Centaur Doodle 4

Last month I listened to Naomi Novik's Temeraire series, which no doubt influenced this centaur sketch.

In other news, I'll be in the art show at GenCon next weekend. No doubt I'll also be slightly frazzled.

Mind the (Graphite) Dust

I did a couple of sketches for The Treasure Chest of Art. I put in some tone after scanning them, but this is the only record I have.



These are a couple of pages from my dot grid journal. I haven't used it all that much, as most of my recent sketching hasn't been aspect-ratio specific (and it doesn't fit in my pocket). I should have the top right one painted and with me at GenCon.

A Week's Painting

I arrived at this year's Illustration Master Class with a couple of rough thumbnails, and spent the first day refining them into the sketch from the last post. Rob, Dan, and Donato gave me some good advice at the early stages. When it came time to work up the drawing Steve knocked out a quick model for me, and I shot fellow students -- Grant, Aaron, Kim, and Annalisa -- for reference. And, of course, I made stuff up.

The drawing -- which I mounted on a panel to paint over -- was roughly 17 3/8" x 12 3/4".



I started painting by glazing in the sky, roughing in the smoke on either side of the ring, and blocking other parts in. I'm trying to work back to front, and to stay patient.



Next I worked in the ring, and the spattered explosion. At this point the sky was still tacky, so I held off editing the spatter until I was comfortable I wouldn't pull anything back up.



More work in the ring, and the first stage of paint on one of the main figures.



The first layer of paint down on the first face. I wiped off the first three or four attempts. I also gave the sky and smoke some more attention.



The first layer down on the second face, and a second layer on the first. I also darkened the smoke behind the figures to help separate them from the background. A bit of paint on the midground figure too.



More work in the midground, foreground, and figures.



The week was almost up, but I was able to get a first layer of paint down on the remaining figure and the flag, and do some general trouble shooting.



And this is how the piece ended the week, photographed after I got home (and adjusted a little in Photoshop).

Pre-painting

At the Illustration Master Class in Amherst I've pulled out the bottom sketch here for some more attention. Here's the new sketch and drawing. I should start in with oils later today.

Sketching in turns

I'm sure it's no surprise I'm typically busy, absent, or both. Through June, I'm facing a lot of both. Things should let up some in July, but it's looking like this will be a tough month.

I think it was Faber who asked me about doing a naga piece -- probably while I was in Nuremberg. He wasn't the only one to have mentioned them, but he was particularly earnest. At this rate I should have something in just a couple more years.

Chicago, Pre-Milkshake

During the second half of the inaugural podcast from the Drawn Today Blog Aaron Miller mentioned my joining his drawing session while I was in Chicago. Here are a couple of quick sketches from the session. I did feel much better after the milkshake, though.

Working on Progress

I finally got back to this piece during an ensemble Ninja Mountain episode, and got in another 30 minutes talking with Torstein Nordstrand after the recording. He was up late waiting to hear back from someone in California, so I didn't feel bad that I was keeping him up.