After some painterly advice...

Having not touched my tablet for way too many months, Steve was making puppy eyes for some fanart for his novel. As it involves lovely ladies in minimal clothing and dragons with cities growing on their backs, I couldn't really resist.  In this scene the main character Natalie is running from her home in a massive city to the dragon city which has landed in the fields surrounding it.

Being from the ameteur school of "draw some lines and colour in the gaps" I'm really trying this time to make something a bit more painterly. I want to go for an old school scifi book cover look, a bit kitsch and fun. I've got to this point and I'm liking the colours and the rough shadows, but I'm now a bit stuck on how to progress. If I draw in all the lines (my usual approach...) I think i'll loose some of the atmosphere and goodness. Also the landscape looks more like sand dunes and is kind of featureless, which I need to work on...

Anyway, thought I'd ask some advice before I screw it up!And yes, i've done the orange and blue thing...


ooh ooh, check out these so bad they're good fantasy book covers.... http://www.goodshowsir.co.uk/

Sketchbook

I finally got around to scanning some of my crowded sketchbook pages. Most of these were drawn straight into ink, on public transport. They're really a personal reference library for me, and I've found them invaluable lately with my inking. I'd recommend everyone do the same- using their sketchbook not just as a doodle-pad, but a resource for thinks that you like, or suck at drawing.
~John~

Warm-up

I keep forgetting how great music can be for inspiration. When I work on stuff that requires less concentration I put on a podcast to keep me company. As I was doing some warm-up sketches this morning I put a podcast on by habit. This one was an interview with an artist representative. It took me a while to realise that the voices talking about the nitty gritties of the field was actually making me quite tense. I guess some times we just have to switch off the real world for a bit.

I'm loving Ludovico Einaudi at the moment. You can really let your mind drift away on his scores...

Elizabethan-Japanese-RPG-character?

I was so surprised to find this under a stack of old sketches. I actually can't remember when or what prompted me to draw it... it must've been a late night zombie state sketch.
The arms might be a bit short... I already moved them once but I'm wondering if it might not have been enough, especially the arm that's outstretched. I had foreshortening in mind but it might not have worked... Opinions? :)

Slurp.

Anyone think "Manchan" looks a little GaGa?

Just me then.
~John~

Sleep in Mangoes

Just had this image in my head. I think mangoes might not actually be so comfortable, but she liked them so much in Nana's drawing...

Pedipulator!

Pedipulator! :D

Everyone loves a bit of steampunk. This is an concept for Steve's ongoing novel "The King's thief". I kinda like all the steampunk gnarlyness but it somehow looks too flat to me. Any ideas on how I could make this composition more dynamic without losing too much of the detail of the thing? It's wading through water, and is supposed to be about 100m long. It would be great to get some characters in there as well perhaps. Any thoughts?

Mmm...mango

Development sketches

These are some thumbnails and discarded ideas for a commission that I'm working on. I wanted to incorporate the Yin Yang symbol into the design but in the end it wasn't clear enough and didn't serve the purpose of the artwork.