It really has been a while since I updated here.  Here are some things that I have already shared elsewhere on the web.

The first is a piece I finished a while back. The second is one I've been working on a bit. Inspiration for it goes in waves (I've really been struggling with making art on my free time lately).

Freyja

A piece I've been noodling on a bit. The idea was based on the Norse goddess Freyja, but I wanted to put her in a 1930's inspired setting.. which turned a bit sci-fi.  Designing the car was a challenge as I really never do anything industrial, and it was pretty strictly based off of a 1930s Mercedes.

While working on this piece, I was thinking a lot about what inspires us to work, because I was very off and on inspired by this piece- which really has been a conundrum with art in general.  I think I've always gotten a bit of drive just from the act of painting itself and out of trying to please whoever is commissioning the piece- but at the same time a lot of that is tied in with if I think the project is worth-while (the paycheck, while important, isn't as important as the emotional investment in the idea. I think that is part of why we will do personal work for free, but will not work underpaid or for free for someone else and actually find it insulting beyond the obvious 'cant put food on the table with no income').  

I think sometimes ideas are inspiring just because of the novelty of them (hot fantasy babe, the "coolness" factor of an object or a hero), but there are also times I wish for some subtlety- for secondary meanings or information left unsaid.

I tired while working on this because it didn't hold a lot of emotional investment to me, so I decided to leave it where it is and search out some new ideas.

Fate- Process

Here's my most recent piece, "Fate."

I recently purchased a lightly used Cintiq for home use, so I've been painting a little more. I still find only have 2 hr chunks each evening difficult, but hopefully with time I will learn to be more focused with my free time and speed up the pace.

This piece is based off of one of the gods in a story I am working on. The basic idea behind it is that these gods are primarily just pure being, and so are essentially devoid of thought. In essence, it is humans who give them shape and motivations in their own minds. From time to time, humans will "encounter" one of these beings in their wandering of the world and through space travel, and the being will manifest itself in that human's mind. If the human is strong or wise enough, they will be able to at least partially understand the essential nature of that god, and because of that, they often become deemed as prophets. (Don't worry if that  makes no sense, I'm still working it out!)

I was initially going to have this god hovering over a planet with a map on it. In the end, the rest of the pantheon would also hover around the planet (sort of like spokes on a wheel). However, I really wanted to finish the piece, so I substituted a nebula until I get the planet's map formed properly.

And a close-up:

Here's a walk-through of my process:

Power of Earth- Piece and Progress

First off,  here is the background story about this piece (just copy/pasted from what I originally wrote on FB).

This painting has been through some crazy stuff.

I started it back last November, right before/around when I was hired as a temp at Turbine. My new schedule had me working on it off and on for those first few months. Since then it has seen me in a full time position at Turbine, two moves... well, if you know me you'll know that the last 8 or 9 months have been insane. I think I could effectively say this piece might sum up 2012 in terms of time span and events.

For a while I was lucky to sneak in 30min at lunch, an hour after work- but overall not much more than an hour or two each month, with some random spurts of time. It's kind of disgusting for me how long this took, as someone who is used to finishing a piece in a few days to two weeks (although personal pieces can drag on sometimes since they often do get put on hold, but never this long!).

It was originally started as a MtG portfolio piece, but I also wanted to give off the feeling of power, particularly that of 'man' through nature.

Needless to say, I am at the point where I can't stand looking at this piece or having it sit in the back of my mind any longer, so I am calling it done and moving on! It was a good learning experience, and I think accomplished what it needs to for me right now.

Next up, I thought I would share some step-by-step of working through this piece.

I ended up doing a lot of thumbnails- more than I show on the sheet. I was working out a number of different ideas at the time, so I put them on one long sheet and let one flow into the other. I think what you are seeing here is what I ended up running by my critgroup to see what they thought.

I took some reference, and developed the sketch further. I ended up finding some really cool fish skeletons online, which really inspired the faces.

 I actually took the black and white thumbnail and just copied it onto a fresh sheet, and traced over it.  Sometimes I think a bit of the movement from the original sketch can get lost, and I wanted to try to make sure I kept the placement I'd liked from the thumbnail.

After that, it was a matter of roughing out the color with a multiply layer, and then just digging in and painting the piece.

A lot of pieces get moved or kind of develop themselves along the way for me, even though I do generally keep pretty strictly to the original composition. But bits like how the roots would actually twine together, how the ground plane was going to work, and how the magic was going to look were all things that sort of developed organically. So many elements were a new challenge in this piece, that I think it led to a lot of repainting- but the extra development time here in order to learn is something I will have stored away for a future painting.  I did the magic last, although I did have an overlay and hard light layer with it roughed in which I toggled on and off. The reason was so I wouldn't feel hampered painting around it. 

I think finishing this piece lifted a burden off my shoulders. I'm really looking forward to the next pieces down the pipeline- and maybe in another month or two I'll take the plunge and seek out some freelance work to add to my evening schedule, although that is still to be decided. =)