Princess Irene

I'm putting together a new portfolio to showcase some concept art. The personal project is based around "The Princess and The Goblin" by George MacDonald, one of my favorite stories! In the end, I want several characters, some concept paintings, and character interaction sketches.

To start, I began by creating thumbnails of the silhouette that I wanted for the character. This is the first time I have ever really done this, so they're pretty sloppy. I hope to improve it over time.

The top two rows are the sketch shapes, while the bottom row was taking some of the shapes that I liked and refining them a little bit.

Of the thumbnails, I really liked the two shapes in the middle. I wanted a poofy skirt with some pretty shoulder detailing. I began refining those details and then combined the ones I liked into the characters below:

Next, I started on building up form & value via a greyscale rendering process.

I'm still not 100% completely happy with it. There's something about the face that kind of bothers me, and I would love to add a bolder pattern to the bottom of her dress. I'm thinking of also playing with some textures to give the dress a heavy material look, as if she is wearing a very simple shape, but with a fabric that fits with her royal princess status.

WIP Rough

A rough, work-in-process preview of a new painting I'm working on. I'm really trying to improve on composition, lighting, and storytelling. I'll reveal the story once I'm done with it. I'll probably finish it up tomorrow or Tuesday. :)

I brought my bunny outside today...

As some of you may know, and as most of you may not know, I live with a bunny companion that I adopted from a rescue center. I've been living with her for about half a year now, and spoiling her like none other. I used to have an entire "craft" room to myself, where I kept my painting supplies, doll-making stuff, cintiq, and computer. Since saving this rabbit (quite literally, it turns out she was on the euthanasia list for the following week), she has just taken up my entire room. The floor is covered with her cardboard box tunnels, a cottontail cottage, little toys here and there, tons of hay, and of course, her 3-story condo that I built with my boyfriend.

ANYWAY. She's lovely, really. I don't mind sharing my space with her. She's been a real joy to have around (and occasionally a real sassy pain!). I happened by the pet store today and after briefly talking it over with my bf, we decided we would try purchasing a harness and a leash because we've noticed that my bunny (named Ramona Willow Flowers) really loves exploring. She's not much of a chewer or a digger, but just loves running around in new places. Just imagine what that would do to her to be outside for the FIRST time. What is that like for a rabbit? All those new sounds and smells - I thought that she would just love it.

So, that's what we did. We bought the harness, and agreed that we would take her out at around 4pm ... just so to not put her in direct sunlight. I live in California, so the weather is warm right now and the sun is just a-beaming. Putting her in the harness was a real struggle, I knew she would hate it. She kept trying to bite at the thing and running away when I went to pick her up. Eventually, I coaxed her into my arms with some treats, and then put her outside. She instantly took to it! Maybe she seemed a little freaked out at first, but after the first 5 minutes, she was obviously very excited and happy. I couldn't resist taking a video and putting some "cute" music with it. I thought that a Chrono Trigger soundtrack would do just nicely.

Without further ado, please watch the video because really, bunnies are just cute. It doesn't even matter that it's mine! She just melts my heart, really.

Unrequited Love

I need to get better at updating this thing :) There's just too many social media sites to keep track of now! This past weekend, I managed to finish another illustration that I'm actually quite proud of. I feel like this year is kicking off to a good start. I'm noticing that my work is improving, and that in itself is wonderful motivation to keep working at getting better.

It started out as an attempt at drawing something outside of my comfort zone, which would be a manly man burlesque type figure (i.e the centaur), but he kept getting smaller and smaller in my painting, until it became more of a story. Suddenly, this image was about a centaur chasing after his nymph love and trying to propose (I suppose before the satyrs got to her first?). Anyways, she has pretty much had enough of them trying to woo her, and scurries up into the trees to hide herself from their view.

I had a lot of fun with this painting, and I'm super excited that it only took about 2 days (off and on) to complete. I'm getting faster overall, though I need to definitely push myself further, and possibly do some anatomy studies.