So...this is what a critique will do to you! This is so different from the first version that I can't even look at them side by side because my brain explodes. Just to be clear, though, the big changes that came from the critique were the darkening of the mountains and the tweaking of the composition. Everything else is a result of working on it more. Is it the final version yet? Probably not.

New stuff--whoo!  I spent the last 2 months alternately being sick and slacking off, and I apologize. BUT by slacking, I mean of course doing awesome stuff like sword training, trapeze, reading and writing!  Well, ok--I played some video games, too.

At any rate, first off:

 "Koi-Ai"

Finished this just recently--those scales took me quite a while. I'm calling it a digital illustration because it's inspired from a short story (think fairy tale) I wrote recently. I suppose that, technically speaking, it's not an illustration, though, because it's not illustrating a particular scene. Whatever. In any case, hoping to get it published at some point...

Next off, my big project: a mini fantasy comic. I've decided it's HIGH TIME to get serious and really move forward with focus. Doing various personal paintings is interesting for me, of course, and I do learn a lot, but it's probably not the best way to market myself in the concept art arena, which is what I'm going to target.  So:

Panel 1 Progress

Panel 1 Final (?)

I put a question mark because I was setting out for more realism, but it ended up like this--was it meant to be? I sort of suspect that by the time I get to the final panel, I'll have learned so much and my style will have developed more, so I might have to come back and redo this. Oh, well. This is the first "environment" I've ever painted!

For anyone wondering--the Leviathan Queen is still in progress and probably will be for some time, especially in light of my new project.

Anyway. Stay tuned.

Finished!  Actually, I'll probably tweak it more--you know, 'cause I always do...

24 hrs later - Yup, I tweaked it just a tad.

So..."It's Not a Phase" is finally finished.  I put up the photo in the gallery last weekend, but I'm going to take some more photos once I put the galkyd on.  There are about half a million things I can think of to fix or improve upon, but I needed to move on.

Check out the upcoming "Leviathan Queen":

Pencil drawing traced over with brown ink--the arm was totally too short.

 Burnt sienna wash, then blocking in the shadows.

First few layers of colors--some parts are more advanced than others, and I've lengthened the arm.  (I apologize for the grainy photo--will be sure to post a better one soon!)

Then just tonight, I made myself do some digital painting, and something finally clicked:

F***ing finally--I'm starting to get it!

I can't wait to work more on this--not sure exactly where I'm going to take this piece, so it's pretty exciting.  This happened earlier on when I wanted to see what a red background would look like--thought it was sort of cool:

Reminds me a little of the video game WET.

Anyway, more to come soon!

I am sponsoring a contest over on Sketcholic.com--have fun and submit your best!

Just wanted to gripe a bit...the three phases I hate the most in a painting:

1) The beginning: getting the drawing down on the canvas...painstaking, and you know you're going to have to fix something soon or later when you're painting
2) The middle: when you're past the fun "everything's coming together" phase, and you feel like you have a million years to go
3) The end: when there seem to be a thousand tiny details you could fine-tune, but you have to finish it already

 Over and out.

Couldn't get motivated to work on my oils, so instead I fooled around with the Wacom tonight...this is the result of one evening's work, yo!  :P

"Sea Meadow Dragon"