Drugs and Magpies

This piece is mixed media, Ink, pen and Photoshop. Following an argument with my brother I scribbled this down to express my feelings on the confrontation. My brother said to me that drugs should be made legal, and I replied with the text shown. 

I struggled to control a lot of my feelings last term and I'm determined to manage them better this term. I've started a tiny sketchbook so that when things bother me, I sketch them out and get it off my chest that way. I'm not going to be over concerned with anatomy or composition, it's more of an expressive thing. 

This sketch is called Magpie and depicts a younger representation of myself holding a Magpie. I gave it a quick paint over but hated it because it was too rushed. I will be returning to this because it's still very personal to me at the moment and it's something that's getting me down a lot and taking a lot of energy to not get overwhelmed by it. It's also relative to a new personal project I'm working on themed around nostalgia, which will hopefully be a precursor for a much larger project later on. 

Dumbledore Painting WIP

As someone who grew up watching Harry Potter as a child, and someone who still watches Harry Potter at least once a week, it was really sad to hear that Sir Michael Gambon had to end his career on stage due to memory struggles. I can't begin to imagine how crushing it must be to have to stop doing something you love because of something out of your control. I know it doesn't mean that we will never see him in a film ever again, but I wanted to appreciate what I have now as a mark of respect. I  thought it was quite appropriate to paint him as my favourite character, utilising my painting abilities and trying to push myself to appreciate them even more. I don't know where I would be without my painting, so I'm feeling very thankful and want to make this the best painting I've ever done. I want to give it a painterly style, looking at artists such as Miles Johnston and Jeremy Mann for inspiration. I took great care in selecting which image of him I wanted to replicate, as I didn't want the painting to look overly sad, I wanted Dumbledore to look strong.

Sketches and WIP 05/02/15

A doodle of a friend

A very rough sketch from the GW2 expansion trailer, with my character in foreground 

Early sketch for a painting challenge with the topic of 'Golden Dragon'

Majora's Mask Sketch

This was a very quick block sketch where I just wanted to nail the composition without really thinking about any detail. I added some colour to get a feel for the mood.

This is my refined sketch. I'm not sure about the tilted tree in the background of the image, other than that I'm happy with the composition.

This is the first round of blocking in colour and trying to create an atmosphere. At this point I'm wanting to push it a lot further. I am going to add detail to the tree in the foreground to highlight the skull kid's picture on the tree. I am wanting to nail the lighting and put a lot more detail into Epona and the foliage. 

Experimenting with different colours I think I will stick to the warm green colour scheme which is more apparent in Twilight Princess rather than Majora's Mask but I love the fresher feel it gives. I want to add more atmosphere. I'm going to work on this piece throughout BA2 and during the lead up to the Majora's Mask 3DS release date.

WoW Sketch (Uni in 3 days)

With the return to Uni looming around the corner and being off from work due to a thumb injury I decided it's time to brave the pain and try to draw properly again. I can't risk letting my scabby black thumb get in the way of returning to Uni and making this project better than the last. At the moment it's still really painful with half a nail and a deep wound on the bottom making it painful to hold my pen but I braved it for 40 minutes and this is what I came up with.

On a side note I am loving my new blog design which I did the other night but still intend to tweak it more and one day I will master drop down menus for my navigation bar.

World of Warcraft Character Portrait

This is something I'm currently working on (slightly unable to due to poorly thumb) and can't wait to finish! Inspired by and in the style of the Warlords of Draenor cinematic, this is a portrait of my character 'Miffnoob' in the game World of Warcraft which is something I've probably over indulged on lately and is about the only thing I'm able to do with my right hand at the moment. I'm wanting a more refined finish but this was mostly a mockup of how I want it to end up looking atmosphere wise. There is a few hours work in there, and hopefully only a few more to go.