiger. I invented Tommy the Tiger, who is what 13 and 14 year olds want older teenagers to be like.

2008-10-04T17:17:00.013-04:00

Sketches I promised, so sketches it is! Some of these are for projects, some are just from my sketchbook and my own amusement.

These are the character design sketches for a Character Development piece (which I'll be posting in a few minutes). Dinos versus astronauts, GO!

Just from my sketchbook--my character Romney, as an angel. He has little tiny nightingale wings. I'm working on coloring this one, just for fun.

The sketch for the next Concepts piece I'm doing--my class is working on designs for this year's halloween part posters! The theme will be circus/ funhouse/ freakshow. This is why I shouldn't be allowed to sketch in the middle of the night. Bad color is from lazy scanning and really light pencils.

And last but certainly not least, this is the half-color-mockup'd compilation of the sketches for a big piece I'm working on for my own amusement--a group of chracter portraits for Meg and my steampunk world! I'm going to do them all in watercolor, and the figures are about 8" tall, with relative heights and builds taken into consideration.
Left to right: Adrienne, Al, Romney, Kyu, Cain, Rufus, and Captain Riverhawk. Jager to be added.

And now, I design characters. Primarily out of squares.

2008-09-28T23:36:00.010-04:00

In contrast to my one finished Illustration Concepts piece, I've done an overwhelming amount of work for my other studio class--Character Development. Each week we've had one homework assignment and then another assignment completed during the last two hours of class. It's frantic but fun, and I think I've gotten some really good pieces out of the process ^^ So, here's everything so far for that class! The originals are all about 9"x12" without their borders.

The first assignment was a character playing a musical instrument, with exaggerated and expressive body language. Naturally, I picked marching band, because there's always that one trumpet freshman you just want to smack.....

In class that week: randomly selected adjective, shape, and job. Mine? Excited, square, pilot. Got weirdly cut off during scanning, I'll get a better scan for the website later.

Next, The Only Survivor. Exactly what it sounds like. Any scenario; we had a lot of battles in the class's work, but also a lot of eating contests. I went for the rather disgruntled last unicorn, myself.
Then in class, The Odd Couple. Not necessarily a couple, but a pair of characters in one piece with contrasting body types/shapes/language. The jersey is the proper OSU jersey :P
After that, Team Up. 3-5 varied characters working together to fulfill a goal. This one is a work in progress again after I royally screwed it up by trying to add grass in ink.... I cut out the figures (the good part) and will be using them to complete the assignment in a different way; in the background there's plains and rolling mountains.... and a giant wooly mammoth foot. The source of terror. Down in front, the other object of attention; rabbit tracks. I'll post this again when it's properly finished, I hope.
Then in class this week, a transformation in 3-5 steps. A lot of people did cute-things-into-monsters, but I was getting sick of my square people and did this wiggly 1920s flapper turning into a bird instead, for a change of pace. The color was added later. So, that's what I know about that.
Next up: Sketches. Because there's a lot of them.

Puss in Boots.... Cat in Geta?

2008-09-28T16:37:00.009-04:00

So far, this is the only significant piece that my Illustration Concepts class has yielded... but I'm okay with that, as this one is awesome. The original drawings (one of the cat and mouse, an one of the background and drop shadows) are 7"x16", and the final prints (one black and white, one full color and texture) are..... 14"x32". Huge. Huge and I'm really proud of them both.

The assignment was to illustrate the climactic scene from a well-known fairy tale, but set it in a difference time period than it usually takes place in. We were required to go large, but the specification was at least 16"x16", so the huge oversize was my choice. Fun stuff.
Click for bigness! You know you want to!

Sumi ink lines, charcoal powder-on-a-brush shading, scanned textures, and digital color.

Also, a couple of little sketches of just how a cat would wear those sandals. Why, I don't know.

Art cards, art cards, everywhere, but not a drop to drink

2008-09-28T02:42:00.004-04:00

I think it would be officially appropriate to refer to my interest in making and trading artist trading cards (ATCs) as an obsession. Or a hobby, to use a more pleasant term? Either way, I love them. So, having made and sent quite a few out without showing them off for the most past, here's a little look at what I've been up to between class projects--this is all of them so far, but there are already new ones started.

Arranged by series, where there is a series, and with the newest at the top; click any of them to see the full-sized image! These are all 2.5"x3.5", and all but "Monarch of the Glen" (the top one) have been sent out to various swaps and individuals.

^ For the Zetti Booty swap

^ For the DoD "Dolls" swap

^ For the Fall Fantasy swap

^ For the Crystal Palace trade

^ For the first DoD swap