Week 47 Is A Surprise

This has been in progress since some time last week, but since it was a gift commission I agreed not to post it until the one of the recipients had been given his printed, framed version. Since his wife (my client) gave it to him today, I'm free to post it.

It's my friend/boss Mike as Ernie and his friend Tim as Bert. Fishing. Shenanigans will take place and it's debatable if anything will be caught.

This was a lot of fun!

Week 36: Finishing Touches

It's done! I feel pretty good about it, and I'm eager to see what my client thinks.

Week 36: Flatline

It took a lot of pushing myself today, but the flat colors are finally down. Tomorrow the shading and the detailing on the outfits and she'll be done! Now I have to figure out Week 37.

Week 36: Stand in Line

Didn't touch it all weekend but did all of the line work today. That's often a big hurdle because I'm so finicky about outlining my work but this time around it was simple. I'm sure the free-flowing dress helped a lot.

Week 36: One for the Money

This week is a commissioned piece for a friend! It's actually a full color image with two characters, and since it will take a while it only makes sense to use it as my piece this week. Plus my friend will get to see each and every update, so there's a bonus for her.

It's two of her original characters who wear wonderful fancy clothes.

Right now I think Tessa is a bit too large proportionately so I'll be fixing that.

Week 2: Being Badgered

Haha I posted this without writing anything. Oops!

This was a great experience and lots of fun. The outcome makes me happy too, so I hope that my client enjoys it.

Week 2.3

It's a good thing I've made so much progress on this in such a short amount of time because I'm catching the cold that's been going around and that I have somehow dodged for several weeks. I want this drawing to be as awesome as I can personally make it. So far, not so bad.

I'm weening myself of the "blur/smudge tool" little by little. It's not easy. I like my little digital crutch.

Week 2.2

I actually accomplished a lot last night while subjecting myself to the emotional masochism that is Downton Abbey. It's an interesting experience to watch that while working on a silly caricature of someone as a badger.

As was my goal, most of the background is done already. Saving the fun parts for last, you know. Though I don't like the thick lines in the background. I'll try to find a way to phase them out.

Week 2: COMMISSIOOOOOOONS. COMMISSIONS!

If you read that title in the tune of "Tradition" from Fiddler on the Roof then I don't know if you should be proud that you understood the reference or terrified that your brain is on the same wave length as mine. If it's the latter you have my deepest apologies.

Not long ago a friend's mom (whom I also consider my friend) commissioned me for a detailed piece that's a fun tribute to her late second husband.  I'm pretty honored to be part of it and looking forward to the challenges it will present, such as drawing a convincing car.

A lot of this is based on a running joke with them and when it comes down to it, I'll be doing a caricature of him similar to the badger in these commercials. They're pretty darn funny, actually.

Horses and Stuff

This actually didn't take long to color, it just took me forever to get around to doing it. Her coat is inspired by this lovely piece on Modcloth.

I also had a taker on my $10 Colored Commission Christmas Sale, and this is the cleaned up and slightly filled in line art of her character Oscar:

Week 42 and 43 Squished Together

Due to National Novel Writer's Month and general business and a week-long slump, not much drawing happened when it was supposed to. Today, however, I finished a commission in one sitting that was going to be Week 43. Week 42, however, is nowhere near finished. So I'm switching them up. This is now Week 42:

This is a commission for a dear friend of mine of a little role play family that we write, and her late sweet kitty Thomas who died a few weeks ago. It's very sad and I wish I could make it better, but at least I could do this drawing of our way of immortalizing him.

This is what was originally meant to be Week 42. Yes, it's another couple dancing but I don't draw fanart of these two very often and I've never done anything colored or finished and pretty. So I dove in and then life happened as mentioned above. Hopefully I'll finish it within the next few days.

Week 18 Is Finished But Not Done

It's finished! The client rather likes it, so I consider it a success. The matching turtlenecks are because the reference picture was an "ironic" Christmas card of all of them wearing said turtlenecks, though I assume they were photo-shopped onto the cats.

Also I played around in Illustrator more to learn how to make patterns that are less... awkward.

Week 18 Does Some Experimenting

It does indeed do some experimenting, but first, the next step in the commission in which the pets make more sense proportionally and everyone is happily inked.

I've decided that since I am aiming for a creative profession, I should learn to do more digitally. Yes, I can draw in various art programs, but there are whole other beasts entirely, like Adobe Illustrator. Many art professions expect you to know your way around Adobe, especially Illustrator. So I dusted off the CS5 version that I bought two years ago and used maybe a total of twice for a class that I actually hadn't needed it for at all (sigh) and started going through tutorial videos to figure out the various tools.

I spent yesterday afternoon learning to use the blob brush, and figuring out the selection tools. This is far from perfect, but I spent a long time on it and it's not too bad.

Week 18 Is More Paid Sillness

Since I'm only doing one drawing this week, the last of the commissions, I'm going to pace myself more with the completion. I'm happy with the sketch aside from the pets - I feel like they need to be more proportionate.

Week 17 Ambles

 The lines for the second commission, my client's sister, are done. My next plan of action is to color the two that have been drawn and inked, and then do the third image for Week 18's art. Her sister is a cosmetics specialist, and my client said if her sister had a super-power she'd be like some sort of wonder woman saving people from bad make-up products. So...

Also I am proud to show that my Frida Kahlo painting is almost finished! Did I post the progress images here? I can't remember. All that's really left to be finished is her bow and her shirt. I have no intentions of doing anything further to her face and accidentally ruining it somehow.

Week 17 Is Paid Sillyness

I'm doing a series of three caricature drawings... and being paid for it! My awesome client also said it's totally awesome if I use progress images for this week's art blog, so here's the line art for the first drawing, which is over her parents. Yes, it will be colored, as will the other two. It's my goal to have at least two of the three done by this time next week.

Week Nineteen's a One-Shot

That I did in about one sitting, no less. It's a sort of thank you/commission for a friend who helped me out. It's his character, a dragon, getting a hug from his favorite pony, Rainbow Dash.

This was a lot of fun! Everyone needs to hug a pony.

Week Seventeen Isn't Much

Yes, I did finish a drawing this week but it was all in one sitting. It's a sketch commission for a friend that took a bit to feel motivated for, but once I started I was able to carry it through.

Also, I finished some Sculpey nesting dolls that I started at least a month ago and didn't finish painting until now.  The largest one is about the size of my thumbnail. No, they don't open up but maybe someday I'll figure out how to make some that do!

Week Thirteen: All Together (Artistic Nudity)

Despite uncertainties about finishing this commission about half way through the week it is, in fact, finished within seven days of when it was started. Since I didn't update during that time, you'll have to take my word for it. I'm really eager to draw something fun for myself as a reward this coming week.

Also, some fun things from my Figure Drawing class, including a page of gesture warm ups, which are between ten to thirty second poses. This is the first page I've done of them that felt like it was worth posting on the internet anywhere.

Week Twelve: All At Once

So I guess last week should have been Week 11 the whole time. Oops.

Anyway, the third of the four commissions is now finished! It's a friend's character and her husband's character. I don't think their real-life counterparts were expecting but I thought the subject matter would be all too cute.

Anyway, since this commission is only to be inked, I'll spend the rest of the week planning out the last one and doing some personal sketches and art homework.