30in30, part 3

[rowyn]

Last batch from the art card challenge! First one out of order, because it's my favorite:



My second watercolor painting, and probably my favorite of the whole set, at least as far as technical skill goes. It's on textured paper, because I couldn't tell which was watercolor and which was textured in the variety pack. Later I bought more watercolor cards so now I know which is which.

I like this one a lot, too:



I was browsing through haikujaguar's art archive from 2001 or so, and she had some pictures up where she'd been practicing drawing dragon wings. I thought "That looks like fun", so I started drawing a dragon wing, which went fine. Then tried to draw a dragon body, which did not go as well. Then I remembered that I have a 'How to Draw Dragons' book (DragonArt) that koogrr got me several years ago. Yay! I got it down and used it to draw this dragon, which I quite like. I did two more dragons after this one because I was enjoying using the book so much.




This one I sketched just a few days into the challenge, thinking of jurann, whose totem is a polar bear. But I didn't color it until last Saturday. I actually lost it for several days, and finally found it between the couch cushions. Annoyingly, I did lose the companion card that went with it.

It's the only one I did on illustration board. Illustration board is very thick and sturdy, and seems like it'd be a good medium for paint, but the package said 'for use with dry media'. Maybe the markers were too 'wet' for it; I didn't really like the way they went down, though the picture came out all right.


I'd been telling myself all month that I'd do some of these art cards with paints. On Saturday, I almost gave up on that, instead going to the hobby store for more bristol cards. (The pre-cut cards were horribly overpriced, but I was addicted to how cute and easy they were compared to the bother of chopping up my own neatly.) But when I got home, I finally gave in and doodled up a sketch on one of the watercolor sheets that came with a 'variety pack' of art cards I'd gotten back in December. Then I hauled out the brushes Lut and I had used ten or so years ago for miniatures. And stared at them, thinking that if the ones haikujaguar had just thrown out were zombie-brushes, then these were skeleton-brushes.

I painted the background on the card with them anyway, and then decided that I was having enough fun painting that I deserved to have living brushes to continue with. So I went back to the hobby shop and got $30 of brushes (they were half off!) and other art supplies I didn't need, then came home and finished the card. I did the last three cards as paintings, too, and liked them well enough that I'm posting them all.


This one was acrylic on acrylic board. The acrylics surprised me by acting a lot more like the way I remember oils -- obviously, not slow-drying, but I didn't have the same horrible time getting colors to mix and blend on the paper that I remember. Maybe it's the size I was working at -- teeny, so I could get all the colors down and blended in a short amount of time. Or maybe it's from

Even so, I liked the results of the watercolor paintings better. I don't know if that's because of the medium itself, or because the subject matter in this painting was just more challenging.

The character here is Yotee, one koogrr's PCs and one of my all-time favorite characters. Such a scamp! <3


Some time ago, terrycloth joked about a Zi Ri/Orren cross, and while I was casting about for ideas for my last card I hit on that notion. I thought my initial sketch looked too Orren-like (in this case, humanoid otter), so I was trying to decide how to make her more Zi Ri-ish (ie, dragon-like). "I know! I'll give her scales. I bet DragonArt has some good advice on scales."

Indeed, DragonArt does. Painting the scales was, nevertheless, extremely tedious and didn't come out that well. I'm proud of having made the effort, though. I've never even tried to paint all the individual scales on anything before, so hey, nice first try.

It was way overcompensation on the dragon/otter hybrid look, though, and now she looks much too dragonish. I want to try again sometime; Terry suggested giving the hybrid some scales and some fur, and I think that might work.

And this is all the art cards I'm cross-posting to LJ. The rest are on my Flickr site (click any of the cards to get there) , though, for anyone who's curious. Or wants to verify that I really did all 30. :)

Comments

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

I clicked through to the site last time, and I liked the fire-kitty ones.

The coyote is probably the best of the ones posted here. Very fluffy.

[rowyn]

The fire-kitty ones made me nuts. >.< I tried three different times on the same basic theme of "black feline, fiery markings" and never did get one I really liked. *sigh* Maybe I'll try it again some time.

[jordangreywolf.livejournal.com]

D'aww! I like the green dragon! Very cute. =) And, of course, I'm happy with the Yotee picture. (He's one of my favorites as far as characters go in campaigns I've been in or run.)

[rowyn]

Thanks! And Yotee is the best. :)

[haikujaguar.livejournal.com]

I seriously need to do that post about brushes. *shaking head*

[rowyn]

You should!

Thinking about it, one of the reasons I liked using the watercolors better was that it seemed easier to thin them to the point that I could do very fine lines. With acrylics, even using the teeny-tiny 0/2 brush, the paint itself seemed too thick to get a fine line. :/ I had a lot of trouble getting the amount of paint on the brush "just right", so that it didn't either blob on the tip or go dry before I finished the stroke.

[beetiger.livejournal.com]

Bee!

[rowyn]

I was totally thinking of you while I was painting it, too. :)

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

Great work! };)

[rowyn]

Aww, thanks. =)

[minor-architect.livejournal.com]

You still need to let me know what kind of baked goodies you want in trade for an art card. ;)

[rowyn]

I do! What are your favorite goodies to bake? Usually those are the ones that come out best. ^_^ I like double-chocolate cookies (okay, chocolate anything is good) and frosted cupcakes. Which card did you want?

Also, if you wanted to send prints of photos instead of food, I really like these ones:

http://pics.livejournal.com/minor_architect/pic/0002et3k/g40
http://pics.livejournal.com/minor_architect/pic/0000w7cs/g31
http://pics.livejournal.com/minor_architect/pic/0002ftxd/g40
http://pics.livejournal.com/minor_architect/pic/0002dxbd/g40

I'll let you surprise me. :)

[minor-architect.livejournal.com]

I like:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/45587160@N08/4303202493/in/set-72157623051479939/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/45587160@N08/4303947748/in/set-72157623051479939/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/45587160@N08/4260777278/in/set-72157623051479939/

You can just surprise me with whichever you choose, too. :)

[octantis.livejournal.com]

These look great! I think the coyote in particular is a very strong piece. A nice color palette, and you did very well with the fur texture.

[rowyn]

Thank you! It's kind of growing on me now. :)

[the-vulture.livejournal.com]

Beautiful contrast and placement with the bee. :)

[rowyn]

Thank you! The bee is one of my favorites; I was working from this public-domain photo for it: http://www.public-domain-image.com/animals/insects/bee/slides/bees-pollenating-basil.jpg .

And thank you for two presents! Squeee! <3