Tag: Art Challenges

May Sketch A Day Week 5 – Dark Fey & Mermaids + Full Month Recap

Week 5 was another lean week while I was out to the beach on vacation!  I intend to share an Inspiration Trip post at some point collecting all the reference I took. I got to explore the beach and one of the most beautiful gardens I’ve ever visited!  I stole a few late night hours during the trip to do some quick sketches, most of which were dominated by one of my story concepts that’s captured the muse of late.

The Watcher II & III

Last week, I introduce this character from my story, Song of Exile, into the MASD mix.  In my worldbuilding pondering for this story, I’ve envisioned an ancient spirit who once held dominion over the desert.  She watched mankind with curiosity, vexed by the seemingly irrational actions of these short-lived specimens.  One day, she ventured to them, teaching them knowledge beyond their primitive achievements, learning from them the joy of irrationality.

But one day those gifts were taken for granted and calamity struck.  Her wrath was swift and thorough.

Her concept is a seed of a story right now, but each image I create, she becomes clearer in my mind and I discover something new about her.  The butterflies and other eye-marked creatures of her own creation are her ‘eyes’, her own lost during the ‘Fall’.  She is the creator of the silk moths that roam throughout the desert, though she is no longer watching through their wings, their markings having lost their luster since The Watcher’s disappearance from history.  

Deep Blue

How could I NOT draw a mermaid for this month with the Mermay challenge happening as well? Plus the fact I was surrounded by so much lovely blue and green water while I was on the beach!  All the sketches this week were done in Adobe Photoshop Sketch on my new iPad Pro.  It’s pretty easy to pick up and put down a sketch while also being able to easily record a time lapse!

Full Month Recap

Here’s a collection of ALL the sketches I made for this event!  You can read the stories and notes about each week’s sketches at the following posts:

Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4 

All in all, I had a fantastic time letting the muse off the leash to wander and do as she pleases!  I’ve been in desperate need of refreshing the creative wells and letting my mind wander while also getting some new experiences at the beach have helped a bit.  I’m hoping I can carry forward the daily sketching habit into the future as either daily warm-ups and/or freeform sketch time during my usual routine!

Did any of you participate in May Sketch A Day (or any of the other May art events)?  How did it work out for you?  Like NaNoWriMo, Camp NaNoWriMo, and other art challenges, I’ve found it to be a re-energizing experience with community support behind it which helps to keep me motivated!

Next, more enamel pin progress once I’m back from vacation starting Monday!

♥
– Ang

May Sketch A Day Week 4 – The Blood Hunter & The Faerie

This week was a lean week for sketching while I was rushing to get my enamel pin sketches off to the company!  I squeezed a little bit of sketching time in thanks to my husband gifting me an iPad Pro (YAY!) and encouraging me to take the time to sit down and have a play with it.  

All of the sketches this week were created with Adobe Sketch on the iPad Pro, with the exception of the sword portrait, which was started in Sketch and transferred into Photoshop for finishing.

Head Portrait – Nils

This piece is a milestone for being the first image I created on the iPad Pro!  I’m impressed by the responsiveness of the Apple Pencil and the way I could tilt the stylus for the graphite shading used in this one.

This week I had an urge to explore Nils, a shy priest of Kelemvor from a Dungeons & Dragons one-shot I played some time ago.  I was smitten by this quiet, sweet man in such a brutal profession of being a Blood Hunter!  

He wears his worries on his face, where he often looks tired and anemic, the blood magic use taking a toll, as well as the terrible things he’s seen in his past (which you can read more about in his character biography here).

The Watcher Appears

Experimenting with the watercolor blooms in Sketch on the iPad made me want to draw something dreamy and dark, which is where this gal from my Song of Exile storyworld came in!  She was drawn completely off the cuff without worrying about my mistakes.  This won’t be her final design, but it was just fun to muck about without being too precious (the whole goal of May Sketch A Day for me). 

Some flavor text for The Watcher:

Old stories still speak of her, though her name is long forgotten. They called her The Watcher, for she watched mankind for centuries from between the moments and the twilight shadows, always curious, always seeking through the eyes of the animals in her desert domain. Why did humans tarry so, she mused?

Whenever a traveler finds her moths in the desert, they know she is there, always watching through their spots, and they pay her homage whether she is there still or not.

Blood Grooves

After seeing this glorious character sheet by Mooncalfe, I was in the mood to do some more character sketching to show various pieces of equipment and angles for Nils!  I’m pretty shocked that Blood Hunters don’t have any specialized weapons for their demon-slaying, monster hunting craft.

I’ve envisioned Nils using a pair of scimitar custom crafted by his Order that allow him to trigger a needle which lances his palms and sends blood down the handle into the blood grooves on the sword.  This lets him more efficiently use his blades for Crimson Rites, which require bloodletting to imbue the blade.

First level Blood Hunters don’t even get silvered weapons for their starting gear, poor sods!

—

So that was my short week!  Which one of these did you guys enjoy most?  Have you done any cool sketches for May Sketch A Day or Mermay this week (or seen any?)  Share in comments!

Next week, I’ll be on vacation at the beach, which I haven’t seen in well…years!  I expect to be pretty AFK for awhile and sneaking internet when I can, so I may be slow!  My stream schedule is on hold for now till I return on June 1st.  Hope you all don’t have too much fun without me!  

I hope to return with more enamel pin mockups to share and a refreshed mind.  See ya after!

– Ang

May Sketch A Day Week 3 – Tieflings Galore!

This week, my muse followed my Dungeons & Dragons character, Anko, down the inspiration rabbithole this time!  I have a lot of behind-the-scenes deadline to meet this week, which meant an ‘easy’ week where I didn’t have to think too much, just have pure fun exploring this character who’s already fairly established in my brain.

It’s felt good to define Anko even more thoroughly, since I’ve been playing her for years now!  She’s had a really satisfying arc from being a timid young Tiefling girl to blossoming into a fully capable mage. She deserved more art than she’s gotten from me, honestly!

Day 14

This week’s journey began with gesture sketches and trying to discover what pose worked best for showing off Anko’s small demure horns for a formal concept chart.  I needed an angle that would show enough dimension in the spirals so that I could properly show off any danglies and decorations and ended up with a classical head turn.

My first horn decoration ideas were simple bejeweled tips and a studded cloth wrap inspired by how sacred cows are adorend in India.  Inspiration leads you to unexpected places sometimes!

Day 15

Some days are slower than others when you’re tired, but I managed a single variation with lots of braids and dainty filigree horn caps!  I love the way the braids wrapping around give a more elegant transition between hair and horn.

Day 16

I explored two concepts in mind, including flower garlands around the horns and gold-dusted or painted horns.  I was surprised how many colors this character looks good in and how much I loved the flowers!  They were my favorite look until the next set came along.  Even if I don’t go with them, I think if I ever have a need to depict Anko in a marriage or spring ceremony that the flowers would be perfect!

Day 17

A productive few days! I honestly thought I was done with concepts, but then I got the idea to combine my previous day’s concepts into a new variations, plus try the cloth wraps, but with chain taking the shape of the wraps.  I also loved the long elegant shapes of the dangling flowers I found while reference hunting and had to try them on horns!

Day 18

I needed another easy day and laying in flat colors on Anko’s dice arrangement from last week obliged!  Color brings all the golden goodness of baked goods to life, doesn’t it?

Day 20

After all this concepting, I wanted to work up one of my fave designs into a more fleshed out sketch!  The result is this lovely little portrait which was also great gesture and anatomy practice.  I had a little help from Senshistock with the pose as well!  Highly recommend her awesome stock for idea-gathering.

Concept Compilation

I’m not sure I made it any easier for myself to choose a formal look for Anko because they all have something I like about them!  Which ones did you guys like best?

Did you draw anything for May Sketch A Day this week? Share your favorite in comments so I can see and enjoy it too!  Or if not, let me know which of my sketches you enjoyed best.

More soon!  I’ve been working on a collection of enamel pin design sketches I’m so excited to share once I have them in a more finished spot!

– Ang

May Sketch A Day – Week 2: D&D, Tangled, & Harse!

See week 1’s collection here!

What a weird combination May Sketch A Day week 2 has been!  The week started out strong with another portrait of Khalara exploring her glowing silk moth dress concept.

And then my muse went bonkers with my D&D Tiefling and randomness!  But hey that’s half the fun with this event.  Enjoy the randomness!

Day 6 – Mothglow Portrait

This ended up becoming a little more than a sketch, but I was obligated as soon as I created that mothglow dress design from last week to work it up on the character!

Khalara continues to evolve from her Exalted look and is starting to look more like her own character now, though I’m still giving a nod to the original character’s flaming hair with her henna-dyed tips. 

Kalara had a hand scar while this Khalara has dyed hands to cover stains from her life as a slave. It’s been really intriguing to translate this character to my own story world and preserve what I like about her RPG concept!

I played around with the idea that the silk also has iridescent properties in normal lighting. I may have to work this one up to final sometime, as I really enjoy this concept for a painting! She’s come so far since my first sketch of her last week.

Day 7 – Adira

I took a totally indulgent day to draw some fan art of Adira from the Tangled animated series. The first time I saw this hulking, badass, cocky woman and her amazing character design, I just KNEW I had to draw her!

May Sketch A Day was the perfect excuse to finally draw her after many instances of ‘dang she’s cool’ when I saw her in the show.

Sidenote, this was also the first time I noticed the character wore mismatched earrings, something I never noticed until I was dissecting her character design in order to draw her!

Day 8 – 10 – Anko Head Variations

After playing my Tiefling Warlock Anko for the past few years, it was about time I decided what her horns looked like under her hair buns!  For those who haven’t met my D&D character yet, she’s a young Tiefling from a ghetto who grew up in her family’s bakery.  She ends up adventuring and learning about a legacy of dark magic she never knew of as a Warlock.

She ended up with cute little ‘cinnamon roll’ style horns which seem to fit her themes and the shape of her hair buns.  The shorter straighter horns are also quite nice. Stashing them for later!

Day 11 – Harse

This is what happens when I try to quickly draw a horse from memory. Anatomy from Hell and a horn because I only ever learned to draw horses so I could draw unicorns!

I can’t look at how hilariously bad this is without laughing so hard, I cry. May Harse bring you a laugh today instead of nightmares!

 Day 12 – Anko’s Dice

I was inspired by the beautiful dice arrangements of SweetDelilahs to make a similar one for my Tiefling gal, Anko!  She loves baking and the dark arts (but let’s hope she doesn’t mix up food with her spell components!)

How was your week?  Are any of you taking on a May art challenge?  Share your favorite one in the comments!  Or if not, which sketch of mine did you enjoy the most from this week?

If you’re on Discord and are one of my Patrons, you can see these sketches a day before I post them by connecting your Discord to Patreon!  You can see how to do that here.

Can’t wait to see what next week brings for May Sketch A Day and share more progress on the enamel pins as well!

– Ang

May Sketch A Day 2019 – Week 1: Silk, Lies, & Angels

As promised, here’s the collection of art from May Sketch A Day’s first week!  I’ve really been enjoying letting my muse off the leash and the sense of relief I get just indulging in random ideas has been invigorating for me.  I really needed the creative refresher!  My Writing Muse apparently wanted in on this too, so brace yourself for story snippets, as well!

Are any of you taking on May Sketch A Day, Mermay, or any of the other events happening in May?  Feel free to share your favorite sketch from your own journey this week in the comments!

DAY 1 – Khalara

Many would try to steal the secret of Khalara’s silk harvesting techniques. All of them would return home empty-handed and sometimes not at all.

They whisper that she stole the secret from her father before poisoning him and inheriting his business. She was his slave once, even though she hides her indigo-stained hands behind pretty jewels and henna swirls.

Let them whisper. Their fear keeps them right where she wants them.
.  .  .
Started off the event with the exploration of one of the cast of my original story, Song of Exile. She’s a port of my Exalted RPG Eclipse Caste, Kalara, into my original world. I’d love to see who would win that mercantile war, though they’d probably end up best frenemies. 

DAY 2 – Mothglow

 “And here we are.”

Ramah could at least agree on that. Their wedding was elegant, professional, an event to behold. The only thing missing from the great ensemble was love.

Now there was just the issue on the to-do list of their wedding night. Instead, he was engaged in a rather intense game of Dalit against himself. He didn’t even notice the sheer silks gleaming with mothglow, the unearthly gleam Khalara’s textile empire was famous for.
He hadn’t even looked up.

“Wine cures all ills, I find.” She said, finally catching his attention as she set the bottle down next to his game board and offered him a glass.

He had planned to be a perfect gentleman that night. She, however, did not make any such plans, should he decide to lose interest in the game board.

“Gold Warrior to Obsidian Dervish.” She slipped into the chair across from him and took the place of his imaginary opponent. “I didn’t know you had the brains for this kind of game.”

Ramah smiled. Perhaps there was hope for them after all. They at least had the same taste in wine and he always valued a good player.
. . .
I’m still channeling so much of Kalara’s Exalted look here, but I still like it as an evolutionary step.  I’ve been playing with how to keep a similar red-haired look to conjure the character’s original fire symbolism by using henna red dyed tips as a solution.  Also, I FINALLY got to do cut across lighting on someone! 

DAY 3 – Worker Angel

I had one last limited edition coloring book drawing to do so I double dipped on May Sketch A Day for it, as it’s always a fun exercise to draw from random prompts and to be surprised by what my brain comes up with. This one was a special one for my mother in law who requested “Worker Angel”. 

This prompt somehow conjured an image of an angel working on countless numbers of pots, as if she were searching for something, despite the fact each pot was a very good pot. Finally, she created one that sang to her soul.

I suppose that’s what comes to mind when I think of most creative endeavors! So much of it is searching for that moment when your creation ‘sings’ to you.

DAY 4 – Mothglow Dress

Continuing my exploration of the properties of the preternatural moth silk Khalara harvests for her trade empire in my story, Song of Exile.  She guards the secret of its creation leaving her competition to guess the process. 

Rumors abound of sinister origins, from blood infused plants to feed the moth larvae to dark magick ceremonies performed over their cocoons. Regardless, wealthy nobles pay handsomely for the silk, their eyes dazzled by its nighttime glow and their bodies soothed by its cooling properties, a valuable asset in a desert locked nation.

I went with a moth motif for this dress, an integral trademark of her business and also a personal symbol of transformation. Khalara has built herself up from slave to Merchant Queen and she’s damned proud of that!

It was laaate and I didn’t have a lot of time to spend on this one, but decided to get something rough down anyways. Taking a lesson from May Sketch A Day not to be precious lest the idea stays stuck in my brain forever! 

—

And that was my first week!  Did you guys have a fave sketch from my collection this week?  Do you want to see more of any particular concept?  I’m always curious to know what strikes your fancy!

Onwards to next week! 

– Ang

PS.

Reminder that my Patreon Patrons are getting a peek at these a day early before everyone else via my private Discord server!  You can pledge at any tier for access to it. 😉

May Sketch A Day 2019 Begins!

Sorry to make another post so soon, but I wanted to let you all know about an event I’m super excited for!  I was too slammed last year to participate, but this year I’m going all in on May Sketch A Day, an Art Challenge which asks you to sketch every day.  There is no assigned topic, per say, just having fun drawing anything you like!

I want to use this challenge to help refresh my creative brain.  I’ve been focusing on my Birthstone Goddesses for so long now, it’s been difficult to find time to indulge some of the things I like to do just for fun!  Some topics you can expect to pop up during this challenge are my Dungeons & Dragons characters, my desert fantasy (Song of Exile) story concepts, and other indulgent things.

I won’t be sharing here EVERY day, but I will be sharing a weekly compilation of my sketches here on Patreon.

Sneak Peeks for Patrons!  

If you want to see the sketches before the public does, I’ll be sharing them a day early on my private Patreon Discord server!  If you haven’t checked it out yet, the Discord server is where I’m the most active sharing inspiration, answering questions, etc.  

Read on here for details on how to claim your Discord Rewards through Patreon.

Where Can I Follow Along?

Aside from the Discord server, you can also Follow me on social media to keep up with this month’s art challenge:

I think this will be an excellent way to refresh the creative wells and have some fun!  Is anyone else taking on an art challenge this month?  Mermay and MayShroom are going on too.  I can’t wait to see my feed explode with art!

– Ang

Jan + Feb Wrap-Up: Month of Love, Kickstarter Completion, & Vacation Time

Wow is it March already???  Time has been flying by while I’ve been running around doing all the things!  I apparently forgot to write my January monthly wrap up, so there’s a lot to catch up on!  Here’s a summary of January and February’s happenings and a look at what’s going on in March.

The most exciting news from the past couple of months is that I finished shipping ALL of the packages for the coloring book Kickstarter last week!  The Kickstarter has been a long-delayed project and I pulled out all the stops to try to get them shipped out ASAP.  

This meant completing all of the Limited Edition ink drawings as fast as I could manage without sacrificing quality!  You can see a collection of all the ink drawings here, with one more collection coming very soon.  My studio was a disaster zone of art and shipping containers.  It was a glorious mess!

I also participated as an official artist for the Month of Love art challenge event during February!  I was so honored to be featured alongside many talented folks I respect and completed two pieces for the event. It was a pleasure to participate, even if things were a bit time crunched for me this February.

After all this hubbub and a stressful period of cancer scans and radiation prep for my husband, I’m suffering from some massive burnout!  I’ve given myself a week or so off to decompress and try to get my energy levels back up so that I can look at art with some enthusiasm again.  Stress and chaos have never been great motivators for me, so I’m hoping some time away from everything playing video games and trying to sloooow down will help me re-energize.

So if you need me, I’ll be haunting my Patreon Discord and playing Dragon Age: Inquisition, which I’ve been looking forward to playing since it came out oh…five years ago.  The art and story of this world has always been so inspiring for me, as the art books are some of my top faves in my collection!  I’m looking forward to immersing myself in this intriguing story and world and hope to come back out of it inspired towards greatness!

Till then, thanks for hanging with me and thanks so much to the new supporters who have jumped on this month!  Every little bit helps keep my head above water so I can keep doing what I love.

Till next time!

♥
– Ang

Coming in March

  • New coloring page release of Verdant Muse for $5 and up Patrons

  • Verdant Muse Coloring Contest hosted over at the FB Coloring Group

  • A Secret Sketchbook Write-Up for Healing Tears

  • Inspiration Trip: SCAD Fashion Museum’s Guo Pei Exhibit

  • Plus more perhaps?

Other Posts You Might’ve Missed

Sketch Diary – Satyr

 

Inspiration

Today I’ll be talking about how I created Satyr for the 30 Day Monster Girl Challenge.  For my version of Satyr, I went with my own fantasy twist of a well-known figure from Greek and Roman mythology.

The Satyr of myth is usually a mischievous male with the lower body of a goat who is known to lecherously pursue nymphs and dryads.  The Satyr were also drinking buddies with Dionysus, the god of wine and merriment.

For more about the Satyr, check out one of my favorite Greek mythology resources, http://www.theoi.com.

 

 

Tools and Techniques

For this painting, I used Photoshop CC and a Wacom Cintiq 21UX.

Concept Inspiration

For my Satyr girl, I wanted to go with the theme of grapes to honor Dionysus and his wine, so she ended up with a purple complexion crowned with grapevine adornments.  Like many Satyrs, she is also a player of instruments, in this case a flute.

 

References

A selection from my references for Satyr.

monster-girls-satyr-refs

Art Process

Step 1. Quick digital gesture drawing done to capture the movement and energy of the pose. This isn’t very precise and is more about energy than accuracy.wip-satyr-01

Step 2:  A cleaner line art is drawn on a layer atop the gesture. I used Lazy Nezumi Pro set to ‘subtle’ to help stabilize my lines in Photoshop and make them smoother.

wip-satyr-02

Step 3:  Added a base layer of color so no background color will accidentally show through.wip-satyr-03

Step 4:  Added the flat colors after much deliberation on what her skin color should be.wip-satyr-04

Step 5:  Colorized the lines to make the grapes, grapevine, and flute stand out.wip-satyr-05

Step 6:  Added a shadow layer using warm grey above everything clipped to the Group and set to Multiply.wip-satyr-06

 

Step 7:  Added a highlight layer painting in white set to Overlay. Also clipped to the Group.wip-satyr-07

Step 8:  Final touches of pure white in key places such as the leaves, grapes, and hair to help lead the strengthen the focus, flow, and dimensionality of the piece.

wip-satyr-08

 

 

For more in-depth instruction on how I created this image, Pledge to any $10 and up level at my Patreon to gain access to the narrated video tutorial!  You can also buy the individual tutorial separately at my Gumroad shop, but you won’t receive the other extras you would by purchasing via Patreon.

You can watch a video preview of the tutorial for Satyr without narration here: