State of the Artist 3/31/2014

View halloo, all!!

While I have every intention of completing the last two pieces that made the vote cut from the Sketch-A-Day/Work-A-Week projects, this past week was just full of completing my backlog of MegaCon commissions. I do have one more commission to complete from MegaCon and then that backlog will be off my plate and I can open to online commission requests and get to the remaining Work-A-Week project paintings. So, if you've got a project you've wanted to commission me for, or you've been awaiting the return of the Moleskine journal cover commission slots, stay tuned!

This week's update will consist of the last week's Daily Doodle sketches. If you'd like to see these as they're completed every day, please Like my Facebook Page (HERE or search for Silvertales Studio in Facebook's search bar) or follow my Twitter feed (@silvertales) as I upload them there daily.




Daily Doodle Batch #5:

This batch upload consists of the images from 3/24/14-3/30/14.

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If you have any questions or comments about any of the Daily Doodles, please leave them in the comments below, I'd be happy to answer any questions!! As the Daily Doodles Project is continuing throughout 2014, please feel free to leave prompts or suggestions, there are so many more days to go!! :)



Monthly Postcard Project

February's Monthly Postcard original has been sold to a subscriber, as they have early access to postcard originals, but for those who don't currently subscribe to the project, here's the card that went out during the month of February:



I thank you for joining me again this week! Feedback is the food which fuels the creative discussion between Artist and Audience, please, feel free to comment or leave suggestions for new projects!


If you enjoy seeing posts of new or in-progress artwork, please consider a donation.

Become a patron of the arts!

Feel free to post links to this journal/community if you feel there might be interest in my artwork!

State of the Artist 3/26/2014

View halloo, all!!

This week's update sees the fourth and final Work-a-Week Project painting, and the last week's Daily Doodle sketches. If you'd like to see these as they're completed every day, please Like my Facebook Page (HERE or search for Silvertales Studio in Facebook's search bar) or follow my Twitter feed (@silvertales) as I upload them there daily.

So sorry for the delay, post-con is always a rather crazy time!


Work-A-Week 2014 Project


Work-A-Week 4 (Day 27)

This piece didn't actually make the top 5 in terms of votes to be finished (it was in the top 7, though,) but I *really* wanted to work on it, and finish it in time to take prints to MegaCon (which I did!)

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Toning and building up my layers for the background with (you guessed it) Payne's Gray and Ultramarine Blue. I masked off the moon, figure, and city shape (which I added for the painting) with liquid frisket so I could just paint and not have to worry too much about keeping clean edges.

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More layers of paint for the cloudy night sky background, and adding in those defining shadows in the figure. I'm using the same mix of Payne's Gray and Ultramarine Blue for the figure.

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I used flat black India Ink for the body/mask and eyes and a mix of Cadmium Red/Alizarin Crimson for the hood/scarf thing.

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More tonal build up all around, both in the figure and in the background. You can see some of the salt sprinkled into the background for additional texture.

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Bringing the colors in the figure to life with more passes of color. I've dropped the Alizarin Crimson from the red paint blends now, to keep the hood/scarf thing warmer than the rest of the image. So, here it's all Cadmium Reds and a dash of Indian Red... and a touch of Copic markers to clean up some of the edges.

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Original Painting: $300
11x17" Watercolor, marker

Prints: $20

Like the other pieces completed this year, the sketch was enlarged from 9x12" to 11x14" and then slightly altered to work at 11x17" to take advantage of the format. I've done a lot of work in 11x17" lately, and I really like it! I've got another planned for 11x17" (that was always intended to be 11x17",) the next set of 4 in the Comic Nouveau series, and the other two Sketch-A-Day 2014 pieces that tied for 4th place that will also be done at 11x17".




Daily Doodle Batch #5:

This batch upload consists of the images from 3/17/14-3/23/14.

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I've included a commission or two from last weekend's MegaCon in the Daily Doodles, simply because I didn't really "doodle" while I was attending MegaCon, as I was busy manning my table and all the art I was doing over the weekend was convention/commission related.



If you have any questions or comments about any of the Daily Doodles, please leave them in the comments below, I'd be happy to answer any questions!! As the Daily Doodles Project is continuing throughout 2014, please feel free to leave prompts or suggestions, there are so many more days to go!! :)


I thank you for joining me again this week! Feedback is the food which fuels the creative discussion between Artist and Audience, please, feel free to comment or leave suggestions for new projects!


If you enjoy seeing posts of new or in-progress artwork, please consider a donation.

Become a patron of the arts!

Feel free to post links to this journal/community if you feel there might be interest in my artwork!

State of the Artist: 3/17/2014

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

View halloo, all!!

This week's update sees the third Work-a-Week Project painting, and the last week's Daily Doodle sketches. If you'd like to see these as they're completed every day, please Like my Facebook Page (HERE or search for Silvertales Studio in Facebook's search bar) or follow my Twitter feed (@silvertales) as I upload them there daily.

Just a head's up, next week's update may be delayed as Monday, the 24th is a travel day for me. I'll be heading back home after MegaCon this coming weekend, and so probably won't have all my sketches uploaded in time to update on Monday. I'll also try to include something of a con report for MegaCon!



Work-A-Week 2014 Project


Work-A-Week 3 (Day 9)
I do have a few WIP pics for this piece, and the finished piece will follow. Day 9 and Day 21 (The Nebula Dress) tied for the most requested sketches to be completed this year. It took me a while to get around to this one, as it was both an emotionally draining piece and I have a tendency to overthink the practical process of just *how* I'm going to complete a painting... thereby, usually making any painting project more difficult that it actually has to be. >.< * * *

Toning the ground with washes of Ultramarine Blue and Payne's Gray, building up where I'm going to put the writhing shadow mass of ugliness bearing down on the figure in the forefront. I originally tried using liquid frisket for all the areas I wanted clean and sharp (the eyes and mouths) but, what I had ended up eating away at the paper, so I simply did my best to paint around those areas, leaving the paper as close to untouched as possible.

For the shadow mass, I'm working wet-on-wet to get as much blurred-edge bleed as I can. This is 3 passes, I think, of the Ultramarine Blue/Payne's Gray mixture.

(I went through a LOT of Ultramarine Blue and Payne's Gray during this year's project!)

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More build up, another 3 or 4 passes, and starting to include the defining shadows on the figure, using the same Ultramarine Blue/Payne's Gray mix to keep everything feeling cohesive.

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The finishing passes of the blue and gray washes, along with some more intense blue/gray mix for definition around the eyes and sharpening up the mouths/fangs. Added some white acrylic paint here, too, for definition. Also laying down a few washes of color for the figure in the front.

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Original Painting: $300
11x17" Watercolor, marker

Like the other two pieces completed this year, the sketch was enlarged from 9x12" to 11x14" and then slightly altered to work at 11x17" to take advantage of having the shadow mass looming over the girl in the front. I've become quite enamored of the 11x17" format ever since completing the first 4 pieces of the Comic Nouveau Project last year. (There WILL be more, promise!)

A few light passes of Copic marker were applied over the figure in the foreground, just to sharpen her up and smooth out the llight tones I had been working with. Watercolor paper sucks up alcohol-based pigment like *crazy!*



Daily Doodle Batch #4:

This batch upload consists of the images from 3/10/14-3/16/14, which now puts me right on schedule.

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Why, yes, I AM doodling a lot of LOTR/Tolkien-related doodles.... why do you ask? :)

In my personal headcanon, since Tolkien didn't really give us a lot to work with when it comes to the House of Oropher (Thranduil's father and Legolas' grandfather,) I choose to believe Thranduil is a rather doting dad who, while he can be fearsome to the outside world, is basically a giant, indulgent, soft-hearted, gooey-centered marshmallow when it comes to his son... particularly when he's tiny and adorable and precocious. :)


Monthly Postcard Project

March's postcard mails out today!




If you have any questions or comments about any of the Daily Doodles, please leave them in the comments below, I'd be happy to answer any questions!! As the Daily Doodles Project is continuing throughout 2014, please feel free to leave prompts or suggestions, there are so many more days to go!! :)


I thank you for joining me again this week! Feedback is the food which fuels the creative discussion between Artist and Audience, please, feel free to comment or leave suggestions for new projects!


If you enjoy seeing posts of new or in-progress artwork, please consider a donation.

Become a patron of the arts!

Feel free to post links to this journal/community if you feel there might be interest in my artwork!

State of the Artist 3/10/2014

I suppose, due to the mixed content nature of the posts, I'm technically launching the State of the Artist series for 2014 now....

View halloo, all!!

I *think* I'm caught up with everything now... maybe? I've reposted Work-A-Week #2 for this post because I've included the handful of WIP pics I remembered to take for this painting. I'm also including the previous week's Daily Doodle sketches. If you'd like to see these as they're completed every day, please Like my Facebook Page (HERE or search for Silvertales Studio in Facebook's search bar) or follow my Twitter feed (@silvertales) as I upload them there daily.



Work-A-Week 2014 Project


Work-A-Week 2 (Day 28)
I do have a few WIP pics for this piece, and the finished piece will follow.



This is my set up in the kitchen. Unlike my usual set up in the dining room, the light is directly overhead in the kitchen, so the light is a lot better here. The photocopy seen just off to the right is actually for the nebula painting and is the only WIP pic I remembered to take. >.<

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Toning the ground with a wash of Ultramarine Blue and Payne's Gray, building up where I know I'm going to want darker concentrations later: storm clouds, piles of bodies, etc, and keeping it light in the center, where it will "shine" down on the figure.

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More build up, putting in the tower on the left, and adding a little texture to the rise it sits on.

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Starting the underpainting for the figure, putting in the shadows in the same Ultramarine Blue and Payne's Gray mix to keep the shadows consistent with the mood of the rest of the painting.

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The final refining of the darks I want in the storm clouds, bodies, figure and drapery. This was the last step before the little bits of color I added. I wanted this piece to have a very monochromatic feel with a very subtle skin tone, leaving just the deep reds of the banner to pop.

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Original Painting: $300
11x17" Watercolor

This piece was also enlarged to 11x17 from the original 9x12" drawing and is completed entirely in watercolor, mostly Ultramarine blue, Payne's Gray, and a *tiny* bit of Burnt Umber. This is one of those concept images that keeps coming back to me, expanded and slightly different every time. While I do like this execution, I am sure I'll revisit it at least a few more times until I'm confident that I've gotten the concept behind the image to say what I want it to.

Daily Doodle Batch #3:

This batch upload consists of the images from 3/1/14-3/9/14, next week's update should be back on schedule for the Daily Doodle batch uploads. *crosses fingers*

This past Saturday was my birthday, and it wasn't the best day ever, so the March 8/Day 67 doodle is a bit depressing...


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Monthly Postcard Project

The January original for the Monthly Postcard Project is now available for purchase to the general public!



January's original measures 5x8" and is ink, marker, and white conte crayon on Toned Tan drawing paper. It's $20USD plus $4/$8 USD shipping domestic/international. If interested, please email silvertales[at]gmail[dot]com using "January Postcard Original" in the subject line!



Near Future

Aside from continuing the Daily Doodles Project and finishing up the Work-a-Week 2014 Project posts, the Near Future sees my first convention of 2014!

MegaCon Orlando, FL / March 21-23

I will be at an Artist Alley table all weekend with prints and originals, and taking commissions, so come on by!!



If you have any questions or comments about any of the Daily Doodles, please leave them in the comments below, I'd be happy to answer any questions!! As the Daily Doodles Project is continuing throughout 2014, please feel free to leave prompts or suggestions, there are so many more days to go!! :)


I thank you for joining me again this week! Feedback is the food which fuels the creative discussion between Artist and Audience, please, feel free to comment or leave suggestions for new projects!


If you enjoy seeing posts of new or in-progress artwork, please consider a donation.

Become a patron of the arts!

Feel free to post links to this journal/community if you feel there might be interest in my artwork!