Secret Santa

I made this for my friend Maritza Silva. It's inspired by song she chose from the Hanna soundtrack. I wish I could've spent more time on it, but I do like that it's out of my comfort zone.

Hopefully work from 113a, figure drawings, and my winter sketchbook will be coming soon. I need a camera to photograph my paintings and none of my friends want to share. (you know who you are)

Fall Figures

Exactly what it says on the tin.

Stage One Complete

Last week I submitted my portfolio to the mid-program portfolio review for San Jose State University's Animation/Illustration B.F.A. program. I passed the review, so I thought I'd post my portfolio! It wasn't as exciting as I thought it would be, but I'm looking forward to spending the winter filling out a sketchbook and officially getting into the program. It'll be fun if I can survive the remainder of the semester.

Old Portfolios

Portfolios for my figure drawing class last spring with Sheldon. I thought I was better last spring, and was pretty relieved to see all the mistakes and weird things going on in these drawings. Still, they do have a lot more energy than my drawings lately, so hopefully I'll be able to get that back.

The first portfolio was probably within the first month.

This portfolio was a little later than midway through the semester.

Speed Painting

Speed Painting 55

The shrubs were really difficult because they're very brambly. I was mostly trying to get the atmospheric perspective on the mountains. It came out a lot better than usual. 

Speed Painting 54 + Dragon Age Fanart

Speed Painting 54

~1 hour

The cotton clouds work, the wispy clouds got lost. The stones are way too dark. The purple-ish patches in the ocean are too dark. 

Bitter Cold

~10 hours-ish?

****DRAGON AGE: ORIGINS (AND 2? 3? I think "spoilers" are dumb so I don't keep track of these things) SPOILERS****

Alternate titles: Morrigan Disapproves, Ice Witch Out

I wanted to draw Morrigan from Dragon Age: Origins, but didn't know what to do with her. She's probably one of the more interesting (and misunderstood) characters from the game. I asked the boyfriend for an idea, and he said he would like to see Morrigan with her demon-god-baby. Morrigan is a very difficult character to imagine as a mother. After some discussion, using evidence of how Flemeth raised her, Morrigan's personality, and Morrigan in the "Witch Hunt" DLC, we came to the conclusion that she would be "Flemeth Light," or better yet the "mama bear" archetype. She's wild and identifies strongly with animals (and can even turn into a bear), so I think it makes sense that she would love her son and not use him like a tool as her mother did to her. I don't expect a lot of tenderness from her, but I think there would be an affection that wasn't there between her and Flemeth.

I'm sure the third installment will contradict my theory. But seeing as how Bioware can't keep their own lore straight and ruined one of my favorite characters, I don't care.

A lot of my ideas involved the environment more, (e.g. Morrigan trekking across a frozen mountain wilderness landscape), but that really didn't work with my overall goal with this piece. I don't think fan art that's more landscape than character will fare well.

Long story short, I was kind of trying to portray Morrigan as a "mama bear": Fierce, protective, and nurturing surrounded by a harsh environment.

Speed Painting 51-53

Speed Painting 51

1 hour

The shapes of the mountains in the background are off. A lot of my colors are off. They're too saturated or dark when they should be more neutral. The ocean should be brighter. The reflections of the sky on the tops of the rocks was pretty cool. I wonder how frequently that happens.

Speed Painting 52

1 hour

My colors in the background are way too saturated. I know what atmospheric perspective is, but in practice it's really hard to get the colors neutral enough to look further away while still looking like a color. Some of the greens are better than usual, others are seriously off. 

Speed Painting 53: master copy of Tiger on the Watch (Gerome)

1 hour

I thought I'd try a master copy tonight. I was trying to avoid animals and people, but this was the best I could do with the images I saved. I didn't feel like spending an hour or more searching for landscapes. The colors in the foreground aren't too bad. The tiger is a crime against nature, but I spent a couple minutes on him so that's to be expected. Atmospheric perspective sucks. I'm seeing a pattern here. I know colors are supposed to get grayer the farther away they are, but I can't seem to paint it. The hazy look escapes me at the moment. The effect is a lot more pronounced in master works. The master copy was a lot more fun than a photo and easier to work with.

Speed Painting #47-50

I'm thinking in the future I'm going to try to go back to posting each one.

SP #47

Time: ~45 min

These colors were extremely difficult. I was trying to get the atmospheric perspective.

SP #48

There's something about the color green that is just awful. 

SP#49

I managed to do this after a beach trip when I got home. Personally, I'm surprised because I was barely conscious.

Time: ~60 min

SP #50: Mama Bear

This is an idea I have for my next illustration, it's another Dragon Age fanart. Haven't worked out compositions yet, this was just a general idea of what I wanted.

Time: 60-90 min

Speed Painting #46 + Completed Illustration

It's been awhile. I've been lazy about posting my paintings.

Speed painting #46

I need to work on atmospheric perspective. My paintings don't get hazy towards the background. The sky doesn't have the same luminosity either. And the green. I'm beginning to suspect green is the most difficult color to paint with, particularly in nature. I think I need to go more into the yellow-brown spectrum.

She Who Ran Away With the Apostate Mage


This took forever and I'm tired of looking at it. It was (kind of) a fun project. This is one of my most thought out paintings and involved painting a lot of things I had no idea how to handle.

Speaking of things that may or may not have been handled well: the fiery inferno in the background. It occurred to me way too late in the progress of this painting that due to the nature of light created by fire, it could not light up that huge area. So I used a lot of artistic license and the rule of cool to make it work.

Dragon Age 2 Spoilers

This painting is a fanart for Bioware's Dragon Age 2. With the exception of a few notable features in the game, I did not like this game. I did, however, love the tortured apostate mage Anders and his romance with my playable, snarky, rogue Hawke. My Hawke does everything she can to help Anders, sides with him against a good friend after he blows up a damn church, and abandons her home and wealth for a man that only has 20 years of life left, and how does the game repay me? The sole completed romance with no kiss!

... Yes, my anger over the lack of a kiss from a fictional character inspired and fueled 40+ hours of an activity I despise. I don't know either.

Speed Painting #22+WIP

I need to use less brushes and do these earlier than five in the morning.

Time: ~45 minutes

One day, I will finish this. In the mean time, a haiku:

Why why why why why?
Why why why why why why why?
Why why why why why?

Speed Painting #15

Speed Painting #15

Architecture is not fun.

Time: ~45 minutes

Photo

Painting