What I painted last night

Ever since I saw Fantastic Mr. Fox, I've wanted one of Felicity Fox's storm paintings on my wall. Like this:

And last night I got the hankering to paint, so I made this:

It's far from perfect, but I only spent an evening on it, and I rather like how it looks on my wall.  I painted it on a 5" x 7" canvas with a 1.5" deep profile, and I wrapped the image around the sides, which is a nice feature, I think. It would have benefited from being painted on a larger canvas, since my brushes only get so small and the details can get clunky at this scale.

That's all.

Character design and Disney style

I've never been very strong with character design, so I ordered a couple of books on the subject. Been watching some YouTube tutorials, too. Interestingly, most of what I've been able to find is from current or former Disney artists. So naturally, the things I draw afterwards look Disney-ish. These are a few doodles from my sketchbook.

I'm constantly trying to define "my style," and this isn't necessarily it. But I'm learning new things from it. One thing I'm digging in particular is learning how to keep my characters from looking static and lame in their environments. My hope is to imbue my illustration work with a little more cinematic quality. Interesting camera angles, dramatic lighting, dynamic poses. My idol in that respect is illustrator Pascal Campion. Everything that man touches is so full of life.

The latest Fine Doodles

It's been a while since I've done a Fine Doodle, focusing more on illustration in the past year or so. But two old clients popped up this year and ordered a few. Each of these was originally drawn by a young child, then painted by me. Here they are:

Psychedelic Seahorse...love that title

Animal Fairy

Carousel Horse

For glory and for beauty

All of my faith-based paintings can now be found at forgloryandforbeauty.tumblr.com. Take a look, tell your friends.