Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Woodworking Project - Rocking Horse


Title: Wax in Wood
Size: 34 inches tall and 50 inches long
Here's a rocking horse I worked on for a few months in my woodshop class. It involved a lot of sanding and work on the bandsaw. :P

I ended up naming my horse Waxillium Ladrian, after the main character in Alloy of Law. Waxillium goes by 'Wax'; therefore my project is titled Wax in Wood.

Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Sidewalk Chalk Figures - Three Avengers


Title: 2D Sidewalk Assembly
Size: 36 by 42 inches
This one's pretty straightforward. Just a sidewalk chalk drawing of Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor. Overall, I think these turned out pretty well.

Iron Man was an interesting challenge, as there's not really "red" in sidewalk chalk, just dark pink. So I used dark pink against light pink and white to try and show the armor, which worked surprisingly well. There's also a bit of yellow and blue in there...

Thor nearly killed me. If there's not really red in sidewalk chalk, then there is definitely no grey. Okay, well admittedly you'll run in to a grey piece of chalk every once in a while, but it just doesn't show up on sidewalks. Which is why Thor's armor ended up being white/purple/blue/brown. I put extra orange in the cape and extra blue in the armor to help contrast them better.

And Cap? He was nice. Gave me no trouble at all. :P

Monday, August 3, 2015

Updated Project - Agents of Shield Pencil Portrait

Does anyone remember my unfinished pencil project from Art 1? Well, I finally finished it. :D

Title: Jackets on Agents
Size: 6 and 3/4 by 16 inches
Here's the cast of Agents of Shield, as of the start of session one. It's done in pencils, and I'm happy with how it turned out.

Although trying to finish up Ward was a pain (I'm still not completely satisfied with his face), I think the effect of the completed piece is rather impressive. Even if small bits of it look off, this is a huge hunk of paper with a lot time and effort on it. And it feels really good to finally be done with this piece. I've always intended to finish, and now, coming up on the one year mark of starting, I did. ;)

I think that's just about all I have energy to type. Merry summer to all, and to all a good night.

Character Drawings - Elsecaller and Owl Angel

Hello folks! Today we have a double feature - two pen and colored pencil drawings I finished recently.

Title: Elsecaller
Size: 9 by 9 inches
This little drawing was a short project - a portrait of an Elsecaller (from Stormlight Archive). It's outlined in pen with colored pencil filling, and had been sitting unfinished in a sketchbook for a few weeks. What really made this piece fun was the large number of sources I used to try and get it right. Going into this drawing, I pretty much knew exactly what I wanted it to look like, so it was more a matter of translating that vision onto paper than anything else. :)

In Stormlight Archive each order of knights (magic users) is associated with a gemstone of some sort. Elsecallers are with zircon, a stone I hadn't previously been acquainted with. Although zircon comes in a variety of colors, I decided to focus on the stunningly clear blue. So that's why the glyph in the back and the stormlight wisping around my knight are both blue.

Speaking of glyphs, attempting to write them correctly is insanely difficult. I suppose it's mostly trying to keep the line width even on both sides that's killing me at this point.

The shardblade she's holding is, of course, one of the blades illustrated in Words of Radiance. Some day I'll get the hang of designing my own blades, but as for now, I'm just going to recreate other blades... :P



Title: Great Grey Angel
Size: 9 by 9 inches
This was another drawing sitting in my sketchbook waiting to be finished. It's pen and colored pencil. I'm not really sure how to describe this piece briefly, so prepare for the long version.

Several months ago I had been playing with the idea and visual of an angel - as in 'a person with wings'. It had always seemed odd to me that they didn't have tails. How would they maneuver in the air? These thoughts, combined with my fascination with owls, led to this picture.

The idea of an owl-angel became almost a story to me. All those feathers would make for quite the disfigurement, which would, of course, lead to seclusion from ordinary people. So a secretive angel. Owls are silent fliers, thanks to special feathers on their wings that break up the sound of their passing. This added to the persona of my owl-angel. Those special wings would make an excellent tool to a taciturn do-gooder.

So there you have it, an explanation of this picture.

This angel is based off the great grey owl, one of my personal favorites. I was amused to see that the huge yellow eyes fit surprisingly well with the style - I suppose anime eyes (which I've always felt were overly large) could just be called 'owl eyes'.

Oh, one last thing. By some twist of luck, the angel's pose works well for taking off or landing. Looking at it, I can't tell if she's trying to pick up speed to get in the air or if she's alighting at her destination. I thought that turned out really cool.

To anyone who actually in read this entire giant post, you have my regards. I have a tendency to ramble.  ;)