Body Mod Redo 2

So this is the latest WIP for a little while. I'll be tweaking the contrast and saturation levels once it's done but it's about half done at this point.

Body Mod Redo

I'm planning on redoing a lot of the body modification series, starting with Prothese. Here's what I've got so far:

I'm not completely pleased with the mechanics of the leg yet but I am liking the rest a bit more. 

Early Look at Dragons

Alright, I haven't posted in far too long. Between going to Virginia for the Neptune Festival (which my dad was sandsculpting in) and working on this animatic, I haven't had too much time for other artwork.

I know this isn't much  to look at yet but it's the first scene from my latest animation-in-progress. I haven't inked or colored it yet but it's slowly getting there. Hopefully, I'll have a finished animatic by the end of this week and a finished animation by the end of this year. :D

production shot

Here's a working image from the Rococo animation I'm working on. I didn't want to rush the animation but the characters in parts were well received on deviantArt so I wanted to show what progress I could.

flower gleam and glow

Some more Tangled ((c)Disney) fanart. I'm currently painting it in Paint Tool Sai. I'll try to post more frequently, I promise.

edit: i finished the lineart so I added that as well.

Character sheets WIP

 Last summer I started a project with a friend of mine. He was writing a post-apocalyptic story and will eventually need artwork for it. I started by doing character sheets for two of the characters.

 

I started by sketching the designs on tracing paper then taping the paper to the back of bristol board to transfer it through. This was before I had my epic light box so I had to hold the paper up to a glass door with a lamp behind it (>.< good times). These pics are just what I got from the scan-n-stitch. I'm going to bring it into Photoshop and clean it up, color it a bit, and add some texture to the background.  

Good News, Everyone! (did you hear that in Professor Farnsworth's voice?) My goal for this month was to get more pageviews this month than last month and as of last night and some blog trading on Etsy, I finally reached my goal with calendar days to spare!

Masque WIP

I'm running late for class so I'll actually describe this piece when it's done. I was having a "wow, my hands and my artsy brain are totally in sync" moment while working on this.

This is going to be absolutely adorable when it's done and I'm going to sell prints of it online.
To my fellow costume buffs out there, yes that is a French gown. It needed to happen.

so much to say, so little energy to say it with

Well, as is fairly obvious, I haven't updated in awhile. With exams, the move, and the holidays all in a row, I haven't exactly had time to work on this little pet project of mine. That being said, I'll try to get better about that. I don't really have workspace at the moment but I now have a massive new light box and a stunning scanner, as well as some animation software on the way, so once I get set up again, I can get back to work with gusto. In the meantime, here is a WIP of the Ruffnut picture using Sumo (what a pain! >.<) This has been a huge pain so far since the program is giving me issues, I'm still getting used to the tablet, and my computer is wicked slow.At this rate, I dunno if this is ever going to get finished.
Ruffnut (c) Dreamworks

Class Gallery Showing

I have another big (!) piece for the Body Mod series in the works but you'll have to wait on that. In the meantime, my Adv. Drawing course is working on our "Project of a project" series and we were given the chance to display our works in progress in the Colburn Gallery in Williams Hall. I set my space up as a storyboarding note-taking situation, sketching and writing notes on the wall next to my thumbnails and photocopies of the finished pages. As usual, I got a lot of slack for my work being illustrative (since when is that not "art" anyway?!) and for not being pretentious enough (I'm paraphrasing) but I'm proud of it so nyah nyah.Not a whole lot there to look at, I know, but each one of those watercolored sheets takes between 6 and 10 hours to do so this project isn't exactly something I can crank out in a night.

P.S. HUGE news! There's apparently a large flatbed scanner in the Special Collections area of my college's library that I have complete access to! I think it deserves a visit as soon as possible.

Lazy day

So, today has kinda been more about getting my series going again. For Adv. Painting we have to do something in a large format (no dimensions to speak of, just "large") so I'm looking into working directly on a dress form. We'll see. Here's are some sketches for new paintings. I picked up some new canvases today so I'll have plenty to work with.I visited an old steam-engine ferry this weekend and got to look at the inner workings, which was awesome, so I doodled a crank shaft on there. I also want to do something with a corset ("'A Girdle to set you free!' What does that mean!?" - Mona Lisa Smile) and internal organs. The ear one is to juxtapose the cochlear implant and the arms are an example of prostheses as added convenience. I also have some pieces in the works that combine actual body modifications that are purely aesthetic (read: corset piercings :D) which will eventually lead to steampunk mods that are purely aesthetic.

heart of hearts

This is going to be a slightly more personal post so if you don't want to deal with that, then keep on scrollin'.

I'm the happiest I've been in years. I'm not exactly sure how it happened or when exactly it clicked but I finally got it. I was making my life (and the lives of those around me) so much harder than it needed to be. Life, and by extension: art, is not supposed to be a back-breaking, epically sober ordeal. If the point isn't to have fun and make the best of all of it, then what good is it? I get to spend every day drawing or painting or hanging out with a group of close friends who care about me. (Legit! They even find it entertaining when I'm being a complete pain!) Even physically, I feel good (healthier food and exercise is pretty nifty)! Heck, I'm not even all that scared of 2012 anymore. I'm really happy. This is not to say that I don't still have down days or "no hug" days but when I take a second to stop and analyze why I'm upset, I honestly know that it is just a passing thing and I'll be fine. Life is good.

And on that note, back to pretty pictures:
(it's safe to read again, scrollers)
This is piece number 4 of the Body Modification series. I kinda messed up 3 and stretched out the back but I was kinda bored of it anyway so this might just end up being 3:I left the easel in there to give a sense of the size without having to get out my ruler (it's late, I'm lazy. Shush.) This is based off of a very real bionic heart which is far from miraculous but still pretty amazing. I still have a lot more lineart to do but since this piece is more about the Art Nouveau aspect of the series, I want to put a lot of energy into the frames. I'll have some more work to post later this week since I'm headed downtown tomorrow to get some scans done on the big flatbed and I have a commission from someone on deviantart that I should probably get done.

Cochlear WIP

Alright, I know, I haven't posted the picture that'll lead up to this one yet but don't worry about it. I'm working on a series for Advanced Painting that'll combine advertisment styles (mainly art nouveau) with mechanically enhanced body parts, real or imaginary. This one falls under real.
It's still a work-in-progress obviously but I'm pretty proud of it so far. For the canvas, I stretched and gessoed over an 18" embroidery hoop. I did the underdrawing in non-photo blue (love it!) cochlear implant with cosmetic body modifications (piercings, gauges, tattoos). I always admired how a lot of the kids I grew up with took pride in their hearing aids and got really cool ones with glitter and neon colors.

In other news, I have another princess drawing in the works, a collab zine project with some other Burlingtonians, I might be working on a Halloween comic for an art swap, and I haven't forgot about the drawing for the contest winner or the tattoo I'm doing for Sheila. ^.^;;