I'm fine

So last night while burning that same midnight oil I had a surge of creative energy that just had to get out so instead of being a good girl and going to bed I stayed up drawing. I found a picture I had taken of myself a while ago(while I still had red hair) and used it as an inspiration. The look in the picture was a bit sad. It reminded me of how I look when I'm feeling depressed. It started a train of thought that lead to me thinking about what my fiancée usually asks when he can tell that I'm not doing to good. "Are you okay?" or "How are you feeling honey?". often I'll just say I'm fine. And then he'll look at me with a strict look on his face and remind me of what FINE means to him. "

Freaked out, Insecure, Neurotic and Emotional"

I swear that man knows more about me than I care to admit.

This is how the finished thing ended up looking:

the face was drawn by hand with pencil and a black felt tip pen. The pink paint splotches are watered down acrylic on watercolor paper, the font is a custom font named never let go, and the perforated holes on the side was a happy accident that occurred during scanning.

This is the original inspiration for the illustration. Ain't I just adorable (insert thick Texan accent or something) :p

As always do feel free to critique or comment upon my work.

Until next time
Anita Night

Sketch of the week

Yeah, I don't really do daily or weekly sketches but in the small hours of the night when my mind is burning viciously on that overused night oil it's hard to think too creatively when naming things. So hence the mind bogglingly clever title of this post.

On to the subject matter...I've drawn a baby..holding a rattle...with a skull painted on it...I don't really know why. Maybe it's because our friend Kim is visiting us and he has been talking over skype to his little baby boy. I'm not that into babies or kids in general to be honest, but seeing the little pudgy pink creature on my computer screen got me thinking..I don't know how to draw babies. I've not tried more than once to be honest. I am way to comfortable with the grown human figure so I thought that maybe by drawing anatomy that is slightly unfamiliar I might learn something valuable.

So I drew this. I did it without reference because my computer has been taken hostage on and of throughout the day. I didn't really mind. It was a challenge to try recollecting how babies are built just by trying to remember the shape of my little brothers and sister. As a first attempt I am willing to say that it's not too shabby. My next step will be trying to draw a baby while using reference material. I wonder how great the difference will be. It would be fun to do this as a little side project :P

So stay tuned for some more surprising... baby art!? :p

Until next time
Anita Night

Book review-Fantasy art for beginners by Jon Hodgson

Like most artists and illustrators will tell you, you can never have enough reference books or art books. Having a good library is essential. Mine is not that large, and not too extensive to be honest. Right now it consists of a giant, messy, uncategorized heap of personal reference photos hidden in the dingy little cavern that is my Computer disc. I have one anatomy book(too many superhero proportions in it for my personal taste so I need a new one) A how to be an illustrator book by Darrel Rees a stack of the lovely ImagineFX, a guide to fantasy art, an art book by a woman whose name I forget, some rpg books and Fantasy Art for beginners by Jon Hodgson, which is the book of the day.

Fantasy Art for beginners is a lovely little paperback book from Impact press. And shows the reader how Jon Hodgson creates artwork step by step from little stick figures to fully rendered finished illustrations.

This book is truly aimed at beginners, but I believe that intermediates could still find some useful tips or tricks from it. And even if you aren't really interested in the tutorials the artwork in itself makes this a good buy.

The book kicks of with an introduction to fantasy art, what it's all about. It gives you a list of accomplished illustrators whose artwork one should check out. i then jumps to explaining a little bit about the tools of the trade both traditional and digital. Something that especially young artists who may not be very well versed in the use of these tools will find practical. There are also sections dedicated to use of light, composition and color. very handy for the beginner levels.

The subjects presented in the book are easy to read through, not too heavy and long winded, but thourogh enough to give the reader a basic understanding.

I already knew most of the things described in the chapters, but it is amazing how many things you can forget over the course of a year so refreshing ones knowledge is never a waste of time.

The sections I enjoyed the most were the last ones. The parts where we get to see Jon's art evolve from a meager beginning to a rich and textured end.

Below you can see pictures of the pages where Jon is creating a heroine who has just slain a Wyvern.

The way he works up layers of color and texture is to me especially interesting because it is something I never really tried before, but as soon as I get my hands on a copy of Corel Painter 11 I most certainly will. Photoshop just doesn't cut it for that kind of approach.

Skippoig ahead a bit here to a stage where the female warrior has gotten some flesh on her bones and some lovely armor.

And on to a nice full page depiction of the finished piece.

A recommended read for any young aspiring fantasy illustrator. Thanks a lot Jon and impact for a lovely and highly practical book.

If you are interested in purchasing this book after reading the review the book can be found on play.com here. for £8,63.

Until next time
Anita night.

Fuchsia Injection

I did this image as a practice portrait. i needed to touch up on my faces. I often end up drawing faces that look very similar and sometimes quite flat. I found a very nice stock image on deviantart by Chamberstock that inspired me I just sat down and got to it. You don't improve without practice, easy as that.

At least I don't :p

I simply did a quick sketch on top of the stock image and then I removed the stock image. After that I started coloring the skin, choosing the right hues and blending. I am not a very efficient blender. It takes me a while to get it right, so it was good practice for me really. I had some trouble with the proportions of the face and had to refer back to the original image quite a lot but I finally got it somewhat right. The hair was a bit tricky too, but as soon as I figured out some neat tricks it went pretty smoothly.

If you have any constructive critique or comments about it feel free to leave a comment below.

Until next time
Anita Night

Ok, so the podcast experiment commences

I will be starting a podcast. mostly for fun really, but it will also be interesting to see if I am able to actually make something interesting that people will want to follow and also participate in. A social experiment if you like.

I have decided that the first podcast will be an introduction, a little bit about me and what I do and want to do with my future illustration career.

I will also talk a bit about inspiration. What inspires me and where do I find inspiration. I also want to talk a bit about the dangers of letting inspiration take control of your art. It does happen sometimes and I want to discuss why and how that happens.

To do that however I will need a little help from friends and followers. I want to know what you think of the matter. What inspires you? Where do you find it? Have you ever fallen into the slimy pit that is loss of creative control, has your work ever been so influenced by inspirational sources that it ceases to be your own style?

If you have anything to say about this subject then please leave a comment on this post. If you want to be mentioned by name or nickname or if you want to remain anonymous please specify that. I am also open to having other people guest star or co-host the podcast so if you are interested you are welcome to suggest yourself or others

Until next time
Anita Night

Podcasting?

I have recently been entertaining the idea of doing a podcast. It seems like a very fun albeit time consuming hobby, but also promotional tool. Because let's face it, it is. It is a tool that adds a new dimension to a otherwise normal blog like mine. There are of course some issues to be addressed, and they are as follows:

1. The thing is I have no experience doing podcasts, I am not exactly technically gifted, ask anyone who knows me. What I do have however is a strong personality and a nice telephone voice, which to me also translates into radio voice. I know this because I worked as a telemarketer for a few months and was told that most of the reason why I even got the job was because I sounded so pleasant on the telephone(if you disagree that's fine).

2. The next issue on my list is the subject. You have to have a subject. I very much doubt that people would want to listen to me drone about my personal life, to be honest it is not that interesting and I realize that. What I could do however is talk about the business of illustration and how I feel about being in it, being completely fresh out of school, setting up a freelance business and maybe do interviews with some fellow newcomers to the trade. I have also thought about recording and posting roleplaying sessions with our D&D/Pathfinder group. But of course that would mean that all of the players would need to consent to being brodcasted on the Internet. Not sure if they would, but it would be an interesting thing to have ones own epic saga shared with the world :p

3. The last remaining issue is time. I don't seem to have enough of it. Ever. My fiancée however has all the time in the world considering that he is not able to work and mostly stays at home. if I can convince him to help me out with editing an stuff, then maybe I would be able to pull it of.

I need to mull some more over this idea and the very concept of any future podcast. In the mean time I would love to hear your opinions on the matter. What do you think of podcasting? Have you had any experiences with it and are there any tips you could provide a budding podcaster with?

Until next time
Anita Night

Epicness!

This is a video from a celebrity D&D game session from genCon 2010 featuring Chris Perkins (Developer over at Wizards), Ed Greenwood the creator of Forgotten Realms and freelance fantasy author, Larry Elmore (need I say more) and R.A. Salvatore a well known fantasy author (Drizzt Do'Urden anyone).

I am so jealous of the people who actually get to go to GenCon, but just wait, one day you'll see me there. But that's beside the point.

The video starts of a bit slow, but honestly after watching this for a while I couldn't stop. It was so fascinating and entertaining (Yes, I really am a huge nerd). I must admit I giggled quite a lot. It reminded me of how my old D&D group used to play. I miss them, hopefully we'll get to play more when I return to Norway. I miss my weekly nerd fix.

Anywhoot, here are the videos from the session, enjoy!

Until next time
Anita Night