Ok, so UPDATE. "Leviathan Queen" is being...extremely difficult.  Basically, if I hadn't taken those couple months off where I did a bunch of digital, this piece would already be done--it would have been ok, not great, but ok.  Now that I've come back to it, though, with new knowledge, I just can't get past the errors and keep seeing things wrong with it.  I need to stop repainting stuff and just finish it already!

On the bright side, I stretched a new canvas and am looking forward to beginning a new oil in one of my favorite themes--fairy tale subversion. This time: Rapunzel.

Also, took some photos a few weeks ago--I want to do a very realist still life.  I figure there's a lot I could learn from that.

To keep me going through my trials with "Leviathan Queen", I've painted two mini paintings--lots of fun!  Thinking I might try to sell them for $15 apiece on Etsy.

Finally, a bit of digital--my next panel of "Origin".  Looking back at the third panel, me thinks it may be a good idea to repaint that with a looser style like this one.  This panel still needs work, though, so I'll have another whack at it in a couple days.

Stay tuned!

So, I heard about the free "Winter Weekdays" at the Art Institute of Chicago a bit late, but once I had, I went during my lunch break everyday!  Here are 5 lunch breaks worth of sketches of my favorite sculpture:

Lunch Break Sketch - Day 1

Lunch Break Sketch - Day 2

Lunch Break Sketch - Day 3

Lunch Break Sketch - Days 4 & 5

I love drawing this sculpture--she is so peaceful-looking.  Is my mind playing tricks on me, or did each sketch get a wee bit better with each attempt?  It did become easier to sketch out more of her body at a quicker pace; with the first sketch, I immediately wanted to draw her face, but the next day I realized that was silly because I need to work on figure drawing more than anything else!

Tried my hand at some fan art for an online challenge/contest.  Learned quite a bit in the process, but it was terribly humbling to see the other submissions! o_O

Final



Thumbnail Sketches

Process

...and now you know what a chinchilla, an owl and a little girl have in common: they all love My Neighbor Totoro!

Worked all day on "Leviathan Queen"!  See below for a detail...I love working in oil after several days of digital.

Finished this last night--(photo) study of my sister as a toddler.  I didn't quite manage to capture her likeness! :\

Upcoming: how a toddler, an owl and a chinchilla all come together!  Hopefully...

And then I really need to get back to the next panel of "Origin" (still working on "Leviathan Queen", too)!