Women of the Bible

Here are two of the finished pieces from my Women of the Bible Series thus far. Unfortunately, I had trouble uploading the Esther final :( I'll try it again later. And Sapphira is still in the works.... For now, I have Delilah and Mary of Bethany for your viewing pleasure.

Delilah - water color, 11"x17"

Just today, I shot reference for the next lady in my series - Salome! The daughter of Herodium, who after dancing so well she pleased Herod, was offered by the king anything she wanted up to half his kingdom. What did she do? Ask for mamma's advice, of course. What did she say? Ask for John the Baptist's head on a silver platter, of course. And thus we have the beheading of John.

Can't wait to share the preliminary sketches - stay tuned!

Book Cover - almost finished

My book cover assignment is nearly finished!

Corel Painter X

I painted the majority of this all in one night. Phew! I'm pooped out. Goodnight!

Delilah Thumbnail and Value Study

This is the sketch I started with.


Next, I took reference, using a two model, a lighting studio, and proper equipment (it was my first time using the studio and equipment - it was great!). Using my photos, I made the drawing, which I then copied to a small size and worked on this value study - a mix of pencil and photoshop.

I hope to have the color comp underway - maybe finished?! - this weekend. And I'll shoot reference for another piece on Tuesday.

Only a few more weeks until these are all wrapped up - yikes! Wish me luck, pleeeaaasse!

Sapphira Sketches

So, I'm not finished Esther yet, but I'm moving on to another piece in my series: Sapphira.

You can read the story of Sapphira here.

Here's my thumbnail.



And here's a study for the face I've been working on tonight. In the unfinished one, I used my own face as a model because the reference I had of the other model didn't have the right expression. However, working for the reference of her and the reference of my expression, I was able to blend the two and finish the study with the intended model.



Now, I'll do the final drawing, so I can scan it and start the color study by Tuesday. Then, I'll shoot reference for Delilah on Wednesday and begin that sketch right away.

Forward motion!

The Lady or The Tiger?

To take a break from Esther here's something different. I finally put the pencil to the paper, and, while it's not a whole lot, this all occured between 9AM - 3PM tpday.

**NUDITY WARNING**

What started out as a "book cover" illustration for the short story, "The Lady or The Tiger" morphed into a fantasy book cover with an unidentified tiger-lady as the featured character. Here are my character designs and layouts in pencil/digital sketches.

Progress!

I'm making progress on my final! At this point it SHOULD only take another day to finish it up. At this point, it looks like it's from the zombie apocalypse adaptation of Esther...but I promise it won't for long. So pumped :)

Esther: Updated Color

Here is my updated color study!  I spent some time playing with my first one in Photoshop to see how far the image needed to be pushed, and then I pushed it traditionally on the original study.  After pumping up the colors and focus, as well as changing some lighting, I am much happier with moving forward.

See for yourself how it's changed below.  The first version is on the left and the newer is on the right.

Unfortunately, some other projects need to come before the next stage of this piece. But I'm finally on my way to the final!