Day 7

Another quick post tonight.
Words:
AN: Crocodile, Gila
VG: Flower- domestic
EM: Galaxy Form
TC: Shovel, Pick

AN: Feline - Wild Cat
VG: Ooze, Jelly
EM: Crater, Asteroid
TC: Old Village, Cottage

So for Major words I decided to use Gila, and Wild Cat. As far as minor words, I really didn't use anything else. I basically decided on crossing a Gila monster and a wild cat. The challenge here for me was to work with the muscles and structure some so that the creature looks like it somewhat would look like. I settled on calling it a Desert Giline. And here it is:

So now I have completed a full week doing this and I've had a lot of fun doing this so far. I wouldn't say I love every piece I've done this week, but I've got a few that I think came out really well and I think I've learned at least a little bit with each of them, so there is that.

With that I'll wish everyone a happy sunday and thanks for reading.
~Ben

Day 6

Hello! Just a quick post.
Words I got for day 6:
AN: Caterpillar
VG: Corn
EM: Volcano
TC: Sled, Ski

AN: Seabird, Penguin
VG: Bamboo
EM: Wave
TC: Tank Tread

I decided it would be fun to draw a caterpillar. It was  challenge for me to make it look decent and not like a kids sorta thing with just a line of circles, if that makes sense. Then I decided to use volcano and put in some sort of cannon sort of thing on the back of the caterpillar. It is mainly a defensive mechanism, spewing a gas/acid that has a strong smell that wards off predators. I decided to call it a fuming caterpillar, as most caterpillars I saw were _________ caterpillar, and for the most part, it has the look of a plain ole caterpillar. I intend to go back and color this one sometime soon. We will see what happens.

Thanks for reading and have a great Saturday!

Day 4 and Day 5

Hello! Yesterday was busy and I didn't get around to posting the drawing so I'm posting them both now.

Words for Day 4:
AN: Lotus, Mantis
VG: Birch Tree
EM: Electric Bolt
TC: Pen, Paintbrush

AN: Sheep, Cow
VG: Willow Tree
EM: Cracked Clay
TC: Turbine

Major: Mantis, Sheep/Cow
Minor, Willow Tree, Birch Tree
This one took a little bit to figure out what I wanted to do. I decided to use Mantis as a basis for the creature, then decided to make it more of a herding/farm animal using sheep/cow. Then after I decided this creature would be like a sheep, where its hair was cut to make things. Then the thought of using the willow tree jumped in, the hair falls off the body like a willow tree. I decided to use birch tree to give the body of the creature texture. Overall it wasn't too hard drawing, but just took time figuring out how to draw the hair or getting the body the way I wanted it. Total ~2 hours. I plan on going back and coloring it sometime. It is called a Meesh.

Now, on to day 5.
Words:
AN: Fish - Freshwater
VG: Pumpkin, gourd
EM: Ripple
TC: Bulb, Lamp

AN: Lizard, Snake
VG: Maple, Oak
EM: Glass, Crystals
TC: Fan, Propeller

Major : Snake
Minor : Crystal, Bulb

Here I decided to go with a snake as a major form. I wanted to use crystals and bulb in it somewhere and then decided to go with sort of a rattlesnake and the rattler would be made of crystal and can also be a light source if rattled, or something like that. The challenge here was getting it too look coiled up without looking weird or off. Again, I didn't get it colored by the 2 hour mark so I decided to just shade it and then come back later to color it someday. I decided to call this one a Traplight Rattler. I see it as a snake that would lure unsuspecting prey by the light coming from it tail, and then strike when they got close enough.

And there is Day 4 and 5, hope those who are reading are enjoying this, I'd love to hear any comments and such. Thanks for reading, have a fantastic day.

Day 3 of the Challenge

Already a new post!

It's a quick one though, just posting up the drawing for my challenge today.

Words:
AN: Feline - Wild Cat
VG: Tree Fruit
EM: Cracked Clay
TC: Modern Skyscraper

AN: Elephant, Giraffe
VG: Ginger
EM: Fog, Vapor
TC: Castle, Domed

Here I decided to not go with an animal today and try out doing a building and work on some perspective work. So I used Castle and Skyscraper sort of as inspiration to work from and then was going to do clay as the texture for the building. I got done drawing it and I thought it looked pretty good but I didn't really feel like coloring it out, so decided to just stop with it.

I will say, i thought it was a little more fun to work with creatures than a building, it just seemed so rigid to me. And here it is.

So, goodnight, hope everyone has a good Wednesday. 
~Ben

Long Post, Updates and a Personal Challenge

Hey everyone! It's been a little bit since I've updated, I've both been busy with schoolwork and a couple projects I had short deadlines on. I had a couple things I wanted to get done for Valentine's Day.

First was a miniature I painted. My finance likes angels so I decided to paint an angel for her. Her favorite color is also pink so I made it have shades of pink in it, but not be overwhelmed with pink. I don't have a great picture of it so I will post that when I do.

The second is a cross stitch. We both love scott pilgrim and I happened to stumbleupon a couple different patterns like this one, though those I saw were mostly done in perler beads. I looked through those and created a pattern, added in the hearts and worked through some shading myself. The problem I encountered is that the colors shown on the program I use do not mimic the real colors they are, so I had to unstitch quite a bit after realizing the #s I had picked looked terrible in real life.

I got quite a bit of it done, and it'll mostly be done in the next week or two.

FYI: She has received both and loved them. If you wondered. :)

I have not had a chance to get a whole lot done on the Mario cross stitch, but I managed to get a little bit done. I am currently just finishing out the black boxes across the bottom and so I can just do the rest of the Marios after that.

I also have something new I am doing. I got a book for Valentine's Day called Fantasy Genesis. It is sort of a game for the imagination. It has charts and with a series of dice rolls you generate a list of words, afterwards you look at them and pick out a few words as Major words and a few as Minor words and come up with an idea and draw it. It also has tips and techniques to help you out. You don't have to use all the words, only a couple of them. It looked really fun when I saw it and got it for a gift. I did one last night and it was really fun.

So I decided I'm going to challenge myself and my imagination. For the Next 30 days (Sunday counting as day 1) I am going to roll out a list and the next day post up what I came up with for that list. I am also trying to limit my time. After I decide what words I am going to use I am going to give myself about 10-15 min to find references if I need, and then only giving myself a few hours to sketch/finish/color. I just don't want to end up spending days on a piece because I tend to be a perfectionist and I want to work on letting things be done. I plan on posting each night, with the words I rolled, my initial thoughts and then how I used the words and post up my drawing.

Here is what I got Sunday night for my list.
(AN - Anima, VG - Veggie, EM - Elemental, TC - Technology)
AN: Squid/Mudskipper
VG: Seaweed
EM: Brick/Cobblestone
TC: Bulb/Lamp

AN: Pig/Boar
VG: Flower - domestic
EM: Ember/Hot Coal
TC: Reactor Core

With these words my first thought was to use squid/mudskipper and seaweed to come up with a creature of the sea and then my mind was trying to use other words as well, but decided to start with just a few. I looked up what a mudskipper was because I couldn't think of what that actually was, and found I didn't want to use that as a reference, so I found a couple squid images and started sketching. I decided that it's limbs were very thin and ribbon like that almost looked more like seaweed. Then when I started coloring the brick/cobblestone words popped out to me and I decided to use shades of brick red to color it. I thought it came out rather well. I decided to name it a Sqweed. Turned out really well I think, and I had a blast doing it too.

Sunday night I rolled out my Day 2 list. I came up with:

AN: Mouse/Rabbit
VG: Mushroom
EM: Fog/Vapor
TC: Spring/Coil

AN: Ram/Bull/Buck
VG: Lichen
EM: Slate/Shale
TC: Telephone

Here I decided to go with the Ram/Bull/Buck as my Major word, it just sounded fun. I chose Slate/Shale, Fog/Vapor, and Lichen as minor words to go with. I decided to use an Elk as a reference. My thought process came up with a elk-like creature with stone/slate antlers. For the fog/vapor, I decided that as a defensive mechanism, it could spout fog/vapor cloud from it's antlers. Because of this moisture and the antlers being rocklike they would have lichen growing on them. I also challenged myself here by not drawing it from the side, instead having the head facing more toward the viewer. That was really hard for me, I'm not that great at creatures and perspective. I had some problems with perspective on the antlers as well. I only spent 3-4 hours on this and for that amount I think it turned out well. Took a lot longer to color than day 1 as well, but it was a bigger thing. I decided the name of the species is Shelk (real imaginative right?).

Also, if anyone else is interested in doing this with me, I'd be more than willing to throw up the list the night before and just edit in my drawing the next day.

And if you're still reading, Thank you. I know that was a little drawn out and lengthy, but I get talking about this stuff and well, I can go a little bit. I hope everyone has a fantastic day and thanks for stopping by.

~Ben