Giftart pic done!

Well, I shaded Izzy’s character up all nice, and started toying with the lighting effects. This was my first attempt.

It’s nice, but eh, it looks too much like another pic I did. And it kind of messed up the lighting I’d already done on the character, which was to have it come from above, and not all sides. After all my beginning gradient was a sphere.

Then I got the idea to have sort of a fountain of light shooting out of her hand.

Ah! Much better already. The actual beam of light is sort of a triple-helix deal, with lots of phoenix-type thingies coming out of the sparks.

Here’s a closeup. Whatever magic she’s using, it seems … ALIVE. Maybe it’s that one … type of fire they summon in the seventh Harry Potter book. I know it wasn’t fel fire, because that’s from World of Warcraft. Infernal Fire? I can’t remember. Anyway, some kind of really hot magical fire like that. I hope she doesn’t mind too much that I drew her character like this. XD

Giftpic progress

This is how Izzy Goldrunner’s character looks, as done by her.

And this is my interpretation.

I decided to scrap Slasher from the previous pic and just go with this character alone, because hey, this is a gift pic, not a group pic. And what’s cooler than seeing your character all lit up with sparkly effects? I have no idea if this character has powers like this, but hey, why not? It makes a good pic, anyway.

Giftart, part 1

I owe some folks some gift art, due to their generosity in providing me with subscriptions to deviantart. Here’s the first one I’m working on:

It’s Izzy Goldrunner’s sert character riding on Slasher, my sert character. Because … um … because I wanted to draw it that way! I was initially going to draw Izzy’s toon alone, with her coat billowing dramatically behind her. But for some reason it was too static, and before I knew it, Slasher had slipped in there.

Ah well. Giftart’s supposed to be fun. 🙂

Merry Christmas

Hope everybody had a nice Christmas! I know there’s that big snowstorm going on across the middle, northern, and eastern US, and I hope all you folks enjoyed having a white Christmas. 🙂

I can never draw anything Christmasy when I want to. I sat down last night and tried to draw Christmasy, and look what came out.

A raptor. From the back, no less. Which is kind of an interesting way to draw them, but not Christmasy at all.

Then I was looking at one of our calenders, and it has a cardinal on it. So I sat down to draw a cardinal.

Except somewhere along the way it turned into some kind of griffin. If the front half is a cardinal, then the back half gets to be a fox. Because that totally makes sense. Right?

Right?

… anyway, that’s about as Christmasy as I can muster, I think. I’m ready for it to be over for a year.

Candle in the Forest

There’s this little story that I like to post every year around Christmas. It’s called Candle in the Forest, and it’s such a sweet little story. It chokes me up a little more each year.

I need to draw something Christmasy, but I can’t ever think of what to draw.

LOL cars

You know how often I draw cars?

…. well, I don’t draw them very often.

Like … I can’t remember the last time I drew a car.

*laugh track plays in the background*

Yeah, it’s that bad. But you know what? This is new and different. I think I’ll keep working on this until I get it conquered. And the perspective fixed. Good night, the perspective. *dies*

Face troubles

This face isn’t right.

The trouble is, I thought the face as all right until I shaded it. But the shading made me realize that something was wrong. I think it’s the mouth. And the left eye. But I can’t figure out what it is.

I hate it when a pic gets this far and I go, “Wait … I messed up somewhere.”

Best Warcraft fanart ever

the eye of tempest keep by *sandara on deviantART

You don’t even have to know what’s going on for it to be awesome. If you do know what’s going on, it’s even more awesome. That’s Kael’Thas Sunstrider, leader of the Blood Elves, sucking up lots and lots of magic as a bunch of heroes gather to fight him. The phoenix is in there, too!

Luxray and Shadow step by step

For some reason, playing Pokemon again made me want to draw Luxray. He’s an electric type that looks a lot like Shadow, only black and blue instead of black and red.

I threw Shadow in there for kicks.

I dropped a purple-to-gray gradient in there. I wanted them to be summoning down lightning. It makes sense for Luxray, but not so much for Shadow. Eh, what the heck, it’ll look cool.

I grabbed my airbrush tool and slathered in some background clouds and rocks. These later got reworked with other brushes and liberal application of Smudge, because airbrush looks like … airbrush.

Now Shads and Luxray get some love. Nice high-contrast shading, because of the whole lightning thing. I actually drew the lightning on a new layer and this point, and turned it on and off to make sure the lighting on the characters made sense. I had to keep brightening the highlights and darkening the shadows.

And here’s the pic with all the special effects. Lightning’s so much fun to draw. Also I made Luxray’s eyes glow, as well as the silly star on his tail. If he has to have a star there, it ought to glow. Period.

Also Shadow’s hand is glowing because of the whole lightning summon thing. Maybe this is actually Chaos Spear in disguise! Except … not yellow. And spear-shaped.

Wheels within wheels

I had the sudden inkling to draw an angel. Since I don’t draw angels very much, this struck me as kind of odd.

Odder still was how I knew exactly how she’d be positioned: with her wings swept out in front of her, and for some reason, her hair in a ponytail. Kind of an informal angel.

But my stylus keep doodling, and before I knew it, she had these giant spike wheel things on her wings. I laughed to myself and recited from Ezekiel 1: “And when the living creatures went, the wheels went by them: and when the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up.
Whithersoever the spirit was to go, they went, thither was their spirit to go; and the wheels were lifted up over against them: for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels.
When those went, these went; and when those stood, these stood; and when those were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up over against them: for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels. “

One of those Bible passages that has made people scratch their heads for centuries. Anyway. This diverting post courtesy of Drawing Late At Night.