New sketchbooks are fun.

I began a new sketchbook today, so have a tree golem and some monster skulls in brown micron and watercolor. Looks like the paper in this book will take a little watercolor abuse if I'm not too rough with it, so yay! 

Bottled Cover WIP

This is a thumbnail from my sketchbook. I've gotten into the habit of writing in text over my initial thumbnails to make sure that I'm considering it as part of the composition.

As of this morning, the Bottled cover painting looks like this. For the fun of it I'm going to try updating this blog periodically with WIPs today!

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Update 1:

I have to remind myself to flip the images when I take photos using a webcam... I thought they looked odd at first, and then I realized they were mirrored! (I don't use that webcam much at all.)

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Update 2:

Laying in the first value tones and some light color on the wood of the desk. Keeping things soft in the first stage helps me get a clearer idea of how best to procede.

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Update 3:

Starting to lay in some more color and a little detail, with some texture in the shadowy background.

Update 4:

It's getting close!

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Update 5!

The painting is a wrap! Now for getting the text designed properly. There will be a fresh post for that.

Dragon-Critters and "Bottled!" Art Book project

Yeah, that little guy is pure trouble. He might be able to fit in a large coat pocket, but he's got a talent for mayhem all out of proportion to his size.

I've got a few more "bottled" critters than I've been showing, so I'm probably going to be saving most of those for the print book. Yes, I intend to make a Bottled! creature book! I'll likely publish it through Lulu or a similar place. Tentatively ready for print in late August or September, life and work permitting!

Bottled Daydream

The daydream is considered a more benign cousin to the nightmare. It causes fuzzy thoughts, lack of ability to concentrate and memory loss.

Bottled: Bearded Mudwyr

The Bearded Mudwyr is a distant relation to the dragonlike but still diminutive wyrms. Its habitat includes ponds and lakes, where it hunts small fish and insect larvae.

I'll be uploading some more bottled creatures this week to prove I'm still alive!

Maug and "That Goat."

I recently finished a NanoMango challenge with a sketched comic about an old troll named Maug who doesn't like goats very much. I hope to edit and complete it at some point, but here's some pen drawings of the main characters!

Also, have some fantasy setting weapons. No reason. Just for fun.

Bottled Things!

These fellows are part of a series I'm working on. I had some thumbnails for the Illustration Friday topic "bottled," but I didn't have time to paint them that week. Since then, they've been steadily taking over my notebook.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

Unfortunate

I'm working on a lot of things at once, but have a little painting from my notebook to look at:

Where I live in Florida, you often see egrets and herons catching lizards. This unfortunate little dragon has found itself a little lower on the food chain than usual.

Alphabestiary contribution - Angha

This would be my first contribution to the Alphabestiary Blog, an open art prompt project featuring lesser-known creatures from folklore around the world. See the challenge post here.

Recent personal work

Once again asserting to the internet that I'm still alive and painting! I just picked up a new scanner to replace my 13-year-old one, and I'm enthusiastic about how much more color and detail it's picking up. I know it seems like a no-brainer, but sometimes you don't notice the difference until you see it.

Torben

Torben, a dragonborn character from the world of D&D.

I get a lot of enjoyment out of creating new characters and costumes for them to wear.

abominable!

wyrmling

felt pen creature

Playing with a gray scale brush-shaped felt pen.

creeping twiddla dragon

Please full-view!

I find that the limitations of twiddla are interesting to work with, because the program makes it next to impossible to draw small details. This is beneficial when you're trying to loosen up your sketching style.

I might revisit this one as a traditional painting.

A quick scribble in Painter.