I too have succumbed to the love of My Little Pony.  Or maybe its more accurate to say that I've relapsed.  I like to dabble in 3D works occasionally and I needed a new keychain, so I decided to make a pony.  I made her with a specific pony in mind, but since she doesn't really look like her (silly old me didn't use a reference) I like to think of her as a knockoff.  I still think she turned out pretty well though.

This picture is a revision of one I made years ago.  I remember really loving the old one, and I'm pretty happy with the revision piece too.  I really need to improve upon my backgrounds though! I used a couple of different pictures of Pittsburgh as a city reference, which I think is pretty obvious with the excess of bridges and smokestacks.  Hopefully I can post a full body character reference of her sometime soon, though its still pretty early in that picture's development.

Since I was late with this week's update, I hope I can update later this week with a new piece that I've been working on.  Fingers crossed!

I'll keep it short and sweet tonight, but I have two completed pieces and a new concept to show!  I've been feeling somewhat artistically drained lately, but I think that comes and goes for everyone, so all I have to do is push through!

My Hanged Man tarot card is complete! Or nearly complete, I kind of want to give him pants with some texture now that he's up.  I'd love to make a series and do all the tarot cards, but I think that will just be an idea that I'll work on when I feel like it and not be a major deadline project.  I do like how he came out- though I have to say he has questionable taste in pants.

Oh and a completed Harley picture too!  I threw Bats in there because I loved the thought of him dodging her while she's juggling chainsaws and being surly all the while.  I do love some batman surliness.  Its also rare for me to do a full background, but I think it turned out well.

 

And it wouldn't be an update if I didn't have a terrifying  woman monster to add as well. 

Dare I say it.... I think I have a post with an actual completed work to show today!!!  I got into a Morrigan kick when I was playing the latest Marvel Vs. Capcom.  I have to admit I wasn't too fond of Morrigan (or Lilith) originally, but they've both grown on me over the years. 

I still have a background to do on this but its coming along rather nicely and I think I'll wrap it up within the week.  I plan on having a disgruntled Bats in the chainsaw reflection, but try as I might I couldnt find a reference for anything reflected in a chainsaw (imagine that) so I may scrape that idea entirely.  But I kind of like the idea of Batman sneaking his way into it too...or that Harley's chucking her chainsaws at him.

I am strongly considering renaming this blog the "Half Finished Works of Karyn Elise".  I have two more works in progress to show.... though they're separate pieces I figured I'd throw them together.  The skeleton man is a revamp of a work that I did two years ago.  I did a whole series on tarot cards, though I thought my hanged man was the only one that I could salvage two years later.  The woman is just a quick skin tone practice that I did during the week that I rather liked. 

 Nothing else new to  say... other than the fact that I really hate doing backgrounds.  I should get to work on that.  Til next time Mooninites!

New style time!  This is a portrait sketch that I did of a character design that I'm working on.  I usually sketch and fill in values by crosshatching before scanning it in, so I thought I could try to do the same when I painted digitally.  Its definitely a different technique for me- to rely a little more on trying to keep the 'sketchy' aspect of the original work.

I'm not quite sure what going on with his hair or the top of his head, to tell you the truth.  I originally thought of slapping a helmet on him, but I'm not sure if my lack of knowledge with hats in general is preventing me from getting a good sketch of it or not… eh.  I may do his full body sketch and see what works out- maybe that will help me figure out what to do with his headgear. 

Ahh, just a silly little update for tonight.  I'm working on serious portfolio stuff so this was a cute little project that I worked on when I got sick of buckling down. 

This sketch was done quite a long time ago but I dragged it out and coloured it when I was having a moment when I needed to just colour something and have fun.  These are my two favorite skullbone men, Skellington Jack and Brooke from One Piece.  Brook thinks of himself as very gentlemanly but usually ruins this image when he asks about women's panties.  I tend to like his enthusiasm though. 

So after a week or two of just one picture updates, here's a post with two!  I'm in the midst of making some portfolio worthy pieces, so I've been vamping up some pieces that I deemed possibly show worthy as well as trying to finish up some other things (that may not be quite worthy of making the cut).  First up is the finished product of my succubus cthulu design.

 

She may have some small improvements added to her later (if I notice something that I absolutely must change), but for the most part she's 100 percent  completed.  I nearly wept when she was done- she was more of a hassle to create than I originally had anticipated. I think what was most difficult was figuring out how many tentacles she had and where they were going! I hadn't thought that I was going to have to also paint a back to my succubus, so I went a little wild with my first design.  I drove myself crazy trying to figure out what went there, so I finally had to make a colour cheatsheet to ensure that I had eight tentacles and that they all connected together.  

With the colour system in place it was a lot easier to figure things out.  And I managed to correct a mistake or two...for example I had the baby blue tentacle originally attached to the purple one which would have made no sense in the original design.  Even with the colours added I still sometimes got lost while counting though!

This is a quick colour sketch of a picture I posted here a while ago.   Usually when I draw I have a decent idea of the background of the character that I draw.  I figured that she was a rather saucy magician type, but I found myself labeling her as a dancer in my notes.  Perhaps she creates her own special effects?  But more importantly-

Seriously.  They both must be very chilly dressed like that. 

Today I just have one update to make, as I've been busy with other portfolio related works and have been mostly in the plotting and brainstorming stages of art anywho.  Its also a little more rough around the edges than my usual works in progress, but I like to think that gives it charm.

 

This is a picture of Hel, who is the being who rules over the realm of Death in Norse mythology.  I really wanted to work on making a fun perspective piece, and I've been dying to make a picture of her for years.  She contains quite a bit of artistic interpretation, as the historical Hel is supposed to be half skeletal unhappy corpse and half woman but I like her odd bone-like markings.  The random lines framing her are where I intend to cut the picture off when I'm completed..after she's a bit more done of course.  The background still needs completed - I do tend to slack off on backgrounds, I think- but so far I'm really digging it.  Pillars seems like an appropriate addition for a death home, don't you think? 

Works in Progress

No early update this week- whoops, got a bit ahead of myself, I suppose, but two nearly completed works to show!

The skin tones are still rather flat on this one, and I'm experimenting with a target background.  This piece comes from a short story that I was thinking about drawing out one day soon.  In short its about an assassin who drags an unwitting accomplice into her schemes.  I was just playing around with poses and character design with this one, though I'm pretty happy with the nearly completed finished product.

This piece is one I've been kicking around and updating for quite some time now.  For right now I only have the skin tones, but I've been working on also adding some colour to the graffiti as well.  I've tried out several scenarios, but have yet to be completely happy with it.  I'll update when I finally manage to get it just right! 

Vociferous Vocalizations!

Nothing too new to report, other than the fact that the v button on my laptop fell off suddenly today so I had to have my tech genius reattach it.  Why would a letter that I rarely use suddenly betray me?  Its so odd!  I suppose I should use as many v's as possible until it does happen to break.

I've been on such a Bioware kick lately, though I did do this piece as a commission.  I like Tali, though I think that if I had to pick one of the alien crew she would be second after Garrus.  This is only the beginning of the piece, as I may end up doing a full figural sketch.  I will probably keep this inking, though I plan on somehow working the Geth plasma shotgun into the piece.  So far its just in its infancy, but I have high hopes for the finished product of this one.  This is just a small preview before I post the final product.

I also ending up finishing up the Bobbi work that I posted last week.  I think that maybe the crotch of her pants ended up being too low, so I may end up changing that.  I also put a free background that I found online at succodesign.it, (being horrifically tired of white backgrounds) though the dots are just a temporary fix until I can paint in an appropriate background.  Somehow the circle print ended up working well though, and I was too excited about it to hold off on posting it for another week while I toiled away at architecture. 

Just two pieces for this Friday, though I may post a mini-update sometime later this week.  Til' then, friendlies!

Fanart Fantasma!

This is the portrait that I'm doing for a friend of mine…I plan on finalizing it a little bit more before I give it to her, but the face is pretty much done.  I like the tweed pattern too, I imagine the character as being kind of sweet but also kind of dorky.  The tweed pattern might be a little strong, so I may tone it down with the finished product.

This was just a quick practice sketch that I did after the latest Berserk release, drawn by the genius that is Miura.  Slan isn't a particular favorite of mine- there are too many well constructed and deep characters for that- but she does have a particular flair to her.  I can't help but like a succubus who shows up by possessing the entrails of monsters. 

Oddly enough, I have absolutely no idea what colour she is in actuality.  Just when she's intestines.  Then she's that lovely blend of purple and pink!

Slan is property of Kentaro Miura. 

It must be a fan arty kind of week for me, though I'm not so happy with this one.  Its just a part of a much larger picture that I plan on doing with the Big Sister as well, though I think the Little Sister looks a bit too posed.  I think that's probably the result of the reference photo that I used, so I'll probably switch it up before I post the final product. 

Oh Dear..

Its been a busy day and I hate to update this close to the end of Friday- but an update before midnight is still a Friday update, right?  ....right?


Only one coloured picture tonight, although I did redo two older sketches that I had laying about.  The first is cute a fun sketch of one of my favorite subjects- skeletons!  I've always been fascinated with them ever since I was young, and I'll occasionally sneak them into my work.  And by sneak I mean they're constantly around.

The ravens are a kinda new touch though.  I made this as a preliminary sketch for a friend- but for some reason she thought it was a little macabre.  They look like happy enough skeletons to me.  Maybe she's ornithophobic?

Here's my Viking man.  I got a little carried away with textures with him, but I thought he turned out pretty nicely.  Now that I look at him I see that I forgot to finish his belt, but I couldn't decide on what kind of symbol or pattern to put on it. 

And finally I have a character design that I did for a friend of mine who is a comic writing genius.  Of the cast that he's told me about she's definitely my favorite- a badass woman hellbent on revenge.  I'll post her up again when I get her coloured too. 

Til next time kiddies!

Friends! Lovers! Companions!

Here's the finished product of the Succubus portrait that I uploaded last week.   She's probably my favorite piece to date-sort of a succubus and cthulu all mixed into one.  I tried to make her a bit creepy- I enjoy the idea of her lurking on sunken ships and camouflaging herself until sailors come along- where she'll promptly jump out and eat them.  She seems to sort of mockingly play the damsel in distress card too, at least until she gets close enough to actually grab someone.  Hopefully I'll get more monsters uploaded soon.

As Promised-!

Here are two other pieces that I've been working on this week. 

This one is a quick colour study I did of a larger piece that I'll be showing later this week.  I have to say I'm rather fond of this piece- though the final product turned out to be a little bit different.  I left my colour palette in the upper corner too- I find if I don't limit my colours I tend to go pretty crazy and then everything looks messy and like a mish-mash of colour.

This piece is a bit of concept art from a story that I'm making with my wonderfully excellent old roommate, who is also happens to be a wonderfully excellent writer.  These are two pretty minor characters, but I rarely draw children so these two were a treat.  If I ever have twins I would definitely make them wear matching socks.

Just A Quick Post

Hello all!

Just wanted to upload a quick colour sketch I did of Dragon Age's Anders before I head out for the night.  I'll be updating a couple more pictures later tonight, but I wanted to get this one out there.  If you haven't played Dragon Age yet you should pick up a copy!  Its fantastic!  Anders is property of the excellency of Bioware.  :)

This is the first part of a series that I did concerning mixing insects and people.  It turned out rather Mucha-esque in my opinion... though it had humble beginnings as just a quick sketch that I managed to turn out during my break at work.  I named this piece Elizabetta, which seems like a good name for an overly concerned with her looks arachnid lady.  I'm working on a full body picture of her as well that I'll be posting soon.  I particularly liked how she turned out though, especially for an introductory piece. 

This next one is a sketch I did for a friend of mine who requested an owl tattoo.  I had a hard time deciding on the colour choice for this guy, so I ended up looking up "owls" and finding the Weebl Internet song.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8el_P4yvfc

"Everyone is fond of owls!  -Except for mice and shrews and Simon Cowells!"
Funny that I never knew that there were multiples of Simon Cowells. 

This is a commission that I'm currently working on and hope to complete in the next couple of weeks.  She's a night elf from the WoW series, which I've never personally played due to its cocaine like addictive properties.  I originally wanted to try to make a .gif of the flowers opening and closing on the image, but I decided against it because I have limited experience with gifs.  I still like the idea though!  I just need to finish up the background and this one is as good as done!

This final one is another quick little sketch that I did at work the other day and hope to colour in soon.  Those odd looking shapes on her arms and legs are supposed to be the highlight points of her skin.   I rather like the smirk on her face, though I may alter the bottom hand to be more active in the piece. 

-K. Romestan

First Blog Post

Hello and welcome to my blog! 

Feel free to check in every Friday…that's when I'll be posting each week's sketches and doodles.  My main goal is to have at least one fully completed piece of work for each week as well as updates on other pieces.  Please feel free to comment, critique and show your friends. 

So stay for a while, relax and enjoy!!!