kingcholera

Characters taking shape

 I wanted to have an idea of the body type and height of each character so it would be easier once I started drawing them, so I did a set of quick thumbnails. When I was painting their faces I already knew how they looked, but it feels really good to have a visual to match, even if it is a small, messy one for now. 

The only thing that isn't 100% is the clothing, though they are all wearing something close to what will eventually become their style. The biggest inspiration...

"Hamlet" Master Study, pt. 3

Finished, for now. 

Even if I meant to take this study further than this, I am happy with having a general impression of the whole painting. I learned a lot about the colors, like the muted greys appearing bluer than they are because they are surrounded by vivid reds.  I am reminded of how important temperature really is with every study that I do. 

One of my favorite things about realistic color is when I get to put warmth between shadow and light, a...

'The Pestilent Prince' Cast

Some minor details may still change (mainly eye colors) and things like tattoos will be added later, but here they are! I am being purposely vague about which of them belongs to these, but I kind of want everyone to know what they looked like before that happens. The other half of the characters are the ones that fight against it. They are:

The Vampire(s)

T...

Regency era clothing practice

This was an old drawing from over a year ago that I decided to finally finish. Back when Dorian used to be Solas and I was not familiar enough with human anatomy to correct the proportions of the early 1800s drawings I used as reference. 

 I decided to keep the original sketches for the most part and just redo the faces, because I wanted to see the improvements I've made side by side. I added Cullen in since he really sui...

Letting ideas go (for now)

I always get ideas that never go any further than this one did. I wanted the piece to be very symbolic, and to tread that line between beautiful and morbid that I'm so fond of. You can see how I was trying to work that out in the thumbnails, at first I had Zevran (Dragon Age) looking like he was plunging the dagger into his own belly, and the rest of the daggers embedded in his body at various angles. Not only was it too cluttered visually, it took my original intention of  'what if' and ma...

Epoch (ee-pok)

• 30 years old
  
  
• Doctor
  
  
• Highly empathetic (Integral to his character, and the central plot)
  
  
• Uses his sense of humor in his work.
  
  
• Makes up stories about how he got his cleft lip. The real version is too boring. 

"Hamlet" Master Study, pt. 2

This has been the most challenging master study I have done, maybe even one of the most challenging things I have done as an artist, period.

It is testing my both my patience and skill level. Not only is the scale of this painting massive, the amount of detail it has is ten times the amount that I am used to. I am painterly, I use brushstrokes to give impressions of detail, half because I don't know how to render a lot of things yet, and half because I just love how it looks. ...

Epoch (The Pestilent Prince) outfit designs

I have almost no experience designing outfits (I did some for a commission once???) but I guess now is as good of a time as any to start learning. I tried to get the ideas down as quick as I could, so excuse the mess. 

Some of Epoch's original design has survived since the beginning. I had a list of outfit keywords similar to the one above that I made when I first created hi...

Putting a name to a face...

I have always loved naming things, but I tend to take it too seriously at times. It doesn't always have to be that deep! Characters can just have a name without any meaning behind it, but I really like symbolism too. 

I also make many things about a character interchangeable. Their physical appearance, their personality and even the role they play in the story. But because of that, I kept putting off naming some of them. I wanted to be able to visualize them in my head, and the...

The Artists That Shape You.

My favorite artists are very important to me. 

I talk about them all the time because I have so much respect for what they did/do, and the hard work it took to get them there. They comfort me on the bad days, and motivate me to keep practicing on the good ones.  Many of them have inspired the aesthetic of my story and characters for years. 

So...

The Pestilent Prince

Still the working title, but this has been its name for a long time and so...

Here we are, and I am terrified. The idea for this story has been in my head for almost a decade, and the characters have been my quiet muses for years. I put things that I love into this story just to have an excuse to draw it. A lot of what inspires me as an artist lives inside of this story. 

This is terrifying because I am finally ready to share it.

It all started...

"Hamlet" Master Study, pt. 1

So...I was right about this being challenging. 

Where the colors used to be one of the most intimidating parts of master studies (and they still are, but my ability to guess colors by sight has improved tenfold over the last year) my nemesis, proportions, is front and center this time. 

I am not surprised though, considering the size of the scene and the amount of people in it. I thought I had everyone in the right spot before I enlarged the canva...

The 'Anime style' debate.

I used to draw in an 'anime style'.  

 I was going to show my progress on the Abbey study today, but this is all over my twitter feed and I feel like it is important for me to talk about.  This debate is very close to my heart, because watching anime made me fall in love with drawing in the first place. 

I have gone through about 4 distinct style shifts as an artist, and anime was one of the most pivotal. The 1st was just the style I drew in as a...

Old Masters Series: An Introduction to Abbey

Sought after in his time, Edwin Austin Abbey (1852-1911, an American muralist, illustrator, and painter born in Pennsylvania) was praised for his mastery of composition and storytelling, and is now criminally undervalued. There are next to no art books of his work, and most of the information I can find on him is pretty repetitive and sparse:

• Was close friends with John Singer Sargen...
  2018-06-06 15:52:53 +0000 UTC View Post

Let Us Begin (Again)

Learning to be confident in my art has been harder than learning realism. 

Turning 30 this year was very retrospective for me, because I finally realized that in order for me to really be able to help other artists fully, I need to learn how to help myself first. 

My first attempt at Patreon is something I will never regret, but it was also too ambitious at the time. I was not ready to maintain it long-term and had little confidence in my ability to teach. I simply got over...