Advanced Individual D&D Project, part 4- cover sketching

Ok, so it's taken a while to get to a point where there is actually possible to show relevant progress, but I'm getting there now. I have been sketching on one of the cover design briefs that Jon gave me Goblins, Hobgoblins and Bugbears oh my).

He did tell me that I should change the pov's in my compositions and I am currently doing just that, but not on this specific illustration. I decided to keep the point of view simple here, because there is so much that is going to happen all at once and I'd rather focus on getting the interaction between the heroes and the goblins looking convincing than fiddling around with perspective. I'm doing some more exciting stuff on the Shadar - Kai Warlock brief and some of the other pieces instead.

So I've done some environment sketches and some character sketches, separately to begin with, and then I have composited them together in photoshop. This way it is easier to change up the sketch in case I'm not happy with placement or scale. So far this is what I have:

fig 1: initial background sketch.

Fig.2: Reworked it a little bit, simplified it. 

Fig.3: Resized it a bit and started placing out characters. Right now this is the best composition I've come up with, but I think I'll change it up a bit when I add more Bugbears and Hobgoblins.

Fig.4: I started coloring the background, it's getting somewhere. it's still not finished by any means, but as an overall image I think I might be pleased with it in the end. 

As soon as I have more to show I will post it. I have been working on some sketches for some of the other illustrations and I am looking forward to working some more. It's hard work, and it takes a whole lot of time, but I'm honestly loving it. ^^

Until next time

Anita Night

Happy Halloween in advance :p

Since it is October, and Halloween is approaching I made a Halloween themed picture. I try to make one every year, even if I don't really have the time for it, like this year. I made the sjetch for this picture weeks ago in my sketch book, but didn't get around to doing it in Photoshop until today. Yes, I've been that busy. At least I finished it before Halloween. It took me 5-6 hours or so to finish it I think. I wasn't really keeping track of the time though so it's a rough guess. 

I'm posting it now since I'll probably  be busy working on all hallows eve. (Relax) I will have time to attend a Halloween party, but it will be on the 26th of October instead.

So Happy Halloween in advance to everyone.

from Anita Night

Tattoo sketches

I'm just posting some sketches. Good to keep the activity up on my blog, and let the world see what I'm up to besides university work.

These are tattoo sketches I'm doing for this guy I know. He wanted rogues looking kind of sneaky or hunched , so that's what I made

There are some flaws in the anatomy and poses, but I intend to fix it as soon as the design is ok

Advanced Individual D&D project, part 3 - composition

Over the past week I have been battling the flu, watching a whole lot of "The Big Bang Theory" episodes to prevent my head from exploding due to stress caused by the fact that I am sick and my head is slow like syrup. My throat was swollen to the extent where talking was painful and made me want to gag, so I've survived on throat relief tablets and tea. In spite of this I have gotten some work done (yay for me).

I've started making some compositional sketches for some of the art orders/briefs from WotC. Nothing too fancy, just quick, small thumbnails depicting what I want the illustrations to look like. Usually when working by myself I'll skip this step, because I usually end up using the first idea I came up with anyway (somehow the first idea is always the best one, go figure). This time around I decided to be as thorough as possible. No point in rushing such a big project as this and risk the possibility of ending up with mediocre work.

Here are some pictures of the composition sketches I made, as you'll see they aren't exactly what one would call beautiful or very detailed, but at least I have a basic idea of where I'm going next.

This one is for the crumbling tower brief. The top half is supposed to be missing, and the towers is supposed to be situated on a small bluff.

This one is for one of the cover design briefs. A male human fighter and a female halfling rogue are supposed to be battling goblins, hobgoblins and bugbears in a dungeon chamber.

This one is done for the Shadar-Kai warlock brief. She's supposed to be sitting or standing on a balcony overlooking the Shade Enclave, performing some sort of spell.

I've also done some character and artefact sketches, but I'm saving those for the next post.

Anita Night

Doodle do time

So this is a simple little sketch I did during the summer when playing D&D with our friends home in Tromsoe. I was supposed to be a sort of oriental martial artist if I remember correctly. It was not a standard class as the Game master had made his own classes and given us all special techniques. I don't remember what my class was named but it was interesting to play something new. My character wielded a big fan with blades on the tips, it was collapsable and doubled as a club. So I called it a "fan club" (get it). My sense of humour is very dry at times so please excuse me.

Anyway, here is the sketch of my character. I think she turned out alright, the only thing I'm unhappy about is the fact that her face is not oriental enough. 

Anita Night

Ouroboros - personal logo

My friend Orius asked me to design a personal logo for him a while back, and now I've finally made some proper designs for him. He wanted an Ouroboros (serpent) together with a triangle. It had to be slightly minimalistic and sleek. Not too much ornaments and fluff. I figured that making it look kind of like shiny metal would give the symbol a modern and minimalistic touch, so that's what I went for.

The images below are sketches, made with a mechanical pencil, a black drawing pen and a little bit of auto contrast in photoshop. This is as far as we have gotten. Orius seemed to be pleased with them, the only thing that needs to be changed is the head of the serpent. It looks too dragon-like. Other than that the only thing remaining is a little bit of photoshop and illustrator and it'll be done.

Fig 1: This is the one we decided to move forward with

Fig 2: This one I made as a second choice in case the first one didn't work out.

I have to say that I like both logos, but I agree with Orius that the first one was the best one.
I am looking forward to finishing it, but since I'm so busy with Uni it could take a while.

-Anita Night

Advanced Individual D&D Project, part 2 - Moodboards

I have recieved a lot of wonderful art briefs to work with thanks to Jon Schindehette, the art director over at WotC. He has been really helpful and I still can't believe how lucky I've been. So a big thank you is in order.

Putting that aside, I wanted to talk about my progress. I have not done a lot as of yet, but the little I have done I believe to be important. Before one can start a creative process one has to figure out where one is going. So A nifty thing that I usually do (this is what they tell you to do in Norway on the illustration course) is that I create a moodboard.

What is a Moodboard?
A moodboard is a simple but effective tool. It is almost like a mind map, but with images instead of words. In a moodboard you paste in pictures of colours you want to use, environments, people, costumes, notes or whatever will inspire you and help you to figure out what it really is you're going for. You should of course never copy what you use in your moodboard into your art. It is strictly for inspirational and personal use only. I'm posting one of mine beneath this text to give you an idea of what I mean.

I've written some quick notes on what the artwork should contain, added pictures from the 4th edition Monster manual for reference purposes, and then I've added some race description illustrations from the 4th edition Players Handbook, mixed in with some ethnic or traditional clothing and  and faces. I still need to add some pictures to describe the environment so it's not quite finished, but I believe you get the gist of it.

Until next time, have a good one(whatever a good one might be)

Anita Night

Advanced individual D&D project part 1

All right, So I'm going to be doing an advanced individual project for uni, and since I could choose my subject I chose D&D. I wanted to work with character/class designs, environments, equipment designs and spell descriptions.

My teachers are very skeptical, they are afraid I won't have any text to work from and that it will all be my imagination and nothing else. It will not, not if I have anything to say about it.

My hope is to be able to work from old D&D art orders, and do my own interpretations. As of right now I have no idea how it will all work out. I only have until December to finish and might have taken on too much, but hopefully I'll work it all out. I thought that I would post my progress on the forum.

That way I can keep track of my own process and those who are interested could comment on my work or ignore it. Whatever pleases, right?

So hopefully this will be the first in a series of posts about my ongoing project.

The progress wil be posted here and on my page over at the artorder forum:
http://artorder.ning.com/profiles/blogs/advanced-individual-dampd

Shaman of the underdark

Drow in the underdark, final sketch.  I'll be doing this in color in Photoshop, it'll take some time though so don't hold your breadth :p

I'm not completely happy with the face but I am pleased with the fact that there actually is an environment around her. I am slowly but surely winning the fight against the dreaded background :p