7: Artslam

HI, BLOG, I FORGOT ABOUT YOU. Summer has been both amazingly lackluster and exceedingly busy at the same time, probably due to my horrid time management. I participated in an art challenge over on Livejournal called "Artslam", in which you choose a topic and draw at least one sketch related to it every day for one, two, or three months. A few days back, I finished up the first month, but I've decided not to continue due to the lack of time I had for other projects!

That being said, here's a link to my Artslam album on Flickr for easy viewing of the whole project: http://www.flickr.com/photos/38971743@N05/sets/72157624193002228/ I'll stick a few of my favorites below.

My focus for the month was on my badly named Bongo people. My creativity knows no bounds, I know. They originated in 2006, when I was unabashedly obsessed with South American cultures and smashed them all together...with an African antelope. Fourteen year olds make SENSE! During the challenge I tried to move them away from being South American mash-ups, but didn't get very far in the end. :/ There's always the future!

A guy wrangles a young, wild male Korino. The Korino are huge dino-vultures which the bongofolk use as mounts and for draft work. The male here is tiny; females, pictured below, could kick everyones' asses if they weren't so submissive due to domestication. Female wild Korino are feared by pretty much everyone in bongoland. Corel Painter 10
Here are two domesticated female Korino varieties next to a bongo man and woman for scale. The skinny one in front is for speed messaging and recreational racing while the powerful bird in the back is bred for mountain draft work. Their stance here is awkward; they usually only 'stand' as such for running or pulling. All fours is preferred for grazing or walking. Corel Painter 10

For part of the week, I used reference images of trees from the Olympic National Park to create environments for my bongos. Scale was completely ignored, as this bongo would be about a foot tall if those trees were the right size. ;) Corel Painter 10

The anatomy is hilarious, but coloring these two was a blast. Corel Painter 10.

My final entry for the month. I was feeling very, very down when I sketched this, thus the lackluster expression and composition, but it was nice to challenge myself; I used only watercolors, and not my usual watercolor and gel pen embellishments.

An early sketch drawn with india ink (my new love) and colored with watercolors, gel pen, and marker. This ink is so exciting, you guys!

I'll post some non-artslam, ridiculously scribbly junk in a few days. Hopefully my productivity will pick back up!