Medieval Helm digital study

Hello all, I've been very focused the last couple of months on my fundamental drawing and painting skills, anatomy, values, compositions, etc. This is a medieval brass helm, I got my reference from a picture on the website http://www.raisonsbrassband.com . The site is great for armor reference and I may buy an item or two if I ever get some money. I know that the colors aren't quite right for brass but I ended up liking it this way so I left it.

Switching gears back to fantasy illustration.

Phosphorescent stone drake part 1

This is just my basic pencil sketch drawn on Canson illustration board.  The drake is a rare mount from the World of Warcraft and I took the original image from a stock photo from the actual game. I think that what this will end up being is practice for a larger 24"x36" masonite oil painting when the time comes. But for this one I feel like what's drawn here should give me enough to work with for laying down a acrylic underpainting and then the oils on top.

This is showing the quick underpainting that I did with an acrylic burnt sienna, I skipped over adding a lot of the details in this step because I have reference and believe that this should be enough to go by for when I paint in the oils.

Here is a quick pic I took at the start of the oil painting process. This is the first time I've ever painted with oil on an illustration board and only the second dragon I've ever made so it should be quite the learning experience. I'm finding that because I'm using Liquin as my medium (so the paint will dry quicker) it's causing the paint to be thinner thus allowing me to paint in thin layers. I'm guessing that I'll try and get most of the base colors down and then once it's dry I'll go over it again with more details.

Honestly, I would consider this to be about 65% finished, there's a lot more detail that I'd like to add in. In saying that, now that I have most of the oils down I'm going back through parts that I might want to change like making the jaw a bit bigger, adjusting some of the dark and light colors and then going over parts that I feel need more detail.  I've been thinking about if I want to put a background in. I may even import this into Photoshop for that and for some finishing touches.

How "Not To" avoid overcrowding the composition~Violet Forest~ Acrylic on canvas

This image looks a little too sharp for my taste and there's too much light hitting the lower left hand corner of the canvas. I may upload a better image because I've been quite interested in the photography of my paintings lately. Shot with my new Canon T3i, love it but theres a lot to learn about using a D-SLR.

The Cobalt Trees~24" x 48" Acrylic on canvas

This was shot with my new Canon DSLR camera. Before I upgraded to the 18 megapixel model.

Another misty blue forest~18" x 24" Acrylic on canvas

Working in the influence of Alan Kingwell~ 10" x 20" Oils on canvas

Twinergy (thumbnail painting) Oil on canvas 8" x 10"

I got this idea from running around in the World of Warcraft, not that it really has anything to do with the game. I was basically just trying to capture the essence of some of the zones. They have an amazing amount of beautiful lands to explore in WoW and after playing off and on for the past 6 years I'm surprised that I haven't done a lot more, there's certainly plenty of inspiration there.
 Anyway, this is the first version of the larger painting I'm working on now.Basically a thumbnail painting which now I'm glad I made because it's given me ideas of what to put into the bigger piece. It's also given me a chance to put some rocks into my work, something that was previously non-existent. I'm thinking of some large crystals (WoW) and maybe more energy floating around. We'll see.

Etsy shop re-opened

So with a year or so off from selling my paintings online, I've decided to try it again but this time I'll be adding giclee prints and smaller sized canvas originals among other items like greeting cards (maybe). Hopefully these will offer more options to people that might want my art but can't afford the more expensive paintings. Here's the link to the shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/VenskeArtStudio?ref=si_shop Thanks in advance, even if your just going to look. It's all appreciated.

Turn Your Vacation into a Painting! - Dominici Studios

Turn Your Vacation into a Painting! - Dominici Studios

WinterSpring Forest- Oil on canvas- 18" x 24"

     
- I'd like to thank Alan Kingwell once again for his inspirational style which led me to to create this.