Dark Winter Dragon Part 3

The challenge deadline has passed and I've submitted my entry, but I won't show it just yet. Here's a sketch of my dragon in the meantime!

Dark Winter Dragon Part 2

So as mentioned in the previous post, I had done a bunch of sketches in my sketchbook and felt I was getting somewhere, until I decided my idea was too sweet and not me. Back to the sketchbook! Now for my sketchbook, I tend to use no nonsense pencil, but I have found in the past that sticking to one medium for too long tends to dry me out and that was the case here. Suffice it to say, the drawings I did were uninspired and not worth showing here. It was time for a change. I decided that to start fresh, I would go digital for the sketch and use a brush I hadn't used very much before. The main brush I believe I acquired from Kekai Kotaki's collection which he donated to Imagine FX magazine. I grabbed a texture off my texture library and went at it. After about 40 minutes here's what came out.

I finally felt like I was getting somewhere.....I felt like there's still a mother/child connection. What could be more basic and at the core of parenting than providing food for one's child? I had to make sure the dragon was dark, scary and a little demonic too; I like this juxtapose of an evil looking creature being a caring mother. I've kept the colors desaturated so the blood stands out more as well.

Dark Winter Dragon Part 1

Hello! Sorry about the lack of posts. A few weeks ago this showed up at the Dracopedia Project Blog....

William, you're a good man! The rules are simple enough; interpret 'winter dragon', any media, style, etc. Just make it cool...pun sort of intended. Off to the sketchbook!

This is one page of several I drew trying in trying to come up with a painting. As an artist, my thing is story. Narrative. I've never been a money shot kind of guy (you know, the scene where the hero is standing there looking heroic, but not really doing anything). There has to be something...going on. I played with a few ideas. At one point, I was going to have Santa Claus riding on my winter dragon! Why, not, Christmas is only 10 months away!
Finally, I stopped to think about what the term 'winter' means to me. Some people think snowmen and snowball fights, school days cancelled and hot chocolate by the roaring fire, but I think of winter in terms of cold environments, such as the Arctic. Terms that come to mind are white, cold, beautiful, unforgiving, harsh, survivors. Winter is a time of deadly beauty. So how do I tell a story around a lovely but brutal background? Well, I stumbled upon the idea of a mother and child struggling to survive. And here's a color rough of such an idea.

This is a mother winter dragon watching over her sleeping young in a cold, harsh mountain morning. I felt this had a lot of opportunities, artistically speaking. Most obvious is the unusual horizontal composition. I could also play with color, lighting and extreme atmospheric perspective. It has story, a sense of the epic, it's original and....sweet. Not me. I realized I would probably hate doing this painting. There's no action, nothing. And this contest should be about a dragon, I felt this composition was more about a scene that just happened to have a dragon in it. Also, these characters didn't have to be dragons; I could've put goats in their place and it would've worked. I did like the original idea of a mother and her young, and  I wanted to carry that, but I had to lose the saccharine sweetness.

Check in again on Monday to see where this goes.

Ink Life Drawings

Hello! Here are some life drawings done with Japanese brush pen in a Moleskine sketchbook. Hope you like them!

Dragon Zombie Concepts

Some thumbnails for a zombie dragon painting. Please help out a confused artist and vote for your favorite(s)!! Thanks!

Harry Potter Stuff

A quick Harry Potter sketch in graphite. I might paint this.

Some Updates

Hello! I have some slightly overdue updates! The Phillustration show began on June 25th, and it was a blast to attend the gallery reception. It was good to see Christina Hess, Dominick Saponaro and David Palumbo again. I also had the honor of meeting Joe DeVito! (the artist that is!)

The show is at the Philadelphia Sketch Club and runs until July 27th. Stop on by if you're in the area. It's a great show!

And a new sketch I've been working on.....

Stegosaurus

I just felt like drawing a dinosaur today. Figured I try the speedpainting and 'experimenting with brushes' thing with it.

Noses

I needed some practice with noses, so a while back, I kept a large piece of paper at the side of my desk at work. Sometimes during lunch or lulls in work, I drew a few from photographs. Here's the result. I hope to make this into a habit.

Miss Andrea

I accompanied my nephew to his piano class yesterday and brought along my sketchbook. Here's a sketch of his teacher, Miss Andrea.

Crimson Fists

Another Warhammer 40k sketch. Today, it's the implacable Crimson Fists.

Chaos Raptors

A doodle of Warhammer 40000 Raptors. I should do this more often. It's fun!

Moonshine

If the delicate, beautifully rendered drawings of Reubens are a Merlot, and strong, bold lines of Cornwell are a Guinness, this drawing must be moonshine. Or industrial alcohol. Or some sick mixture of both. With dead hornets floating around.

When Pigs Fly....

An artistic take on the famous adynaton, 'when pigs fly'. Thanks for the idea, Christina. I don't think this was quite what you had in mind though.....

In other news, I was lucky enough to discover Claire Wendling. If you want an artist who can draw, and I mean REALLY draw, she's someone you should look up. Stuart Ng offers a nice selection of her books. Check it out!

Edit: Added another, cuter flying pig. It's airborne porcine madness!

Sketches....

Hi...uuhhh...remember me? Sorry about the monthlong delay on updates. In my defense, I'm taking an online class right now with Schoolism taught by the incomparable (and tough grader...) Sam Nielsen. It's an amazing class, but it takes up almost all my time. Here are some sketches I've been able to sneak in....

Don't mind the elephant that's bleeding through on the left side....

Grandma

I just got back from Thailand yesterday. It's a wonderful place, filled with hardworking people, good food, ridiculous heat and humidity and a long, proud culture and history. Most importantly for me, my extended family still lives there.

I got to see my grandmother for the first time in 20 years. She's barely able to walk now, but her spirit, happiness and Christian faith are still bright and undiminished. We had some time at the end of our visit to do a portrait session. Here's the drawing.

And here's grandma.

It's something else to draw a portrait of someone who is so important to you and a bedrock of your family. I can't really describe that feeling. After years of drawing and painting from professional models, it's something worth experiencing. Give it a try yourself, next time you're with family, or when you've got a moment with your spouse, parent, child, etc.

Quick Warhammer Sketch

Trying to pull a Mu...

New Friends

A new idea I just got in my head. I really should go hit an aquarium. Hopefully, I'll finish it for you shortly.

ArtOrder Gotta Have a Hook Thumbs

Okay, so I'm way behind on posting this. I'm taking part in Jon's latest ArtOrder challenge. Here's my submission.

I was lucky enough to get a critique from Jon.
Here it is for your convenience.

I picked up your entry because of #1. This is the most inventive way of including the horror in the image without actually showing the horror. While I like the concept (a lot), it has a lot of pitfalls right now. I'm getting a great shot of the dwarf, but the horror almost feels like an afterthought. I've got to look for it to find it. I'd be curious to see what would be the result if you tightened up even more so that I saw just his face over the shield, maybe a hint of the hammer, and the shield taking up the majority of the image. I'd like to see the hook horror really big and scary in the reflection. I want to get the sense that the dwarf is about to be consumed in a single bite. Thumbnail it a bit and see if it has any merit. If it works, it can be a most powerful visual.

I experimented with Jon's suggestions. Suffice it to say, I've settled on this.

I'll have the final pencil for you next week...till then, take care, stay cool.