Almajest the Wizard

I've let my blog go and haven't updated the poor thing in a while.  I found some posts that didn't end up being posted. Here is one from earlier in the year:

I'm currently working on a personal project little by little this past year.  It's based around a land called "Nevathi".  I'm creating characters, flora, fauna, geography, and stories revolved around this land.

Almajest is one of the characters that lives there.  He is a Wizard that lives deep in the forest in the Surface Realm.  He communicates between the Sky and Water Realms using messenger creatures of various kinds.

Here's the initial thumbnail sketch idea and a quick color comp idea:

A few more color comps:

Here's the pencil sketch:

 

And I inked it digitally:

Reckless Deck ArtOrder Challenge

 

"Guardian" - watercolour and digital

This painting was done over the holidays for the Reckless Deck ArtOrder Challenge.  For this contest, you had to create a character using a random set of Reckless Deck cards.  Each card has an attribute on it, so when you randomly pick a few, you can get any crazy combination of words to inspire you and generate ideas for characters. This is the set of cards I got (by clicking a link on the contest page):

 

I started to come up with ideas of a Guardian angel character.

Below were my 2 fave thumbnails which I then colored.  I hasd some crit at this point and then had to choose which one to do. I started to develop the one on the right but ended up changing my mind.

Once I committed to the one on the left, I took some reference photos and did a final drawing on watercolor paper and got painting.

Finished watercolor:

The watercolor painting was a good start. I scanned it in and did some changes digitally to the color, lighting, and whip.

I received more crit at this point and made some final tweaks and here's the finished painting:

"Saying Goodbye" Watercolor Process

Happy New Year! It's time to get in gear after the holidays and post some things. Do you have any New Year's resolutions? Here are a few of mine:
-  Do more drawing and painting from life
- Work on a series of paintings (more info once I get going)
- Continue working on my personal project (blog post to come soon about this)

Anyways, on to this ink and watercolour painting. I painted it back in November and I did the ink drawing for Inktober.  My goal was to just have fun with it and experiment with colour.

Here's the ink drawing I started with.  I left the back trees pencil so they would stay faded.

Here's a sped up version of the painting process:


When it was done, I scanned it in and did a few tonal adjustments digitally.

End of Inktober 2014

Inktober has come to an end.  What an intense month!  I tried to do a drawing everyday but missed a few days.  I had a couple of ideas on how to end it with a bang but the last few days of Oct were full of work and Halloween events in the evening so it didn't happen.  That's ok, I can take my time now and do them when I feel like it.

I think I upped my game from last year (which is nice to see). I've learned some new techniques and have been using more reference this time around.  I dedicated more time to them too which helped.

On some days it was really hard to figure out what to draw.  The pressure of wanting to post them online for people to see doesn't help with that either. I think I want to take some time to try out some ideas I have without the pressure of posting them - if they turn out great, if not, no one has to know!

I'm glad people have enjoyed them. Thanks to those of you who've shown support, it's really appreciated!  A few of them will be going to new homes shortly, which is really nice.

Overall, it was lot's of fun and I recommend it to anyone who wants to gain motivation and the habit to draw everyday.

Here are some of my faves from the last half of the month.

I recorded a couple of them here:

Inktober 2014 - Progress

Inktober is in full swing! I've been trying to do one everyday (except for yesterday - I was in a Canadian Thanksgiving turkey coma).

So far, I've tried a few different papers and tools.  One of my faves is a gold leafing pen (Krylon Leafing Pen) but I've only used it in one drawing so far.  I also love using a pen with a #101 nib and sepia ink - that's my go to right now.

It's not always easy coming up with ideas on what to draw everyday but it's a fun challenge.  I try to get a rough sketch of an idea done during lunch at work and then when I get home in the evening I'll find some reference and ink it; it keeps me busy!

Inktober 2014

It's that time of year again!  The ink-fest that is Inktober.  The deal is, you're supposed to do an ink drawing per day through the month of October and then post them online.

I took part in this last year for the first time when I was just starting to draw in ink.  It was a challenge to keep up with it but it was so much fun!  At the end of the month, I had a bunch of pretty drawings which I eventually sold at conventions.

One of the reasons I love it is because you only have a day to figure out and execute a pretty much finished drawing. It doesn't give you time to over-think anything or tweak things to death (guilty).  You just have to come up with stuff from you head and just do it.  It's also fun to experiment with different inks/pens/papers.

I started an evening pen and ink class recently. So far it's been great and I've learned some new techniques.  What perfect timing.

Looking forward to seeing what everyone comes up with!

Here's day #1:

I'll be posting them all on Twitter: @ArtOfMichelle and on my Facebook Page (which hasn't seen a lot of action lately, until now): https://www.facebook.com/MichellePapadopoulosArt

IMC 2014

This is an overdue post.  It is the process for the painting I created at the Illustration Master Class workshop back in June.  It was my third time going and it hasn't gotten any less amazing! The teachers, the students, the lectures, the studio time and just hanging out with other Artists makes it one of my favorite weeks of the year. I can't say enough good things about it.

Below is the final painting, I also did a bit of digital tweaking to the colors.

 

I started out with a bunch of thumbnails which I did before the workshop started:

This year at IMC, we broke up into 3 core groups.  My core group was with Iain McCaig, Mike Mignola, Rebecca Guay, Greg Manchess, and Scott Fischer (who are all awesome):

 

After the crit and a favorite thumbnail was picked, I did a larger sketch/value study with ink:

 

Then I created the final drawing on watercolor paper: 

And onto watercolors!

 

Iain was helping me with some color comps, and while doing those, the idea to give her bright red hair happened. 

 

My IMC work station:

Final Painting:

The IMC 2014 group shot. I miss this crazy group of people!