Landscape - Fields of Gold

This one took me longer than 1 hour.  maybe about 1 hr 20min.  I struggled with how to render the field.  I had done a long grass brush, but it felt too textured, and I felt like I wasn't painting it so mush as the brush was.  It wasn't working anyway.  So I decided to try and make it more like a flowing block.  I have seen fields rendered that way before.  I think parts of the study were successful, but still not to the point where it is successful as an illustration or painting goes.

Anyway, This one was probably one of my more challenging ones, so I think I will try another field scene soon, and look up some ideas on how to make it work better.

hidden cave

I struggled with this one.  originally I wanted to just do a wide open cave that was jagged and had a bright light pouring into the mouth of it, and had an additional idea (as I imagined the scene) that there would be some kind of expedition team just inside, with a monster peaking in on them from outside the cave.

As I started to paint in the scene I wasn't paying much attention to my reference and ended up scattered with my values as well as perspectives.  turns out there is still plenty of perspective to be had in a cave.

this took me 2xs as long as my other landscape paintings because of that.  anyway, I ended up making this out of the mess instead.  There is a lot I like about it, minus the issues stated above.
This reminded me of a scene in a book that I read, and started painting it to represent that scene.  Since I was having issues with my final illustration project this one will be my final.

Also I missed yesterday's daily landscape.  :(  is there any excuse for that on a Saturday?!

a landscape

this one didn't turn out as well as I imagined.  my fault, however, because I didn't look at any reference.

I should probably do something other than forests and green thick foliage.  Im sure there are other things out there.  I just really like the textures and shapes that it creates.

landscape

todays landscape took longer than one hour because I was at my folk's house with siblings.  it took longer for me to figure out where I was going with this one.  This isn't totally what I had in mind, but kind of.

it also looks good in black and white i think

bridge landscape

todays Landscape again 1 hour.

I didn't get to finish it all because It took me too long to render the rocks so that part is sloppy on the foreground side.  I would have liked to add twigs and branches as well.  Ultimately, I envisioned a traveler of some kind on a horse but that would have taken me 5x the time.  

studies in landscape

I've never been real interested in landscapes.  It has hindered my artwork so I've made an effort to try and do a 1 hour painting every day from reference.  I don't copy them perfectly, but I try to get the basic idea.  These 3 were done pretty far apart, so obviously I haven't done one a day :P
they are fun to do tho, and I am learning a lot, which is the whole point.

and my latest that I did today.  much better :)

oh and these are 1 hour studies.

broken tower - loosening up

My Illustration professor had me look at a great digital painter and concept artist named Feng Zhu.  He has a ton of great tutorials and he talks about the industry, digital painting, and a lot of other really interesting and helpful things.  I wish I could afford to go to his school!  Oh you can see his site here!

anyway, after watching some of his videos, I felt like i needed to loosen up and be more expressive, and not work so much on details right away.  I did a 1 hour painting here, using a photo reference only for some inspiration.  I like the feel of this for the most part.  I spent some time getting to know some new brushes that I made and making some new ones.  Im really liking this and wonder how this will work when I do a character or something.  I always want to do hard edges, and I'm trying hard to find a middle ground where my edges aren't so boring.  also trying to come up with a  cool sig.  meh.

anyway:

illustration project 2 for this semester

Updated 14 Nov

DONEZO!  huzzah.  I think it turned out great!  Thanks to Bill for some awesome suggestions

Updated 12 Nov

added some ground and monsters in the back ground, worked on the leg armor.  not super happy with the leg armor, but the other new stuff is interesting!  I just noticed I need some sky colors in my ground!!! All that is left so far is the smelly hand, something on the belt, and the hammer/arm.  oops and the hand holding the skull.  /sigh now that I'm counting it seems like a ton!

it's fun tho, and I'm learning lots.

updated 11 Nov 2011

Updated 8 november 2011

trying some effects and I think I like this blue color for the atmosphere better

also some random changes to the armor

So I'm running out of time for all my projects.  I'm not completely happy with my initial drawing, and neither is my instructor, but I've been pulling my hair out trying to figure it all out.  I'm just going to move forward with what I had.  I guess I'll learn from this experience and make the best of it.

My dad talked some sense in to me, and he told me something is better than nothing, and I needed to just go to work on what I had.

so I sat down and used puppet warp on my line art and then went to town painting on it.  I'm learning a lot in the process so that is exciting.  there are a lot of other issues that I will paint over and correct as I go, but here is a process shot.

It isn't as eerie as I want it, but I think that will come.  Im happy with the direction it's going. this has been a difficult project for me to get started on