A walk in the woods

A walk in the woods 

Finished the entry of round 2 of Bjornament just in time.  Theme was a musical prompt from Justin Lassen .

I actually prefer the beast in the early WIP but It got away from me.  Next time....
  So there is a week to wait for judging and up against an accomplished adversary Sehf.
In the meantime I am switching back to mostly oil painting for the next few weeks with the hopes of producing a few decent pieces. 

Jumping

Jumping

Finally finished this one.  Was a real struggle as I tried to push the rendering.  This is Valeros from Pathfinder.  
Working on the 2nd round of Bjornament.  Because I wanted to finish the image above I had to delay until this week so just a few days to complete.  Had an idea of what I wanted to do so after afew thumbs I settled on this.  Most of what I want is there so hopefully it wont be quite the struggle the first entry was.  
I have done a few studies to help.  

Bjornament round 2 

Landscape study 15 

Lost balloons

After William Holbrook Beard - The Lost Balloon

Portrait Study - Brendan Fraser 

Well got through to 2nd round of Bjornament- squeaked through I think.  
Next round has a music cue.    This will all be about mood so thinking about how to evoke it.  I am still finishing off a piece for my portfolio which is nearly done and I want to leave more time to complete this round.  
So for now her are some studies 
William Holbrook Beard - The Lost Balloon has a dramatic feel to it.  I did another photo study - the lighting and skin tones were the challenge.  Martin Scholeller photo is here.

Arrival of the one

Arrival of the one -submitted

As mentioned last week I was getting an entry for Bjornathon.  This is the submitted entry.  I did not leave enough time to get it completed and polished as I think I could have got it.  Even though now I am not thrilled with the composition I decided to go over it again refining details.  This version is closer to the planned final.   Anyway lots learned from this and will carry the learning forward.  Results are announced next Sunday.

Arrival of the one

A Field

Field

 Not much in the way of finished work for the moment.  

I entered the challenge run by Bjorn Hurri Unreal Bjornament   .  The info is here.  Event though it is a 2 week challenge I am only working on it this week.  I did some very rough thumbnails and then went with one to explore it.  The images below are rifts on a theme and these are not the end of the exploration.  I have given until Wednesday to play then I have to commit and paint.  

Challenge thumbs 

Challenge thumbs 2

Challenge - iter 1

Challenge - iter 2

Challenge - iter 3

Challenge - iter 4

Challenge - iter 5

Last Stand

 Last Stand

I have not attempted too many dragons but I felt the time was right.  Went with some stylised fire to go along side.  This one took a while to do.  That was in part because I started with a different idea for this and took awhile to figure it was not working an switch it up.  Still ended up putting a lot of work on this as it evolved.  The main planning steps are below.  

 Last Stand Lines

 Last Stand value

Last Stand colour 

The other thing I would like to mention is the revamp of this site.  I have set up as a business and wrestled with branding.  In the end I decided to go with what I have operated under for the last eight years.  

I have launched a portfolio site to showcase and of course I am at artstation.  

So this is a new chapter.  
I will continue this blog.  I know blogs have fallen out of favour but for me it is a diary of my work, change and progress so even if it is a considered a backwater of the social media scene, for me, it is still valuable.  


 "In history, a great volume is unrolled for our instruction, drawing the materials of future wisdom from the past errors and infirmities of mankind." 
Edmund Burke 

Rengar- Riot contest

Rengar- Riot contest 

Finally got around to finishing this image in time for submission.  It may seem trite to say I learned alot from doing this but it is very true.  This is a style of image I have not done a lot of.  I know the riot art style is a rendered to a smoother finish but this was as far as I could go.  I think I would modify the workflow to be more efficient and get to a higher finish. Anyway I feel its another mountain climbed.