December - Part Three - Dragonflies on Bikes

I did less drawing and painting the last couple weeks....  

Black Meadowhawk Rides a Red Cervelo I - Process

I tried painting a dragonfly on a bike. I like bikes. I painted other Critters on Bikes (though not insects, before this). My sister likes dragonflies.... it seemed like a good idea at the time. 

I was pretty dissapointed with it at this stage (the bike - in particular the wheels - looked a little too chunky - like some kind of insane 29er+ gravel bike), so I started over...

Black Meadowhawk Rides a Red Cervelo II

(18cmx13cm, Ink and Watercolour on paper,  December 2020)

This one I liked even less, so I went back and tried to fix the first one - painting some gouache onto the rims to make it more clear that they're supposed to be deeper aero rims... 

Black Meadowhawk Rides a Red Cervelo I - finished

(18cmx13cm, Ink and Watercolour on paper,  December 2020)

It sucked less, so... 

and... that's about it... I did some sketching out of ideas foe more paintings/drawings, but no finished stuff I feel the need to share... Hopefully some of those ideas will be actualized in the new year. 

I guess that's it for this year. 

Not going to lie, 2020 sucked chunks... but I am glad I got back to making art. Hopefully this continues into the new year and we all get back to a sense of normalcy. 

December - Part Two

 Things slowed up here over the last week or so... I've done a bunch of rough sketches of ideas... but they were kind of all over the place and I couldn't stay focused enough to manage to turn many of those ideas into finished drawings or paintings.

Here are a few things I did get to... 

Process picture of work on Daemon Prince Garzongdong - another portrait of a character in a game I play. 

GARZONGDONG - Daemon Prince of Slaanesh.

(30cmx30cm, Ink and Watercolour on Paper, December 2020)

Garzongdong was once a captain in the Emperor's Children Space Marine Legion (32nd company). After the fall of Horus, he led what remained of his company around the galaxy in the relentless pursuit of all manner of excesses. They cared not where the currents of the immaterium took them, on that there were worlds for them to burn and plunder and bathe themselves in all manner of indulgence. After a thousand years of such debaucherous pursuits, the Dark Prince rewarded Garzongdong with Daemonhood.

Daemon Prince Garzongdong leads my Warhammer 40K Daemon and Emperor's Children Chaos Space Marine forces. If it looks a little like the old Keeper of Secrets model.. well.. it's because I'm USING an old Keeper of Secrets model as my Daemon Prince of Slaanesh (as the old Keepers of Secrets model is about the same size as the current Daemon Prince model, and the newer Keeper of Secrets utterly dwarfs the previous model - over twice as big!)

(he might just show up in the Wrath & Glory game I have been running.... y'know... when we get back to playing that...)

I did a little thing... there was so much enthusiasm amongst my friends on Facebook for the Dinovember 2020 drawings and paintings, that I thought I'd make a few calendars for those that wanted them. Amanda makes photo calendars for our folks and my sister every year, I though possibly I could do the same, but with the pics I took of all the Dinosaurs. So I put a post on Facebook, collected pre-orders until the first and then ordered the 30 I needed (I sold 26, then there was one for me, folks, sister - who are all getting TWO calendars this year - one with dinosaurs, one with pictures of the kids. 

I also sold off most of the originals - at least the ones that were on separate sheets of paper - not the ones I did in my sketchbook. 

It was a fun little project - but ended up taking up a lot of time - messaging back and forth and keeping track of who ordered how many and laying out the calendar and placing the order - and then a LOT Of anxiety over how it was going to look (it ended up looking pretty good - much, MUCH better than the worst possible fears - which is where my brain always goes!). 

Back to prairie landscapes for a day (or maybe two)....

Cows and Clouds

(25cmx20cm, Watercolour on Paper, December 2020)

Wasn't happy with this one. 

Added a dinosaur. 

It didn't help.

The next one - process. This one I actually used a photo reference (a picture I took myself while out on a bike ride in the country side a few years ago). 

Cows in a Field

(25cmx20cm, Watercolour on Paper, December 2020)

I actually painted this for Amanda's mom. I posted it on Facebook and tried changing the permissions so that her mom and sister wouldn't see it.... then I moved it into an album with all my other art. Apparently, when you move pictures to a new album, Facebook changes the permissions for the picture to that of the album... so she saw it - and commented on it. I didn't mention in the post that it was for her, but it's not going to be as big of a surprise. At least she said it was "[her] kind of painting".  

Zilla and Ringo Meet a New Friend at the Park.

(20cmx20cm, Ink and Watercolour on Paper, December 2020)

Another surprise for some friends. Not going to make the mistake of posting this anywhere - well, anywhere people actually LOOK at things. I ALMOST posted it to Instagram - then realized one of the couple I painted this for is a follower (though I don't think she's ever liked or commented on anything I've posted on Instagram... still... not going to take the chance). I feel pretty safe posting things here as I'm pretty sure NO ONE is even following this blog anymore - the few views this one gets are redirects from my OTHER blog. 

Going from the early dino illustrations my sketchbook (ink drawings, coloured with watercolours), to the dinosaur paintings on paper (just watercolour), to character portraits (ink drawings, coloured with watercolours again), to the cow paintings above (back to just watercolour), to this painting/drawing above... I've come to realize I think I prefer using watercolour to add colour to what are essentially ink drawings - rather than strict watercolour painting... 

More Cows

(29cmx29cm, Ink and Watercolour on Paper, December 2020)

I think I'm done with cows. Not sure what I'm going to do with this one. It was kind of the back-up plan painting if the other one didn't work out (started painting this before finishing the first). The first is okay and was smaller and easier to parcel up - and, in fact, WAS parcelled up before this was even finished - so there was no real options to send it off if it DID turn out "better"... 

What next? 

Back to character portraits?

I don't know. Guess we'll see what tomorrow brings. 

December - Part One - Character Portraits

 I wasn't really sure what I was going to do this month, but I thought I'd start off December doing some portraits of characters from role-playing games I've played. 

(for MORE Game Nerdery, see my GAME BLOG) 

Here's what I got up to the first week... 

This is VX-923 - an Adeptus Mechanicus Lexmechanic played by my friend Randy in our (currently on hiatus) Wrath & Glory game. This was a lot of fun to do and got me really pumped about playing again - maybe in the new year... or... maybe SOONER!?

I actually painted this at the end of November, but it kind of goes with the rest of these, so I've reposted here as well.. 

Indebted 79 - a Death Cult Assassin.

This is Jonathan's character for our Wrath & Glory game.

Tempestor Castus von Traggenstein

Another character portrait from our Wrath & Glory campaign. Sole surviving member of his unit of scions was offered the Emperor's Peace or a life of service to the Inquisition. He wanted answers about what happened to his unit and figured the Inquisition might provide them...

Basillius - Sanctioned Psyker - or so everyone tells him... apparently, at some point in his career, he saw something that he really shouldn't have, but the inquisition figured he was too valuable an asset to have him eliminated, so they ordered a memory wipe. But the memory wipe was a little TOO effective and he completely forgot that he is actually a sanctioned psyker... hijinks ensued.

This is Christian's character for the Wrath & Glory Game. Christian always comes up with just the craziest characters for every game he's played in.

one of the initial sketches for Christian's Character - this is Christian - I wanted to based the character portraits on the actual players, to some degree. I'm actually pretty happy with this... I hate it when I nail it on the first sketch, and then NONE OF THE OTHERS LOOK RIGHT!? 

Without glasses. 

Considering poses and other stuff - I had considered a tattoo or brand on the forehead... but then... didn't...

My current workspace. I've been doing these on Strathmore 400 Series Mixed Media Paper - which I cut to an 11x11 square and tape down to a board. I've just started working on this paper - I was a little anxious when I did my first wash on one and the paper buckled a LOT - which caused a little pooling. Much to my surprise, however, once it dried, it went right back to being flat!? 

This is the last of the group - Ivan the Inquisition Acolyte. I painted this one back in October, but thought I'd include it here again, so they're all in one place. It was done in my sketchbook. I may have to redo it now that I've done these others on good paper... 

I've had a lot of fun doing these, an will probably continue with more throughout the month. There will probably be a focus on Wrath & Glory and other Warhammer 40K Characters, but I might do a few from other games.... 

Like Gronq the Barbarian - MY character from the Four Against Darkness game my son Finnegan is running for me and a few friends. I thought I might do his portrait like a comic book cover and was messing around trying to make a logo inspired by the Conan the Barbarian comics that marvel produced when I was young...