Tuesday Art Day: Draenei

Okay, it’s not Tuesday any more. But have some paintings anyway. I’ve been painting more than anything lately, on top of doing From Draenor With Love. To be perfectly honest, life has been pretty overwhelming in the past while and I have been taking a breather from most things, only doing art for myself or as gifts. I thought that leaping back into doing a lot of commission work would help me bounce back from layoffs at WI, but it turns out that wasn’t the case. I may take a few months off from official “work” to just focus on my health and personal stuff. I appreciate the patience of folks who have inquired about art or etc.

Meantime, here are some draenei. I posted them on Tumblr already, but here they are for anyone who missed them there. I wanted to just do some draenei that were a little outside the usual. I was free painting (no sketch beforehand).

Not Millya. Similar-ish I guess, though.

Random dude draenei. I’ve been trying to get better at male draenei in general.

Old lady draenei. We know draenei DO age at least in appearance, sometimes, after a really long time. At least, Velen doesn’t look like a spring chicken. This draenei has seen more than she really wanted to.

Probably my favourite of this bunch. She’s so happy.

Finally (but certainly not least) I did a painting for my friend Sara’s birthday. Unlike the previous ones, this one had a sketch first. It ends up looking like a fairly different style. Although obviously I also spent a bit more time on it than the quick, freepaint ones.Probably about two hours total, which is still not bad.

I’m going to be in Seattle this time next week, meeting some new folks, some friends-from-before folks, and hopefully having some therapeutic art time. I’m also planning a collaboration with Loreli (LoreliAoD on Twitter). She’s going to do some pencils and I am going to paint them! And I will either bring or do a sketch for her while I’m there and she’s going to colour it digitally. It’s going to be fun, I am excited.

Tuesday Art Day: Vid and Voss

Click for larger version.

Often on Tuesdays (for maintenance time) I’ll post some art I’ve been working on. This is something I did for myself last week (ie not a commission). I think it is actually the first time I’ve ever drawn Vid and her father, Vosskah, together. I figure that since the two of them are both really physical by nature that the way they relate to each other is sometimes roughhousing. So he’s giving her a noogie. Their roughhousing sounds like a blacksmith’s shop rolling downhill.

Millya, of course, doesn’t understand this at all and just leaves them to it.

As far as the drawing itself, I was trying out my new Copic markers. I was hoping I could possibly use them for From Draenor. I don’t think they’ll work really well for it, though, and I’ll probably stick to my ink and brush for now. I might use them to add finer details, but the problem is that when I erased my pencils underneath the Copics, the marker itself faded significantly. It’s a bit disappointing. I might do something more with this image like add colour digitally, etc. If I do I’ll post it again.

Tuesday Art Day: Surprise Wedding Present

I love commissions that have a story behind them like this one. I’ve done at least one other painting of a couple as a surprise commission. This one was a bit of a last-minute affair and I had to rush to get it done for February 2nd because the couple was getting married! It was commissioned by Rachel as a surprise gift for her husband of their two characters together. I’m told that he was very happy with it. Congratulations again to the two of you and all the best for your life together.

An Epic Secret Santa Gift

So way back in November, I signed up for the Secret Santa gift exchange on Twitter. It was a lot of fun in 2012. I can’t show you what I sent to my Secret Santa this year because it has her actual name on it. I can, however, show you what I received in the mail today…

I made this post with Millya’s paperdoll image in it ages ago. Here’s the image, anyway, if you don’t want to click over there.

That’s just a preview size; the full-sized print ready image is linked in the post itself. But you get the idea. I made up a bunch of fun outfits for Millya before transmog even existed as such. Later, when I wanted to use an avatar from the image, I made this one:

Because what mage wouldn’t dress up as Howl if they could? So that’s been my profile picture off and on for a few years now. Little chibi-Howl-Millya. Little did I know that when my Secret Santa present arrived, I would open it up and find THIS:

Please excuse my terrible photography. I was excited. I took another picture too:

It is a cross stitched MILLYA. AS HOWL. Be still, my heart! Upon opening the card it was revealed that my Santa was the very talented @Kialesse from Twitter. Needless to say, I love it and I am so impressed. She even had it matted and framed up so that I can pop it right on the wall. I’ll do that as soon as I decide where. I’m thinking pride of place right above my computer monitor so I can look at it often.

So that is the story of the SS gift I consider myself very fortunate to have received. Well worth the wait! Especially after delivery snafus. Apparently UPS put the package on my doorstep last night, but I didn’t know until this morning and poor Kia was freaking out. I’m really glad it was there, it would’ve been too awful if something had happened to it. Who knew they delivered things that late!? Anyway, crisis averted. Draenei delivered. The wrapping paper was even a sort of shiny draenic purple, haha.

Thank you, Kia!

Tuesday Art Day: Millya

Folks who’ve hung around my blog for awhile know that I (often) post art on Tuesdays. This Tuesday is a little different though because it’s mostly not art that I have done, it’s art that I had commissioned by other artists or that was done for me in art exchanges, etc. I’ve wanted to share it on the blog for awhile and kept forgetting so now I have amassed quite a collection.

You might wonder why someone who is an artist commissions other artists, it’s such a great experience though! I love seeing my characters in different ways and every artist has their own style.

The first one is going to be art by me – I finished my own Blizzcon badge!

By Amalythia

This first piece I am ashamed to admit I don’t remember the circumstances in which I got it – I want to say it was an art exchange. Fortunately I do know it was done by Amalythia, though.

By Fyreuni

One year, Fyreuni (the artist of the Daily Quests comic) was doing avatar portraits and donating the proceeds to Child’s Play. This was the one she did for me!

By Axolotl

This sketch was done by Axolotl, the artist of the Out of World comic. She was giving away sketches and was gracious enough to do this one for me.

By Shizukera

This art was a present from Shizukera for a Secret Santa art exchange we did on Twitter!

by Aly Flock

This was art that I commissioned from Aly Flock. I love her whimsical style.

By Ginny Higerd

Another Secret Santa exchange piece of art, this one was done by Ginny!

By Kim Swan

This is the most recent piece I commissioned, by Kim Swan. You can check out her tumblr here. I think she only opens up commissions periodically though, I just jumped on it really quickly.

Writing this made me realize I actually have had a lot of art done of Millya, sheesh. This doesn’t even include a sketch Fyreuni did for me at a convention one year. It’s really fun to see your characters come to life, if you’ve never done it I’d recommend it. (Which is not a plug, I am actually too busy to accept commissions at the moment. But commission any artist! It’s worth it!)

Speaking of things that are keeping me busy, I’ve wanted to write here about a new place you might see me writing… Yep, I am the new mage columnist writing Arcane Brilliance at WoW Insider. So far it’s been an incredible experience, although humbling. I’m trying to do a good job. I was a bit nervous starting out, but commenters have been really nice so far without exception. It’s been a fantastic reception. Right now I am just writing biweekly. Not this week, though – which is good because I’m going to be out of town for my brother’s wedding. Otherwise, my articles publish on Fridays.

I still have a hard time believing that I am writing Arcane Brilliance; I’ll see the tab in browser and go “Arcane Brilliance? …That’s ME!” Anyway. I hope not to neglect Manalicious though I know I’ve been spotty with updates here. The new From Draenor combined with getting the hang of writing at WoW Insider and real life stuff has been critting me pretty hard. I imagine Manalicious will be a bit more personal than it has been but the blog is still important to me and I haven’t forgotten it!

Blizzcon Badge Commissions – Last Chance

Hey! I just wanted to post a heads-up here that I will only be accepting commissions for Blizzcon Badges up to and including September 30th. So if you’ve been waffling or meant to contact me and didn’t, you still have a chance but the window is closing fast! I reserve the right to close commissions if I get more than I think I can reasonably complete and mail during the month of October. I want everyone to be sure to have them before they head to Blizzcon.

Above is a compilation of all the badges I have done so far. They’ve been a blast to do and I really enjoy them. I kind of wanted to complete a class set – I didn’t receive commissions from any warriors, warlocks or priests. I’ll be doing a death knight painting for Voss so that’s at least one for the set! It doesn’t matter what your class is, though, I enjoy doing all of the paintings anyway.

If you’re interested in a badge painting, please fill out the form on this page.

Badges are $40 USD which includes shipping, a name-tag that slips into the badge holder and the holder itself. They look even better in person. Thanks to everyone who commissioned me for these, I hope you like your paintings and maybe I’ll see you at Blizzcon!

Tuesday Art Day: More Badges (Bears, Bears, and Bears)

ETA: It’s not Tuesday any more, but I’m posting this anyhow! I’ve been doing more of my Blizzcon badges. Here is a sampling of the ones I’ve completed since I started doing them!

Aerix

@Aerix88’s Pandaren hunter. The first Pandaren I have done!

Tikari

For @TikariofET! The first rogue I’ve done. Which is probably good because it seems I am popular with the druids!

Kaleri

Kaleri of Power Word: What? and @Kaleri_ on Twitter. One of my favourite bearbutts!

Sunnier

For @SunnierBear of Sunnier’s Art of War. I confess I especially enjoyed doing this one, probably because of the deep indigo colour of Sunnier’s armour and the HOT PINK of her hair. It’s nice to break out colours like that sometimes. I’ve never used that particular shade of pink almost straight from the tube before.

I’ve been really happy with the response to these badges so far, and I just love painting them. As always, if you’re interested in commissioning one, you can fill out the form here. My commission status is in the right sidebar. I’ve got a bit of a line-up but it moves fairly steadily barring any exceptional circumstances.

Tuesday Art Day: Blizzcon Badges

Firstly, thank you to everyone who wanted a Blizzcon badge on the basis of my other watercolour work and the quick badge of Millya I did. (I’ll be re-doing one for myself at some point, using actual references and a good transmog!) I am still working through my list of folks who signed up for a badge. If you’ve sent references, you’ll hear from me when I’m ready to get started on yours!

I’m really loving doing these so far, because it’s such a small painting it’s very fresh and immediate. You focus intensely on it for a few hours and then it’s done! Here are the first two I have done so far. They both have orange backgrounds because they are both druids. The next one I’m doing is a shaman!

Beru

This first one was for my friend Beruthiel of Falling Leaves and Wings. She has the extremely fancy (and elaborate) challenge mode druid armour.

Arielle

This next one was for Arielle of The Inconspicuous Bear, also known as @riftmaker on Twitter.

If you are interested in a badge, you can send me your info via my post here (please use the form! it has been making it really easy to keep track of everyone’s info and I like that). The line isn’t too long yet and I’m getting them done pretty quickly so far, so the wait time should be fairly decent. I may wait to mail them until I have enough to print out a bunch of name tags at a time, but before mailing you will receive a high-resolution scan of your painting.

Thanks to everyone who has had positive things to say about the badges so far, I look forward to doing many more of them!

Watercolour Blizzcon Badges

On the heels of the news that we’re going to Blizzcon, I became really excited about the idea of doing commissions for badge art. I am now accepting commissions for Blizzcon badges! With a twist: I’m not going to be doing them digitally, as lately I’m really enjoying working in watercolour. So the way that we (Rades helped) devised for the badges is like this: each watercolour will be a complete painting without any lettering on it. Included with your badge will be a name strip that will be placed overtop of your painting in its badge holder. Once Blizzcon is over – remove the name badge, and you’re left with a little piece of original, handmade artwork.

This is what they’ll look like, cut out and placed in a badge holder. The background will correspond with your class colour. The name badge, as you can see, will be specific to your faction in one of four formats:

Alliance – Type 1

Alliance – Type 2

Horde – Type 1

Horde – Type 2

Watercolour Blizzcon Badges

Price: $40 USD – includes:

–miniature watercolour painting of your character to fit in a 3″ x 4″ holder, (shoulders up) with separate name badge printed on heavy cardstock, and a badge holder to keep it all together. (Lanyard is not included).
-digital file of your painting sized for use as an avatar or just to keep

The above price includes shipping within North America. For shipping outside of that area please add an additional $5 USD.

This price includes a basic painting of a single character. If you want something more elaborate (including weapons or a pet or etc.) the price will increase by $5 per weapon/etc.

I’ll assess demand and if a list is necessary I’ll put a list here to keep track of the commissions. If you are someone who was on my other commission list, those are on hold for a little while, but if you wanted a badge you will be given special priority for your patience.

If you’re interested, please fill out the form below and also e-mail me your character reference at puggingpally@gmail.com. Character references should be one or more screenshots of your character taken in good lighting and zoomed in on the torso/shoulders/face. I require payment up front (Paypal preferred). I’ll contact you about this as I begin work on your commission!

Name(required)

Email(required)

Badge Type (See Above) Alliance - Type 1 (Character Name, Guild, Server) Alliance - Type 2 (First Name/Last Name, Character Name, Guild, Server) Horde - Type 1 (Character Name, Guild, Server) Horde - Type 2 (First Name/Last Name,Character Name, Guild, Server)

Character Armory Link(required)

Character Description/Desired Expression

Any additional character information (ways in which your character might differ from the armory or special requests).(required)

Submit

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I don’t have a wide range of samples for these because I haven’t done them yet, but if you’d like to see some of my other watercolour work you can do so here to get an idea. Below are some more Warcraft examples, please keep in mind these are much bigger (4″ x 6″) and so have a bit more detail. (I can draw things other than draenei, I swear). ETA: I have added the three badges I’ve completed here as well.

Arielle’s badge

Beruthiel’s badge

Timbersham’s badge

Tuesday Art Day: Kumineko and the Dragon

This is probably art you’ll want to click through to view if you want to see the whole thing in any detail. This is the conclusion of an EPIC odyssey of painting done for Kumineko on Twitter of all of his Warcraft characters. This took me ages to do and to finish. I’ve actually come to realize that huge commissions of this type are not the best thing for me. I tend to get bogged down in the details and lose focus. It could be something I choose to work on in the future, but for right now I think it’s good to know your limits!

Here it is printed out and hung up. As you can see, it wasn’t a small piece either, having been intended to be poster-sized. TA DA. (Sorry, but that’s how I feel when I look at this photograph, haha). I’m glad it printed really well and I am proud of it, I just now know how much work such an image entails!