It looks like a cheap fantasy book cover

I loved creating these, specifically creating the (in my opinion) great colour palettes, and showing them side by side creates a great sense of contrast!

The image on the left was created first, in which I used an...interesting technique to create the almost smoky effect in the background, which consisted of using a wide leaf brush on low opacity (5%) and layering it at different sizes over and over while changing the saturation to match where in the image I'm highlighting~ but I digress.

The image on the right is a duplicate with the hue shifted, smudge used to create the stalactites and more, smaller texturing used on the ceiling.

I'm completely set in the idea of this being ideal for one of those 50p sci-fi books you can pick up from charity shops though...

Still working on the pixel brush pack

I WAS going to post a head shot today, but it ended up being a complete failure around an hour and a half in. I learnt a lot from it though! Greens and blues ARE present in the shaded ares of the face, but mainly on the more start edges compared to the angle to the light, not in the soft shading I was attempting around the cheeks which looked incredibly odd. :<
I have, however, been continuing work on my pixel brush pack and have 2 room 'sets' completed so far!

There's still 'Kitchen', 'Bedroom', 'Bathroom' and 'Other' to do yet! I've also decided that I'll likely create a garden set after this is complete, but I'll only release it depending on how popular this set gets. :)

As mentioned previously, the brush pack will be available for download through my DeviantArt account, with instructions on how to load and use them.

That's all for today! God I've spent so much of today looking at tutorials it's not even funny. D: I DID, however, also find the time to read a brilliant online manga. It's incomplete at the moment but you can find Haru Sari, the graphic novel, by clicking here. Apparently it's spanned 6 years so far with the first chapters being written in 2005, though it's certainly a recent discovery for me!

I had the day off today..

So it seems I forgot to do my blog post! Sorry for being, as of ~now~, 49 minutes late, but better late than never!
After the figure drawing class I attended a while ago, I've been itching to do some more life studies, however it was far too rainy to go outdoors today, so I had to make do with getting images from my best friend's and sister's facebook profiles. :P
As such, I present, The Steen:

And, The Sister!

Both have (thankfully!) received positive responses from the victims recipients, and personally, I'm rather proud! Ofcourse, being eyeballed from the originals, I feel I should take too much credit, though the same would have to be said of all life drawings (and even photographs!) if that were the case.

I'm not particularly happy with the hair on either, mainly as I'm used to creating very crisp, almost strand-by-strand looking hairstyles, which I didn't let myself do with these as I felt it wouldn't suit the feel of the pieces.

That's all for today! Apologies again for the late update! And I'm working on a pixel brush set at the moment, all isometric, that will be available on my DeviantArt page when it's finished. Wish me luck!

Back to 'real' art!

Decided to get back to work with some speed painting today! Mapping out basic compositions and colour sets then going to town with lights can be VERY fun, particularly in creating the upper right and lower left pieces! Both turned out better than I expected, but of course they're incredibly rough.

When creating the base colour sets for a piece I tend to drop by http://kuler.adobe.com/, followed by experimenting with gradients (most prominent in the lower right image, using my personal pre-set base for water based images).

After working on these, I was in the mood for creating something a bit more substantial, so I give you 'Cave' (I'm great with names)

Creating the texture of the foreground was very fun, with a LOT of layers accounting for the multitude of effects used. I'm still not quite happy with the water, but I'm happy with how I did the shadows of the cave onto the water at least.

All hail our cephlopod overlords

I'm enjoying this whole pixel business far too much. As such, I recently joined http://www.pixeljoint.com/ , there's so much good pixel work there! However, I've only done pixel art for the last 3 days now (being newly addicted to LoL doesn't help, time-wise ><) so I'm going to stop for tomorrow and return to the traditional digital work.

I've got loads of ideas I want to get down in the next 3 weeks, so time to step it up a notch! As such, I'm cutting my volunteering days from 5 down to 3, giving myself Tuesdays, Fridays and the weekend all free to work on art!

Wish me luck.

Playing With Pixels...Again

What can I say? I'm REALLY enjoying pixel art at the moment, particularly as I revisited some of my favorite pixels artists yesterday and found some new ones today. :)

There's certainly a good level of skill required to make interesting pixel art, something I don't have yet. :P But it's another thing I can challenge myself to get better at!

I'm also rather proud that I used no pre-set brushes or the like today! My colours are a bit hap-hazard though, particularly as I tried to stay with web-safe colours for the most part (only 2 arn't) but that's really limits soft-shading options.

Perfect Pixelated Places

Created with the help of a brush set from a lovely DeviantArtist, here we have a selection of (raised platform) kitchens using multiple colour schemes! The lower-right 3 were the first ones designed, with the lowest-right being chosen to be extrapolated on into the top left image, with a lovely Japanese theme.

Though I'd want more work counters than this... And a larger dining table in the main room (though the little square table with the plush seats would be for breakfast and the like!
A separate fridge and freezer would be nice too...
I'm rambling again.

It was back to work today after my holiday at The Boys! And my knees hurt... Not a good sign!

Mind you, it DID rain today.

Maybe I'm just getting older.