New Portfolio Piece for Lis: The First Night

Hi All!

I just completed this painting, likely my last one of 2013! I'd been working on it since May off and on in between illustration jobs.  I'm pretty pleased with it as I tried to be more ambitious with size (12.5 x 17.5... big for me) and detail.

The title is "The First Night" and it's from One Thousand and One Nights; the very beginning... as Scheherazade begins telling tales to the Sultan in order to keep her head! Painted with watercolor and acryla gouache. I've got some progress shots if anyone is interested over on my personal blog: http://www.albaillustration.com/blog/?p=594. Also, I now have a Facebook art page where I have posted more progress shots and other fun things. Check it out! https://www.facebook.com/albaillustration

Lis's Viking Final - "Rán's Embrace"

Here is my final piece! Watercolor/acryla gouache/digital - I want to make the corrections in the painting that I made digitally. I just did them digitally first because it's easier to see what I'm right and wrong. Submitting it to Spectrum tomorrow along with two others!



I found some more great information about Rán here - http://reclaimingthedarkgoddess.blogspot.com/2010/03/ran-norse-goddess-of-sea.html

From the link:

"She has been called cruel, greedy and insatiable. She reigns over the the Underworld found at the bottom of the sea. Ran mated with Her brother, Aegir, the sea god, and they had nine beautiful daughters, the Waves... Her name means "robbery", and She could often be found lurking on the dangerous cliffs and, with the help of Her daughters, enticing mariners to approach; once within Her reach, She spread Her fishing net over them and calmly draws them down into Her realm.

"The Norse people believed that drowning victims were not admitted into Valhalla; instead, they went to Ran's realm of the dark. She was, therefore, also considered to be a Goddess of the Dead. If the dead had gold, they were treated well within Her deep sea abode, and the mead would flow freely... Ran represents water; and, as such, She controls the life force of all the creatures on Earth."

Lis's Viking Sketch

So here's the final sketch... I will be printing it out lightly and then drawing it nicely with pencil. As you can see it has really changed! It was super horizontal and kind of boring before. Brought it into my mentorship with Rebecca Guay for critique. Super excited to paint this... hopefully painting it won't be a nightmare--in particular the water and froth. But if all else fails... photoshop! :P I need to edit the hand with the hair entwined around it... fingers are a lil weird.



And here's a color comp... but it's not really complete... it'll probably end up a lot different with more contrast and color, etc.

Lis's Viking Thumbs

So I think I have a pretty clear idea of where I'm going with this, I just need help deciding on the composition that works best... It's kind of a wrap-around book cover size (but it doesn't necessarily have to be composed like a book cover)... but I don't know if I want the goddess turning her face toward the ship, or away from them with her eyes turned toward the ship, or if I want her flipped in the other direction! :P

Anyway, Rán is a Norse sea goddess and she likes to drown sailors (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rán), so I have a viking ship in stormy seas struggling to stay upright and get to shore (or just away!), and Rán is rising from the sea. I'm pretty exciting about painting this!!!!

I envision Rán to have multiple 'tiers' - her bottom half is foamy with waves and water splashing (water spout-like), and she still has some hair dragging in the sea, but in the middle her body becomes less water and more of just a transparent-ish being, and at top i want the rest of her hair to be flying around and kind of blending in with the clouds. In the foreground the ship/sea will be the darkest with bolder outlines, and there should be a nice atmospheric gradient to the distance. I also want there to be lights visible on the shore from torches/huts. Oh... and she'll be wearing some clothes... though one boob might be hanging out.... goddess style.

New Art from Lis: Marguerite

Always fun to see how sketches turn into final paintings and what changes. Look back a few posts and you'll see my initial sketch for Marguerite. I finished it during a mentorship I'm doing with Rebecca Guay, along with another piece - Night Song.



Go check out Night Song, from Hans Christian Andersen's "The Nightingale," over on my blog!

New portfolio piece for Lis

Hey all! It's been quiet around here /: Well we aren't working on any group projects, but we can still post sketches for our own ideas! This is portfolio piece idea I had.. kind of a book cover for young adult or early reader. The first one was my initial sketch, but then I made the foreground bigger and made the background smaller so I think I like the second one best. I'll need to get photo reference for the girls body, I think the arms around the pig are a little off. Please let me know what you think!

Lis's Troll Painting

Finally!!! My troll is finished (: I couldn't continue working on it for the past month because I've had nonstop guests... but once they left, I was able to finish in four days. Pretty pleased with it... I was really disliking it before I started to paint, but I think I was just sick of looking at it unfinished on my desk. Now go rent TrollHunter!!!

Lis's Troll Sketch

Hi folks! So here is my troll sketch... I included a few rotation variations so it may not be as straight on... depending on what people think. I ended up making the troll less dumpy... I was getting annoyed by his dumpiness and I wanted him to be a little more scary looking. I had a lot of trouble trying to figure it all out, composition, looks etc. I think I'm finally satisfied though. Will be a good portfolio piece for Gencon! I'll probably post a color comp in a few days. I have a vision!

The first one is the original. The other two are tilted toward the right or left.

And click this to see an larger one for detail...

Lis's Troll Thumbs

Hey all! Here are my troll thumbs.

The first two - Troll shepherd with goats (if you think a troll being a shepherd is weird, I'm not the only one that thought of it! Google and you will see one of those popular troll statues as a shepherd with goats! haha. He eats them later :P), or a troll fishing with his hovel behind him. I'm going for the fishing scene I think. I want it to be kind of a portrait, a troll in his comfort zone.

This second thumbs are just a comical idea - giant troll with itty bitty sheep... in the left thumb he's bending down and picking one up delicately, and the others are running away. I think it's a cute idea, but I'm still leaning toward the fishing troll... maybe I'll do this later.

I will, of course, work on my troll character design more for the final. He's a bit boring right now.

Lis's Final: The Light in the Weald

Hey! Here is my unicorn final. I actually ended up using acrylic, and I really enjoyed it!! I printed the image on watercolor paper, put a green wash down, then covered it in a few layers of matte medium. I then worked with washes of acrylic (and some opaque acrylic in the light areas), before spraying it with varnish. Took a little longer than my watercolor work, but overall I am pleased. I want to work this way again! Unicorns <3...

It ended up quite different from my color comp... but that's how it goes with me. I always get more saturated with my colors than I intend. I guess that's my style? It's not as ominous in feeling... more Disney-esque. But I love Disney so it's cool. Tried color correcting in photoshop to make it more like my comp, but I like this.

Lis's Unicorn Sketch

So here is my final (kind of) sketch and a color comp. I want to make the trees more gnarly and interesting.. right now they're a little too straight, the foreground trees at least.

I realllllyyy love this color comp and I have a sinking feeling I won't be able to replicate it with watercolor... but we'll see. I still struggle with watercolor sometimes and feel like I try to do things that watercolor aren't meant to do, but damnit, I can make it happen!!!! Just need patience!

Lis's Unicorn Thumbs

So I only have two thumbs, because I became pretty set on the 2nd one! :P



It's going to be a scene around dusk, and like Owen's, at the unicorn's feet and the trail behind it, there will be glowing plants growing (it's a unicorn thing, you know) and the unicorn will also be glowing!

Lis Art: The Distraction

Here is my final painting, The Distraction.
Watercolor, ink, gouache



Really enjoyed working on a good ole fantasy piece... but I think I stared at it too long. Usually I can finish a painting pretty fast, but this took me around two weeks off and on... I like it, but it's gotta grow on me more.