Aqua

Wanted to paint another underwater scene with this one, as it's always a lot of fun. I referenced the figure from my friend Diego's gallery (http://www.flickr.com/photos/diegofraustro), who's an amazing photographer. Learned a lot about how colors and skin tones work with this piece as well.

Dusk: Emo/Goth Vampire

Another illustration completed for 'Dusk'. I spent a lot of time on the background here, which was difficult because the deadline was very tight, but it was a fun challenge. The skin tone was very challenging as well, and I ended up repainting some of the tones several times until I got it right - Vampire skin is a lot more difficult to paint than one might think. I also created a ton of brushes for the foliage here which sped up the painting process severely.

Speedpaints and Studies.

Been keeping up with my studies, although it's a bit difficult to manage both studying and handling commercial work at the same time, but I can't really complain. It's a welcome challenge :) Here are some speedpaints, some were done in 30 minutes, others up to 1 hour. First two are from photo reference, last one is from imagination. I seem to be progressing a lot by doing these speed paintings, so I'll definitely try to get at least one done each day.

Speedpaints - Face Studies

I've been drawing and painting faces all month, doing intense anatomy studies from Loomis to Hogarth. Here are some speedpaints: Approximately 1-2 hour each image. First 2 are done from imagination, last one are photo studies.

(Megan Foxx, Ledger/Joker, Marylin Manroe, and Angelina Jolie)

The Awakening

I had the concept of painting a statue coming to life for a while now, although I haven't had the opportunity to paint it until recently. The painting turned out pretty much exactly as how I envisioned it from the get go, which I find is happening more often as I progress with my paintings... it's a welcome change, so I'm not complaining! This was painted around 3 or 4 evenings.

Fotia

I haven't painted a personal pieces in what seemed like ages, and I haven't found the opportunity to do so until recently. This piece was very challenging and fun - I wanted this image to be very lively and saturated, so I chose very warm tones primarlily, complemented by much cooler colors to help the figure pop. This concept of this image was very much inspired by Boris Vallejo, whose works I'm always studying. A 'Making Of' feature will be posted soon as well.