Week 2 Closes Early

Much to my pride and delight, there was plenty of time to finish this yesterday afternoon. I personally like the look of it and feel that it functions well. I would prefer the character a bit thinner since that's how I imagined him, but it works anyway. Perhaps he's built up a little since he took up archery.

Today was also the first real day of my Advanced Painting studio. I started on the background of my painting   but forgot my palette knife today so color blending wasn't going too well. As much as I dislike doing landscapes, this at least won't be the actual subject of the painting as much as a small detail of it. I don't want to reveal too much but I will say that it's going to be a sort of fan-made cover of a classic book. You can guess if you want but I may wait until a few more class sessions before revealing which book it is.

Getting Classy

Sorry, it's just a play on the fact that I've started actually doing art for my classes, not that my art is suddenly more high-end.

As I expected, oil paint (yes, water-soluble since Kessie asked) is going to take some getting used to. Last class I was trying to use it like extra-thick watercolors, which of course it isn't. For today's studio I'm going to try laying the pigment on more thickly.
Also, for my digital tools class, my professor has approve my chosen project of creating a cover for the novel I wrote for National Novel Writer's Month back in 2009 (I'll be going back to it this November to write the second draft). I'll be drawing the individual images for characters in Photoshop Elements 5, then using Adobe Illustrator CS5 (which I bought at student discount) to put them together and add the desired effects and text. Here's the front-most image of the main character (so far):
For non-curricular art, I finished my friend's commission. Please excuse the poor quality; I'm at school and don't have my scanner in my backpack, so my camera had to do:
After finishing the other commission on my plate, I'm going to stop taking them for a while. Full-time class, working 25 hours a week plus homework means that any free-time drawing I do will be for myself.

Also, my model car is completed, I just happened to not have the photo I took of it on the camera card that's with me. Next entry, though!

Week 7 - Progress 1: Two for the Price of One!

Good deal, huh? Since my markers are dropping like flies, I decided it was best if I only did the figure in traditional media and used trusty Photoshop + Tablet for the background. Besides, my break from complex backgrounds is over and this just seemed like the best way to handle it.

This week's subject is my Goat-youkai (Japanese mythological being), Kenjo. He's doing his nerdy thing and reading. In Japanese garden. Because he'd love that. Might even give him some tea, too. Yes, the book looks odd right now. I'll fix it tomorrow.

Again using a stock photo for my reference. This one right here. Also using TheJapaneseGarden.com for ideas for the setting.

Music: Kitaro: "The Best of Kitaro" album.