Page XVI

So I've been painting a few hands lately, in an attempt to try and be more of a realistic artist. Hands are very evocative, there are a lot of little nuances to hands, where the joins meet, how they bend and the way the skin on your fingers and palm fold and wrinkle. Theres a LOT of detail in hands. So for the first entry of my hand paintings, I present the Key.

There are a few mistakes that I didn't bother fixing and I'm sure the painting itself could use some more work in regards to touch ups and additional detail work, but this is a while ago, and I've gone ahead with some other paintings, though it hasn't been varnished yet so it's not too late to go back if the mood makes me.

Page XV

So it was a week until comic-con 2010, and I had begun piecing together my new shiny portfolio only to realize that OMD! It sucks! Not really, but it didn't have the kind of cohesion that I wanted, the pictures didn't quite flow together well enough. I had been in this kick of painting in a new way and I only had two or three paintings to showcase that style. I wanted so much to have another week maybe another month so I can paint a piece or two to make my portfolio seem more put together. Alas, I only had one week and I had to make it count. So I looked through my sketch book and decided that I was going to try and finish a painting... in a week.

Since I dabble in acrylic, this isn't really a big feat, I just had to keep the oils at a minimum to reduce drying time. And so I set off to paint this beautiful angelic goddess, with flaming hair and a flaming sword and a flaming ball. She would have beautiful jewels and pendants and she would be exotic. Unfortunately, I ended up being pressed for time and had to quit before all the beautiful details could be painted. I ended up with what you have before you :P

This lady is from a little game me and my friends play, called Pathfinder, her name is Sarenrae, the dawn flower and my characters patron goddess. I had wanted to paint an angel for some time now, and I am completely enamored by Pathfinder, so I decided that she would be a good candidate. I also needed something more "energetic' for my portfolio so I decided that painting fire would be a good practice. In the end I did like how she ended up.

She was supposed to have a golden breastplate with gold medallions swirling about her, but... Comic-con had come and gone and my desire to paint said breastplate and medallions went with it.

Page XIV

So in an attempt to try and be more realistic, I've been doing a lot of portraits of people I know or real people and hands. I heard once that painting a realistic human hand is one of the challenges a true artist has to face. So in keeping with that, I've decided that I would try and do a self portrait, more like a tronie really, since I used a picture of my face then just altered the position of the body. The initial sketch was pretty good (I wished I had scanned the sketches so I can post them up here too...) but when it came down to actually painting it, I might have lost some of the likeness. Either way, me or not me, I think it came out pretty good. The one gripe I have with the piece is the shock of color where a portion of my Mermaid painting shows. The colors really upset the balance of the piece, other than that it would've been tolerable lol! 

Page XIII

So heres another post where I show my new work. I've been painting like crazy for the past month or so trying to refine my craft, really getting to know my limitations as an artist and trying to break past those limitations. I'm quite fond of my new style, fond of my new way of painting. I think I've grown leaps and bounds since my earlier works. This painting was a study of body textures using mostly oil paints with an acrylic base. I wanted to try a new style of painting (i.e. brush strokes and other techniques) with a new medium and I figured that a simple nude study would be a good starter place. It turned out better than I expected and I'm quite impressed with it. :D

Page XII

Alright! So the weekend is over and so is Comic Con! It's been a crazy two months painting my ass off and getting my portfolio together, not to mention all the preparations that go along with it (i.e. business cards, resumes, what have you) I was really proud of myself and the new stuff I've done! Let's hope I get some sort of feedback from the publishers I met with, even if it doesn't mean work, I was happy enough to just get some advice from people in the industry, I even got a kudos for my progress in the time between last year and this year (my style has matured I guess ;D ) I still get the whole "find your niche" speech, which is getting tiresome to hear. 

ANYWAYS... The first one I'm gonna put up this week is a redo of an old piece, I think a few months back I had made a painting named Knight of Naime. It was pretty enough but never had that UMPH! that I liked, so I decided to redo it. I think it's a lot better than the original one!

Page XI

Okay I've been crazy lax with updating this blog, I noticed that the last update was in March! Crap! Summer has been crazy, and while there have been new pieces of art that needs to be put up, I have yet to actually scan them into the computer...Anyways, I should probably get into the habit of blogging more often since a majority of professionals blog about something or another. Granted I'm not quite there yet, but I will be some day damn it! I do know the value of a blog as I keep a personal one hidden somewhere in the interwebs, but I guess theres just something about blogging in general that I don't quite get used to.

I've also been busy preparing my portfolio for Comic-Con this October as well as showing it to a few schools in the area to hopefully get something going. I've also been neglecting hunting down publishers to show my portfolio, I guess the tons and tons of No's have resounded and took their toll on me. Lol! I shant give up though, I just need a break...

Well regardless, I've decided to at least update the blog every week, and though there aren't any new pieces of work being put up, I figured I'll put up some older ones I've done! Here we go!

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This is the most recent piece that I was working with on Photoshop. It might need some other augments but for now it's pretty much the same as the finished product. I don't know what to actually do to it so I'm leaving it plain for now. For Now.

This one is titled Knight of Naime.