progress

It's Thanksgiving and I decided to work on this.

Got rid of the halo, made it simple shape overlay instead. Trying out some effect, but not feeling it...

No effects. Worked more on the background.

Slight adjustment to the contrast, a bit of overlay on the creature face and halo, more details on the dress. Also trying some minimal effect (line) on the creature.

Facebook site and new painting

Last month I released my official Facebook site. Check it out...and subscribe! :D

http://www.facebook.com/raqmoful

It's almost the end of November, and a bunch of holidays is coming soon. I decided to start a new painting for the rest of the month. I don't know if I can finish it, but posting the progress here definitely helps to keep me motivated.

Initial sketch was done a couple months ago. Let's see how it goes...

Probably around 2 hrs later. I put some colors on and starting to paint. I turned the black+white sketch red brown using color layer, and now I'm painting on top of it with more variation of colors. I don't paint in oil, but I guess this is what oil painters do ...toned underpaint with more pigments on top.

more High Heavens art

I got permission to post the latest card arts for High Heavens :) Here is Disable, with full composition followed by her sister card Ensorsel (also in full composition). I have posted Ensorcel before, but it's nice to see them being extra fluffy when they are together. There are lots of negative space in the bottom half due to the card layout requirements. Enjoy!

Disable

Ensorcel

I love painting clouds. It's so simple yet so hard to make a successful cloud!

and Flight of the Valkyrie. Yay horses!

sketches

I finally scanned some of the pages from my latest sketchbook. I started the drawing practice couple months ago in Japan when I had more free time. Lately I got busier freelancing and taking care of the house so I stopped doing the routine of daily drawing :( 

This time, most drawings are based on the photo reference I found online. The credits of the original photos are written on each page. (Sorry for messy handwriting!)

high heavens art

I'm happy to share some of the latest work I did for High Heavens finally. These are probably the quickest card art I've ever done, and surprisingly they turned out pretty well for the tight schedule. Of course there are always some things I notice after a while that makes me want to go back to the files and fix them, but, oh well. I will paint better in the next one.

Monday

Over the weekend I was able to finish this painting. It's Monday today, and I think my cold is finally gone. I feel this week will be more productive!

progress on Noah painting

This week's been feeling slow. I got cold and I wasn't able to keep my daily routine like going to the gym. At least I was still working...and was making progress on Noah's painting. I guess the good thing about being freelance at home is that I don't have to spend extra energy to dress up and commute to the studio to get my works done.

back in the USA

I've been back in the states for 2 months now. I got my home office set up (well, at least partially) and spending my days painting in freelance works and doing domestic stuff.

This month is my partner's birthday, and he requested another painting of the world of the female creatures. It's been a long time since I even sketched something purely for personal fun. Here's the first comp draft of the piece:

Hopefully I can get this done by his birthday. Maybe, maybe not.

recently

While staying in Tokyo I was lucky enough to get some freelance illustration jobs from Japanese developers. Above is the set of paintings I did for Bahamut Greed. It's been interesting experience working with Japanese producers...their custom and culture are totally different. They are always extra polite, replies quick, but somehow tending to have very loose concept in contract. Oh, and when you sign a contract in this country, you actually authorize it by sealing it. Everyone in Japan has a seal with their name on it for this purpose. I thought it's a pretty cool custom.

Anyways, I'm coming back to the US in June due to my family situation (again). I'll be working as a freelance artist for a while...till I run out of jobs or savings, haha. Wish me luck! (psst if you are a director who's looking for a freelance artist to hire I'm available starting June!)

done.

Based on the creative feedback the effects are back to more subtle ones. Finally polished and I'm calling this done.

Spending days sketching and painting...and writing tutorial! My painting is accepted to be in 2DArtist magazine April edition, and they also wanted me to write making of the piece for LayerPaint site. Here's the link to the article...enjoy!

almost.

hm. bubbles it is.

progresser

bubbles?

or no bubbles?

today's figure drawing: a study of good smile

My former boss started kickstarter project. I went to the kickstarter site to back it, then I saw his prof pic. It was very nice photo of him.



Anyways, I'm on the 3rd sketchbook now. This time I'm focusing facial expressions. Also I'm preparing to the move back to the US. Lets' see how annoying it will be to have couple freelance jobs and moving happening at the same time :P

progress progresso progressa

Slowly, slowly making progress...I was planning to finish this sooner, but now I got few commissions I need to set it aside and come back to it later. Probably next month!

I've been meaning to join Pixiv Fantasia since it looks such a nice excuse to paint something really straight forward fetish fantasy and/or anime style fantasy design. Here's my first submission to the event. Check it out here!

feet

yep. (more than) 50 feet done.

sketchbook2

Finished my second sketch book in Japan!

I decided to do 50 hands drawing challenge. Now moving onto 50 feet challenge.

progressoh

slowly...slowly making progress on the tea party image...

multilegged ladies 2

I think I'm gonna start another WIP close up post series.

Long time ago I did this sketch with pencil

My partner liked it so much he suggested to make it into a party scene,

combining other sketches I made around the time.

So I decided to rework on the anatomy of the characters a bit

Since then I've been struggling to get the comp right,

and I think...I finally got it...

Some features are different, and the overall feeling of this

will be cuter than the original one. Also the style will be line based illustration, 

something like Sean Murray's stuff.

I like lines, and I haven't done this kind of rendering for a while...

I'm excited to get started! :D

perspectives

Sci-Fi stuff has always been my weakness. I didn't take any illustration class back in college, and my major FAV didn't teach me much about perspective. These are my most recent struggles to paint something like sci-fi that's in perspective.

drawingness

I got my first analog sketchbook since I moved to Japan finished! Here are some of my favorites from the drawings in there... I started sketching in 2B pencil, but later moved onto charcoal pencil and ended up using pen. I never felt comfortable using pen and ink before, but now it feels weirdly natural. Well, I got second blank sketchbook last night. Moving onto the another drawing practice! (full post includes some nude drawings, but all academic like above)

more

 

hmmm... got better or worse...

new year's resolution

I realized I need to practice more (as usual). So this year, figure drawing as much as I can, as well as color speed painting of environment. As my inspiring concept artist friends keep saying, always work on basics. 

you can see my struggle trying the right brush for quick sketching.

finally got the right one for reasonable speed. (all 1 to 2 min from photo ref)

and I got more comfortable. newly found tip: start from nose.

I want to paint more dragons for client work, and I realized I suck at rendering scales and lizard anatomy. poop.

I will be better eventually. 

I got more analog drawings but I'm too lazy to scan them in. I'd rather practice if i got that time. :P grrr I'm getting old, and there so many younger dudes much better than me already... sigh.