Orcs and Dragons

This Blog is moving

2011-04-26T14:58:00.002-04:00

Moving blog over to new Blogger account:

http://mikejl-art.blogspot.com/

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Female Orc Defender WIP2

2011-03-29T22:33:00.000-04:00

Been busy with work and part time teaching gig. However did little work on her tonight. ArtRage Pro on Mac Mini (with Wacom Pen). I really want the eyes to show desperation and rage.


WIP2

Female Orc WIP1

2011-03-16T13:41:00.000-04:00

Been very busy with work and part-time teaching; so its been slow going on drawing and painting. However I have been finding time at lunch to get turn the iPad from work into play mode and keep on this piece.

I added first paint layer also tried to set a tone for the lighten and a draft background (village on fire).


Orc Female WIP1

I may move this to the Mac to keep on working.

Next Painting - Female Orc

2011-03-02T12:50:00.000-05:00

Figured I try my hand at a female orc. I though of one defending her homestead with a spear. Don't have a background however may do a burning hut to help tell the story. The background fire will make good back lighting. I may tweak the eyes and mouth for more ferocity when I paint.

Did up a sketch on the iPad..

Female Orc Sketch

They be Orcs!

2011-02-11T12:54:00.000-05:00

Ran across this series little bit ago and was very intrigued. I was waiting for some reviews and the audio books and the CDs to hit the local library. Now with three audio books out on Audible.com that had, in my opinion, good looking reviews. No idea when library will get the CDs; I re-uped my Audible subscription to and got the first in the series.

Audible Book

I'm a few chapters in; love it so far. Narrator, John Lee, sounds great. and it’s the kind of fantasy fest I love. And its about ORCS!

The author Stan Nicholls has web site for all his work. Here is a link to his Orcs page.

I love to do a cover art for him. Stan .. need some cover art?

Mixing it up

2010-12-28T10:33:00.000-05:00

Started this on the iPad then finished on the new MacMini (with ArtRage Stdio Pro)

First Strike (2010)

Axe Master

2010-12-05T23:56:00.000-05:00

Another one hot off the iPad .. Quick sketch of the Axe Master in action:

War Leader (iPad)

2010-11-23T22:09:00.002-05:00

More fun off the iPad:

Art Rage and iPad

2010-11-20T22:21:00.001-05:00

First work off my iPad with Art Rage (iPad version)...

Lots of fun doing "The Dark One" on the iPad. Did a few layers of color. I can see using the ipad for laying down the sketch the move work to Art Rage Pro on (PC or mac) to finish. Either way lots of fun making this one.

Dangerous Waters - Final

2010-10-17T15:34:00.000-04:00

Final in Art Rage and lighting and highlights in Corel Painters Essentials

(larger 1280x1024'ish version posted in Gallery)

Dangreous Waters WIP

2010-10-11T00:55:00.000-04:00

Got lots done this weekend.

Set a background color / layer to help set a tone. The water is the color I wanted .. a black murky swam look. Still a work in progress.

Dangerous Waters WIP

2010-10-08T00:48:00.000-04:00

Little more done tonight. All rough paint layout.. little shadows, texture to help in the process.

Im really happy with the "snarl" expression I'm going for .. he needs some teeth.

Going good.

Dangerous Waters

2010-09-30T00:49:00.000-04:00

Done a few drawings past few weeks. Most rough sketches did started painting the wolf rider however that sort fell out with me. From all that sketch work I came up with

"dangerous waters"

and immediately put it to paint (ArtRage)

Time to push some pixels.

Might vs lighting quick sketch

2010-09-13T23:59:00.000-04:00

All on the pen tablet and ArtRage 3 Studio. Not big on my colors however I like the moment it captures. I'm going to explore this more.

A painting slump

2010-09-13T14:16:00.000-04:00

In a painting slump I guess. However, been sketching allot; at lunch at work and did few at home that were all digital. One I may post.. I’m not too hot on the colors however the idea of the sketch and the intensity of the action is great. I may re-sketch it few more times see if I take it to paint.
As for the wolf rider.. still want to work on it.

Orc Wolf Rider Digital Resketch

2010-08-24T23:35:00.001-04:00

I went ahead and redid the head and ended-up sketching over the entire drawing in ArtRage. I find when I hand draw and scan it loses some clarity. So this really made the details pop. Think I'm ready to paint.

Orc Wolf Rider Re-sketch

RARRR!

9/8/10 - I'm in mid-painting and the ideas on trying out few changes to my techniques. And not happy with current progress. Specifically the wolf. So going to keep the background; however scrapping the orc and wolf layers to start them over.

Orc Wolf Rider

2010-08-22T18:47:00.002-04:00

Here is the sketch for my orc wolf rider. Used a reference image of a running wolf to help with the legs and stride.

This will be my next painting.

8/24/10 - I like to revisit a drawing after a day or so. It gives me a clean eye on it and I end up making little changes. In the drawing above I want to change the head placement and neck size. (brim head down and forward little and give larger neck and possible larger shoulders. I might go back to the paper or try to do some digital re-sketching.

Sketching Up a few Ideas

2010-08-20T10:22:00.000-04:00

Burned through several, like eight, pages, in my sketch book; also did a sketch on the Wacom. Out of all the pages, both physical and digital, three sketch ideas have started to stick:

Orc Wolf Rider: Did a rough sketch late last night and wondered why I never did this before. I always loved the Orc Wolf Rider and like to tackle this.
Orc Shaman: Most Orcs I do are the big tough warrior type. Thought it be fun to do an old skinny Shaman casting a very powerful spell.
Orc King: On his thrown; and getting angry about something. A study in facial expressions.

The first one, Orc wolf rider riding into battle, is the one I want to do next. I have a clear vision of what I want to do and have the rough sketch to work with. I will refine and re-sketch more; then start painting.

Few images to inspire and reference:

Love this WoW one, its very inspirational:

This also is great reference:

This is a great reference of a wolf in motion

Going on the Paper

2010-08-18T15:16:00.000-04:00

I love my Wacom and ArtRage for painting. However, I still love me good old pencil and paper for sketching, doodling and getting ideas down.

So I have about three ideas I like to explore and even though I tell myself "I will learn to draw from scratch on the Wacom" I find myself going back to the sketch pad.

So I’m off to sketch. I’ll scan and post any completed sketches.

The Break In

2010-08-17T01:25:00.007-04:00

Looks like something is trying break in to the keep. Lucky our warrior has a few swords with rare magic to stop the beast.

I did a blurry effect to see how it may help give the sense of motion. I did save a "pre-blurry" version without that. I got some great feedback and tips on the IFX forums and may open the pre-blurry version; and work on the lighting and shadows more. So a version 2 could be posted soon.

Ok .. I did not save the non-blurry version. Oh well I did re-look at my lighting and shadows and did some touch ups. Here is a ver 2:

The addition shadows do make the swords magic auras really pop. Cool!

8/25/10
With some advice from the folks at the IFX forums did little change to the light from the swords.

The Break In WIP 4

2010-08-12T00:51:00.001-04:00

Work in Progress update on "The Break In"
More of the warrior appears..

I did some rough shadows to start to give me some perspective. Warrior is still rough however very happy with results so far. Takes lots of working with the globs of oil paint to get the metal look I want. Also need to get the other sword in.

More done tonight (8/12/10)

Got more done on the swords than I expected. I still want to go back and work on the helm.

The Break In - WIP

2010-08-08T17:18:00.004-04:00

While working on this I had to move from my Macbook over to my Win7 desktop. This 1280x1024 300 DPI was causing the Mac some (make that lots) of heartburn (like freezing up). The Mac is apx 4 yrs old (the first of Intel Macs) 1.83 Ghz Core Duo with 2 GB RAM and the on board Intel 950 video. The Win 7 system is 3Ghz Core 2 w/ 4GB and a Nvida 9800 1GB video card. So it has lots more power. ArtRage installed and runs great, and got the Wacom Bamboo Pen setup on it also.

Some work in progress on "The break In" the walls on back lighting on two layers:


WIP 1 - walls and back lighting

Then, on a few separate layers behind the walls and in front of back light layer, is the start of the dragon.


WIP 2 - the dragon

The chunks of the missing dragon look funny however the top layer will be the warrior charging in. You can see it on the original sketch. That will cover those areas.

8/11/10
Hey .. we got legs and few more bits.


WIP 3 - legs and other stuff

A Wealth of Tips

2010-08-04T09:53:00.000-04:00

I ran across an awesome magazine / web site: ImageFX.com (Fantasy and SciFi Digital Art)

I picked-up a copy of the mag from local bog box bookstore. Little pricey however has a DVD full of good stuff. The site also had lots of great work posted on the forums and a cornucopia of tip in the workshops.

I joined the community, posted some of my work and added link to this blog.

Found a Name for what I do

2010-08-02T11:27:00.002-04:00

With the arrival of my Wacom and ArtRage I took a different direction on how I been doing my art. I found its an established painting technique; called impasto. I seem to use something close to this is my new line of work.

"In English, the borrowed Italian word impasto most commonly refers to a technique used in painting, where paint is laid on an area of the surface (or the entire canvas) very thickly, usually thickly enough that the brush or painting-knife strokes are visible. Paint can also be mixed right on the canvas. When dry, impasto provides texture, the paint coming out of the canvas."

Here is a great AR post on ways to do this (alot I already seem to be doing).

Great tips.

The Break In - Sketch

2010-08-01T00:47:00.001-04:00

Did about three of these before I nailed the action and intensity I wanted. I titled it "The Break In." I see the scenario as the dragon broke into the keep and our hero jumps into action.

Break In sketch (small)

I will get ArtRage fired up. I like the 1280 X 1024 size; I feel it gives more room to work. I also want t try a 300 DPI setting on the painting.

This will be a study in aura effects. The two swords will both have a magical auras / glow effects. I also want to see if I can motion blur some on this piece. Think I will need to do more brush work with the oils.