I have been reading during my lunch most days lately and have made only a little progress on my current picture.
I decided I wanted to post his one as a Show of my development. This set starts somewhere in the early middle and moves through the current state of the image.
This piece is one of them I am working on right now, I am in process of more than one, something I am trying not to do. In my Steampunk game, there are item cards you can find, some are useful in-game, others are simply treasure. This one, could go either way frankly, but will probably have a limited use. The drawing is not quite done, but I am uncertain what direction I want to go to finish it. I remember seeing my friend’s grandmother wear a wrist piece for sewing that had several things on it. I have seen other ideas like that, some actually were used and some are expansions for the Steampunk theme. Which is this? I am not sure, but it also has a bit of armor to it being a hard leather gauntlet.
There are a couple of details I need to correct or smooth on the piece, but the foundation is there and it is mostly complete. I drew quite a bit of it sitting outside for lunch – pleasant but bad lighting for computer use.
This picture is a return to things more closely related to my game design. Obviously this needs some changes to fit on an airship but I was still working on lighting and other aspects. I would prefer it to be a bit smoother, but am pleased with several aspects of this picture. I started somewhat differently in this on than I have in several others with the first layer or two being simple washes of gradual color development. In the others I have started with shadows and highlights to mark specifics. Working on these also reminds me of the frequency with which you see people comment on Photoshop as synonymous with fake images…I started this with blank pages, not even white and developed the image just as if on a canvas….where is the fake part? I enjoy this type of art with the Wacom for the ability to combine styles I learned in traditional art forms without the requirement to sit in a studio for days…I can do this at lunch at work.
< This one is The previous drawing I said I was not going to finish right now. I decided to post it in the current state so you can see where I am on it.
working on lighting. I chose to leave the background very much painting-like to accentuate the foreground and the style. I think my next piece will not be a person. It is rally interesting developing the drawing in this style with the layers and depths each on their own layer I can view and work on alone or looking at the whole.
I am finally posting this drawing. Frankly, I’m not entirely pleased with it and have had a terrible time figuring out what is actually causing the aspects I do not like in these drawings. I am not sure if it is the medium, the brushes, me, or what. I am pleased with my progress and the development in the depth of an image and use of layering but still find lighting an issue. Oddly, I am usually good with shadows, it is the highlights that get me. Certain materials and textures are a challenge for me. Metals, Skin, and stones are especially challenging to build up color by color without metallic colors. I need to understand a few things in Photoshop better. Overall, good progress and development, just not what I was initially intending. Makes a difference when you know someone well I think.
This is my brother. I am pleased with it and I gained some insight from it that will help in my next one. Drawing family members and people I know well has really helped me learn the tones, and textures I need to work with because I know them and I am recreating something I am familiar with in a new way.
I actually had a couple of subjects I wanted to write a blog about today but they shall have to wait because this was my first day at a new job and I am tired and have things to do still. But the ideas will ruminate about my head for a bit while they await release into the wild.
Okay, I am apparently on a family trend. I like drawing for them, and it is good practice to try and accurately recreate someone, I am learning a lot about the lines on faces and clothes and such. This is my cousin and her husband. Glad she likes it.
Obviously, this is not Victorian, but the lines mostly are and the boots are based on the shoes women wore at the time many places other than London. The open leather strap and boning corset is something I have been wanting to do but had to improve my skin tone first. The shear skirt is a new thing for me, I need to learn shear material. I did incorporate some methods I learned in my previous piece on the skin and hair especially – I think it worked rather better. This is very much a mixing of Steampunk styles and lines, but that was the intent in a way. I may do a similar one with a different skirt, I started with a bustle design but am not sure how well that came through. I am gaining confidence that the art for the game is going to develop.
Still learning my Wacom and how to make good and realistic art with it. So far, things come out too cartoonish for my taste, but I learned several good things to try more in depth in this picture. Most of them were applied to only part of this image as I tried several different methods and attempts. I think I have an idea how to become less cartoonish on my next attempts. I am still not set on my art style for the game, I need to be comfortable with the device and art first. This is an actual portrait not a steampunk or Victorian design of my own devising. This is a family member.
Working with my Wacom today I found myself doing a whole new style of art. For one thing, I have to learn portraits and people if I am going to do the art for the game. As such, I did several stages of a test male in a Victorian suit and cravat. 
I have an art style in mind that is somewhere between a slightly cartoonized old photograph and an old sketch. It requires either being able to draw all the right tones in sepia or drawing it all in color and making it sepia, so far I prefer the result of the second. I am beginning to remember more of the material recreation drawing I learned in college taking design. In the Interior design portion of my program we had a couple of classes that required exact recreations of a variety of design and construction materials using colored pencils. The Wacom is a perfect medium for a quicker version of this method. It is a good skill for this project although it can be very time consuming and I am out of practice. 
I am uncertain what my final art style will be, as I work, I find I like the images in color for the people. I may combine art styles and use different ones in different parts of the game if they blend together. I have been drawing in Photoshop. I tried GIMP but it doesn’t work right with my Wacom and I am not yet clear how to fix the problem. These are drawn only except for the one I made a sepia version of.
Art's Folly 