Lamb of God (D)

Easter coloring page!  Download, print, color, enjoy!

Based on this 2007 sketch

Princess Charlotte (D)

This has been in the works for months!  Ever since I did my Tiana portrait I've wanted to do a sort of companion piece of Charlotte.  In my head it was such an interesting contrast to Tiana, in character and color and feeling, so I thought it would be a fun project.  And then it finally happened and turned out just how I pictured it!  An explosion of pink!

Princess Charlotte, digital

It wasn't as difficult to get her look right as it was with Tiana six months ago, though a little research proved again helpful.  I don't think her wonderfully absurd dress is quite poofy enough, but I didn't want it to overwhelm the canvas too much.  Oh, Lottie, you'll get your prince one day.  You're certainly driven enough!

Like I did last time, just for fun, here's the black and white outline version.  You can color your own!  I'm sure back in the day when I loved coloring books I could only dream that one day I would be able to make my very own.  (Though my crayons these days are a little more sophisticated.)

Princess Charlotte (B&W), digital

Miss Tiana (D)

Over the Christmas holiday we watched a couple of favorite recent Disney movies (it's been too long!), which inspired this piece featuring everyone's favorite New Orleans princess:

Miss Tiana, digital

It was surprisingly difficult to get her face to a point where I was satisfied.  She was prettyish in the initial sketch, but she wasn't Tiana.  But then I did a little research and made a few adjustments, and there she was.  It was also fun to find and work with some new star brushes.

As a point of interest, and to provide a little insight into the process, here's the lineart that I finalized before adding color:

Miss Tiana (B&W), digital

I really like how it looks.  If you feel so inclined, you can print this out or drop it into Photopshop and use this as a coloring page and do your own Tiana!  "Cranky waitress"?  Nonsense!

Arts: the Entwined Edition

A few weeks ago one of my friends from my old BYU art classes announced that a book she's been working on has been published at last.  To celebrate, she decided to host a coloring contest, in which J and I were excited to participate.  The art for the coloring contest was done by the author herself, and participants were allowed artistic liberties in their interpretations.  The winners of three ages groups would be awarded with a free copy of her book.  Of course we were interested in reading the novel, and we always love a good digital art project.  Plus, our two entries doubled our chances at winning.

So, here are our submissions, which we entered before the deadline of last Friday, after which we waited for Easter Sunday when the winners would be announced.

I hemmed and hawed for a long time about colors, and I still don't think it's my very best, but it was great practice.

J has a little more finesse when it comes to Photoshop tricks and know-how and such, as seen here.

After waiting with bated breath, the results were at last posted yesterday.  Unfortunately, neither of us won, but J was awarded Honorable Mention, and her art was featured on the author's blog along with a link to her art website.  When I saw J's submission, I knew I couldn't possibly beat her, but it was still worth the experience.

We were bummed that J came so close to winning, but are still excited to read the book, which should arrive tomorrow.  Thanks for the fun contest, Heather, and congratulations on publishing your book!

Tangled, Via Photoshop

At the risk of posting another fanart-type drawing, I'm going to opt for some Photoshop work this time.

While I'm pretty sure it would be better to use some of my own art to improve my digital colorization skills, a while ago I heard of people using coloring book pages to use as a quick jumping-off point for practice.  Having seen and loved Disney's Tangled, I thought I would look up some Rapunzel graphics to practice on.  (Can I just say here how much I love seeing these characters officially in the classic hand-drawn style?)  Those who know me know how much I was hoping Disney would make an animated film of Rapunzel, and how much more I wanted to have a part in its production.  As it is, I'll have to settle to participate as an entertained viewer, but that doesn't mean I can't do some Rapunzel art of my own (and decidedly better than the concept artwork I did in 9th grade).

So, here are my fairly finished pieces:

Rapunzel!  The glowing effect seemed kind of primitive for some reason during the process, but I like how it makes her hair look like it's glowing.

Flynn!  I kind of hurried through this one, especially the background, but I like how it turned out anyway, it's kind of cool in contrast to the warmth of the Rapunzel piece.

In a way, it's kind of like a really graduated form of using coloring books.  And, if you go outside of the lines, you can just control-Z it away!

I do have some Rapunzel drawings that I actually sketched myself, and soon I'll post some of those, and I promise that I do have some original characters and sketches on the way as well.