Oh Fortuna! Centaur Battle!

It's either a man's choir, or that Mortal Kombat voice, but you can't deny... CENTAUR BATTLE! Forgive me, it just cracks me up. I've finally come up with a color study (with the prodding help of my sister to make it dark and twisty enough) and I think I've landed closer to epic awesome centaur battle, and have ridden safely away from wolf-howling-at-the-moon-with-lightning tapestry. The battle begins tomorrow... in oil, on gessoed canvas if you'd like to know. I'm all set to go, and everything is drawn out. I'll try to be more diligent about taking process photos as well.

Centaur color studies

I've settled on the far right composition from my last post, the moment where the centaurs are about to strike. Here are some color ideas floating around my head, still not sure what direction I'm going to go in, but I'm leaning towards anything heat lightning-y. Anything that outwardly depicts the inner fury of these warring man horses. Haha! My job is ridiculous. I love it!

Centaur studies

Ah, I'm much less impulsive, more calculating, and smarter about my studies with the morning. So, here is where we should have begun, little value compositions to help me decide which direction to go. The starred ones are the ones I'm considering, and I'm really leaning towards the one on the right. It's right before the moment of impact, and I think although there are nuances to a fight like this, this is probably the most interesting moment.

Centaur Battle!

I mean, how can you not read the title of this blog post and imagine "Centaur Battle" being said in a Mortal Kombat voice? And I promise to make it bad ass. They're batting it out like wild mustangs over leadership of the herd. And here is my brain, trying to make tangible some of the color ideas, and composition ideas in my head. It may change a lot from here, it might change a little. But the morning always brings a fresher outlook on these things, so we shall see.. in any case.... CENTAUR BATTLE! GO!

Did my best

Ta da!

Do your best.

I've been trying to "do my best"- a lovely phrase my old Korean roommate, JeeHee, liked to use that I have since adopted and especially use when I need an extra kick in the butt when I'm working. Hence the title of the post. I'm going back into some previous pieces and really trying to make them the very best I can. I still think both of these could be finessed even more, but... I got excited to show them off. I promise though, I'll do my best.

Goldilocks Progress

It's coming along. I'm not a fan of it completely yet. Maybe because it's a little more "cartoon-y" than I usually do. We'll see. As my dad always said, "You can always save a painting". While I maybe not really believe that (I think you need to know when a bad idea is just a bad idea - kind of a "you can't polish a turd" situation), his mantra must be more true for digital painting! God bless "Ctrl + Z"! (Edit, undo!)

Goldilocks and the Three Bears

I decided I needed a couple more child friendly pieces in my portfolio, so I'm working on this digital Goldilocks piece. It's kind of tricky re-learning how to paint fur digitally, but it's a good challenge. I'll just keep on keepin' on with this, and look back for further progress and the finish!

Moby Dick Finished!

Mocked up like a book cover and all. He's comin' for ya! I like it! Website worthy, I say. I might check back in day or two with fresh eyes to see if there's anything I'd like to amend or change.

Next up! Goldilocks and the three bears!

Um, I think we found him

This freaks me out. I ended up choosing the green color study, and I think it lends a really good, freaky, sickening feeling about the whole thing. About every five minutes though, when I really bother to look at it, I get the shivers! Who knows, maybe this will help me get over my fear! Honestly though, if I got to see a whale up close, I'd be so excited.

Moby Dick Colors

Whoohooo hoo hooh oooo! Gives me the jibblies. I know I posted "willies" earlier, but I feel like we've really gotten to know each other, so I think it's time you know that I actually say jibblies. Now, picture these with a little more dimension of color, a little less monochromatic. But you get the feel of the thing here (remember to click on it to see it better!). Huge animal + tiny people out of their element = "OMG. OMG OMG That thing is huge." I only say this because... biggest fear. Things coming out of the gloom of the water. Let it be known though, that Moby Dick was not a ferocious, man eating whale. Really, it was that crazy Ahab that was the bloodthirsty one. Poor old Moby was just being a whale.

Look back for progress on this one! Haven't completely settled on what color I'm going with, but I'm leaning towards the green and the brown, actually.

Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven"

Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" is one of his most famous poems. In it, a raven drives the narrator crazy by only repeating, "Nevermore" which rhymes with the narrator's lost love Lenore. The raven is perched on a bust of Pallas Athena (only referred to Pallas in the poem). Done in Photoshop CS5 featuring, again of course, the lovely Wacom Intuos 4 tablet and pen. This only took me about 5 or 6 hours from concept to completion.

Next up for big projects, I think I'll be traditionally (with oil paint) tackling Moby Dick! Think about it... white whale, coming up out of the gloom of a dark green sea.... aswdvielbws!!! It gives me the willies! On a side note, giant squid coming out of the gloom of the ocean is one of my worst fears. Actually, anything coming out of the fogginess of the water. But, at the same time... mmm glazes of dark green over the whale... could be cool!

Sci-Fi Final

She is sexy. And bleeding. But she'll pull through, you know she's one tough girl!