Painting of Katilyn, my Paladin

December 11, 2016ArtworkAelussaComment

I recently got around to finishing this painting that I started a while back, of Katilyn, my Paladin. I decided to try doing some things a bit differently than I normally do with this painting. I wanted to try using a more painterly style with more visible brush strokes than I have in my previous paintings, and this was also my first attempt at starting the painting in grayscale and adding the colors in at the end. Both of those techniques are things I think I still need more practice at, but overall I'm pretty happy with how this turned out. The colors do look a bit muted, but I think it works for this particular piece. I think I want to try doing something with bolder colors next, though.

The painting was done entirely in Photoshop. I primarily used the Acrylics 175 brush from Kyle's Megapack, and a basic soft round brush for the glow effects.

[Squarespace's text editor seems to be a bit broken at the moment, so here's the URL to Kyle's brushes until I can add a text link: https://www.kylebrush.com/ Kyle makes really nice Photoshop brushes and I highly recommend them]

Annemunition digital pencil sketches and burgers

September 20, 2016ArtworkAelussaComment

It just occurred to me that I hadn't updated this page with this fan art of the Twitch streamer AnneMunition I drew a month or so ago. I was experimenting with some new drawing techniques, and I'm really happy with how the digital pencil sketches turned out. The hybrid cross-hatch shading technique was a lot of fun to do, and the results came out better than I expected, especially for a first attempt.

The second image was a bit of goofy fun, though it's an in-joke most people probably won't get if they don't watch Anne's stream.

My Rogue painting, finally finished!

March 31, 2016ArtworkAelussaComment

Aelussa, my WoW Rogue, in Assassination Armor and Deathblow X11 Goggles. Painted in Photoshop.

I might still add a background to this, but TBH, at this point I’m ready to move on to something else, because this took way too long to create. I’m really happy with how it turned out, though!

Art supply organization

March 26, 2016MiscAelussaComment

As I've been accumulating more and more art supplies, I was starting to realize that things had gotten a bit disorganized and it was becoming more of a hassle to find the things I was looking for, so I started thinking about how I wanted to organize my drawing tools. In this blog post, I'll go over what my goals were in organizing my supplies, what I've settled on, and why it works for me. I'll also go into a bit of detail about the specific tools I use in case anyone's curious, but I'd like to remind anyone who's looking for advice about what to use for your own artmaking that I am very much an amateur at this, so you probably shouldn't listen to anything I say. Also, this is what I've found works for me, and you might find other things work better for you. That said, let's get to it.

Colored pencil sketches

March 25, 2016ArtworkAelussaComment

I've started experimenting with using colored pencils for sketching, so I can layer the sketch with different colors. In this case, by drawing the person in blue and layering on their clothes/armor in purple.

One of these is my WoW Paladin, Katilyn. The other two are fashion/clothing drawing practice sketches that I pieced together from several different references for the clothing. I created the pose references for all of these in DesignDoll.

Achievement unlocked: Sketch pad completed

March 23, 2016ArtworkAelussaComment

I just reached a big milestone in my art making journey: I filled up my first sketch pad since I started making art again! Posted below are the last picture I drew in that sketchpad (I asked for suggestions on Twitter, and was told to draw "a dragon experiencing buyer's remorse after sending its horde to Cash4Gold"), as well as the first drawing in my new sketchbook. Despite using a pose reference, I don't think I got the proportions and perspective quite right on this one, but oh well. I'm happy with how the details on the jacket and shoes came out, though.

Backlog of art updates

March 11, 2016ArtworkAelussaComment

Oh hey, so this blog is a thing, huh? Whoops.

If you've been following me on Twitter, you've probably seen that I've posted several sketches and work-in-progress updates to my big Rogue painting that haven't been posted here. Let's rectify that.

First up, some charcoal sketches. Practicing drawing eyes, the Night Elf from the WarCraft 3 box art, and Johanna from Heroes of the Storm (aka the lady Crusader from Diablo 3).

Next, a pencil sketch of a harpy for @FallingStardusk and a birthday sketch for @Faebelina.

Practicing line art in Photoshop with a drawing of Lara Croft from Rise of the Tomb Raider, a graphite/charcoal pencil sketch of Slipstream Tracer from Overwatch, and a pencil line art drawing of a fashionable lady. For the Tracer drawing, I used graphite (which is reflective) for the glasses and earrings, and charcoal (which isn't reflective) for the rest, which gives it a pretty neat effect.

Finally, some progress updates on my Night Elf Rogue painting.

There, all caught up. I'll try to remember to post updates here more often so I'm not dumping a ton of images into one post again.

What a difference two months makes

January 10, 2016ArtworkAelussaComment

I decided to post a comparison between the sketch of my Rogue I drew today, vs the version of it I scrapped a couple months ago, to show how much I’ve improved just since then. I think my big breakthrough was getting myself to think of everything in the image as a physical object in 3D space, vs just shapes on the page. That, plus studying and drawing lots of anatomy sketches, so I have a better handle on how the human (er, Night Elf) body fits together, and a better sense of what makes for an interesting pose.

Seeing how much I’ve improved in just the last couple months has me excited for where I’m going to be in 2 months, or 2 years. That’s what’s going to keep me going, I think.

2016-01-10 aelussa_assassination_armor.jpg

Practice sketches

January 10, 2016ArtworkAelussaComment

I've been doing a lot with pencil lately, so I'm switching things up and spent the last few days doing practice sketches in Photoshop. I've filled quite a few pages in my sketchbook with human figure/pose practice sketches over the last month or so, and I've improved to a point where I'm not embarrassed for people to see them. Comparing these to how much I struggled to draw the pencil sketch of my Rogue I drew a couple months ago (which is what made me decide to start practicing figure drawing) that practice is really paying off.

The face is an attempt to practice drawing clean lines in Photoshop, which is something I still struggle with.

The sketch of my Rogue is a second attempt at a picture I started drawing a couple months ago and never finished because I wasn't happy with how it was turning out. Again, the improvement I've made since then is pretty significant, which is really exciting. I'm probably going to try to turn this one into a finished painting.

Queen Padme Amidala pencil drawing

January 6, 2016ArtworkAelussaComment

I haven't been slacking on my Draw Every Day 2016 project, I promise! I've just been spending the last five days working on one drawing. As I said in my previous blog post, I recently re-watched the Star Wars Prequels, so I drew Queen Amidala in graphite and a bit of colored pencil.

This started out as a simple quick sketch, and quickly grew into something more detailed and complex than I'd initially planned. I'm mostly happy with how it turned out, though I didn't notice that the eyes weren't quite lined up until it was too late to fix it. I'm just taking it as a lesson learned: Even if you think your sketch is lined up correctly, quadruple check before you start drawing dark lines!

If you want to see the progress photos, they're in my Work-In-Progress gallery.