Jolin, Tellenta, and Mangala Solaris

So, this post is a combination of a new piece and discussion of two older ones that I forgot to post up although I did put them in the galleries.

The oldest one that I forgot to post about was Mangala Solaris.  He was inspired by my piece with the kids playing with the spaceships at the beach (the little girl in that one is actually me when I was itty bitty! haha).  I did a similar one for him, except with a boy playing with a firetail and a comet.  Getting to rainbow-color the text was fun, and helped add to the youthful theme.  I didn't want anything to serious in this one.

The other piece I forgot to post about was Tellenta's.  This one was supposed to be a cartoonish picture where the character realizes that mining ops are just as fun as o.o sov warfare.  I tried to blend the cartoon style with some other typically 'me' elements (e.g. feathered colorful sky).

Lastly we have the most recent sig I completed, which I will admit is something I considered not doing at all.  This was a piece for "The Babe Thread" on FHC, and being female myself, it felt odd doing a signature like this where girls are so objectified.  However, in the end it was a piece that I figured would challenge me on my rather abysmal figure drawing skills.  I had to go back to some of my basic art anatomy books to practice before I even got started.  In the end, I looked at it like an art lesson for myself.

I've got several updates in the commission status page, and I'm simply waiting to hear back from those people to know if I'm on the right track for them or not. If I don't hear back soon, I'll be moving on down the list.  Lots of pieces are mid-progress and my goal is to get them to the point where I can get some feedback... so... hopefully more links and updates soon!

Tootles! o/

Dwergi and Darkopteron

 The latest two renderings have been near completion for quite some time.  Dwergi wanted an astarte burning away in flames with a nebula background.  We went through multiple color revisions, and I had a bit of trouble making the fire distinguishable from the nebula without it being too in-your-face.  However, I think we've finally gotten there, although I'm actually still waiting for the final confirmation from him.

Darkopteron wanted a thrasher running out of a battle with a wrecked or exploding dramiel in an asteroid belt (or on a planet - I voted for the asteroid belt).  The dramiel has his buddies warping in just off the edge of the planet, but alas... they are too late... =P  He wanted the background to be sinister, so I voted for a blood-like red.  For text, he wanted "Pod Liberation Authority" - which made me laugh. I liked it.  The tricky part with this one was balancing the colors.  The explosion of the dramiel is very powerful both in color and in shape. It could easily overwhelm the image.  To balance it, I tried to pull the reds across the background, and then mimicked the yellow of the explosion in the text on the lower right, connecting the two with the thrasher's engine flames.

Both of these images can be found in the grey gallery.

New Beginnings: New Eden Ink

With a splash of color and a dash of ink, I've decided to repaint this blog into one with a more artistic outlet.  Art has long been a favorite hobby of mine, which I pursued all the way through college (I even contemplated an art major at one point in time).  Although my preferred medium is usually oils and pastels, I started dabbling in computer art when Kishin Hattori first asked me to design him a new banner for his blog.  Since then, I've started doodling more and more, and recently I've purchased a Wacom Tablet to aid in the design (drawing with a mouse on Paint is frustrating enough to make me want to pull my hair out sometimes, lol). <3 my Tablet!  The look is still hand-drawn and rough - nothing too fancy here - but that's a feel I personally really like in art. 

This blog is now being separated into sections.  This home page will contain my latests pieces, but to see a complete portfolio of my works, you can link to the "gallery page."

I'm happy to take commissions (signatures, banners, etc), but I'm also happy to just hear an idea you might have for me.  Pulling original ideas are always the most difficult part of the design, I think, and I have found that I prefer designing pictures others would like to see rather than constructs just for myself.  Feedback is always great, and criticism is appreciated as well (it's how we improve after all). =)

The first two pieces I've designed with my Tablet are this blog banner and the image below, which is just a rendering of Bonni3 and Kishin Hattori post-incursion.  I hope to get another piece done by next week, although I'm still racking my brain for ideas at the moment.  Again, any thoughts and ideas are most welcome!