"Dead" poetry book spread

Here is the first "finished" spread for my illustrated poetry book project. I am illustrating Some of the poems my fiancée has written over the years. Copyright for written materials (poems) belong to him and all illustration copyrights belong to me so this is a joined project. It's sort of like having areal client because in the end it is his poems I am illustrating and if he is not happy then the project is a failure.

So far I've done a lot of preliminary sketch work, created a dummy and started doing some finished odds and ends. I am currently doing a collage sort of thing. Which means that pretty much everything you see in the illustration has been made as separate illustrations and has been Photoshopped together. The background is really a black and  blue painted texture (acrylic on watercoulour) blended with a black background color. The skull is a pencil drawing, so are the roses, but they have been colored in Photoshop. The hair on the skull was painted on digitally too. The faint roses in the background was made with ink, and was then set to vivid light blending mode and opacity was turned down to 6%.

A lot of prep work went into this but I have to say that I am very pleased with my first spread. Only 7 more and a cover spread to go :P

It feels good to be doing something different than pure Photoshop work, and I love working with the Gothic vibes right now. 

The poem featured on this page is called "Dead" and is written by Ole M. Stoebakk. 

Enjoy

Merry Christmas everyone

I made this Christmas card for the artorder challenge, a last minute thing, but I've been meaning to make a card for some time so I'm posting it here, and I'm "giving" it to all my friends and family.

I wish you all a very merry Christmas and if you wish, you can print this picture from my blog. I have uploaded it in a fairly good size so that you can hang it on your fridge or your wall or maybe give it away to someone else you wish to say Merry Christmas to.

Love

Anita Night

Advanced Individual D&D Project- Final post!!!

Yes indeed. The time has come for me to put an end to this project. I have for the past three months tried top post most of my progress during this very taxing but fun and informing project.

For those who are not already familiar with it, here is a little recap;
I wanted to do a fantasy illustration project, simply because I love fantasy art and roleplaying games like Dungeons & Dragons, vampire the masquerade and Pathfinder. (not to kiss ass or anything but D&D is my favorite game hands down). The teachers at the University were not as enthusiastic as I were because they did not have such a good experience with previous students doing something like this (they don't really like fantasy illustration either). They demanded I have some sort of text to work from, if I didn't I would have to choose something else. So I thought ok, I'll just have to get some text to work from and Lo and behold the savior of my project came into the picture. Mr. Jon Schindehette. 
I sent him an e-mail asking for help. I wondered if he could provide me with some art briefs previously given to other artists on behalf of WotC. I din't really expect any help because he is so busy, but as the wonderful person he is he agreed to help me out, and I'm forever grateful.
So over the course of this semester I have been doing research, sketching, Photoshoping and gods know what else in order to improve on my skills as a fantasy illustrator. 

The result is six individual illustrations. Each of them inspired by an art brief from the D&D universe. I was originally going to make 8 illustrations, but time is a fickle friend and I had to downsize the project somewhat. At last I have finished and today I handed in my project. I have no idea how it will be received by my teachers but my fingers are crossed for a good result. 

So without further ado, her are my final pieces:

Fig 1: Hobgoblin, Goblin and Bugbear cover art.
I'm not entirely sure this would work as cover art, but as a free standing illustration I like it. This is by far the most detailed and crowded illustration I have ever made, and I'm so proud that I stuck to it even though I wanted to give up several times and in the end revamped the entire background. The dead goblins on the floor could be rendered better, but this was a last minute finish and I am well aware of a few mistakes here and there.

Fig 2: White Tower
This is a environmental/architecture illustration. It is supposed to depict a crumbling white tower standing on a small bluff with rubble around on the ground. It had to look like it was glowing slightly. No wines or moss were supposed to be clinging to it. It also had to show the tower at night. Over all I think the illustration looks good. I have some troubles when it comes to working with perspectives, so I'm not very confident in my own abilities in this area. However I do think the illustration works and I'm very proud of the grass I painted to be honest. Small things like that are often hard to do.

 

Fig 3: Shadar-Kai Warlock.
This was by far one of the most challenging illustrations to do. Because of the perspective and all the architecture. I am not used to doing detailed background and this was good practice for me. I'm not where I want to be yet when it comes to technical skill but I definitely see great improvement in my work. And I absolutely love how the buildings turned out.

Fig 4: Elf Sorcerer
An elven sorcerer surrounded by flames holding a brass orb. He was supposed to look confident and the flames were to appear as if the were coming from him. Now I haven't really focused on the last part as it was more important to me that the elf looked confident and strong. I had some trouble with the face and had to redo it several times. I like the characters clothes, but I think some more texture on his robe might elevate it further, so I might work some more on it later when I'm not so busy.

Fig 5: Drider and Mul slave
In this illustration the Mul slave is trying to choke the Drider slave master with the chains on his manacles. This illustration went throug a lengthy process before I got it right. I'm very happy with the background. It's simple but still interesting and it looks like a dark and dingy room of cells or pens. The Drider turned out pretty great too. The Mul I am not completely satisfied with. The face is a bit weird and it could need some more rendering, but I didn't have the time to improve upon it further before handing in the assignment. 

Fig 6: Human Warden
This is a class description illustration of a female and hopefully slightly asian-looking warden. She is manipulating the earth and stone around her during combat. I wanted there to be a lot of movement in this picture so I drew her in a dynamic pose, gave her hair flying every which way and a long billowing cloak to accentuate the movement. This illustration took a lot of time too, because I had trouble with the face once again. What I am very pleased with is the texture of her hide armour and the details in the fur around her shoulders and on her boots.

All in all this project went well. I have improved a lot on my skills in Photoshop which is remarkable since I am what I call technically retarded. My anatomy skills and use of perspective has become a lot better too. What I can improve upon is better rendering, and to study faces and poses more, because I tend to draw the same face over and over. I need to pay more attention to details and remember to draw things from more extreme points of view rather than keeping my compositions flat and safe.

I hope the people who have been following my progress can see my positive development and I hope that I have not dissappointed Mr. Schindehette, who has been so kind in giving me the art briefs needed and given me critique on some of my works.

From the bottom of my heart thank you to all the friends who have been encouraging me to do better, and reminding me to take a break now and again.

Anita Night 

Simple acrylic practice

Here are some simple artefacts I painted for my fantasy project. Just some simple technique tests really. And even though I'm used to working with acrylics it's a long time since I did. I found that my skills with the brush needed some refreshing. It took a while to get used to it again, but it was such a welcome relief after working with Photoshop constantly for the past two months.

Hope you guys enjoy them, I sure did ^^

Until next time,

Anita Night

Advanced Individual D&D project, part 6 - The first finished illustrations

So two of my illustrations are finished, as finished as they can get right now at least. I might see some more flaws in them after a while or fix whatever might be wrong with them after getting some feedback from people. i have to say though that i am very pleased with certain elements, which I intend to describe further on.

Warden:
This one turned out a little different from the original sketch. I changed her hair because I felt that short and loose hair would be more fitting for this character than an ornate bun. I have changed the look of the shield quite a bit and the way the hand is holding the weapon. The belt is also a little different. Instead of a regular leather belt I opted for a braided multi colored looking belt.

The things I am particularly pleased with is the texture of her leather armor and the fur. I worked hard to make it look like thick leather or hide. The cloak also looks good I think, the added detail at the bottom really lifted the image. The shield turned out better than expected to be honest. What I did have some trouble with however was the skin. It ended up looking a bit too airbrushed, so if I get the time I'll read up on some tutorials and fix it.

I had some trouble with the "whooshing" sand in the background. I've never tried to paint sand like that ever, and I had no idea of how to do it. I basically just sat down and played around with some brushes, the eraser and the burn(dodge tool until it looked "whooshy" enough.

The elven sorcerer:
The sorcerer was a challenge I'll say that from the get go. He was difficult from the beginning of the sketching stage. It was fun to play around with the design of his robe and the accessories, but his pose and the flames raging around him were a nightmare to figure out for some reason. There are some extra details in this version too. There are embellishments on the gloves and belt that were not present in the sketch. The hair is also a bit different.

I am not a friend og light from several angles. I hate to consider light sources when working, but alas it is necessary isn't it. In this one it is a little tricky, since it is lighted from the back and from the front. I remembered reading in Imagine FX a little while ago that warm light will produce cold shadows and vice versa. That one trick really saved me, so thanks a bunch to Imagine FX for that one. The face was a bit tricky to get, but it turned up much better than the wardens did. It's more painterly looking instead of airbrushed. What I am proud of is the orb however. I think it looks awesome. I think I got the colors right, the texture looks about right, it just looks cool (at least I think so :p). 

The flames is a chapter all to it self. It's hard to paint flames, that all I can say. I think I managed to do some convincing flames. They don't really look realistic, but neither does my personal style either. I think my style is sort of "cartoonie" with a touch of realism, if that makes sense at all.

I haven't shown these to my teachers yet, so I don't know what they think about them. I at leat feel like I'm doing a good job. For every piece I do I see personal progress in at least one area, and at the end of the day I think that's the most important thing, to evolve and develop ones style and technique.  

Until next time

Anita Night

Advanced Individual D&D project, part 5 - Ever onwards

Sooo a bit of radio silence for a couple of weeks. We had visitors here in England from some good friends from Norway. They brought their 3 month old baby along with them. He was very cute but also very distracting at times :p

I did however get some work done. I have finished doing rough sketches, and made some nice clean ones that are easier to decipher. Because of time constraints I have also had to start coloring and finishing up my illustrations because they have to be handed in by the 17th of December. Am I stressed out or what...I don't even want to think about it.

I invested in a small light box at Argos,not the best quality, but it beats sticking my drawings on a window just to be able to trace them. What I intend to show you guys this time are the simple clean sketches that I've made and scanned, this does not include the goblin/hobgoblin/bugbear illustration I have showed you earlier.

Shadar - kai Warlock:

Mul slave attacking Drider:

Elven sorcerer:

Warden Class description

Elf assassin and dragonborn noble:

Shifter Class description:

note: The shifters look like crap in this sketch, but I intend to vamp them up quite a bit in the coloring stage.

Crumbled Tower:

Yeah, so those were my sketches following very soon will be some of the finished illustrations. I don't really have time to change a lot when it comes to composition, but I'll take any critique you have and fix or rework things if time allows it near the end.

Until next time
Anita K. Olsen (Anita Night)

Underdark shaman - finished version

So I finally got around to finishing my personal project. I haven't had any time to enjoy myself just doing personal stuff, but I couldn't leave this unfinished any longer, because I would simply forget that it existed. I tend to do that. I'm a workaholic and I rarely take btreaks from jobs with a deadline...I have problems switching of. (not a surprise to those who know me). 

My inability to take breaks is probably the reason why I smoke. It gives me an excuse to go outside, take ten minutes to breathe a little and clear my head. If I didn't smoke I'd probably work 24-7, but I digress.

It is finally finished, at 01.35 in the morning. There are some issues I could work out, but I simply do not have the time, and I'm actually pretty pleased with it. I've subtracted a lot of details and changed the pose of the Drow a bit. It has made the image less cluttered and puts the Shaman more into focus. I like the colors, and for once I've actually been able to paint rocks. Yay for me!! Personal progress is always fun.

Fig.1 is the original sketch and image and of course Fig. 2 is the finished image.

Fig.1

Fig.2

Happy to have finished it. 

That's all for now,
Anita Night