Artiness

The image to the right is a digital painting of a barn owl that I've been working on for quite some time. This accounts for approaching 40 hours work ...mostly due to me being really inefficient in my method, as only half of that was detail work. I completely lost the will to go on half way through and ended up leaving it aside for two months before I could finish it off!

As always this was drawn entirely in Autodesk SketchBook Pro using the digital airbrush tool, the eraser and nothing else (well, apart from a pen for the signature). I used a Tablet PC where I draw directly on the screen.

The reference image was a stock photograph from deviantART, taken by the extremely talented Kev Lewis.

(I know I said that I wasn't going to crosspost art here, but I've realised there'd be nothing in this journal otherwise!)

I also have my most ambitious fan art project yet on the go, involving four different characters and eight complex props. I've spent more than 24 hours on it so far and I've just about finished the line art! The colour should (hopefully!) be a lot quicker now...

On top of that I'm planning a secret costume for the BiCon 2009 'Crime And Punishment' Ball, which I'll hopefully start making next weekend and when that's finished I'll be kicking off an even more ambitious long term Doctor Who fan art project...

I'm going to two conventions in August so I won't be able to do National Art Making Month (NaArMaMo) again, but I am planning a Doctor Who project that'll overlap with NaArMaMo and hopefully keep me motivated. Last year I drew a Doctor Who new series monster or character for every letter of the alphabet, this year my ambitious project is to draw or paint individual covers/posters to represent each the 30 TV seasons of Doctor Who so far, and likely the Eight Doctor and the 2009 specials too. I've always found that my favourite Doctor Who art involves multiple images from one story combined in an interesting composition. I think my biggest influences are the Target Novelisation covers that were a huge part of my childhood. I've got 30 seasons to cover, so I should be able to try lots of different styles, including tributes to some of the most influential Doctor Who artists. Obviously this is likely to take me longer than a month, so the deadline I'm giving myself is to finish all the seasons before the Matt Smith Series 5 starts in Easter 2010... I'll likely be starting in early August once NaArMaMo's kicked off - wish me luck!