Character Sketch in Progress

So while I finally have some time, I figured I would try to work on this.  I worked more on the look and feel of the illustration than anything else.  Right now, I'm facing a lot of tweaking and detail work!

Character sketch

This whole sketch is probably not higher than 4 inches.   I don't know why I draw so small.  Anyway, these are characters from a story/series I've been writing. (It is going very well - I officially have a beginning, middle, end, and several completed chapters!)  I've put this sketch through Photoshop to paint it, but it's a bit ugly right now so I won't put it up yet.  CS5 is supposed to be specifically designed towards painters, so I purchased it and will have to try out the new brushes.  I don't know if I'm going to actually finish this sketch.  The painting is going to involve warm lighting, fog, and a dark background, so it's probably not necessary.  I've decided I love steampunk!

Midnight Escape - in progress Part 2

Still plugging away at this painting.  It's a very slow process between work and all my other commitments.   I'm liking the way it is turning out, though.  Still working out the perspective, detail, color, and definitely value.  After getting frustrated I decided to leave it and focus on the figures.  It's the part I enjoy most and it goes so much faster than the technical parts that I struggle with!  Not really fair.  It's nice to know I might have something nice to add to my portfolio besides my endless pieces of scrap paper that I sketch on at the office.  I'll probably be the first person to have a Post-It sketchbook! 

Midnight Escape - in progress

This one is causing me some grief, but it's a process.  The Painter file I'm working on now actually looks quite different from this rough.  I stretched out the composition to landscape view, and added major contrast.  It's a mess with the architecture though, so I've got black lines crisscrossing everywhere - and while I like to show my creative process, even I'm not comfortable showing that mess on my blog just yet. 
A lot of my work originates from stories I am currently writing or have yet to write.  This story to this painting I have yet to write (I am writing the companion novel to it right now).  I won't go into all the details of the plot but suffice it to say that it's midnight and it's curfew - and our protagonist has to cross the bridge to the girls' dormitories before it disappears!  Not only that, but life-sucking monsters prowl the misty streets below! 

Monster in the Closet

Here you can see a rough under-painting below (painted with actual gouache on illustration board).  The one above is the semi-finished one done in Corel painter from the scanned rough.  I love line work, and at heart I am a draw-er not a painter.  I have done some pretty nice paintings, but doing them always felt more like filling-in lines with color and not actually painting.  So I'll leave the painting to those true painters out there.  They have a technique and style I'll always envy, and how they can make random brushstrokes and dabs of color become actual pictures, without the guidance of lines, is just beyond me. 
The painting on the left was the first painting I attempted right after graduation.  I was going to fly into that full-scale-painting mode I enjoyed while in school..  and then it sat on my drafting table for months, stayed in a 'projects' folder on my desk for a few more, and finally sat on an easel directly in front of my workspace until in a fit of impatience I threw it on my scanner - to finish by digital means.  The process took hardly more than an hour in Corel Painter.  I am so converted to digital painting!