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As I had mentioned before, I intended on inking the main body/form out before working further on the details for the wings. Adding individual feathers can get a little monotonous after a while, but it keeps me busy while I binge-watch reruns. Anything to keep me from playing app games on FB or solitaire. >.<

One thing that I finally understood while earning my second degree was a sense of composition. I had a difficult time understanding it during high school, especially more so during the two photography classes I ended up taking. And even though I excelled at composing pages for newspaper or magazine layouts, general drawing composition was something I continued to struggle with. I can’t entirely pinpoint when I started to understand it, but I have a feeling that maybe drawing on loose-leaf paper instead of in sketchbooks helped. In this piece, I’m working in a black, hardback sketchbook that is roughly 8x10 in page size. And my gut instinct is telling me that if I had transferred this character over to a larger sheet of paper, I would have been able to unfurl her one wing out further, allowing it to follow the directional flow made by the rapier blade.

I know I could have just let the wing get cut off by the edge of the page, or maybe angled it all differently to make it work. And if I was sitting at a desk and not worried about the corners of the book poking me in the leg or stomach, that would be entirely feasible. However, this is something I keep steady and work on in my lap. Curled up on the couch, shooing cats away in the hopes they don’t get in the way of my line of sight or force me to draw a line I didn’t intend to. Thankfully, I have a quiet space outside of the home to work on more important projects once a week. But for something like this, something that is helping me unwind from a long day of work, socializing, and the occasional community drama, I’m content to work from my couch in the comforts of my home.

You might also notice how I inked the flame in Celadine’s hand. I had originally penciled it out and changed the design a bit. If you look very closely towards the bottom of the flame, you can just catch a bit of the pencil work that I missed while erasing the linework. Something I learned about working with the colored ballpoint pens is that if you want the true color of the ink to show, then you have to erase all of the pencil work first. You cannot do it afterward, because the ink will permanently set it into the paper. This means I had to erase each line individually before attempting to recreate it from memory.

However, a better way of going about that, especially if you’re working with loose-leaf paper, is by using a lightbox. With the use of a lightbox, you can actually get all of your inking done without worrying about having to erase the pencil work because you will be using a fresh sheet of paper laid over the original sketch. This was a technique I’ve used on several occasions for my class projects and larger commissioned pieces. ^_^

Alright, I came up with another avatar I liked, and I’m turning it into a potential character to roleplay with. ^_^

When I was originally looking at this character, already having added a set of elf ears and the feathered accessories to them, I was going back and forth over what kind of species to make her. Avian of sorts? An angel-elf crossbreed? Then, after sharing the image of my ‘Amphiptere Amazon’, I found myself smiling and realizing that she could be a dragon-elf crossbreed instead. Especially if I went ahead and changed her cape-like backpiece with the bells to wings. wink

As you can see, I intend on keeping the bells and added a rapier. She’ll be a magus, fighter spell-caster of sorts that utilizes her mystical background towards dungeon diving and the rescuing of damsels. Or…something along those lines. ^_^ Right now, I’ve got most of her clothes and some of her necessary accessories drawn out. Next will probably be her face, hair, and ears. However, I intend on holding off on her wings until after I’ve gotten most of her main form inked.

With how easy lead from a pencil can smudge and smear, I try not to spend too much time adding a lot of in-depth details until I’m ready to ink the drawing. Since I know that the wings are primarily going to be in the background and I intend on adding more layers of feathers to them, I’ll run less of a risk of ruining my efforts if I hold off on the preliminary pencil-work until a later point in time.

For the sixth week of the Weekly Art Contest, I submitted the second completed piece that revolved around Half-Dragon/Half-Women as a theme. As I mentioned before with my Geisha Dragon, this was inspired by a former co-worker’s request who didn’t know the differing types of dragons throughout mythological history.

The first time I remember falling in love with the amphiptere was when I saw it in a pop-up book someone had gifted me. It talked about the lindwyrms and the lungs, but something about the amphiptere spoke to me. When it was mentioned it protected the treasures hidden with the pyramids, it sparked the inspiration of creating a half-dragon that was an Aztec or Mayan guardian. Granted, it didn’t appeal to my co-worker as it did with me, and it was probably another two to three years before I finally colored and completed her. But I love the way she turned out. So colorful and majestic in her own right. She is fierce and powerful and respected by her worshippers.

Just like the Geisha Dragon before her, she was sketched out in pencil, inked over and shaded with a ballpoint pen. She was then later scanned and eventually colored using Photoshop. Elements such as the patter of her garments, as well as the patterns and designs in the background were pulled from a collection of ZipTones I happen to have on file.

A fellow artist who has grown to admire my work commented on how well-skilled I was in multiple mediums. While this piece only received five votes overall, I know that I cannot compare it to the other pieces that were completed digitally. Those artists have dedicated more time to that medium than I have. The fact that I made it into the top five with my first entry, completed in ballpoint pen is a testament of my skill more so than anything I can attempt to accomplish on Photoshop. It is why I will focus more on my pen-work. I hope it will inspire more people to think outside of the box and explore beyond their comfort-zones. ^_^

Unfortunately mistitled as ‘The Casket’ in the Gaia News Weekly – 24th Edition, was the second time I had painted a locker at one of my jobs. The gaming shop I work at has two levels: The main store on the main level with shelves crammed with miniatures, books, paints, and games and three gaming tables for customers to use, and then there’s the basement level affectionately called The Dungeon with five more gaming tables and the walls lined with lockers for frequent customers to store their gaming supplies.

Before I volunteered to help with their convention setups or work on their online sales, I would spend at least one if not two days a week sitting at the front table of the main floor and paint miniatures. At that time, my husband and I only rented one locker, which sufficed for the handful of games and books we had and my painting supplies. The owner of the shop was aware of my skills since he was kind enough to let me sell some of my prints through his shop. One day, while he was rearranging some of the furnishings to make more space in The Dungeon, he told me about the history of the building and asked my opinion of a particular space that was shaped like a window. It was originally the coal-shoot used for supplying the fuel needed to heat the building, but it had since been closed and cemented up. “Should I build a set of shelves to fit in there, or would you like to paint something in there?” He expressed how he wanted to add some color to the basement, and believed that other customers would likely commission me to paint their lockers if it was something I was willing to offer.

I might submit what I painted in that spot to one of the two art contests at a later point in time, but before I digress to much, there are still some fun tidbits I like to share. One thing most people later learn about my artwork is that it always comes with a story. wink

The first locker I painted was my own, which consisted of a sunrise at a beach in Florida that my sister sent me a picture of when she was down that way. On that beach, I drew a blue dragon, lounging and resting while it watched another dragon that was silhouetted in the sky. I painted the blue dragon for my husband, as it is his favorite color.

However, when noticing the placement of the locks on some of the other lockers that were unlike our own, I soon took inspiration from Wayward Leather Design and wanted desperately to paint a mimic! But, I wanted it to be a surprise!

I later got permission from one of our friends to paint my idea on his locker, simply stating that I wanted to paint a treasure chest and the position of his lock was perfect what the image. He was pretty cool with it and was intrigued by the progress I made each week. Two days each week I would pluck away at painting. Mapping out what I wanted where, adding details to the background and middle ground before tackling the treasure chest. Each week, he wasn’t sure what he was looking at and was reminded each time he saw it that it hadn’t been completed the week before.

Only two people were aware of the fact that I was going to turn the treasure chest into a mimic: My husband and a frequent customer who came down regularly to play Magic -The Gathering. It was a secret well kept, because as I ‘completed’ the chest and continued onto the foreground, the details that indicated that it was meant to be a mimic had not been added.

Oh no. I waited and patiently plucked away at the remainder of the piece; saving the final details of the open eye, winking eye, and the tooth to the very end. As I was posting the final results to my project page, the manager of the gaming shop took a quick peek over my shoulder before suddenly racing down the stairs. A week later, the friend who rented the locker suddenly found himself being watched. ^_^ No one expected it to turn out the way it did! And, if you look closely enough, you’ll find that there is a silhouette of a dragon in the painting. wink