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...God kills a kitten.
Please think of the kittens...…or the wonderful world of merchandise (or would you call that shameless self-promotion? :p)
Anyway, let’s call it ‘just for fun’ or ‘character obsession’, but I kinda like this:
Yeah, I know. Apparently I have too much time to tinker at the basic level of photoshop, but I still kinda like it 😉
That said I definitely need to get the ‘I WILL NOT STALK THE AGENT’ shirt from over here.
😉
Okay, the results of this long weekend’s painting sessions were a bit mixed, but I still like them. Met with Jen and tried out some new things (and I actually got her to start and finish some of her character art – yay!).
The first one is some sort of cover artsy experiment of Ares and Damian on a 12×24 canvas. I liked the way the background and the title turned out, but Damian’s face is way too long so he looks like he’s just jumped out of Disney’s Hercules – don’t ask me how I come to that conclusion 😉
~Shadows~
Ares & Damian, just about to get up (I leave the rest up to your imagination :p ) I played a little with impressionism etc. here. The background idea came from Jen and I rather like it. However, I do suck at painting/drawing characters in profile
~Nightshade~
Ares and Damian at Nightshade on 20×24″ canvas. I had a blast with this one, because in my original source/first sketch Ares’ left hand was pretty close to where this picture would no longer fall under PG 13 :p In the end I gave in to Stephen repeatedly assuring me that a) he’d never be able to bring any friends to our house if this kind of picture would hang in our living room and b) that he’d have nightmares. Honestly, my hubby cracks me up to no end sometimes. Thus, the non x-rated version here (even though it really wasn’t that bad, meh prudish Americans 😉 ) Anyway, this paintings biggest flaw is that Ares and Damian’s heads are out of proportion, but yeah, like I said, I suck at profile-painting and apparently at proportions too… I still sort of like it though and I’m happy with the title Nightshade.
Someone’s been creative this weekend and got her “Villain Gallery” finished. I painted Dahlia Laras, Dawnelle Nymeron and Sirius Nymeron. In one of my more fickle moments
I decided to change Dawnelle’s hair color from dark brown to black (never could decide that during writing anyway and black is a much better contrast to the white hair that usually runs in her family ;))
Anyway, I was pondering putting some of my character art into the sidebar of the blog, but for now I just created a new page with all the paintings and sketches here.
Right now I’m really looking forward to moving in August, because guess what will decorate our living room then? 😀
My mother in law asked me yesterday if I wanted to participate in a painting contest and maybe sell one or the other of my character art. Honestly? No. I love painting my characters as a hobby on the side and I really enjoy visualizing them that way (it helps tons with writing them 😉 ) but I’m neither a good painter nor a serious artist. It’sa nice, relaxing hobby though and I’m already planning another bigger painting featuring Ares and Damian in some way. Will see where this one goes 😀
Anyway, here comes the Gallery of Villains:
I made this one a while back and it probably needs a little polishing (a new Dawnelle painting is in progress too), but just for the sake of completion:
Thanks a lot to Claire for being a wonderful model for Dawnelle 😀
Another painting featuring Dawnelle can be found here
It’s the second one down featuring her and Ares as well as a rather pissed-off Damian, but hey what do you expect? To anyone who wonders about this one, it’s not an actual scene from the book for once, but to be seen symbolically. The painting has its flaws, but I still like it as it’s been one of my first ones 🙂
As to painting WIP, I’m planning on doing separate paintings of Dawnelle, Nymeron and either Laras or Orion (not decided on that one yet), on 8×10 canvas to match the one I made for Arturiel Valyr earlier, so I can hang them together as some sort of ‘gallery of villains’ if you want to put it that way.
Here are some more character sketches:
Sirius Nymeron – Eye and Emperor of Light (see character sheet and scene)
Is it only me or does he look a little bit Zeus-ish? *shrugs* can’t help the hinting at Greek mythology in Light I guess…
Orpheus – Originally I started this wanting to sketch Nymeron and Orpheus was the outcome of it. Another one of those “Ah that‘s what he looks like!” moments. Love those 😀
Anyway, those are just some quick impressions that might be turned into a painting. Or might not 😉
Yes, I know, should have done this last week, but after a quick character sketch that I did today at work, I just couldn’t resist painting him. Doesn’t look as creepy and insane, but trust me he is…
That’s Arturiel Valyr, Ares’ nemesis and my “Lieblingsboesewicht” 😉 for you:
Actually, I was planning on doing a sketch of Arturiel Valyr yesterday – I promise to get that done still – but then I ended up finishing a portrait of Ares:
– He thinks he’s way too pale, and I’d second that, but hey that’s his problem. After all he always gets himself into those situations…and no I don’t care that I‘m the author, YOU are the damn protagonist – deal with it 😉
Oh and for everyone who was wondering how Raeyn looks like, here he is (even though he usually doesn’t look that grim, but…)
Originally I wanted to put Damian into that picture, but somehow Raeyn decided to show up. Personally, I don’t mind and the scene’s quite fitting 😀
I’m not the most detailed painter as you can see (nor the most experienced, heh…), but painting character art is just a fun thing to do that lets me think about scenes and where I want to go with characters in general. Relaxing so to say 🙂
Besides that, I’m happy to have accomplished something besides reading absolutely horrible books that came to an utterly horrible and cheesy end…I’m not even going to write a review about those, because…honestly it would be a waste of time.
Let’s just say that I’m glad I didn’t pay more than $1 per book for that trilogy and that being one of the ‘big’ fantasy authors doesn’t automatically make you a good writer. Really. Just look at Goodkind. I shall file Lackey in the same category unless you show me something better than The Last Herald Mage. What really irritated me was that she actually has some good ideas, but the way she goes through with them, the horrible narrative, wooden flashbacks and scenes that don’t contribute anything to her plot… Do I really need to say more?
Before I forget, I finally got to finish that painting of Ares today that I’ve had going for a while. Originally it was just supposed to be that, but somehow spontaneity had me slip some symbolism from the book in there. In the end I’m quite happy with it, given that these are my first oil paintings ever:
This one’s based on Twenty-Six for everyone who’s read the first draft so far 😉
Ares, Dawnelle and Damian. Like I told my little brother: no, he’s NOT stalking them, this is a rather symbolic scene and one of the key elements of the ending though 😉 Wasn’t quite happy with it, but decided against fiddling with it anymore so it wouldn’t get worse.
On my list for paintings yet to do are another Ares and Damian portrait as well as at least making sketches of my villains and maybe Raeyn too. We’ll see what I get done 😉
…apparently is shameless procrastination.
Seriously, I’ve been wanting to finish reading Make A Scene (halfway through so far 😉 ) and I wanted to draft up some notes for elizaw’s villain month (great idea by the way!). I’m planning posts on Arturiel Valyr, Sirius Nymeron, Dawnelle Nymeron, Dahlia Laras and Orion Novak as well as some character sketches that may or may not be used for further paintings 😉
So what did I do instead besides procrastinating and browsing my happy way through the blogosphere?
Well for once I actually worked. Yes, like at my actual office, actually doing something that my boss told me to do and which he’s paying me with actual money *nodnodnod* After all it’s the beginning of the month and the real estate business is always buzzing around that time till about the tenth of the month. Just another reason why I’m glad to be done with the first draft of Light. If I still was facing writing the ending of book one, I’d probably be even more insomnious and in need of very strong caffeine than I am already 😉
I’ve also been meaning to write an email to one of my best friends from back in Germany, but again that didn’t happen, because I spent some good time cringing and wearing my WTF?! face about some astoundingly horrible prose of a rather well known fantasy author who probably has more than a dozen books on the market. Somehow those books make me sad, because the premise is good, but the narrative and characterization is really poorly executed and I personally just want to slap the main character for being an unbearable and self-centered whiner and spending the entire book angsty about his lover, about his father finding out he’s gay etc. I’m hoping that the books will get better and am rather glad that I only bought them used 😉
Honestly I’m thinking Ares and Damian would love to take this particular main character under their wing and shake him, telling him some things about real life 😉
Ah well, bestsellers are a matter of opinion and I can’t say I hate the Last Herald Mage books (and I’m only like 150 pages in anyway), but they’re definitely really poorly written and cringe-worthy…
Again, sorry if I’m stepping on anyone’s feet, but taste is a very subjective matter 😉
Tonight I’m planning to finish a painting of Ares that I started a while back as well as add a finishing touch on the one of him, Dawnelle and Damian (I’ll also remember to scan those for whoever is interested in my humble efforts of character art 😉 )
Also, I’m proud to announce that I rather randomly got my first author interview! Thanks go to Lynn Flewelling for being awesome about replying to blog comments from random strangers like me and volunteering to be interviewed 😀
I guess apart from the occasional ramble here and there I did have an accomplished day 😉
Stephen *looking at my two recent paintings of Ares*: So that a guy or a girl?
Me *exasperated*: It’s a guy. Don’t you let the long, wavy hair distract you.
Clayton *looking a the painting I did of Damian, Ares and Dawnelle*: So what’ s that other guy doing there? Watching them having sex?
Me: No, he’s Ares’ boyfriend and this is only a symbolic painting. Besides, they aren’t having sex.
Adrian: Well that’s just sick, that guy’s watching the two girls having sex! Ew!
Me *rolls eyes*: That’s a GUY dammit!
Can you say ‘misunderstood art’? Seriously, just because Ares does have rather long hair doesn’t make him a girl and just to spite my dearly beloved family, I painted him with a little goatie yesterday. I have to admit he looks cute with a beard 😉
Anyway, I’m chiming in with Jen: Real men have long hair :p heh
In the Shadows 