The Dragon's Lair

I really had no idea it would come to this. This is what I get for telling myself what I can and can't do. But I've now completed my first two dolls that I plan to put up on Etsy once I have an account, and you guys get a sneak peek.

( Read more... )

Okay, so what I said on this post about forget making dolls? Apparently my muse took it as a challenge and had me make this...( Look what I made that I said I wouldn't make! )

So not only has my goal of doing more art gone incredibly well - actually I've never had a goal that was so thoroughly met - I think I may now be addicted to doing digital art, as can be attested to by my DeviantArt page, which was mostly silent up until the last couple of months.

As I mentioned in a previous post, what I've really been digging about digital art is the control it gives you. As much as I love being creative and doing artistic things, art sometimes has this way of sort of, kind of... making me really angry. I love sculpting, but once I'm done with a piece I usually have to take a long break because sculpting can get incredibly frustrating, especially when certain aspects of it refuse to cooperate. I love drawing, but there are certain details, poses, shapes, and shadings that my brain can't seem to wrap itself around, so that, too, often leaves me frustrated (although not as bad as sculpting) and my efforts are often more miss than hit. Watercolor has been awesome because I find it easier to fix mistakes, but the way it sometimes seems to try and do it's own thing drives me up the wall. And I think I may have given up on colored pencils all together.

But digital art has not only been the least frustrating, I also find it rather relaxing. More than that, though, the end product always leaves me so flipping happy, because not only do I accomplish what I set out to do, the end product actually turns out better than I had imagined. The only setback, and it is a minor one, is that my style is mostly cartoony, so using it as a means to create book cover images is going to be limited. But as a means for creating concept art for my stories, it's awesome.

(WEll, okay, there is another setback that bugs me. I have to hand-draw the images first and scan them in, which would be fine, but it usually means having to draw images of a certain size in order for the scanner to get the whole image, and that means having to draw things smaller than I would like, which makes them hard to see when I zoom in).

I'd still like to get into the figurine-making business with my sculpting, but I need to find a style that's both nice looking but easy enough to make so that sculpting it doesn't make me want to ball it up and throw it against the wall.

So for my next sculpting project I really, really want to do a sea-serpent - something kind of sea-horse and dragon-esque. I have an idea of what I want to do but I can't decide on the coloring.

I'm thinking about doing something like a lion fish, which would be cool, but I would really, really love to do something with a lot more color in it. Maybe something like this.



Or maybe it would be possible to combine the two? Either way, I want something that really stands out visually. I've been researching tropical fish, but if anyone knows of any fish with some really interesting or awesome colors let me know.

The results of my foray back into sculpting. Not only did it come out how I imagined it, it didn't crack, yay! I've always had such bad luck with clay, but I find it an easier medium than drawing since I can view it from all angles and adjust accordingly, while with drawing I'm rather limited to profile views since my brain can't seem to handle anything else :/
( Under here... )

Based loosely on the Windriders from my book, The Toymaker. I find made up creatures easier to sculpt than actual creatures. Made from Sculpey Clay.

So I broke down and purchased the service from Createspace in which a team of people more computer savvy than me format my book for Kindle, which means the book will be available for Kindle, soon, and I'm quite chuffed about it. The whole reason I'd given self-publishing a second chance was to have my book available electronically since that's the direction many readers are going. But since the formatting directions were about as clear as ancient Greek, I decided to play it safe and purchase the formatting service (which is much cheaper than all the other services, only around 79.00, and worth it since it'll mean a wider range of availability for my book).

I also finished the first of my character figurines for my promotional give away I'm planning.

( Photos under cut... )

Something I did for the Splice art contest over on DeviantArt (sponsored by the actual movie Splice). I didn't win, nor did I get into the top twenty-five. I'm kind of kicking myself that I didn't include someone riding this thing as that was my original idea, but the picture went a different direction and I got lazy and let it.

Part iguana, dragon fly and horse.

( The Horsefly )

syble4 drew me another awesome Corvax from my Big Bang story A Wing and a Prayer :D

http://syble4.livejournal.com/149617.html

A big hug and a thanks to her for the lovely :D

Artwork by ColtD for my story Eyes Wide Open. It fits the story perfect. Warnings: emaciation.
( The Fall )