Study of a building from Keyflower by R&D Games. I love Juliet Breese’s work – delicate and fun :)
Photoshop watercolour brushes have come a long way! I used some from Kyle’s Ultimate Real Watercolours ( https://gumroad.com/l/rmgqh ) and I think they look great. A lot of the brushes even react in a paint-y way (you can push the paint around a bit as you go, they settle and ‘dry’ a bit etc.).
Fruit drink doodles! (some might include chilli peppers…)
As promised, here are the new cards that’ll be appearing the in the Braggart 2nd Edition, as well as a few sketches that didn’t make it into the game. Fun fact: there was another ‘Quest for Inspiration’ idea that had Troy sitting in the lotus position on the back of a unicorn (possibly standing on a rainbow, with sparkles) but that never got beyond the thumbnail stage. It’d be fun to draw that one up as a random fanart in the future if I get time :)
If you’re interesting in nabbing a copy, the Kickstarter is still running for 12 more days as I write this and has already gone way over its target, which is great! -> https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/spiralgalaxygames/braggart-card-game
I’ve also given Braggart its own special page on my portfolio -> http://vickidalton.com/projects/6168284
Many people have asked me about a second edition of Braggart since its original release in 2010, and its finally here! Spiral Galaxy are running a Kickstarter campaign for the new edition at the moment and have already smashed through their initial goal, so go check it out if you’re interested in more Braggart! -> https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/spiralgalaxygames/braggart-card-game
It was really fun and nostalgic to check back in with Troy again 6 years later and see what shenanigans he’s still getting up to :) I’ll do another post for the new artwork, and some bonus sketches that didn’t make it into the game, ASAP. But for now, I’ve put a load of new stuff up on the Braggart 2nd Edition page of my portfolio: http://vickidalton.com/projects/6168284
New blog! And where better to start than with the past and the future combined! ~mwahahahaha~ …or something like that.
Anyway, for those who weren’t watching my DeviantArt back in 2009 (so, most people), I was starting out with digital painting in Photoshop. I’d been drawing forever but getting the hand-eye co-ordination down for successful Wacom tablet use was a big challenge, not to mention learning about those elusive creatures, the Photoshop brushes.
The first 2 sketches, from 2009, are 30 minutes each. I used to do tons of speed paints from photos back then to force myself to jump right in rather than be staring at a blank canvas. The third sketch, from 2011, was more self indulgent and took 2.5 hours. I also spent 2.5 hours on the fourth one, which I did yesterday. Its still unfinished as I had to put it down to go out. Glad I did though as I like the 2.5 hour comparison and don’t see a lot of point in noodling it for another couple of hours…
Luckily my ref photo is still up on Flickr if you’re interested -> https://www.flickr.com/photos/mythoto/927551160/
My 2 personal observations when painting this were:
Why in the heck did I choose this photo to be my longitudinal progress one?! Its all fiddly details that need careful planning to get correct. I could probably sit there for 3 hours just plotting in all the windows!
This is the first of these where I made a palette for myself based on the photo before starting (just by eye). Its also the first one that I painted randomly in the middle of a big canvas, rather than on a document of the same aspect ratio of the photo. Just felt better to be measuring the parts of the building against each other rather than the arbitrary cutoff of the photo edge. But that’s not important! Going back to the palette, I noticed that I don’t really think in terms of just ‘colour’ any more – I tend to naturally approach things more in terms of light and shadow. It was nice to realise :) …also I really need to work on my use of light and colour in general…but I have exciting plans for that. Onwards into the next 5 years!