Fancy Balrogs.

Pride and Prejudice style.  Markers are starting to dry out - stay tuned for further updates on my stationary.

High fashion Rakshasa

Dapper demons.

So I got this book called "Animals Real and Imagined" and it is pretty stellar - beautiful drawings with a loving attention to anatomic detail and for the first time I really started looking (among other things) at how goat hooves work / are built and it made me want to draw imps.  But then I did some sketches and my favourite one had a little suit on and so now this is my new thing: Demons in finery. So I did an imp tailor a steampunk succubus and a work-in-progress of a modern Rakshasa in cutting-edge Indian threads. More to come.  Admiral Minotaur?  Prada Medusa? Yakuza-boss Oni? Who knows!

One lines and the last of the faeries.

100 Material studies!

Been keeping myself busy the last couple of weeks getting some painting studies done.  Each takes 20-45 minutes.  Learned a lot about laying down basic colours, textures, and lighting.  Some didn't turn out as well as I would like, some turned out better than I thought. This is a good exercise - I highly recommend it!

This is a big picture, so if you want detail maybe download it and zoom in a bit.

As best as I can remember, for the curious:

1 - Polished wood grain
2 - Limestone
3 - Obsidian
4 - Gold
5 - Blueberry muffin
6 - Watermelon
7 - Apple
8 - Orange
9 - Blueberry
10 - Strawberry
11 - Pineapple
12 - Cantaloupe
13 - Pine bark
14 - Spruce bark
15 - Elm bark
16 - Birch bark
17 - Cypress
18 - Oak bark
19 - Garlic
20 - Pumpkin
21 - Cucumber
22 - Potato
23 - CORN!
24 - Cabbage
25 - Polished wood
26 - Imitation wood paneling
27 - Log cabin
28 - Weathered wood
29 - Bleached wood
30 - Old wooden fence
31 - Rusted iron
32 - Iron paneling
33 - Old copper paneling
34 - Brushed steel
35 - Oxidized copper
36 - Tin roofing
37 - Eagle eye
38 - Cat eye
39 - Frog eye
40 - Chameleon eye
41 - Human eye
42 - Zombie eye
43 - Medicine ball
44 - Bowling ball
45 - Baseball
46 - 8-ball
47 - Kettlebell
48 - Tennis ball
49 - Baby octopus
50 - Robin egg
51 - Frog egg
52 - Fish egg
53 - Turtle egg
54 - Baby penguin
55 - Toad skin
56 - Cow skin
57 - Rhino skin
58 - Python skin
59 - Crocodile skin
60 - Jurassic Park
61 - Coffee cup
62 - Swedish berry
63 - Ice
64 - Heart
65 - Brain
66 - Muscle
67 - Yarn
68 - Crushed velvet
69 - Wineglass
70 - Burlap
71 - Lumberjack skin
72 - Silk kimono
73 - Coconut
74 - Pine cone
75 - Coconut crab
76 - Nautilus
77 - Soap bubble
78 - Marble
79 - Rose
80 - Poison Arrow Frog skin
81 - Opal
82 - Moonstone
83 - Jade
84 - Lapis Lazuli
85 - Granite countertop
86 - Baboon teeth
87 - Sandstone
88 - Tribble
89 - Fruitcake
90 - Carrot cake
91 - Alligator skin
92 - Cheetah skin
93 - Chrome
94 - Tiger skin
95 - Argyle
96 - Ground beef
97 - Cable-knit sweater
98 - Plasma sphere
99 - Wicker
100 - Cactus

Woo!

Still dem fairies. NOT on birds.

Faeries and coffee-house-sketching. Also one-line warm-ups.

More of the same, but better?

So sketching out these fairies has been a zen little exercise, and I found (big shock) that good reference and sometime spent on the outfit makes a huge difference.  So it is also a bit of visual library building and all that, but I was finding the poses kind of stiff.  I liked the birds, and the outfits but all of my little winged people were just sort of looking off-page.  I rounded up some photos of people playing with / hugging horses and I'm trying to incorporate that to add a little interest / emotion in the drawings.  Seems obvious - and yet.

More markers, more fairies.

Markers and material study.

So I have done fifty-some pinups at this point, and I am changing gears a little. I decided that if I am going to make myself paint more I need to just jump into it and I thought a good place to start is material studies.  I did these as an exercise in school a few years ago, and if I can do with these with what I did with the pinups, then in a couple of months these will start to look a lot stronger.  So I'm not posting these out of any "Look at ze PAINTING, children!" kind of pride, but to keep myself accountable. This is the art equivalent of practicing your spelling before you actually write any stories. It is tedious but important.  You can't write the Great American Novel with emojis and memes of walruses. So let's get the worst part over with.

Wood
Limestone
Obsidian
Gold
Muffin
Watermelon.

I think I'm gonna ditch the fairy wings. Just gonna draw some warriors on birds.  Deal.