Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Fun With Blizzards!

Wheee, snow! One blizzard after another! (Okay, NOW it's raining, but before that we had more snow than we've ever gotten in years, I swear.) So what with the snow and all I'm dabbling with a snow queen painting of sorts...

Snow Queen Rough SketchLife Study for Snow Queen Painting




Hand Study for Snow Queen Painting
Here's where I'm at so far, just roughs and some supporting life drawings. (With extra hand studies... hey, I like hands.) Why don't the hands make sense, you ask... uh, that's because I usually do hand studies from my own hands. So I draw two left hands (or, because I'm usually using a mirror, two left hands in reverse,) and when I do the final art I mentally flip one to make a right hand.
Hand Study for Snow Queen Painting



Aaaaand of course in the last big blizzard I had to run all over the park with a camera. So beware, plethora of silly snow pictures incoming! Yeah yeah, lots and lots of pictures of trees-with-snow, I know, I know... (Click the thumbnails for bigger pix.)


Brownstones in SnowFaceless StatueThe Park in a BlizzardThe Park in a Blizzard


The Park in a BlizzardSnowy PathSnowy PathSnowy Path


Trees in a BlizzardTrees in a BlizzardTrees in a BlizzardTrees in a Blizzard


Snowy PromenadeThe Park in a BlizzardThe Park in a Blizzard


Trees in a BlizzardTrees in a BlizzardTrees in a Blizzard


Trees in a BlizzardTrees in a Blizzard

Friday, February 12, 2010

Queen Gwenevere by Queen Gwenevere

Behold, a Blog! And what better way to start a blog named "Queen Gwenevere" than by posting sketches of, er, Queen Gwenevere. (Queen Gwenevere the character, that is. Not Queen Gwenevere the blogmeister.) Right. Well, Queen Gwenevere plays a pivotal part in my as-yet-unborn webcomic, and to celebrate the nearing of an eventual launch, I wanted to paint the Queen's official portrait, in full glamorous renaissance style - pillars and draperies galore.

Queen Gwenevere - Final Working DrawingSo here's the final working drawing, unless I change my mind (again) - the original is 18 x 24 inches, so there's no way I'm scanning it, so this is the best shot I could wring out of my ancient crappy point-n-shoot camera...



Rough variant sketches of Queen GwenevereAnd how often do I change my mind, you might ask. Aheh. Well. This often... here's the sequence of rough sketches that came before the final sketch. Basically there came a point where I had to say "enough already!", pick a sketch, and go for it.

Anyhow. I've picked the last variation, gridded it up, and turned it into the (hopefully final) drawing above... Now I'll make a transfer from that, throw an extra coat of acrylic on a canvas, and start painting that sucker. Labor-intensive? You bet - but once I start painting it'll be such fun.

(Making transfers is NOT fun, though. Watch me procrastinate on that.)

Er, I think you have to click on the images to see them at any proper size... I can't seem to make them display at 100% here... (give me a break, I'm new at this.)