Elven Portrait

Dawn, I hope you don't mind. I did this from a somewhat bad photo so it's not the best likeness. Dawn as an Elf. picture 19.

All Together

I know all the pictures are on here and can be seen separately but since I have never done this kind of 3 ages of a character before I wanted to have them all together so I could see just how they progress. It isn't the best blending of the three images but I think it lets one see the ages and change better.

All Jon's Fault

Since my good friend Jon asked about the transition from the little boy to the dark adult I had to do this intermediate version. I would say the first picture was him equivalent to a 5 year old human, the adult one was maybe equal to a 25 year old human and this one is equivalent to a 12 year old human. The blue spirals are clearly not tattoos but energy patterns and his hair seems to have a mind of it's own. "Son of Two Worlds; Flow" picture 18.

I said these were Evil

I have not posted in a few days because I am painting coats of arms on a backdrop (to big to be scanned for this Weble) and I am working on the 3rd and most likely final "Son of Two Worlds" pictures. When it is done I will scan it and post it.
The reason this is evil is because I feel bad because I have not posted anything in a few days. Silly, I know, but that doesn't change how I feel. Oh, and I am being frustrated by my great art printer...it is streaking and just being a pain and I am trying to print stuff for another artist for a Gallery show she has coming up real soon! Stupid machines.

Testing Time and Showing Off

I think I figured out the time stamp thing. We will see if this says 9:36 or so or if it's still wrong.

I am "showing off" by posting an older piece that I am very happy with and just want to share with as many people as I can. In the SCA (http://www.sca.org/ ) when someone gets an award they get a scroll. I do scrolls, usually on real velum (the animal skin not the paper) based on Book of Hour pages. This is a Knighting scroll but it is an actual wooden shield. It is 38 x 25, curved wood. It is based on parade/decorative Shields from the Renaissance. I based it on the Archangel Michael from the triptych "The Virgin adoring the Child, the Archangel Raphael with Tobias and the Archangel Michael" by Pietro Perugino, 1500-1505, Florence. The face has been changed and is based on a drawing of a young man by Michelangelo. This was painted entirely in the Renaissance fashion with underpainting and layers and layers to get the colors and shading right. It is acrylics but still very period in all other ways. The words for the scroll are around the border in gold. The person who got this was happy with it and others also complimented me on it. This was done about 3 years ago now and I have 2 more Shields and want to do something else in this style soon.

Time is Relative

If someone who knows how these things work could tell me how to set the time to the current hour I would appreciate it. For some reason the time on this thing is wrong and none of the posting times are correct.

Sparks of Inspiration

Ideas for pictures come from almost anything. I get them all the time, most never develop into anything. I am sure most of my artist friends would have similar comments about inspiration and what gets them onto one idea or another.

My last picture "Son of Two Worlds; Protection" sparked this one. I now wish someone would write a story with this character. This is the same character only grown up (he changed a bit).

"Son of Two Worlds; Control". Picture 17.

Funny How Things Happen

I had a small (7 1/2 x 8) piece of reddish brown (rose?) Canson board and decided to just do whatever I wanted on it and try not to over think it. I have many photos for reference that I want to do pictures from but most just haven't found their form yet. This is one of those, the boy (yes, it's a boy even though I gave him really long hair) is from a great photo book from the 70's that I found at a used book sale. His pose, expression and hand position were things I wanted to try and capture in art.

Anime and many pictures I have recently seen by other artists influenced what came out. I love his horns and hair, the wings are not perfect but are interesting. The background and blue magical symbols do just what I wanted them to do. The piece is called "Son of Two Worlds; Protection". I already have plans to do an older version of him on black. Comments, critiques and questions as always are welcome.

Picture number 16.

Help

OK, over a year ago I was commissioned to do a sequel to this picture. I have talked to the client and she understands I am having trouble coming up with the best picture for her. She is fine with erotic/explicit (as a matter of fact I think she wants it a bit explicit). All you artist friends and anyone else who wants to throw out ideas, please help. I have tried and tried and have almost nothing. I have a sketch (to bit to scan) of the figure on his back, arms behind his head, legs slightly spread...but that is all and it's ok but not great. I also have NO idea what to have the blue fairies doing to/with him.

I REALLY feel bad not having this done yet but I want it to be worth her money and I want to be happy with it. Any ideas will be appreciated.

Silence

If I had a picture of a cricket I would post it now. Imagine the sound of crickets, you know, like when things get so quite that is all you can hear. Well, I got encouragement to keep posting and I did but now I have several posts with no reactions at all. I know, I should post and not worry about it, but I NEED feedback. (The picture is a detail from a small scroll I did, it is a grasshopper not a cricket but it's the closest I have.)

My first whitevine style scroll

Whitevine is a very complex style of illumination and the lady I did this for is a master at the style. Insanely I decided to try my first attempt at this style for her. It is done in egg tempera, with gold leafing on velum. The calligraphy, horrible as it is, was done in oak gall ink ( a period ink). The whole things is small (5 x 8 maybe I forget).

Painting at the Walters

Well, last night the Walters Art Museum had a reception for the St John's Bible, a modern bible done with modern art but produced all by hand in the way Medieval books were produced. It was very amazing. The actual Medieval books they had interspersed with the new bible in the show where spectacular!

The local SCA (my home Barony) was asked to come and be "color", walk around in garb and a few of us artist types were asked to do some illumination while there. I had preprepared (did the drawing and ink line work) for a couple scroll blanks. I expected the smaller one to be done way before my time was up, it wasn't. But I did get most of it painted while there and talked to various people about how it was done in Period.

I finished the little bit I had not gotten done at the museum once I got home and did the tiny bit of gold leafing as well. This is 4 x 5 1/4, done in egg tempera with gold leaf. For some odd reason the gold looks silvery in the scan and nothing I did adjusting color would fix it.

Black on Black

Here is my latest picture. This is done on a great black paper I found and is done in acrylics and Prisma color. Early last year or maybe even late 2007, I tried to do an Anubis picture on this same piece of paper and it just didn't come out right but I didn't trow it away. I kept it near my drawing table and kept looking at it and thinking I could "fix" it and make it work. Well, I didn't fix it, I used the back (something I almost NEVER do) and did this picture. The scan gives stronger contrast on his body than you really see on the original. As always, feedback is welcome and appreciated.

Tristan

Dreaming Majnun

"One night Majnun prays to Allah, thanking Him for making him the pure soul he now is and asking God's grace. He sleeps, and in his dream a miraculous tree springs from the desert, from which a bird drops a magic jewel onto his head, like a diadem."

This is what inspired this picture, it is part of an Arabic love story "Layla and Majnun". Look it up on the web if you want to know more about it. A friend did a cover for Tournaments Illuminated, the magazine for the SCA based on this story and after seeing what she did, and reading this part of the story, I had to try my hand at something sudo-arabic in style.

Another first for me and picture number 14 or 15 for the year. The leaves on the grey tree are gold leafed. It doesn't show well in the scan, but in person it is cool. There is more space on the right side of the picture but my scanner was to small to get it all. The whole things started out on a white page and is 9 x 12. The Arabic writing says "Majnun layla" or at least that is what it is supposed to say.

Opinions and comments welcome.

Tristan

Coming Soon

The last piece I did was a scroll for the SCA. It has not been given yet so I won't post it till after this weekend (when the person should get it). It is my first attempt at a very complex style called "white vine'. I did it all in egg tempera except the white which is an opaque watercolor and I did actual gold leafing on it. Using the actual period materials is harder than doing it in acrylics but over all I think it came out pretty good. I will post it Sunday most likely.

Before that I hope to post an Arabic style picture I am currently working on. It is not strictly proper Arabic but it is inspired by and done in a sudo-arabic style. It has gold leafing on it as well. It has been fun and interesting trying this style and I think when it is finished I will be happy with it. It may be posted later today or early tomorrow depending on when I finish it and get it scanned.

Tristan

This may be short

I reluctantly decided to get into this online thing and it seemed like a good idea at first. But since I am not getting any feedback, since it seems like a narcissistic exercise. I may just shut this down soon. I know only about 3 people ever really look at it and one of them is my husband. So it may not be long before this goes away.

Tristan

not a blog

Well, since "blog" supposedly stands for Web Log and I don't like that name, I am calling this a "Weble" from now on. Spread the word :)

Hunter

Well, I finally have a new paintshop program and can scan and resize stuff, took forever.

Here is my latest, I am very pleased with how it came out. Again it was inspired by a photo in a book on Wolves. I think the anthro aspects worked better this time and the details were fun to do. This is 15 1/2 x 12 done on Moonstone Canson board, mostly in acrylics. Let me know what you think and any good or bad things you see in this picture.

Tristan