Aes Sedai: Siuan Sanche

Finally I'm done! Say hello to Siuan Sanche, the Amyrlin Seat in the Wheel of Time: The Great Hunt. This is the scene where she visits Nynaeve al'Meara and Egwene al'Vere aboard the Tar Valon bound ship and teaches them a quick lesson.

I believe this is Robert Jordan's foreshadowing of Siuan's future. In that particular scene, she channels a sword made out of Air upon Nynaeve's remark that she's rather learn to use one. Siuan, while astounding the two girls by making the sword appear out of nowhere, further says that a sword is almost useless. She then turns it into a paring knife, saying that the knife was more useful. In the future, Siuan Sanche realizes she's more useful with her reduced status than before.

Siuan Sanche 

Silverpike!

Added some 'silverpike' earrings and completed the rest of the stole. Softened some shadows on her face and added some neck details. *sigh* I really need to learn speedpainting.

Sick with Siuan

Got a little sick literally, and by the time I've finished half her shoulder, my nose is already dripping wet. And I thought I've finally gotten all the time to finish her this vacation week. I was planning to do a little plant shopping tomorrow and work on the garden a little more, just in time for Easter. Ah well, let's see what happens tomorrow. Maybe I'll work on Siuan again tomorrow night.

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!

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!

Aes Sedai: Verin Mathwin

It appears I couldn't stop myself from adding a background. Whenever I peek at this painting, something seems to be missing. So here, I've added some village houses and a few scraggly pines. I think it sort of completes the picture, adding a sense of scale into it.

Verin Mathwin in Emond's Field

Here's a close-up of Verin again:

Verin Mathwin

Well, to say the least, I'm quite satisfied for now. I think I can have a good night's sleep tonight, ending my  week-long vacation. I didn't go out of the house except for buying stuff, and instead I just cleaned and worked on the garden (which I would post about one of these days!).

New Stuff and Painting One (Part Five - Final)

Finally! I'm done with my very first digital painting. Although I was first meaning to put in a lot of detail, I think both laziness and exhaustion got the better part of me. Well, I wouldn't want to drain myself so I think I'd just stick with the basics.

Verin Mathwin

Background does seems little plain. Anyway, it's still my first, so I'll be studying how to make better backgrounds in the future. Hey, if you want a copy of this for your desktop, feel free to comment or contact me here, and I'll send you one!

New Stuff and Painting One (Part Four)

Almost there! I think I've done around 60 percent of the total composition and I'm liking the feel of it. I'm already itching to adjust the depths, but I can't do that unless every element has been laid out.

In other news, I'm planning to help my colleague clean up the office, with all these cigarette butts lying around. I will have to find some cheap ashtrays to assign everyone, one big ashtray for all is encouraging laziness! So I thought why not assign people their own ashtrays with their big names stuck on the little canisters - that way everyone gets to see who smokes like a chimney and who acts like a slob. Brilliant! If I may say so myself :)

Trollocs and Trolling

After watching the second season premier of Grimm last night, I was feeling a bit shady til I fell asleep. Then, a few disappointments at work and facing my pet emotional vampires...coupled with my growing insecurity became my little clammy sandwich for dinner. I don't know why I should feel this insecure, I'm way better in almost every aspect I can think of.

Maybe it's just an 'older child' thingie. Where you don't get praise enough and the younger, problematic child gets all the praise and comforting. I'll probably get over it soon, and hopefully before the day ends. I have absolutely no reason to feel insecure, and every reason to feel privileged

Anyway, as far as painting goes, I've added another element to my Verin composition. Trollocs! So far, they're not as detailed yet. But here's a sneak peak.

Kinda looking like a cross between a rat and a boar, and I think I'll continue to depict trollocs this way - as not just from one species of either bird, boar or goat, but as a mix of human+2more species. Hopefully I can do more and not take shortcuts... I have to do 3 more big ones, and a bunch of background trollocs!

New Stuff and Painting One (Part Three)

Dammit, I can't put the pen down. As soon as I've stopped working for the day, I immediately grabbed the pen and started painting right away!

Here's the painting progress so far...  

Verin Mathwin Unfinished

After hours of trying different techniques, I've finally found the most comfortable and easiest way to digitally paint: Splash on the darker colors, and let the light ones define the picture.

I don't think I mentioned how tired I am of seeing 'static' portraits of the Wheel of Time characters. Everything you see is a studio portrait, where the character seems to stand or sit still, and 'pose for the camera'. Well, to deviate from that, I'm aiming to paint Verin Mathwin in a very dynamic scenario! (By the way, I'm still at 1/4th of the entire painting!). Here's a closer look:

Verin Mathwin Unfinished Closeup

I've also added some symbolic touches of my own: a black sash for a belt, and white under-sleeves. I'm sure you Wheel of Time readers will understand ;-)

New Stuff and Painting One (Part Two)

So far, so good. I've taken some new approaches to my painting style, and it seems that I will always revert back to my style 10 years ago. I'll try hard to flex these point-of-view muscles as much as I can, but as for now I will have to do what feels comfortable.

After sketching the layout, I proceed with some details. As I've often said, I like to put intricacies last, most artists (like those who love comics), start with most details, almost to the point of finishing it off. I kinda jump right in with the layout, coloring first, then applying the details. Sometimes, doing both at the same time.

Bear with me, I've been off painting for more than a decade. Here's the progression...

I noticed that too much detail on faces causes the pixels to merge (unpleasantly) when zoomed out. So here I tried to minimize the facial features - believe me, I've a hard job restraining myself.

Verin Mathwin Painting

Well, I guess I'm a little satisfied. Not too ecstatic about it, but for a first, I'm quite happy with it. By the way, I'm sure all you Wheel of Time fans out there would have recognized the character from the 'plumpness' and colors used. It's Verin Mathwin! Know more about her at: http://wot.wikia.com/wiki/Verin_Mathwin