Earthbender

Here is a bit of fanart for Avatar: The Last Airbender. I decided to explore what I may look like as an earthbender. This little guy was done in Painter. While I am happy with how it's turned out, there are certainly a few areas that I'll probably end up going back and touching up eventually. My downfall was that I was too excited about finally getting it semi-finished.

Trolling

Someone decided to give me the subject of "troll" and told me to run with the image. This would be the result. It is completely graphite. There's not too much fluff to it. Granted, I must have been watching LotR at the time since he looks a good deal like the one's from there. But, he did make for a fun afternoon.

Caterpie

As I was looking at a friend of mine's sketches, I came across a series he was going through where he would draw different Pokemon in a pose with a Pokeball. I so enjoyed this concept, and the fact that it embraced a piece of my past, that I created my own image to challenge him. I decided on Caterpie for my subject. This was one of my earlier trials after I first got Painter. The linework was done on paper, scanned in, and then colored all in painter.

Generational Gap

For the first time ever, the Marios meet! As a part of an exercise, I was given the term "Nintendo" and had to create an image from that. In the end I settle on Nintendo's classic mascot, or better put, the two images the world has come to known. As always, I settled on colored pencil in order to get the shading that I was looking for.

Sonic & Tails

For my final run with the Sonic images, I decided to use the classic image of Tails and Sonic. I finally got to the point with my shadows where I got the darkness that I wanted. It certainly helps the image to stand out more than my other pieces.

Checkmate

I jumped back to the use of Army Men for my subject matter. This time I went with charcoal/ graphite for my medium. This is probably one of my favorite pieces to date. I was able to get the darks I needed. My favorite part is probably the highlights on the cans. I was worried about pulling off a metallic look and I was happy with the result I got. My biggest complaint would be the shadow from the front can on the Army Men. It ended up making them blend into the environment more than I would have liked. Overall, though, I approve of this piece.

Donatello

I finally made it back to my Ninja Turtles. This time around I was able to work on Donatello. I remember being excited about this picture. I enjoyed the pose I thought of. Sadly, I still was hesitant of ruining the picture by going too dark. Looking back at it, I can see where making my shadows next to black would have helped the lightning bolt. Overall, though, I was happy with my end result.

Gimli Scratchboard

Every once in a while, I try to work with scratch board. It forces me to adjust my approach to light. Whereas I traditionally color in the shadows, I have to switch and turn my focus to the light. It can be a bit rough in the beginning, but it usually ends up being a good exercise for me. This time around I used an image of Gimli from LotR as my experiment.

Sonic & Shadow

Again, I decided to tackle a Sonic image, this time with Shadow as the counterpart. This was a fun one to do. I especially enjoyed the end result I achieved with Shadow's shoes. The highlights and metallic look was a joy to finally get right.

Sonic & Knuckles

During my searching of different images, I became inspired to tackle some Sonic images. I love bringing back my childhood characters... This was a pretty basic image. Again, I was taking time to develop my ability to show shadows and highlights. I felt I was able to get closer to the mark with this one as compared to some of my earlier work.

Raphael

This is number two in my Ninja Turtle series. This time the featured character is Raphael. The main complaint I have with this one is my fear of going too dark. I was scared of going to far and being unable to take it back if I were to mess up. Sadly, this led to a picture that doesn't fully pop in terms of lighting. But, I still enjoy it overall.

Tabletop Trouble

Holding the Fort

Here is one of my first attempts at doing a still life. Since I am not much for static pictures, I decided to make my still life out of Army Men and Lincoln Logs. It certainly adds a dynamic feel to the picture. While I did have a few issues in terms of perspective, I'm overall pleased with the coloring on this one.

Leonardo

This is the first in a series I've decided to attempt. As a fan of the Ninja Turtles, I wanted to attempt each of the four with my colored pencil. This piece allowed me to gain some practice early on with my pencils and experiment with light and posing.