2016

Continuing from where I left off: a sum of work done in 2016 (minus a couple pieces still under NDA).

Nyarlathotep, the Crawling Chaos

Still study from War Witch

Still study from Black Field

Portrait study

Revisiting an older colour sketch

For the final installment of Zeitgeist

For the final installment of Zeitgeist

Trespass

Those were until June or thereabouts. From then on I made next to nothing throughout summer and most of autumn. But in late November I decided I'd make it a New Year's resolution for 2017 to paint or draw every single day, and I started doing so as a warm-up of sorts. Here are some highlights:

And some pencil and ink sketches, again from late November onwards:

Catching up!

I've neglected this blog for nearly three years. Which is a shame, but the fact remains is that it's just easier to post on other platforms like Instagram (which I've set to automatically cross-post to Facebook and twitter.

I'll try to sum up most of the work I've done in the meantime:


End 2014:

An illustration for The Dreamlands, an upcoming film by director Huan Vu,
loosely based H. P. Lovecraft’s Dream Cycle.

This was for the Zeitgeist adventure path, in which I revisited Lya Jierre,

a character I had enjoyed painting back in 2012. Obviously, she has seen better days.

Something I don't get to do often: designing the cover and digipak for Friendly Encounters,

an album by Theodore Antoniou.

2015:

My Inquisitor from Dragon Age: Origins, Sylith Adaar. :)

      

There was a palette / character challenge meme going on on tumblr, and I got three requests.

An unfinished WIP

portrait studies

A study of a friend's doll

Will follow up with 2016 in the next post.

April/May roundup

I've been sort of beating myself for not painting/drawing all that much in the last few weeks, but gathering all the sketches and such from mid-April onwards, the sum doesn't look too meagre after all. :)

First, two illustrations for Zeitgeist:

Fanart for Angeliki Salamaliki's Monsieur Charlatan webcomic:

I spend a couple days re-organised my brushes in Photoshop, with these two cropping up from the process:

Some portraits: my femshep from Mass Effect, referenced from screenshots, two more photo studies, plus one quick master study, The Valkyrie's Vigil, by Edward Robert Hughes.

And a few figure studies; the first batch are referenced, the second (probably obviously) not.

March/April sketches

Sketch compilation time! For the record, my sketchbooks over the last couple of years have been a succession of nasty, tattered things like this one:

The only thing they've got going for them is that they've got 200 12.5x17.5cm sheets and they cost me some €0.50 each (I get a pack of five), so I go through them mercilessly without ever having to fret about 'ugly' sketches. This used to be an issue before. They get much abuse from being tossed about in my bag daily, but though the result is not pretty, they curiously hold together.

 

I don't really sketch as much as I used to; in 2011-2012 I'd sketch in the tram and metro almost daily, but nowadays I catch the metro from a busier station and rarely find a place to sit, so it's not very practical. I'm more likely to sketch something very quick at work (e.g. top three sketches on the first image) or do some anatomy studies at home when I've got more time on my hands.

That said, I'm noticing how far better control I have with pencils than with my tablet. I may be really clumsy with acrylics (see below), but I draw far more comfortably on my sketchbook than I do digitally. Perhaps, even after 15 years, my hand/eye coordination between the tablet and monitor isn't really that good.

Bonus: acrylic sketches! I did those at my mom's studio in late March.