Jackguar Revamp

I received some critique from Dave Rapoza and Dan Warren on my silly Lepus Panthera creature mash-up. I had a feeling the twisting motion I wanted wasn't really working, and they pretty much confirmed my concerns. The motion is still there in the updated piece, but it looks more believable with the Jackguars body plan now. The legs are now traveling further back in space, and the head is now leading the body motion. They also urged me to continue to push the creatures design and incorporate more rabbit elements. I opted to forego the cottontail though. It's fluffier than it was previously, but a deer/bunny tail isn't useful for a predator, and would be sillier than what I was originally intending. There's probably more I could do to this image, but I want to move on to newer pieces. I'm definitely happier with it now as it is. 

Before:

 After:

Licking Beetles

No studies today or yesterday. Here's a dragon and a wip instead.

Study 12812

Tonight's study, better late than never. I love giant sequoia trees, and plan to utilize them for a painting that I will hopefully get around to starting soon. 

Figure Drawing

Drawings from today's session.

Study 12612

Yesterdays Study. Ideally I'd like to paint or draw a study a day, either from life or from photo reference. Right now I'm a little slow at it, hopefully the more I practice the quicker I'll get, and the more art I'll be able to fit in my day. Skin is challenging, there are so many slight tonal shifts in it and they all transition so smoothly that a brush with any hard edge will wind up making the person look scratchy. For men it's probably okay, but for woman (unless it's pulled off stylistically) it looks incorrect.

Here's an additional small life painting from earlier this month when it had been snowing.

RDR Character Design

For a 3ds Max class at my school. We had to design a character for modeling and rigging that could fit into an existing triple A game. I chose Red Dead Redemption and came up with the bandit, Elisabeth Hunt. She's your typical deadly woman of the wild west. Her father ran a group of bandits and she took up the mantle upon his death at the hands of lawmen. She fancies herself a modern robin hood, except she robs from most anyone and keeps a percentage of the profits. 

Figure Drawing

Work from today's figure drawing session. Primarily spent between 30 seconds and 2 minutes on each.

Also, my final for a life drawing class. Not entirely finished, and it's not the best photo unfortunately. I'll update with a better version if I can ever get it properly scanned or photographed.

Profile Anatomy

Today's anatomy study. I used the Zygote Body anatomical application for these, (formerly known as Google Body). Their anatomical models are in depth and useful for understanding how muscles flow around the bodily forms. The only downside is their models are disproportionately tall for some reason, about 8 heads high. That's comic superhero proportions. The added length on the models is primarily in the torso, which is why the drawings below don't look as odd.

Catching up

Some old and new work that I haven't posted here yet.

An Arthur Rackham inspired image. I felt somewhat obligated to draw a Chinese Dragon considering this is now the year of the water dragon. Not sure of the outcome of this image, it became a tradigital experiment. 

Doodle sketch.

Painting from life

Character Commission, Character is Copyright to "Sylizar"

My own dragon buddy, Arrogath. He's slightly based on the red dragon from Welsh myth, Y ddraig goch.

Character painting exchange. Character Copyright to "dScHuNai"

Aquarius Redesign

I used to create these encyclopedias of creatures when I was little. Aliens, monsters, prehistoric life, fantasy creatures, cryptids, etc. Everything, (including a fare amount of pokemon) populated their pages. I always intended to revamp my favorites from them, and this is the first to receive treatment. Not the most original of my creatures, but one of my favorites; the Aquarius was described as an amphibious dragon that scavenged and hunted along temperate and tropical coastlines. For the revamp I referenced a multitude of creatures: sea kraits, sharks, sea leopards, manta rays, eels, saltwater crocodiles, penguins, oar fish and lion fish included.

The image below is the preliminary sketch. The following is the final, now dubbed Hydra Orarius.

Wips

Works in progress.

Character designs for a class. Based on Red Dead Redemption. I'm going to have to model and animate the final design. Right now I need to decide upon a face and clothing. 

Jackguars + Nightfury

It's a pretty simple animal mix. But I love long legs and rabbit faces. There's also a redesigned Nigthfury down there. I love the film, "How to Train Your Dragon", but I prefer vicious and sleek to goofy and cute.

Armaments

Hey look, some arms! Also a frosty dragon sketch.

Mountainous

Some painting studies from photo reference in preparation for a few paintings I want to do. The last image is a sketch painting from imagination that I may or may not develop upon further. 

Shore Birds

I went to the Seattle Aquarium a bit ago. Took a bunch of photo reference. Here are some birds from the Birds and Shores Exhibit.

Black Oystercatcher.

 Common Murre in winter plumage.

 Marbled Godwit.