Keeping up with nature

 So without further stalling for time I present to you a somewhat recent illustration I did for a very good and very far away friend of mine. The Record Keeper of the Forest!

My friend is a big fan of nature, so I wanted to try and craft my artwork with a strong natural appeal. I wanted to come up with a character that would be really interesting and different. Rather than going the road of fairy or dryad, or any other countless fantasy creatures, I tried to think of a unique character and one that could sit in a tree at that. I tried to imagine what an office worker might look like if they worked in a forest. Even nature needs to keep track of it's assets, right? The blue bird is like an assistant, who bring up scrolls from storage for her to peruse.

I was really happy with how the face came out on this one. There's something I can't quite put my finger on. The main challenge here was the tree itself. As one of the largest elements in the image, just doing cell shading didn't seem appropriate. Especially since I was playing up the naturalness of the illustration, I wanted to express the texture of the tree. So it took quite a lot of playing around before I was satisfied. Textures in this style can't be too realistic, otherwise they don't fit well with the flatter parts. But hey it worked out in the end. Sorry about the lack of updates lately, I've been really hunting trying to find a job.

I'm also now a proud member of Illustrators Australia! Which is a professional body of illustrators in Australia, hopefully I'll be able to pick up some jobs through them. It's also good to be part of a larger community, so hopefully I can start making connections too. See my IA profile here.

Until next time, (note that 'next time' is not bound by any standard measure of time-space relationships).

Devonshire Tea in the Void

Hi there people who like art! Let's face it, you aren't here for my charming conversational-style writing. It's the artwork you want. Well today you're in luck, as I have for you not just the image you see before you, but also some new pages out of my sketch book. Not to mention some re-scans of a couple of other pages, that originally looked quite horrible.

So about the Gentleman Spacer. It was a piece for a friend's birthday. Quite simply I wanted to combine two things he loves, that being steam-punk and science-fiction. I immediately started wondering what a wealthy gentleman would look like if he wanted to go EVA while on a deep space cruise. I just couldn't resist the cybernetic arm, I also tried to incorporate the top hat into the helmet in some way, but just wasn't coming up with anything that looked too great. I thought the eyes in particular came out really well. I knew I wanted to incorporate some kind of crest in the chest plate, but I really wanted to steer clear of clichés like roses or lions, and instead opted for something no gentleman can be without, tea

So now the sketchbook pages...

 So that's it from me for now, in the next week I should have another piece to upload, just waited for my friend to receive it first. I'm sorry about the lack of updates, but I've been trying to find a job and haven't been having too much luck. Until next time...

Silhouettic

Hi there blog watchers! Sorry about the lack of new updates. I'm still working on speediness, but I've also been doing heaps of very dry and boring studies, which just really aren't that exciting to look at. I figure that if I'm not really enjoying doing them, they're probably not worth looking at. Anyways I digress.

So this new piece continues the same sketching style used in one of my last uploads. Each figure starts as a silhouette, just black paint on the digital canvas. This makes me focus on the overall shape and stops me focusing on all the intricate details, which of course comes later. It's been really great for coming up with more interesting designs, so I'll be sure to continue doing them in the future.

Soon I'll be uploading a new piece of work I did for a very good friend of mine, so look forward to that.

This is Reiko signing off...Beep...
Beep

The hard road of self-teaching

Hey there everyone in internet land. I've decided to share a whole heap of stuff I've been doing in the last month. I hear you ask "so what is it?" Well to answer your heartfilled question:

I've been learning fundamental skills. It got to the point where I would never stick to practicing things like perspective, digital painting and lighting. So I went for my ultimate in desperate measures and made up a uni-like timetable. Now I'm doing 9 hours of study every week day and I'm pretty impressed with the results thus far. Just having a formal timetable set up really helps to keep me motivated. However don't take my word for it, check it out yourself! Below is a selection of work I thought was particularly good. Remember to look in the 'sketchbook' section for more stuff

Thanks for looking and see you next time, in a reality much like this one.

Agemashita Omedetou!

Hello there! Here is another artwork for you to enjoy.

This is the one I mentioned in my last post, reconfigured to become an image for this year of the dragon. Again I broke new ground, this time completely digitising the entire process (sketch included). I think I'm finally starting to get used to my Wacom.

I'm not quite certain what will come next, but keep watching the skies...or this blog whichever works for you.

Australian Influence

Hi there!

I recently drew a present for two Japanese friends heading back home in March. I really wanted to give them something before they left, so I designed a Chinese new year illustration for them. Though after getting opinions from others I decided to go with a strong Australian influence (especially since Australia day had only recently passed). I've put 3 Australian things in this image so see if you can guess them.

This is only the second time I've worked digital for the final illustration and I'm quite pleased with the results. Pretty soon I'll finish the Chinese new-year image I designed originally. ^_^

Quick Concept Number Three

Hello there. As the title suggests here is Quick Concept number three. I'm thinking I really should come up with  a better name for this series: I think it'd be great to turn it into a little book. But enough of my secret plans for illustration domination.

So as you might have guessed, this concept was to cross Roman legion style armour with a current technology EVA spacesuit. Now the Romans can expand their empire into the stars. Veni Vidi Vici. 

 I developed an interesting logo on the helmet, but it ended up being so small that I only got a rough shape in there. It was of the mythological founders of Rome, 'Romulus and Remus'. In the story they were rescued by a she-wolf, So I chose to use the 'Capitoline wolf' for a logo, looking over two planets. This is a reference to one of Star Trek's more well known races, the Romulans. Their capital planets are called Romulus and Remus

Though I said in my last post that I try not to put so much detail into these works, there has been a steady rise in the amounts of detail from the first one to the third. Oh well, the important thing is that I'm getting quicker and better. I'm proud of the metal in particular, unlike some other drawings I've been doing this one really looks like shiny metal. I also didn't spend nearly as long agonising over colours like I usually do: This is probably because I've been getting colour palettes from photos rather than trying to blindly work out what colours would work well.

So that's it from me, see you next time.