Everyone's a wizard! (Even Ron)

In honor of the fact that we are leaving in the morn for Disneyworld and Harry Potter land, here are some recent HP fanarts of mine. I like to do little batches of characters and call them HPeeps (for Harry Potter Peeps). This is a group of the prior generation--Remus Lupin, Lily Potter, Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew, James Potter and Severus Snape.
A bonus of doing these periodic HPeeps fanarts is that I can look at the previous ones and see improvement in myself. Here's the first one and the second. A new high, yes? The next grouping will be a jump into the future and hopefully it will look better than ever!

Comments? Construction criticism? Questions? Outright flattery? All are welcome and encouraged!

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!

Legolas. And some options.

Legolas is pretty much done. And yet he is not complete. Take a look.
No matter how much I try to plan this from the beginning, my drawings rarely wind up centered on the page. Thus, I have a history of making things look centered, or at least intentionally off center. In the past I've done lines (here and here) and maps (here). And now along comes Legolas. Lines won't work for him because he's got that line from the bow string happening. I originally planned on a map but will that look good? Here are the options, as I see them:

• Figure out some kind of line system.
  
• Cut the paper (this feels like cheating).
• Do some kind of map.
• Stop spazzing about it and just let him be done.
  

He's been at this stage since the start of April and I have yet to make a decision. Of course the last, most horrible option of all is to keep drawing and give him more body until I get to the bottom of the page. I call this horrible because let me tell you, this whole Legolas project was so much harder to finish than I expected. I whined, I got angry and I won't deny that I cried about it more than once. I used to have so much more time to devote to these kinds of projects so now that I don't it just went on FOREVER and for so long it seemed like I didn't make any progress at all. So...I just don't want to add to him. At least not now. So I guess I could add one more option.

• Leave him at this stage indefinitely until I feel like adding more to his person.
  

So, Internet, what do you think? Give me guidance! To make it extra easy I'm going to add a poll. Help!

(PS: Sorry that picture is so crummy.)

Sunday Sketches -- 10 April 2011

The date posted above my be confusing to you, so allow me to explain.  It has been far too long since we posted some Sunday Sketches, and although it's Sunday again, we didn't really get a chance to do many sketches this week, so here are some new drawings I did last weekend and haven't had a chance to post yet.

I recently finished reading Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain, and since it has infiltrated pretty much every other online avenue I visit, I might as well post something relevant here!  I loved the books, so naturally the characters made their way to my sketchbook pages.  I like how a lot of these turned out actually.  If you have read these awesome books, you might recognize some of these characters, and if you haven't read them, do!  They are a wonderful read.

Stay tuned!  More artwork is shortly on the way.

Milestones

Yesterday after our most recent post, the handy little counter there on the right had this to say:

We have reached another milestone!  1000+ visitors in just about four months.  That seems like a pretty high number of visitors to me, especially for such a new endeavor.  Thanks to everyone for following our little blog, and to those who have left comments and checked back often for new posts.  You're more than welcome to share with your friends, the more the merrier.  Stay tuned for more updates!  There's been a slight lull of posts in the last week or so, but there are a lot more on the way.

Thanks again!

Wife in London Rain

Just over six months ago, J and I returned from a nine-week stay in London.  J had been selected to do an on-site project for work, and as I work remotely, I was able to pack up my equipment and tag along.  We had a glorious time, and although we were both working full time, we had plenty of time during our evenings and weekends to sightsee and take in so much of what England has to offer.  It had always been a dream of J's to visit, and we had a nice couple of months to at least approach getting our fill (for now!).  We thought there might have been a chance to return at some point in the near future, but it seems that won't be happening anytime VERY soon, but I thought I would post this piece in fond remembrance of our stay in London, and the indelible impression it has forever left on us.

This project falls under "professional development" (random, fun projects done during downtime at work to become ever more acquainted with the graphics programs I use daily), as on one occasion, I was inspired by J, her love of London and a recently-acquired touristy souvenir, and the city's famous rainy late-summer weather.  I feel like I could have worked on this forever and continually found things that need improvement, but at some point I had to call it good.

Wife in London Rain

Created from start to finish in Photoshop.

Legolas 3/17...and then some

When last we met to talk about Legolas, he did not have a complete torso and I was out of sandpaper. In the meanwhile I'm sure you all thought I had stopped working on Legolas and was too ashamed to post about my lack of progress. But tis not so!
This is actually a really out of date picture...so...just continue to be in suspense until I post an update on him again. I'm hoping that he'll be done in another week or so. But then again, I haven't worked on it much this week. I tried on Monday but he was not cooperating and after my lead broke I sent him to the corner. I haven't worked on it since but I did do this tonight:
I haven't done much computer art this year at all so it's nice to mess around with colors again. One of my art goals for the year is to get better with contrast. Contrast has always kind of been my foil, but I think I made some strides with this. Looking at this one kind of makes me laugh at the version I did last June (that I loved at the time). That's a good sign right? I suppose I can look forward to snickering at this one next year.

Here's to progress and here's to finishing Legolas!