Learning the Pen

I figured I would show some of my old work with the technical pen, since it is something I plan to play around with from time to time. It makes a good addition to charcoal drawings and it really taught me the value of using different strokes and other methods, such as stippling (creating dots instead of line, that value in quantity) and exaggerating contour lines. I find using the pen is sometimes more styalized then a pencil, since you can only fake shading through the density of lines, rather then the tone of them. For myself, it reminded me that when using a pencil you don't need to shade from a black to gray to white tone - you can always indicate where the shadows hit using different lines.

Age of Conan Beta Contest

Hey all,

I entered a contest over the weekend with the subject matter of 'Sanguiphoria', which is supposed to mean 'the lust for blood'. The prize was for 1 of 10 Age of Conan keys, to the top 10 people who submitted something creative. I figured I would submit a drawing, which took me 4 hours to complete with a woman and a human skull as a reference. It turned out a lot better then I thought, and looked a bit comic-bookish, which was a bonus since it was a style I was trying to aim for subconsciously. Enjoy!

A look back...

As my first postings, I am going to show you some of my old artwork so you get an idea as to who I am and how I work. I am new to the whole blogging culture and although I may not be the most generous of person regarding information on my personal life, I will show you my creations and the thought process that went into the development of them. To keep this blogger updated, I want to constantly challenge myself by stepping out of my comfort zone and play with new media styles. Most of my media is through pencil and pen, yet I am training myself to become familiar with Photoshop, Illustrator, and various 3D programs (Currently XSI). Colour is so impacting on any piece of art, yet it is something I usually avoided because I was not aware of certain harmonies of colours or vibrant combinations. I want to change this. I plan that during the progress of this blog, visible improvements in these areas will be seen.

Following this posting will be several overviews of some old artwork, categorized by the appropriate media style. I am doing this so you can see the improvements i have made over the years and things that I need to work on. For example, the pictures above range from three to seven years old. It is with some hope that I can redraw some of my old drawings with my present skills to see how much I can improve the original concept. Regardless, stay connected and watch for updates!