Mandi's Art Blog

Four Witches wip06

2012-01-09T22:36:00.000-08:00

Big leaps in progress are becoming less evident, but some parts of it are getting pretty close to final! This painting is definitely an excuse to paint a ton of luscious hair, lol.

1 8 2012

2012-01-08T21:31:00.000-08:00

~1-ish hour painting just to unwind before bed on a Sunday night. Referenced this guy's practice for my practice: http://sakimichan.deviantart.com/#/d4ffmcc

Four Witches wip05

2012-01-08T17:48:00.000-08:00

Four Witches wip04

2012-01-07T23:37:00.002-08:00

Four Witches wip03

2012-01-07T23:37:00.000-08:00

Four Witches wip02

2012-01-07T23:36:00.001-08:00

Four Witches wip01

2012-01-04T23:02:00.000-08:00

After a seemingly interminable, uninspired slog... I surfaced. And started painting again.

Red and teal music gal sketch

2011-07-23T22:37:00.000-07:00

Just a for-fun sketch to relax with before bed. About 20 minutes in Photoshop cs5.

Khaleesi wip05

2011-06-16T22:38:00.000-07:00

Khaleesi wip04

2011-06-15T21:54:00.000-07:00

My new monitor arrived today! It's so very purty. To break it in I spent another hour on Khaleesi here. I finally got her hair going in a direction I like! I can already tell her left arm is going to be the challenging part of this painting.

Khaleesi wip03

2011-06-14T22:29:00.000-07:00

Here's another 45 minutes or so's worth of work!

Khaleesi wip02

2011-06-11T22:13:00.000-07:00

Finally got 'round to coloring in that sketch from April a bit. Been busy cheating on my art with house projects and a new blog for our DIY adventures: leveluphouse.com

April 17 2011 sketch

2011-04-17T22:24:00.000-07:00

Been super busy with the house, work, and family coming to visit! Here's a 45 min-or-so sketch to prove I have not completely forgotten about art :D

Khaleesi_wip01

2011-04-10T22:10:00.000-07:00

Just a quick drawing, just for fun! I'm enjoying the heck out of Game of Thrones (the TV version of A Song of Ice and Fire) and was inspired to draw Dany (again!).

Grouchy wip02

2011-02-18T22:43:00.000-08:00

Here's another 30 mins or so - I'm still liking it so I'm still painting it! As usual, Arica's a ton easier to paint by virtue of being a girl. Painting a male character is good practice for me.

Grouchy wip01

2011-02-18T22:41:00.000-08:00

Haven't really thought of a name for it yet, but it's two of my own characters again, this time in a very green painting! This is about 40 minutes in.

Can I eat it?

2011-02-18T22:39:00.000-08:00

Finished 'er up a couple weekends ago. I am quite happy with it!

Astrid 2011 wip 05

2011-02-02T22:17:00.000-08:00

"I good dragon... please lemme eat it?"

Astrid 2011 wip 04

2011-01-31T22:19:00.000-08:00

Another 35 mins - I've got to get my "24" and "Rock Band" addictions under control if I'm ever gonna finish this thing. :D

More Astrid progress

2011-01-27T22:19:00.001-08:00

I squeezed in about 45 minutes of painting between my "24" addiction and packing up for tomorrow. I'm really enjoying this one: the palette is fun and different, the scene is interesting, and I've never painted a child before!

Okay, I'm a liar

2011-01-26T22:37:00.001-08:00

Got inspired during my lunch break and as luck would have it, I already had Photoshop open and my tablet at the ready. BEHOLD, DESIGNER ART! (Even more widely feared than the notorious PROGRAMMER ART!)

I went home and put another hour into it:

I hope posting it doesn't jinx it or something, because I sure do like where it's going. Who doesn't love sweet little goth girls with pet dragons?

Astrid 2011 wips

2011-01-25T22:32:00.000-08:00

It's that time 'o year again!

Pale elf lady playing the violin... check!

A dragon (or two)... check!

Grueling 3-4 hours of screwing up and starting over a half dozen times... check. :( Some are just harder than others, and after one very frustrating evening I put it on hiatus for a while. I like how her face turned out, but arrrgh the rest is just an uphill battle for some reason. I'm putting this on hiatus.

Scarlet Wips

2011-01-22T18:32:00.000-08:00

2010 ended with far more wall painting than Photoshop painting, but 2011's already off to a good start!

I started this as a respite from Astrid '11 (of course I didn't forget! :D) and liked it enough to keep going and going! I don't have any early wips due to my intention to toss it after a couple hours, but the ones I do have are pretty fun to look at:

Brighter, bolder!

More of the same!!

Yay for painting again! Now I'm off to watch some more of "24" on Netflix, which is what I do when I feel like cheating on my responsibilities.

That two month gap in posts...

2011-01-22T18:11:00.001-08:00

...we moved! Huzzah! Behold, the lovely new Casa Grant:

Yup, that's a bonafide 100% authentic Grown-up House! With 2-CAR GARAGE ACTION! We're very happy with it - especially after tearing out the filthy carpet that had been gathering crust since the first Bush administration, fixing drippy pipes, a not-locking front door lock, replacing faucets and outlet covers (not at the same time!), replacing a leaky furnace, and slapping our own personal style onto every wall we could before we moved in two days before Christmas.

My awesome Dad flew in for a week in early December to help us transform this place from borderline fixer-upper to one pretty awesome place to hole up in for a while.

We drilled:

We hauled:

We covered the most insanely ugly paint treatment I've ever seen:

We went completely buggo replacing the kitchen faucet over and over until it was finally in right AND squirting hot water and cold water properly:

We got a LOCKING FRONT DOOR!

We found this weird wedding memento in the garbage can: (Okay maybe some people are into wedding doo-dads, but Jim and I didn't even get a photo album from ours, lol)

We used a lot of this overpriced blue tape (this is our master bedroom in its "before" state!):

And we ate our weight in M&Ms:

This is the second time Jim and I have squeezed a move in the brief space of time between Thanksgiving and Christmas - our Moms think we must have a vendetta against holidays. The dust has finally settled, though, and we're settling into the groove of living in a place that's nearly three times larger than our first home!

Now that we've got life somewhat back to running smoothly, we're slowly incorporating fun things back into our evenings and weekends... like painting! And Netflix, and Rock Band, and conversations that aren't about pipe insulation or wall colors.

December Kae'fer repaint

2011-01-22T18:05:00.000-08:00

Forgot to post this - renovating and moving is hectic! This is inspired by an older artwork of mine that I did in '08:

This was back from when I thought painting every individual brick = better painting. :D

Sky Temple speedpaint

2010-11-27T19:37:00.000-08:00

Proving that I can still find Photoshop's shortcut in my start menu! :) Here's a speedpaint I spent about an hour and a half on. It's great to paint again!! Gonna enjoy it while I can - we get house access on Monday and house renovations & moving should take us til about a week before Christmas.

Moving!

2010-11-25T09:23:00.001-08:00

Sometimes this blog stops being about art and starts being about whatever's preventing me working on art. It's that time again!

Jim and I bought a house! We were originally supposed to close on it yesterday, but snowy conditions here in the Pacific Northwest have slowed the moving of documents to a crawl, so now we close next Monday instead. This weekend was to be our first in it, tearing up carpet and painting walls, but that'll have to wait until next weekend. Fortunately, my Dad is coming back to WA! He's an expert in all things house-related and his help is priceless.

What's odd about this move is just how much it has in common with our '08 move from IL to WA: I'm sick, there's a ton of snow on the ground, Thanksgiving is, uh..."rescheduled" til next year, and we're out of boxes with plenty more to box. Sprinkle in a few fun surprises, such as closing being moved and we're almost at the degree of craziness that '08's move was, except for... a dead oven, a broken down car (last week's flat tire doesn't count), and at least one of us (probably me again) needs to sustain a crippling foot injury and it'll be 2008 all over again.

Something great about this move is how close it is to BLACK FRIDAY! I'm off to buy some sale-price appliances!!

Starting something new

2010-09-14T21:42:00.000-07:00

I can already tell that this is going to be a challenging one!

Play?

2010-09-14T21:41:00.000-07:00

Finished it a week or so ago. I think it turned out cute. :)

Hello wip 05

2010-09-06T21:45:00.000-07:00

Progress is slowing down - I could nitpick at details all day! I repainted her face at least twice and I think I'm happy with it now. I think. :D The dragon got a bit of a makeover, too. I bet I can finish this one within another good painting session or two. I'm pretty happy with it overall. Painting more interesting light sources (or rather, ANY light source) is becoming a tad bit easier, too. Something tells me it'll never be easy, though.

Firiona Vie updated

2010-09-05T22:51:00.001-07:00

I updated this older artwork of mine from 2008 with some improvements I felt it needed in order to keep it "current". In this guide, I detail many of the changes I made: http://majoh.deviantart.com/#/d2y45y4

Moon & Kamen (done)

2010-09-05T11:15:00.000-07:00

At last, the series is complete!

The whole thing started after Jim and I watched a few episodes of the Japanese-made live action Sailor Moon show on YouTube. Drawing Sailor Moon coincided with me getting serious about art when I was around 12/13ish. I thought it'd be fun to revisit the characters, having not drawn them in some 15 years or so now. I started with Moon originally but mid-way through, got a great idea for Mercury and painted her instead. She became the first in the series that would eventually include all of the main cast, and would occupy me from March to May. As I worked on the others, I kept revisiting this one, starting it over a couple times and changing its direction each time.

This summer was really a bad time for painting, though - my Dad came to visit in May, Jim and I looked at an endless stream of real estate in June, I went home to Illinois for a week and a half, I worked at GenCon with some friends in Indiana, I took up evening exercise (in addition to my hour in the morning) in effort to kick start some weight loss, my job sent me to CA for a few days, and then I was sick with the flu for a week - it's just been nuts, and I wasn't able to paint regularly for most of the summer.

But the best time of year is here at last! Autumn and winter are my favorite seasons. I feel inspired, and free time has returned. I was finally able to finish this series!

Moon wip 05

2010-09-03T22:38:00.000-07:00

Inspiration has come roaring back! Wish I could say the same about my health, as I am still coughing as if trying to expel my lungs. I'm well enough to sit at my computer though, and that's all that truly matters. Tonight, I reworked Tuxedo Kamen's entire torso area, moved his arm back. The area between their torsos was really cluttered and this helped open it up and show off the rose better. It also added some more drama to his figure. I also brought in some more reds, as seen in the cloak underside, Moon's bow and hair gem, and the rose (which was formerly black - I will miss the black, but the red really pops).

I should be able to finish this one tomorrow - I'm excited!! Tomorrow is the first day of a 3-day weekend. I hope to:
- PAINT like CRAZY and finish at least 2 paintings!
- Fire up the BBQ for some delicious MEATS
- Get lots of rest in between
- Clean up some of the mess I made while sick and slacking on housework
- Maybe play some games, if there's any time left :D

Moon wip 04

2010-09-02T21:45:00.000-07:00

Remember this from May?!

I haven't forgotten! Here's yet another reworking of it. I'm finally happy with it and will (hopefully) be taking it to completion this weekend, health permitting. I feel some crap settling in my lungs, I hope it's just a temporary thing...

Hello wips

2010-09-01T20:47:00.000-07:00

Health held up well this evening, so once I was done tweaking Cyber Berry I started something new! I was poking around my old art for inspiration and found this older painting of mine from 2007:

I thought it might be fun to "revisit" the idea. Here's the sketch I roughed out in Photoshop:

The sketch went fast! I'm not a fan of super-refined sketches. I like to paint, not refine lineart, so I just keep these loose.

It helped, too, that I had a clear vision for what I wanted the painting to be. I spent only about 10 minutes sketching and then moved onto putting down colors on a layer under the sketch (the brown-colored layer). Once I had the colors roughed in I made a backup copy of the sketch then merged the sketch into my colors.

Now that I've established the light sources, the figures, the color palette, and the general composition, it's time to refine.

I've become a big fan of two key workflow innovations:
1. Paint everything on the same layer (the bars on the window are the only thing on their own layer), because doing so allows edges to blend naturally which seems to better mimic real life and real painting
2. Rough out everything equally - I now try to establish all major aspects of my light sources, palette, and composition before moving on. This lets me see the painting as a whole (even if it's rough) before I continue. No more painting the figure and then starting the background later and hoping it fits. Now everything arrives at "done" at the same time, and I think my overall painting quality has improved as a result (not to mention my speed - it's much faster to establish, then refine than it is to make my plans as I paint and then toss my paint and repaint over and over)

Here, I started with her face and worked my way out, fixing up her hair, dress, the books behind her, the dragon in the window, and the details of her dress's fabric along the way.

Happy with the progress so far, I continued with another pass on details, refining the fabric, the dragon, and Astrid herself a bit more.

Aside from a brief period of time where her face was majorly hideous (I actually considered scrapping the whole thing over it, it was that hideous) , this has been a really smooth-sailing kind of painting. I'm glad I pushed through the "omg it's so UGLY" phase that many paintings inevitably go through.

It's really rare that a new painting goes this well in the early stages for me. Usually I end up getting this far and then scrapping half of it (or all of it). I'm going to get to bed early tonight as I'm still recovering from being sick, but I'm really excited to continue my work on this!

Cyber Berry wip 03

2010-09-01T20:40:00.000-07:00

Lols at my previous posts where I was so enthusiastic and ready to paint again. Little did I know I was about to come down with the FLU FROM HELL! Today is my first day out of bed for any meaningful amount of time since falling ill with plague Friday afternoon. (I believe it is now Wednesday evening, though time lost meaning in the sleep/wake up feeling like shit/sleep more cycle).

As such, I haven't painted since the last WIP was posted (nearly a week ago!). Today, though, in effort to get used to sitting at a computer again, I resumed work on "cyber berry" (who really needs a better name than that). I think she might be done soon.

OMG I have time to paint again 2!!!

2010-08-26T22:11:00.000-07:00

The weather's turning cold again, YAY!!!! Summer just sucks the life out of me. I never paint anything good in the summer, if I even paint at all. The return of cold weather is like waking up refreshed, inspired and ready to create again.

OMG I have time to paint again!!!

2010-08-25T22:15:00.001-07:00

I've managed to go a full 7 days without getting on a plane or going someplace... this could be the beginning of something good! Like, free time! OMG :O

Not much to say about this one yet, other than it is GREAT to be painting again and I'm super excited to do it again tomorrow!!!

Someday...

2010-08-16T20:47:00.000-07:00

...everything will settle down, I'll have some free time, I'll be able to paint again! Until then, I'm in the middle of a gigantic shit hurricane that won't blow over for at least another week or four.

(Sorry for the negativity, I so rarely get to complain and this was the easiest, most convenient target for said complaining.)

Arriving at Meleferen wip01

2010-07-05T21:11:00.000-07:00

Vince, Erica (and baby), and Trinth are getting their first view of Mele`feren.

I started this just as a quick "get back into painting" drawing but I liked it enough to keep going! I'm a big fan of ridiculously wide compositions and ensuring all of the canvas is interesting will be my challenge on this one. That, and horse anatomy. I love painting horses, but they are still very foreign to me! I really like how the characters' faces have turned out so far.

Finishing a game

2010-06-27T21:18:00.000-07:00

For those who don't know, I work as a lead designer at a large video game production studio. I love my job, and when it's time to finish a project things get hectic so I put in evening and weekend time. My painting often gets put on hiatus when it's time to final a project at work.

The final push is worth it, though - the project always really comes together at the end as finishing touches and polish go into the game. I'm very proud of my current project: it is a fun puzzle game for the Nintendo DS based on a great kids' license and feedback from those who play it has been overwhelmingly positive. It's amazing to see 5+ months of work come together so nicely, and it's almost done! Yay!

Saturn

2010-06-27T21:17:00.000-07:00

There's something about her that reminds me of one of my favorite bands, The Birthday Massacre. It must be all the purple and black. :)

Pluto

2010-06-27T21:16:00.000-07:00

Uranus

2010-06-27T21:14:00.000-07:00

Uranus wip 06

2010-06-02T21:48:00.000-07:00

More work on her!

Uranus wips

2010-06-01T21:45:00.000-07:00

Here's my progress thus far on Uranus:

More to come!

Chibimoon

2010-06-01T21:43:00.000-07:00

Chibi moon as a sweet Lolita! Another one I started prior to the May hiatus and wrapped up this past weekend. I am going to finish this series!!

Back at it!!

2010-06-01T21:34:00.000-07:00

May wasn't a very productive month for painting! I took a week+ long break from painting when my dad came to visit, and then Jim and I got into house hunting and looked at houses til we found one we wanted to make an offer on. But now that we're waiting on word from the bank about our offer.... it's time to PAINT AGAIN! YEAH!

I started Neptune sometime in April and finished her up over Memorial Day weekend.

In which I repaint the face again

2010-05-04T21:57:00.000-07:00

I like this one a lot better - 4th time's the charm! I think Tuxedo Kamen is much improved in this pass, too.

Moon wips

2010-05-03T21:37:00.000-07:00

Two figures adds a whole new dimension of difficulty! I'm pretty happy with it so far, but I think I've spent 50% of my time on it repainting her face over and over. One of the iterations will take, I'm sure of it....

Mars

2010-05-02T21:25:00.000-07:00

Red is one of my least favorite colors to paint with. I almost never use it. I think Mars was a bit of a challenge for that reason; I kept finding my paints shifting towards browns and purples instead. Overall, though, I'm really happy with how this one turned out. In the original sketch she was standing, but I changed her to "float" like some of the others do and I think it was a change for the better. I find it hard to draw action poses and "impossible" poses (like flying), so this was a good exercise.

Jupiter

2010-05-02T21:16:00.000-07:00

I started (and finished, too, I think) Jupiter the day Jim flew to CA for a meeting. Painting is a great way to redirect anxiety into something productive:

I'm very quickly becoming a fan of painting in the dark stuff and then adding light areas on top. This is a complete reversal of how I used to work (light to dark) which was really a rather bad approach the more I think about it. But using color in general is something I almost never did before I started at ILIAS in 2003, so I can't be too hard on myself. Learning is a process:

All done! Jupiter was one of my favorites and I'm happy with how she turned out.

Painting these characters is fun: their designs are still familiar to me 15+ years later, which lets me focus on experimenting with colors I don't normally use. Sailor Moon got me interested in drawing seriously and there's lots of good nostalgic feelings going into these paintings.

Venus

2010-05-02T21:15:00.001-07:00

I've been lax in updating my blog; I finished Venus a couple days after Mercury (which I finished a couple weeks ago).

Mercury

2010-05-02T21:14:00.001-07:00

All done - had a blast painting this!

Mercury wip 02

2010-04-08T21:58:00.000-07:00

I wish every 90 minutes was as productive as the 90 minutes I spent on this were. I really like where it's going!

Mercury wip 01

2010-04-08T21:55:00.000-07:00

Jim and I got into watching the live-action Sailor Moon series (look for "Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon act 1" on Youtube if you're curious) and long-story made short, I decided it would be pretty awesome to re-imagine the heroines of the show as darker, goth-ier versions. I've decided that Mercury would look rather cyber-goth.

A Lion's Plaything

2010-03-28T12:12:00.000-07:00

I put in a couple more hours yesterday and finished it up! Nice weather and other interests have been luring me away from painting lately. :D

Emily wip 01 and 02

2010-03-24T21:35:00.001-07:00

I took a bit of a painting break to recover from a cold, enjoy the warm weather, play a few new release video games, and work on a number of grub commissions that came in. I think I rusted up a bit, starting this painting is helping me get back into it!

PS: She is not named Emily for any particular reason... she just looks like an Emily to me! :)

Hellgrub & Grub Sapien

2010-03-23T22:03:00.000-07:00

Hellgrub and Grub Sapien are a custom commission I worked on for the last few weeks! The "adopter" is a coworker of mine and I can't wait to hear her shriek with delight! They are super-duper cute - the pic doesn't do them justice, really! While I was busy sewing (and playing video games, and going outside for the first time in 3 months...) I didn't get a lot of painting done, but I'm starting to get back into it now!

Space Lion wip 01

2010-03-01T22:09:00.000-08:00

A week or so ago I was surfing DA and found this:

by this artist: http://nadare-sama.deviantart.com/

I usually find it challenging to come up with unusual ideas and topics. A lot of my work draws from the same limited pool of ideas. But this inspired something unusual: a lion holding the earth under its paw, like so:

When I finish it, I will have to thank the artist. :)

In the meantime, I'm off to bed! I've been ill over the past several days (Jim got it worse than I did, though, poor guy) and I need some more rest!

New Crobuzon

2010-02-28T12:51:00.001-08:00

I think it's done. Project fatigue has set in and I'm pretty happy with it overall. It's a heckuva lot better than my last cityscape, that's for sure. :)

New Crobuzon wip 06

2010-02-18T22:17:00.000-08:00

I really like how it's coming along. I've been spending the bulk of my evenings lately on Sims 3, which I need to stop playing so much before I get completely out of the great painting momentum I've had for several weeks now! :D

New Crobuzon wip 05

2010-02-17T22:18:00.000-08:00

Spent about 45 more minutes on it tonight.

New Crobuzon wip 04

2010-02-16T21:29:00.000-08:00

Getting back into painting after a weekend of games! I like where the lower right corner's heading.

Mandi Grip Kart Character

2010-02-15T11:24:00.001-08:00

It's done! Here is my Grip Kart character, all in pink and all ready to beat everyone else to the finish line. :)

Grip Kart wip 04

2010-02-10T21:50:00.001-08:00

Spent another 1.5 hours on it tonight. Whee!

Grip Kart wip 03

2010-02-08T21:44:00.000-08:00

I worked another 1.5 hours on my Grip Kart character! I hope this catches on around the office - it's a lot of fun! I'm still thinking of what her weapon will be... hmmm...

Grip Kart wip 02

2010-02-07T20:37:00.001-08:00

One last update before I go spend some quality time with Jim! I'm really enjoying this one so far - does that make me vain? :D

Grip Kart wip 01

2010-02-07T20:06:00.001-08:00

A friend at work drew himself as a kart racer character and encouraged me to do the same! Here's my sketch about an hour and a half in. I've made the BG yellow-reddish to match the final background art, which will be the same across all kart racer chars. The real trick now will be getting the coloring on the character to fit the background.

New Crobuzon wip 03

2010-02-07T15:31:00.000-08:00

Another hour or so's worth of work on it. I spent some of that goofing off on the web, though, so it may be closer to 45 minutes. :D

New Crobuzon wip 02

2010-02-07T14:30:00.000-08:00

This update represents about 45-50 minutes of work after the previous WIP post. I used a gradient map to get some interesting colors into the painting early, and I started adding some of the major landmarks of New Crobuzon, like the giant glass dome and Perdido Street Station's spire.

New Crobuzon wip 01

2010-02-07T14:27:00.001-08:00

Didn't know what to paint next so I just started laying down shapes into an empty canvas and after a few mins, I decided it looked like a city. I went with it! It kind of reminds me of New Crobuzon from China Mieville's books Perdido Street Station and The Scar, so I might start pushing it in that direction. I haven't attempted a city in some time.

Lethal Lemon Turnaround 2010

2010-02-07T14:22:00.000-08:00

Finished it yesterday. I'm really proud of the lighting on this one. I'm trying to push myself further with colors and lighting this year and so far I've had good results. :)

This is a remake of this piece from 2005, which at the time was my very best work:

It would be fun to go back to those classes with all the knowledge and skills I've gained since!

My art is on the front of a Nintendo DS game box!!!

2010-02-04T22:18:00.000-08:00

There's awesome, and then there's THIS:

Solitaire MahJong Ancient China Adventure was my last project at Webfoot. I drew these characters for use in-game and never really expected to see them again, but here they are: on the FRONT. OF. THE. BOX!

I've got art on the back of boxes... but I always assumed the front was reserved for professional box artists - the kind who specialize experts in creating something so compelling it inspires an impulse purchase. I thought maybe someday I might get art on the front of something, but not now - not at 26, with my entire artistic career still ahead of me.

I didn't get to compose the image, but it's made of art I drew and colored myself. And that's just so freaking COOL!!!

Lethal Lemon turnaround wip 04

2010-02-03T22:36:00.000-08:00

Got home pretty late tonight, but I still made the most of the hour or so I had before bed time!

Lethal Lemon turnaround wip 03

2010-02-02T22:27:00.000-08:00

I spent about 2 more hours on it this evening. My work tends to gravitate towards unsaturated, so I keep adjusting it to be bolder and brighter. :D

Sushi

2010-02-02T22:25:00.000-08:00

All done! It's so cute!

Sushi wip 02

2010-01-31T21:16:00.000-08:00

Worked another 2 hours on it after dinner. I love it! It's so cute. I'm really proud of this - it started as just an experiment in texturing and it really took off and turned into something I would include in a portfolio. If I get to go home on time tomorrow I should be able to finish it up in the evening!

Sushi wip 01

2010-01-31T18:48:00.000-08:00

I LOVE days that are almost entirely painting. :D Here's an exercise I started to practice texture. I'd like to push it a lot further - this is the first hour and a half or so.

Lethal Lemon turnaround wip 02

2010-01-31T14:56:00.000-08:00

Lethal Lemon turnaround wip 01

2010-01-31T11:15:00.000-08:00

When I look at my older work from 03-06, when I was in school, I always wonder what it would have been like to do those assignments with the skills I've developed since leaving school. One of my favorite projects at ILIAS was a character turnaround, so I decided to do an updated one! Here's my start at a new version of this character turnaround, which I made about 5 years ago.

Die For You

2010-01-31T11:13:00.000-08:00

It's done! I noticed once I thought it was done that Bella really had no left arm, so I added that this morning. :D

Thank goodness THAT'S over

2010-01-30T17:21:00.000-08:00

This has been one lousy week.

I spent the first couple evenings of the week preparing for my all-day work trip Thursday, spent all of Thursday in airports, in airplanes, and in meetings, and then I spent Friday evening doing all the chores I could pack in before a mandatory Saturday work day.

I'm tired of spending Saturdays at the office when I have so little to do myself. I'm on top of my work, and have been on top of my work, for most of this project. Sure, it's not bad to get ahead on stuff, but that's what the 45 hours I spend in the office each week is for!

Please end soon, project. My evenings and weekends mean everything to me.

Twilight wip 04

2010-01-25T21:25:00.000-08:00

I spent about 2 more hours on it tonight. It's really coming along nicely - I hope to finish it this week!

Twilight wip 03

2010-01-24T21:24:00.000-08:00

Twilight fan art :O

2010-01-21T22:25:00.000-08:00

Truly, I have crossed over to the darkest side of the dark side.

About 3 hours in

About 1.5 hours in

Submerge

2010-01-20T22:11:00.000-08:00

blob doodle 1-18-2010 wip 02

2010-01-19T22:37:00.000-08:00

I didn't think I'd touch it again! It was just meant to be a sketch I'd never touch again, but there's something special about this one.

blob doodle 1-18-2010

2010-01-18T22:33:00.000-08:00

A blob doodle! I slop down some blobs and make something out of them. After the eye-burning brightness that was the Paeny portrait I just finished, it's kind of nice to work in such muted colors. I'm not too thrilled about the composition on this one, but I kind of like the story it seems to be telling.

Paeny

2010-01-18T22:30:00.000-08:00

It's done! Hoorah! My World of Warcraft draenei priest with Zergy, her pet cuddly pet zergling.

Paeny portrait wip 03

2010-01-14T22:04:00.000-08:00

Now with 100% more Zerg action!

Paeny portrait wip 02

2010-01-12T23:07:00.000-08:00

Squeezed in some painting between network meltdowns and research for work. There's some mandatory crunch coming up so I'm trying to indulge in as much painting as I can before it hits!

Paeny portrait wip 01

2010-01-11T22:06:00.000-08:00

Here's some colors I *never* use!

Waking the White Queen

2010-01-10T17:06:00.000-08:00

...is done! What's next?!

Wake the White Queen wip 10

2010-01-07T22:26:00.000-08:00

It's getting there!! 2010's a great year for inspiration and art so far.

Improvement Meme 03-09

2010-01-07T22:22:00.000-08:00

The 03-09 is a popular trend on DA right now. I'm amazed at my improvement. Wow. Just wow.

Break is almost over :(

2010-01-02T20:08:00.000-08:00

This has been an awesome vacation! I'm already counting down the next 11.5 months!

I love winter break because it's the only time of year where *everyone* gets off work at the same time, so I can actually relax knowing that no one else is at work needing me or doing something without me.

Some stuff I did: surprised Jim with a PS3 for Christmas, indulged in too much Fat Princess and lots of PS3 game demos, sampled numerous games including God of War II, Harvest Moon, Sims 2 DS, saw Avatar, went shopping the day after Christmas to stock up for next year, went to the DMV to change my name (and got the ugliest license photo ever!), watched almost every episode of Firefly, bought a lot of grub fabric, cleaned house, designed a CSS journal for my DA page, worked on two paintings (finished 1), rocked out at the Noc Noc, played a bit of WOW, slept a lot, ate a lot, and had a blast the entire time.

Hooray for winter break!!!

Fire and Blood

2010-01-02T19:59:00.000-08:00

I started this one as just a warm-up (or a break from Astrid '10) but I decided to keep working on it and make it into a completed piece. I had fun painting it! It was nice to do something quick and without any expectations of goodness or completedness. :D

Wake the White Queen wip 09

2009-12-30T20:55:00.000-08:00

Wake the White Queen wip 08

2009-12-26T22:01:00.000-08:00

Christmas break continues to be really rad: I surprised Jim with a PS3 for Christmas and we've been downloading game demos for it all evening. Other gifts include: a SELVAGE WHALE!!! (it's a huge plush whale made entirely out of fabric selvage), clothes for clubbing/concerts, sweaters and t-shirts for work, a book full of adorable plushie patterns, a 12-pack of Barq's Red Creme Soda, a new grub (!!!), some of our favorite '09 movies on Blu-Ray, a truckload of candy (including coconut bars!), several books, $25 to spend at Coldstone ice cream shop (OMG, tub of cake batter ice cream, here I come!!!), a plush Companion Cube for the grubs, and more. The best part was sharing it all with my new husband. This Christmas rocked.

I even did some painting!!!