Character Art for My Campaign

[arsheesh]

Hey Guys!

Well it's been a while and I've missed the Guild, so even though I don't have any new cartographic material to contribute, I wanted to share with you all my most recent project. By way of an introduction though, let me begin by saying that I have always loved to draw. I was drawing pictures almost before I could walk, and people used to joke that I was born with a pencil in my hand. But something happened shortly after highschool, I just sort of, well, stopped drawing. I don't know why really, I guess I just got caught up with other things in college. Well it's been over a decade and I am beginning to realize just how much I miss this aspect of my life. Moreover, I have always wanted to learn how to paint. In fact, ever since I discovered GIMP nearly a year ago the prospect of learning digital painting has been really appealing. Well, I finally stopped thinking about it and decided to just go ahead and take the plunge. I decided that I was going to paint some of the characters from my campaign.

I spent a couple of days checking out online tutorials on painting and digital painting and then took an old rough sketch of that I had made for a character named Mara (which was loosely based off of this picture of Summer Glau), scanned it into my computer and set to work on it with GIMP. I have uploaded the progression of the WIP below. As you can see, there is still a long way to go, but I feel like I've made allot of progress so far in just trying to learn some of the basics. Before I begun this project I had only ever worked in greyscale (aside from a few colored pencil drawings here and there) and I was intimidated by the prospect of blending colors. However taking on this project has been a real confidence booster for me. Moreover getting back into drawing (and now painting) has reawakened a part of me that I'd almost forgotten about. At any rate, I won't bore you all with my artistic euphoria, but I will be glad to here of any comments/constructive criticism that those painters and sketchers among the Guild might lend me. Thanks.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[jfrazierjr]

Good stuff! The shoulder armor pieces are photo realistic looking to me. EXCELLENT metal work!

EDIT: neck appears a bit too thin though....

[arsheesh]

Hey there jfraz, thanks for bringing this up. It does look as if Mara's neck is really thin, but that's because her hair is covering it. I think this was slightly clearer in the original sketch, but I decided to erase the hair covering part of her shoulder in the painting so that I could focus on detailing her armor. In a later stage I will paint that part of her hair back in. Also, I guess it might help to know that at this stage, all I've really been working on are Mara's face, neck and shoulder plates. As far as her hair and upper torso go, I will get to those in a bit.

[Jaxilon]

Nice job so far. I always find doing people to be such a pain. I think they are all deformed or something. I can draw animals well enough but I need to practice my humanoids.

[Steel General]

Very nice Arsheesh, about the only people I can draw with any quality are stick figures!

[arsheesh]

Thanks guys. I was busy over the Christmas break but since then I've made a little more progress on the Mara WIP. I added a leather vest (which took longer than expected). Next I will attempt to simulate chainmail for her under shirt, then I'll have to do something about her hair.

[Diamond]

My God, dude! The quality of this is better than about 95% of digital painting I've seen on DA and other places; keep this up and you'll be painting book covers before you know it. Repped!

[arsheesh]

Wow, thanks for the encouragement Diamond! This painting is taking longer than I imagined it would, but I gotta say, I'm really happy with the way it's beginning to shape up. Still have a way to go though.

[jfrazierjr]

I agree. The way you have the light blending across the model is just superb....

[arsheesh]

I injured my right hand some time ago (severed a tendon in my thumb) and that put a hold on allot of my creative activities for a while. However I've just now begun to get back to this piece. The backdrop is just a place-holder for now, I'll likely change it later on but I got tired of staring at a plain white background. I also decided to change Mara's stance. Next up I'm going to paint her arms (the right hand will be holding the pommel of the sword that will hang from her belt).

Cheers,
-Arsheesh