One week later...

I really haven't been as good about posting as I had hoped to be. But, here I am! And I've got some new stuff to post, as well, which is good as that really is the whole point of all this. What I'll be posting tonight is the beginning of the final for a character named "Dorian". I know he has a last name but for the life of me I can't remember what it is. Y'see, I'm very supportive of the notion of giving characters names that are...easy...to remember. I mean, I have a hard enough time with regular, everyday names without getting into otherworldly combinations of of syllables and titles involving more names than I have fingers and toes. Take my character for example; Polly Goodbarrel. Simple 'nuff, right?
Anyway, this is starting to turn into a whinefest, so I'll get back to the posting of things.
Yeah, so there's a great deal of fire in this drawing and you'd think that after my last trouble with the extended source of light that I'd have learned my lesson. Turns out I'm a glutton for punishment.
As well, while I let me mind rest from the ordeal that is "Dorian Nuking the Dragon" I will be working on an old drawing of Polly sprouting wings which, also, has a whole bunch of fire. If I'm not comfortable with drawing fire after these two pics are done, I believe I shall stick to watery things. No more ideas involving fire will be accepted here. :)
I shall away, now, to...possibly sleep or somesuch.
Much care to you all.
-Dave

Last picture of the day...

Picture four...

Picture three...

Picture two...

This, as you may have guessed, is picture two.

Trying to add a picture again...

Not so sure I followed the instructions correctly as I can see no pictures. I'll try one at a time now.

An entry with some pictures...

Okay, here are some pictures that I've been working on. I had some trouble working out how to post pictures which is why nothing appeared with my first post and after two friends told me pretty much the same thing, I am confident I now know how to do this. Here's hoping.
The first picture is really how all of this started. It's a picture of my D&D character, Polly Goodbarrel. Y'see, there's this little square on the character sheet where you get to do your character's portrait or whatever, which, usually, remains blank. Me, forever filling blank spaces with doodles, did a little scribble. The other people playing commented and said it was decent. This encouraged me to go a little further and on to a number of follow-up pictures in my gaming notebook, of which only one will be posted today.
Picture number two is of one of the other players' characters embracing my character after a long, in-game dispute was resolved. I was hoping to practice my cross-hatching and used our roughly weekly adventures as inspiration. Again, the group made encouraging comments.
Something I noticed was that it didn't really matter what I had decided to draw, the other players were very interested in seeing what was being put on paper.
Flash to three weeks ago: The decision to attempt at making some pictures that would be acceptable in terms of submitting them to a gaming company in hopes of picking up some work on the side was made. I started with an idea for a shot that took much longer than I had initially hoped. I thought doing one picture a week would be not too steep a schedule to keep and the first one took me two weeks.
The third picture is a scan of the first drawing and an important lesson had not been learned yet. That would come last night as I finished the last drawing.
What I learned from the first pencil rendering was that I really must think out my time alotted first and fit what could possibly fit in there.
The last two pictures are the rough of one of the characters at a forge, all dressed up in protective gear, one piece of which is inappropriate and another of which is unnecessary in a fantasy setting.
In the final Saetar (the super-macho, tough-skinned barbarian) is scartastic and riddled with tattoos.
I was bursting with pride when the player saw the final product and said various things having to do with being very pleased. I could not be more encouraged.
What I learned from this last drawing is that I must absolutely start doing these drawings on good illustration paper, though I will likely make the jump to illustration board at a later time.
I know there are more lessons out there waiting for me and I hope to see some visitors comments as well on the dharma of my portfolio creation.

First entry

After much encouragement from a friend I have decided to finally post a blog that shows not only the various works in progress but my success with the developing portfolio as well as my state of mind.
This means a few things, I guess; I'm going to have to be open about my thoughts, which isn't usually a problem, it's just that the stage is much larger than I'm used to. It also means I'm opening myself up to criticism in so far as my artwork goes. My decision here is that I'm taking all the criticism as...not a challenge but people trying to help me out. Possibly.
Y'see, there's the rub: Not everyone is nice about letting you know you've made a mistake. Well, I guess I'll have to figure out some way of dealing with stuff like that, starting with getting over myself.
I will be posting scans of my artwork at least once a week though it will likely end up being more often as I'm trying to get an entire pencil rendering done every six days with one day off to play games and generally mellow out.
I'm not sure how often I'll post a comment, though. I've read through a few and what I'm worried about is that this will degrade into me complaining, which...well, I can get that anywhere. This blog will be about my development and any kinds of new tricks I've learned or discovered either by chance or through reading stuff.
I guess that's it for today. Talk to y'all soon.
-Dave