On Gnomes

FANTASY CHARACTERS used to be my forte in high school. I moved away from them in college since the art classes I took encouraged practice by drawing life studies. I hope that I can apply what I learned in coursework to fantasy characters- a friend of mine asked me to sketch out some characters for a high-level D&D game he wanted to run in December.

So I took a shot at the Gnome character. Having no real idea what 'Gnome' meant in D&D terms, my first attempt was a look very similar to David from the children's tv show David the Gnome, which in turn is very similar to a garden gnome. (Blame the crap quality of the picture on my camera phone since my scanner isn't hooked up yet.)

Tee hee! Cute lil guy, but not what a D&D Gnome looks like. After a little more guidance from my friend, I came out with the second attempt, which is something I'll work on and color:

Albatross finished

AT LONG LAST the Albatross is finished. It was picked up, paid for and framed. And from what I hear, it looks really good above a mantle. I'll have to go and take a photo of it to show how it looks with the frame. I had nothing to do with picking out the frame- which is great, because I can't match things like that.

I'm happy to have finished it- now I can move on to other artistic projects. I'm glad for the experience, though- I've definitely learned that I can just pick up some paints and make something satisfactory... something good, even. I learned that people do actually appreciate/ like my art... and the possibility of following this road as a focus is becoming more and more a reality.

2009 Fresh Start - Drawing Blog

As part of my 2009 resolutions, I thought that I'd actually use this blog for something. It has been a desire of mine to improve my artistic skill and do something more with it than just draw an occasional piece for a special occasion. So, I'll start today or tomorrow (life gets in the way of art quite a bit for me) and post up some sketches I've been putting on paper.

I've had schooling in painting and figure drawing (but never the two together!).. and I find myself most happy when drawing from life. Of late, I've been in a D&D fantastical character kind of drawing mood. Since I don't have a minotaur sitting in front of me when I draw one, it often ends up lacking in many ways. Ah, we'll see what I can scrounge up in the next few days.