Egwene al'Vere

Finally, I'm done. Tweaked the colors once more as I found out they were too saturated. and also added some more elements like a falling 'raken', and the sa'angreal she used. I think I've done a little justice to Ms. Egwene al'Vere here.

Egwene al'Vere during the Seanchan Raid

Still got a lot to learn though! 

An Egwene Update

Another long weekend is coming up and I'm so excited. I get to do my stuff! Clean the house, the office, work in the garden, and of course, finish the painting. Maybe do a craft or two. Considering how stressful the job is, these little tranquil days of quiet are so precious.

As for my second painting, I've finally added a hand! Based off my own of course, and I had to strain to get a nice meaningful pose - not just your average gnarly fireball-conjuring hand.

I also toned down the colors a bit, which is a wild guess. I will have to go over the other computer to view it again, and see if my colors are right this time.

I think I'll be done before the weekend comes and I'll be posting this to my deviantart account!

Backgrounds are Hard Work!

I showed my unfinished Egwene to my boyfriend and he gave me some nice suggestions on how to improve my little painting. So I took his advice, and it got even better!

I must say, painting the background is hard. Even if they're just clouds and smoke, I really wanted to get a good mix of both drama and realism. Anyway, I still have to view this on the other computer and see how the colors turn out. My laptop's colors are screwed!

Long Weekend with Egwene

It's a long weekend once more as the Palace declared today a holiday. So I finally got some R & R and some more time to work on my Egwene project. Here's how it's coming along:

I've been trying to tone down the colors every now and then, and given that my laptop isn't calibrated, I really can't see if the colors are too intense. I'd really like a dusty look filled with debris and smoke, but I think I'll add that last. And yes, no hands yet! I have a hard time making hands so I'll be making those last ;-)

A Change of Mind

Ok, so as time went by, I kept scrutinizing my sketch of Egwene, and I finally changed my mind about it. Thankfully I did. The old sketch was a bit too rigid, with a weird arm gesture that wasn't really my first intention. I realized I wasn't following my normal thinking process, I was thinking through all the painting tutorials I found on the net. So I erased everything and started anew.

This time, I first made the flow of things, then made a really rough sketch to let the gestures flow with the movement. And I went back to my old habit - coloring without finishing the sketch!

Well, I think I've made a good job of it, as I'm much more satisfied with the progress.

I thought I could use the time-tested process, that sketches and details come first, then colors and highlights come later. I can't! I must paint immediately! Scrap the details, I'm adding highlights right now!

Alone like Egwene al'Vere

I think I'm coping up nicely being the lone 'Artender' in the Creative Department, and so far I've managed to squeeze the time to design my own artender table. Hopefully, the production team will get to fabricate it in two weeks, so I don't have to sit exposed to everyone anymore (Yes, everyone who passes by can take a peek at what I'm doing -- which would piss off any artist immensely!).

In other good news, my work was featured at dragonmount.com, which fired me up to make another WoT painting! I've been thinking about my second painting for the past month, and I've settled myself with a major character - Egwene.

So far, I've only seen two interpretations of her in The Gathering Storm, so I thought I'd contribute to the fanart community. I chose her particularly because I could somehow empathize with her, in how she handles her position of power. Although life-wise I relate to Moiraine so much more, I kinda like how Egwene 'learns' things, and in that way I think I've learned a lot from her too.

And learning from my first painting, I think it would be better to detail out a few things before I jump right into the coloring, so now I'm taking my time in sketching. Here's a sneak peek:

I may have to edit the facial features more, but so far, I'm happy with the pose. 

However, my long-time friends and I are going to have a little party this Saturday, so I think there goes my weekend painting plan. In any case, I'm taking my time with this one, and hopefully it would turn out great, if not better than Verin!

 

Work and My Assistant

Work has been incredibly tough of late. With my assistant artist submitting his resignation letter, I've been forced to take on all our brands. That includes designs for a vast range of clients: from dental products to liquor, hair care and hair styling, hotdogs and meat products, real estate, health care and pharmaceuticals, energy drinks, spice and baking products, to condoms and banking. It's a wonder I haven't posted anything this September, but still, I am thankful for all the projects.

For any who are wondering, I'm the Creative Director of my company. Well, it is a small company, and through the years, I've trained graphic artists who now have come and gone. Now, my artist who has been with me for over five years has come to the decision to leave, perhaps to pursue a higher paying job - I really haven't gone through enough investigating, but I guess I will simply have to respect his decisions and be proud of what I helped make.

So far, I've got no new artworks to post (well, if you consider brand design, I've got hundreds of those!), so I'm simply going to post pictures of my beautiful, mean cat, Siomai.

I adopted him well over a year ago, and I think he's accustomed to me well. It seems I can't take away his 'meanness' completely, but I think he's gotten so much sweeter now. He stays up late by my side, trying not to sleep when I work late, and often reminds me that it's time to sleep. And when I do, he sleeps on my towel beside me, the whole day.