Muppet Pirates - Miss Piggy!

And it is the end of an era – the last muppet.  And of course, no questions, it has to be the heroine of our tale…

2 Creature Studios – Bug Design

Now for something really fun!  I had the honour of doing a sudden last minute job for Two Creature Studios to design some bugs for their newest game.  They have just released these images on their homepage so I can do the same here!
These were a lot, lot of fun and I would love to do more work like this.  I have seen the Bee animated and it is hilarious.

 

Pet Portrait – Enya the Noti Torti

Another pet portrait! I am really, really enjoying these.  This weekend I am hoping to finish designing a site solely for my pet portraits and soon after I shall start opening my books for digital commissions – currently researching canvas printing and painting techniques to expand options in the future.  Watch this space.
Don’t let the innocent face fool you – Enya is a true torti!

Muppet Pirate of a different ilk

....am I a muppet or a man?

....most certainly a muppet.

Couldn't resist. And a chicken.

I love Illustrator! I just don't love the learning curve - but am getting there. 

This is a companion piece to a project I am doing for Schoolism - absolutely loving the class, falling behind a little though thanks to so much work on my plate, however I see an end in sight and a definite improvement.  Can't wait to do more pieces in Illustrator, the end result is so different than Photoshop.  Perhaps once I get to know it a bit better, I will post a few short tutorials here?

Kermit the Pirate

it's Kermie!

The bold hero of our tale!  And rather hard to draw and capture on paper!  Two to go.

Lhasa Apso

A picture from a couple of weeks ago that I forgot to post - it was this pic that made the lightbulb come and I wondered if I should explore dog portraits with a little more depth and seriousness.  Hopefully, the lightbulb won't blow!

 

Pet Portrait – Bluebell the poodle

A pup belonging to a friend get the Albon treatment!
As you may have noticed, I have been doing more and more pets recently.  It has all been leading me down a path I hadn’t thought about before, to actually offer pet portraits in the future.  It is something I am researching into with a bit more seriousness – hard to do when I already have so much on my plate – but it is very exciting and interesting and I am in the process of setting up a site (not active yet!) and blog devoted to the animal side of my art so we shall see where it goes.  There is a lot happening for me in the next few months and a lot of the outcomes will help guide my choices art-wise.  All are good paths, so we shall see!
I have a couple more pets to finish off and then I really, really have to finish off the last two muppets and call the adventure finished – then onto another, even bigger project in the works!

 Ladies and ladettes - only two weeks late, but I finally managed to put together the video of my painting the pointer portrait.  I really don't think I can use this technique regularly as it just takes too long, however with some modification I think it could lead to something quite good.

Anyway, enjoy!

Character Forge Entry (CGHUB) Blue Wizards

Finally had the time to enter the weekly contest at CGHub!  Although only had a couple of hours over two days to do so.  would love to do more with this but no time! No time!

This week the competition is to draw the two blue wizards that are rarely spoken of from Lord of the Rings - they went adventuring, out of sight, out of mind. 

Alatar is albino, blind and remembers everything.  He never had a sense of humour (or at least pretends to) and according to him, the fate of the whole of middle earth is in his hands.  His constant companion, Pallandro is a trickster, talker and lover of fine things, and extremely easily distracted which drives Alatar bonkers.  They would never be without each other though.

Pet Portrait graphic style - labrador cross

 I have been quiet recently because I have a lot of work that I can't show yet - if ever! I am still drawing and painting and scribbling away...

For this pet portrait I decided to go back to Illustrator - a program I love but don't have the opportunity to play with at the moment.  I am still exploring ideas for the future - but I really, really love working in a graphical style with lots of textures and this was a brilliant way to do both!  This was a lot more satisfying to me than just straight up pet portraits and I think I will do more with it.

However, I would love your opinion on the different ideas below. Do you have a favourite from these images? Is simple best or a splash of colour and texture your thing? Let me know!  And you will be seeing a lot more like this in the future, methinks.

Pet Portrait - Bull Terrier

A quickie, still playing around with different techniques.  This dude is the cool.

Pet portrait - Weimaraner

Whatever you do, do not ask me to spell weimaraner.  It will end in tears. 

Still playing with techniques for fur, trying to capture the style that is in my head.  Not there yet, but this was great practice.  Just don't ask how many hours this took! Need to cut down on the time spent drawing fur.  It works for my Tarot series as it is more cartoony, but on this scale... carpal tunnel!

Pet Portrait - Horace the Pointer

This week's baby.  Learnt a lot from this pupster - mostly, how not to do certain techniques! That's the exciting thing about art, the exploring and the learning, and the paths to follow and the ones to avoid.  Drawing fur is fantastic fun and I want to do a lot more of this type of work.  Great practice for my Tarot series as well.

I have recorded the process for Horace, and I will have it up on the site in the next couple of days for your delectation.

Janice - Pirate Muppets!

One of my favourite Muppets... Janice! She is, of course, playing a "Calypso" type role aka Pirates of the Caribbean   I just wanted an excuse to draw a bit of spellcasting.  I am pretty sure she is saying"....dude." at this point.

Three Muppets to go!

Sam the Eagle – Muppet Pirates!

Muppet, Muppet, Muppet.

Muppet or a man?

Currently working on a new technique for drawing fur.   It is insanely addictive and fun.  However, inbetween this I am finishing the muppets lineup - Four to go!  I am planning on making a video of the process for these guys as I have had quite some interest in them - watch this space.

Canine Tarot – Seven of Swords – Clumber Spaniel

Next in my Canine Tarot series - Seven of Swords; breaking free and doing things your own way.  The Clumber Spaniel was used to flush out game - this chap has decided to make friends instead.

Schoolism

I was in the local supermarket today, purchasing grapes and apples in an attempt to appease the lingering Christmas sweet tooth when I had to do a double-take – there are already Easter eggs in the shops!

Whilst surprising, it also a reminder that most retailers are having to think six months, 12 months down the line – it isn’t about what’s happening next week or next month, it is about the long term.  I struggle to think this way but find more and more that long-term decisions are necessary  and that one cannot expect immediate results most of the time! (unless you are particularly craving an Easter egg straight after Christmas.  I for one have had enough chocolate to last the rest of the year).

However, this has also got me thinking about cards –   I would not mind dipping a toe into the greeting card industry and was originally intending to try making some samples for Christmas – oops.  That didn’t happen.  Perhaps I had better get my bunny slippers on and start doing some mocks this weekend.

Still working on bits for Schoolism! Halfway through designing a new version of Jekyll and Hyde – thought I would share a development sketch.

WEBSITE

After much squealing, gnashing of teeth, hair pulling and tantrums - I have built a website!  I can be found at http://www.allyalbon.com.  Please come and have a look around (and please let me know any changes etc you think would help).  In particular, I have also uploaded my very first video! Look under the tutorials section if you are interested.

www.allyalbon.com

Back to drawing!

Sweetums plays LJ Silver

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas – mine was just gorgeous, although it rained rather than snowed which always makes me sad.  Now it is time to crack the knuckles and get back to work.  I am nearing the end of my website building but only approaching the beginning of my goals.  2013 is going to be the year of art.   I have recently been approached to work freelance for a games studio, so that will take up a lot of my time for the next few weeks (and unfortunately I can’t share any of the work yet) – but it has been very exciting indeed!

Continuing with the Muppet Pirates project. Naturally, the scariest Muppet gets the role of the bad guy.  I am still slightly scared by him.