Flames Ignite
A few weeks ago, I started chatting with a friend I made years ago when I was into wolf RPGs. I decided that it was a good time to paint her wolves again (I painted Sinclair for her last year) as a way to celebrate my return from the art block, and also to fill in gaps between personal art pieces. I currently have a piece in mind that I’d like to paint, but my confidence in painting it well is pretty low, considering how human facial features would be part of the main focus. I’ve purchased a Domestika course for that, and I hope to continue learning again, but not until I finish the current course I’m on. It won’t be until another few weeks before I’m ready to dive into painting humans again. So here we are!
As usual, light and colours. Those were my focus when I started planning this. When I started setting the colours down, I somehow turned to gradient maps to see how the piece can become a little more elevated. I stumbled on the green, and I knew it was just right for Lachlan. He’s not particularly friendly, and I felt the colour green would make the whole atmosphere go a little more towards the ‘evil’ spectrum. Lachlan originally did not have irises, only a plain pair of orange eyes. I’d hoped to use them as a way to make the piece look cooler (a simple reason but entirely legit), but I ended up giving him irises, because he would have looked strange otherwise.
The most fun I had was filling up the entire background with vegetation. It felt great to see it all come together, from a flat piece, to something more interesting and more alive.
The struggle was getting Lachlan to look right. The problem I had the most was with his face. There was something about it that didn’t look right and I dwelled on it for quite a while, not knowing what was wrong but knowing that something was wrong. I nailed it eventually, I think, including the curve of his rump. Anyway, despite everything, it was an honour to be able to paint this as a gift for a friend. Lachlan has a very interesting backstory and design, which was why I knew I had to paint him. He struck my muse. If it looks like he’s snarling, he’s not. His left jaw has been left exposed after a big fight.
I’d also like to share this resource that I felt was useful to me. It’s a tutorial about the fur direction on a wolf and their anatomy. If there’s something about the way I paint animals… instead of studying their anatomy and knowing at first glance what is wrong with how I’ve painted them, I always rely on reference photos and do a comparison. It’s a bad habit that stems from laziness, and I want to change.
I’ll be painting another wolf real soon. Can’t wait!
#mydaily5
In the midst of everything, I found paintable.cc on Instagram and their #mydaily5 art challenge that resets every month. The art challenge encourages artists to create something based on the daily prompts within a time frame of five minutes (hence, the name). If an extension is required, one should not exceed thirty minutes. When I first started this challenge, I thought I’d burn out really quickly, but the time constraint really helped.
As the main title for this month’s prompt is ‘tarot’, I decided to challenge myself by thinking of tarot cards when I created every piece. It reminded me of a time when I was into tarot and yearning to learn how to read them. This gave me a chance to scrutinise every card to find inspiration, and I learnt to appreciate the Rider-Waite artwork a lot more through this exercise.
For day 1, I was inspired by the Ace of Cups,
Day 2: Six of Wands
Day 3: The World
Day 4: The Empress
Day 5: Eight of Pentacles
Day 6: Six of Swords
Day 7: The Moon
Day 8: The Fool
Day 9: Judgement
Day 10: King of Pentacles
Day 11: The Devil
Day 12: Wheel of Fortune
Unfortunately, I fell sick on day 11. I managed to push through it and day 12 amidst a fever. I couldn’t bring myself to continue with subsequent ones because I was exhausted and I had already missed so many days. The drive to continue had disappeared. Instead of forcing myself to continue, I’ve decided to leave it be. Either way, this is truly a feat in itself because I have never painted for twelve consecutive days before! It felt freeing to paint without having to be perfect. To Paintable, the important thing was to complete something. Details don’t matter. I focused a lot on composition and colours. Challenging myself to paint something I usually don’t was exciting, because I got to see what I’m capable of. It was my first time painting a sword, for example. Day 6 is also my favourite piece out of the twelve, followed closely by day 8. Care to share in the comments which one your favourite is? I’d be happy to hear!
My heart to yours,
Elaine
Do you have an art challenge (e.g. swordtober) you pick up every year? When did you start and what is it about the challenge you like so much about?