Krystal Watters

Autumn Webb Sketch

2015-05-18T08:00:00.000-04:00

Some of you may recognize this character, I've drawn her in the past but with no consistent style on the details. So this was a sketch in Mischief trying to pin down details on her to keep a more consistent look. Like the slant of her eyes, angular face, the type of brow she has, etc. It still being played with but I'm getting closer. You will probably see more of this character of mine in the future.

For first timers, Autumn Webb is a character from a table top RPG game known as 'Geist: The Sineaters', which is one of my favorite World Of Darkness books. In the game you begin with your character's death. In her case was aluminium poisoning the water. We had a very unique story that unfortunately didn't get completed due to the players splitting up into different things. I plan to attempt to finish her story in some way. Also you can see it on Mischief site here.

Late Sabriel Day and Changes on the Way

2015-05-14T08:00:00.000-04:00

So, May 11th was Sabriel Day. For those who don't know what Sabriel is, it is a book by Garth Nix and the main character's name in that book. It is the first of the Old Kingdom or Abhorsen series (heard it called both). I personally love all the books of his I've read. He's one of my favorite authors. He decided to hold a raffle on his Facebook which I participated in. This is a rough piece since I did it in like 2 or so hours before midnight.

Once again done in Mischief. I really like the program and find it great to play in. Though I did run into trouble with it on this piece and experimented to get past the trouble now. The key design on her tunic was done by copying and pasting the key over and over again. However the code or math formula in vector images to do it was intense. It was because I would copy it then place the two together then copy the two to make it bigger, and repeat the process. This apparently causes it to lag a lot. It was fine the first few times. I actually manage to crash the program with this. So then later experimented a couple of different ways to fill it with copy and paste that won't cause it to lag/crash. It seems it's best to copy one (or better yet draw a few then copy), paste it till you hit the max number of layers (which is around 40 I think). After merge the layers together then select about ten or so (too many of them in a group seems to cause lag as well). then paste it over and over till either you complete the pattern or got to merge layers. If you merge layers, do not make a new selection, use the current. Each new type of copy is more stressful for the program. So the second file I made was able to work with easier with less lagging and no crashing. It still did lag though, but in a workable fashion.

Now, the other big news is I'm going to be doing a lot of changes and updates. I've determine to focus on my personal work some and get the website remodeled, change hosting company, update designs, upload new works, and hopefully some time to focus on some personal projects. I'm eager to work on this it's been long overdue. Why I haven't done so sooner you ask? Well, I focused too much on some other work that honestly didn't pay what I was worth in both web design (even as low level I am I'm above the curve) and as an illustrator. So, I vow to only look into what I'm worth and focus on my own site that I should of redone like 2-3 years ago. Good news is that time did get a lot of research done and evaluation of how to proceed. My current hosting ends around October, so you can expect to see a new website before then.

Thanks all for sticking through the slow rough times, it will be worth it.

Pinterest and Toddler Practice

2015-03-09T07:00:00.000-04:00

So in case you haven't noticed yet. I do have a Pinterest account now, so you can follow me or boards your interested in. I have two boards so far for my art, an art tutorial board, anatomy, and a few other random things. So feel free to pin image I've got it coded to let you pin.

This time around is practicing toddlers and babies. The proportions and general trends of the face are very different from an adult. Some features are bigger such as eyes, ears and cheeks, others are smaller like the nose and mouth. So it is good to study and practice. Later on I will have some on the body proportions and how they change from baby to adulthood. Once again like before if you click on the picture you'll see them on Mischief.

Face Practice 01

2015-03-02T07:00:00.000-05:00

More practices. Snowy weather and losing my voice made me focus on practicing and researching more techniques. These are more Humanae images used; example of the younger ages. Click on images to see these on the Made With Mischief website, which obviously was made using 'Mischief'.

Face Practice 01

2015-02-23T07:00:00.000-05:00

As I mentioned in the previous post, I'm posting some face practices using the faces from Humanae project on Tumblr. The advantage of that project is it has a variety of people from different genders, ages, and ethnicity allowing me to practice and gain more varied knowledge of the human face. All of these made in Mischief. You can click on picture to see the image on the 'Made With Mischief' website.

Wine & Design and Humanae

2015-02-19T07:00:00.000-05:00

The painting to the right is one I design as a causal artsy word painting. A lot of people like to paint words for decoration. I had several inspirations in creating this one. Celtic art, illuminated letters, and spring and love related themes. It is always a balance between my vision and making sure that it can be painted in 2 hour time frame.

In general capital letters are more well define and different therefore easier to recognize and balance in design. Lowercase varies too much in size of how much space it takes. This comes with some studying of graphic design or at least typography. I do recommend all artist to study the basics of typography.

By the way, sorry this is a bit late with the storm on the East coast it has caused some internet problems and caused extra demands. So I've added some practice images below done in Mischief. I've been working on improving my skills of painting a variety of faces. This should increase my visual memory so when I design characters they'll become more unique and varied. You can click on the photo to go see that image on Mischief. I will post more of these practices in future blog posts.

The source I'm using to practice is the images from the Tumblr page, Humanae. All photos are taken by Angelica Dass who is working on creating a chromatic inventory of human skin tones using the PATONE color schemes. It is a great reference and a great reminder of how varied our features and skin tones are. So you can randomly pick one as practice. Hope you enjoy these.

Valentine and Wine & Design

2015-02-09T11:05:00.001-05:00

Here is some more paintings from the Wine & Design business I work with. This was inspired by an older painting for Valentines which we'll see if it is popular idea or not soon. For those of you who are local to the Triangle area in North Carolina, you can click on this link to check out the paintings of the location I work at.

The original painting was finding a way for a the human face to be simple and interesting for people to paint, which lead to the painting to the right. It was the first inspired by various cameos. Having it like this allows simple customization without having the details of the face to worry about. It allows the use of bright colors still which contrast nicely with the black. This painting I created about 2 years ago, while the one above was within the last couple of months. I kept the same premise but themed it and made one for each sex so we can have a couple paint each one canvas to represent themselves in the image.

Below is the male silhouette I came up with at the same time as the pair to see how it would look in comparison to the female version. We're always looking for more ways to encourage male painters to come in. If any of you have painting suggestions, I will gladly consider them for future Wine & Design paintings.

Traveller: Space Scene

2015-02-02T07:00:00.000-05:00

Another sketch done in Mischief for a mini contest on their website. I have it online on their website here. I decided since my fiance has been rolling up planets using the Traveller RPG system that I would go ahead and paint one of the major planets he plans to use called New Iapetus.

I was given a description of it's temperature (below freezing), type of atmosphere (dense), how much water on planet (about 50%), and the like. From there I looked through different NASA images doing quick research what would create such a world and what planets to use as reference. I decided that if it was around a dwarf red star and further away from it that it would create a cold world. I used a mixed of Pluto, Venus, and looking at the possible habitable planets in the Kepler system to create the main world. It was done relatively quick since I didn't have much time to work on it. I may post future work on this planet and others.

For those of you who like to look or want space reference images, you should go to NASA site here. All their images are royalty free and can be used as you like with their attribution, which you can click on the link about that on their website for more information.

Christmas Gifts and Fanart

2015-01-27T13:09:00.000-05:00

I made some acrylic paintings on canvas board as gifts for my sister's friends. Each one I was given the general theme of the painting and then I created the composition and finalized the look. Now to be clear, no I do not own the copyright to Minions from 'Despicable Me' or Ariel from 'The Little Mermaid'. It belongs to their respected owners which are in part Universal Studios, Illumination Entertainment, Disney, and all others who put work into it.

So the painting to the left, I was told Minion dressed in a vampire costume. From there I thought of what minions would do as a vampire. One idea that came up with him attempting to fly, which then gave me the idea to have the dog. It works both as a recklessness of the minion and vicious nature of the dog.

The full moon and roof just became a good and natural setting for this. I had a lot of fun realizing how much my painting technique has change over the years. I've always sketch with paint on the canvas, but never did I pick random or bright colors usually I would go with a burnt sienna or a subtle color such as ultramarine blue. Instead I picked like bright reds, purples and bright blues such as phthalo blue. It was a great experience to see my confidence and the fun in having like a red under a blue sky or a blue under a yellow minion. So both paintings had a higher than usual layering of colors.

I did create the initial rough thumbnail idea in Mischief for my sister's approval before I proceeded on, which you can see below. The other painting is the focus of Ariel on the coast; it also had the requirement of something to represent Belle from 'Beauty and the Beast'. I gave some different ideas such like yellow earrings Belle has, shell with a rose imprint, and the one that was chosen, the mirror from Beauty and the Beast.

So I created Ariel having lots of fun with reflective color hints in the water, fin, shells, etc. It originally didn't have the seagulls in the sky, but that changed after I sent a picture to my sister who mentioned the sky seemed too empty. Which is why it's good to get a fresh perspective either by walking away from the painting or getting someone else to look into it.

Hope you enjoy looking at these fan works. Sidenote: Sorry on the day late. I forgot that I hadn't scheduled it.

Drawing: Cranial Unit

2015-01-19T15:15:00.001-05:00

There are many approaches to drawing the human form. The one most people know is the head counting where you compare their proportion by number of heads. If this works for you, that is great. But for me it left a lot to be desired. Most of the chosen spots are things that change a lot from one body type to another such as the navel, nipples, etc. It gets even more awkward with multiple characters as their head size will vary and trying to keep them in proportion to each other. However the skeleton structure tends to stay much more similar than the skin.

That is where the Cranial Unit comes in. Instead of measuring the entire head, you measure just the round part of the skull, the cranium. Where the head unit is about 7.5 for a person height, the cranium is 10.5 and hits more consistent landmarks, such as where a bone ends or begins. It also has the advantage of if you can't see the head you can still find the cranial unit for proportions using the clavicle, sternum, or scapula bones, which are all a size of a cranial unit. Also I find a square is much easier to use for perspective than a rectangle. To learn more read it on Studio Incamminati's post on the 'Cranial Index'. It has great detail images and general text overview. There is also a video by Proko that can help you with the concept.

Some practice on finding and using the cranial unit

I'm always working to know more and improve my art techniques. There are places that create gesture practice lessons on this site which has one for Figure, Animal, Hands and Feet, and Faces and Expressions. I find it a great way to warm up or practice when one feels little out of practice. For new artist, it is a great way to learn. So as a sum up, if you find a method doesn't work for you, search for a different one. For me, heads didn't work, but cranial makes much more sense to me and helps a lot more. Sidenote, all gestures was done inside the program called 'Mischief'

Face gestures and some expressions

Cauldron of Lost Ancestors

2015-01-12T22:19:00.002-05:00

The sequel to 'Masks of the Lost Kings' is out now. Been out for a while on Kindle, took longer for paperback this time around. For those who are new, I did the cover for Tom Bane's first book called 'Masks of the Lost Kings' and now I've done the cover for it's sequel 'Cauldron of the Lost Ancestors'.

It stars the same main character, Suzy da Silva, going on another adventure. For a general idea about what type of series it is action, history mystery with some conspiracy theories. I think of it like a National Treasure on a global scale.

The first one had elements from Egypt and Mayan with the secret connection of those. This one focus on Avalon (Think King Arthur) and Celtic Druids.

Mask of the Lost Kings can be found here on Amazon as ebook or paperback.

Cauldron of the Lost Ancestors can be found there as well in both formats.

Painting Shoes- Christmas Theme

2015-01-06T22:11:00.002-05:00

As promised a post for the week. This is an older project. I had a client who loved to have custom painted shoes. So I decided to post one of the Christmas ones that were inspired by her favorite Christmas ornaments she own. She didn't like her shoes to match, but rather each to be unique.

The one with Santa Claus I had change the dog of the ornament to be her dog instead. The right shoe theme was mostly of her favorite angel series of ornaments, the right shoe was her favorite Santa Claus ornaments. I have a series of shoes I've done that will be posted in the upcoming months.

I made this post a bit late, but I plan to have future ones to automatically post on Mondays in the morning. I had debated on a day, but considering Sundays tend to be my catch up day. I figure it be good way to insure future blogposts to be regular.

Other view of the shoes below. Enjoy

Long Needed Update ~ Christmas Elf

2014-12-30T14:50:00.001-05:00

I've been meaning to update for a long time and hadn't. Been busy, thinking, designing, and hoping. I decided I'll try to be more regular with a weekly update. Some of the posts will be old content that haven't been seen/featured here yet. So, hope you'll enjoy the regular updates.

I've updated the old blog posts to feature with Pinterest. I will update other blogs once this one is regular. I want to get ahead on posts before I feature RPG stories I've done in the past.

This one will begin with a Mischief Challenge to make yourself an elf. I used only the Mischief program as I created this. It was fun and a good way to get used to the program controls and customization. The tag for it is #mischiefelfie. As a reminder to all a do have a twitter account that I'll try to use more regularly as well. I also have an account with the Mischief website that you can see this piece at.

Late Merry Christmas to everyone and a Happy New Year!

Call of Cthulhu Arrives

2013-02-07T19:33:00.002-05:00

Finally have the blog is up and ready for you all to enjoy. As I have mentioned in the past, I had a plan to bring the dice rpg's stories that I've played to be posted as a blog. I'm beginning with one that is more recent with plans to put up stories that I used to play as well.

The first being a Cthulhu game using the Call of Cthulhu game system. More information can be found in the new blog called the Raven Sorceress in the about and links area. This blog will have all the game story information of the Call of Cthulhu game I'm playing.

The image accompanying this post is of my character, Annabell Lee. Yes, Edgar Allan Poe's poem did inspire the name of my character. She's an archaeology teacher for Bates College. The setting begins in Lewiston, Maine around early March of 1940s. As the story continues you'll understand why I've named the blog the Raven Sorceress.

The updates will be bi-weekly of the story. I may post here occasional about updates there, but the best place for such updates will be my Crystallize Games blog. That blog will let you know when the story blogs, such as the Raven Sorceress, has updates. It will also contain extras such as extra art, outside story of game, and other similar things. This will make the story easy to keep track of, for it will not have extraneous updates. So the game blogs will be story only, while the Crystallize one will have any extra news about the blogs. Hope this all makes sense. It currently seems like a good plan, but I'm quite glad to hear other's inputs on this if there is a better way or if I need to clarify anything. Otherwise enjoy the story and art at the Raven Sorceress, the first of my game story blogs.

Some Practice Hands and Feet

2013-01-31T10:54:00.002-05:00

Just some practice art done on Corel Painter. Each hand and foot took 15 to 30 minutes keeping it gray-scale I plan to do color ones later, which I'll post when complete.

My next post will be the opening of my new blogs, the gaming one I've been planning for a while. The one I'll begin with is using the Call of Cthulhu, dice rpg. Each post upon it will be part of the story, from my character's perspective, that my group goes through. Also each post will have art related to the post and occasionally two pieces.

So I'm eager to finally get this going so much preparation has been going into the project. For now enjoy sketches.

Melting Snow on Leaf

2013-01-19T11:40:00.000-05:00

Newest painting for Wine and Design. It is bright painting; great for Fall, Winter, and even Spring season in design. Hoping it'll be a great seller.

I've gotten back from my trip home for the holidays (to be honest been back about 2 weeks, just got myself organized). It was lovely to go home and see the snow, and come back to North Carolina to see green pines, and well no snow, which did play a small part to coming up with this painting. I've been wanting to paint a fall color leaf that was different from previous Wine and Design paintings.

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Years. And I'll be trying to get back into a regular update routine (beginning with every other week; hopefully to an every week update).

W&D: Chapel Hill Starry Night

2012-11-22T23:27:00.000-05:00

Hope you're all having a wonderful Thanksgiving. Figured I would do a quick update.

A design for the local customers of the Wine and Design I work at. The Starry Night variation paintings are very popular. I designed one to have the main places for Chapel Hill.

They are as follows from left to right:

Top of the Hill Restaurant
Old Well
two Hospital buildings
UNC Bell tower
Stadium
Southern Season

ImageCSS

2012-11-16T11:46:00.000-05:00

I've been a bit distracted from the project I mentioned in my Halloween post (of making a special set of blogs); this brought me to my current redoing of my website, which is still a work in progress. Currently focusing on updating layout, settings, coding, and such. Later, I'll actually update the content. I will admit I only know moderate amount when it comes to coding, especially when it comes to the changes of html 5 and css. It is nice to find a reference site for coding and I stumbled upon such a site.

Image CSS is a simple, quick, and easy to understand of the code for images. It is simple, yet gives details as needed with various functions of the code. I highly recommend it if you don't know css that well or need a quick refresher on it.

Hope it'll be useful. PS. Image to left is a random photograph I've taken playing with Macro setting.

Wine and Design Children Painting: Little Red Cape

2012-11-07T11:15:00.000-05:00

This is to be a cute parent and child painting. I wanted to design to have the option for one to be theme for boy and girl painting, so it's flexible. I use the idea of Little Red Riding Hood (or Little Red Cape) for it has something to interest for girls by little red and boys being the wolf. It is a fun painting and easy to customize the design.

If interested in Wine and Design, their website is online with all their locations and schedules for classes. I teach at the Chapel Hill location. There are similar companies throughout the United States such as Painting with a Twist.

Happy All Hallows Eve

2012-10-31T22:56:00.001-04:00

I made this image based upon what I wore for Halloween: Dark Alice clothes, tribal tattoo sleeves, gloves, hat I got from Claire's, and some make-up I put upon my face and neck area.

Sorry this posting is a little later then planned, but hope you all enjoy this joyous holiday full of scares and frights. I'm enjoying watching films of darker and horror nature.

There is something I will mention that I've been wanting to do for a while. I'm making a blog of all the dice rp games I've played. Each will be hosted as a different blog. I will for convenience make one blog that will keep track of updates of all the gaming blogs. The first blog release will be the Call of Cthulu game I'm currently in. I plan to have art with each posts and a suggested song.

Enjoy~

Nice Fox for W&D

2012-10-26T12:25:00.000-04:00

I have a lots of Wine and Design paintings to show on my blog. I will be doing so for times I don't feel like I have something else to post.

As many of you may already know, I work at the Wine and Design Chapel Hill location. My job is to teach fun 2 hour paintings as well as to design them.

This is one of the newer designs I came up with due to the fact they didn't have a single fox painting, which surprised me.
Hope you all like it~

Access Your Inner Power

2012-10-10T19:04:00.000-04:00

Hello all, I know it's been a while since I've posted; been busy as expected. This is an update of another book published with my illustrations. The book diagrams inside are done by me and I photo man

The image to the left is an example of one diagram among many that would be in the book.

'Access Your Inner Power: Awakening Your Health and Vitality' is a very helpful Yoga book, by Brenda Schnable, explaining in full details the energies used and how to benefit from them and help restore your body's order. It includes actual Qi Infused Yoga practice.

This is a great and interesting read, that gives both Western and Eastern view to yoga. It is based on her experiences as well to help guide others. She also has a glossary for reference as well. The book is only $12.99 (plus with amazon if you spend 25 in total the shipping is free). Also, for those of you who are local, North Carolinans in the Triangle region, you may want to contact Brenda for yoga therapy or attend one of her workshops. So enjoy.

Masks of the Lost Kings

2012-04-19T17:14:00.000-04:00

After long work with Tom Bane, editors, and publishers, this book is now out and available to buy on Amazon.com. The cover work is done by myself. It is a pleasure to see it on the market.

On Tom Bane's website there is a pdf to read a preview of this books as well of course summary of story and such. His writing style is great. Love the descriptions and word choice. The brief spoiler free summary is it's about Suzy who gets involved with the mysteries and secrets of both Egyptian and Mayan. Obviously the site will give a better description-summaries never been my forte.

Anywho, recommend it for those who like history, mysteries, and conspiracy theories. It in some ways makes me think of the movies, National treasure on a more global, ancient, and informative scale.

In the future, I shall write a post about my process on working on this cover. And updating my portfolio on my personal website. Enjoy~

Wine & Design Chapel Hill Location

2012-03-05T16:36:00.000-05:00

Hello all,

I know it's been a while. Settling in has taken some time, but alas I shall update you on current happenings. I work now part-time as a teacher at Wine & Design's newest location, Chapel Hill. For those who don't know Wine & Design, let me give a brief introduction. It is a one time art class that serves as a party. You work with acrylics and get to take it home that very night as a finished product. More on the company's history here.

The grand opening of the location is March 10th 6:30-8:30pm. Feel free to drop by. The classes available currently are here. Remember we also do private parties so you can call an arrange a time or get more details here.

For Facebookers, feel free to like us there.

Slow Update Plus Stop SOPA PIPA

2012-01-18T15:59:00.001-05:00

Hello all, sorry for long silence. Things got hectic do to Holidays, work, re-planning, and finally moving. I am now in North Carolina. It is quite a lovely area. I'll do a more extensive update later. Right now it is more important to stop SOPA and PIPA.

Here is the google petition, which is the simplest to go with. There is also Stop American Censorship, which has various of options and extras such as censor your website header, which mine is now. Here is a meaningful article upon subject. If you need to read up on SOPA and PIPA bill, click on the links for the bill. So, join the cause for the sake of freedom, liberty, and stopping censorship.