My new Growing Project

Today, I've decided to embark on a new project that will most likely take me quite some time. But my hope, in the end, is to reach the level of quality and style that I am looking for in my artwork. I recently acquired a book called "The Element Encyclopedia of Magical Creatures" which contains 543 pages of described magical creatures from throughout history. I plan on starting from the beginning, doing one or two monsters a day, until I reach the end of the book. And hopefully, by that time, my paintings will be on a whole new level as I learn more and more about my talent and hone it to serve me in the way that I am seeking. In between these exercise paintings, I plan on doing studies with traditional media to improve my knowledge and my brains muscle memory for anatomy, lighting, color, and values. I hope, to one day, get a job, creating concept art for either the movie industry or gaming industry. I just have to keep a positive outlook on it, and keep my motivation going. I will be posting results here, but most of my activity will be able to be seen on ConceptArt.org via my online Sketchbook here: My SketchBook

More work.

Improving my skills.

I'm getting better. Not much to say other than I'm trying different painting techniques, and it seems to be paying off on a personal level. I still need to go back to the basics and work with good ol pencil and paper, with a smidge of water colors perhaps. In the meantime, this is what I've done in Photoshop in the past week in chronological order, the first eight anyways. Everything after that was done over the last month or so. Not that anyone even reads this blog. lol.

Back in it...

I will be updating my blog again here soon with more of my artwork. I was in kind of a creative rut for a few weeks, and I'm slowly coming out of it. Trying to learn new techniques, and get the basic fundamentals back down. We are currently in Iowa visiting family, but will be back in Illinois on Monday. Man, it's freakin hot outside. Off to smoke. 

Work in Progress

ValuesPracticeX14
Originally uploaded by m_rosiere

A work in progress values study.

My third values study

ValuesPracticeX13
Originally uploaded by m_rosiere

My third, and I think my best so far.

My second Values Study

ValuesPracticeX12
Originally uploaded by m_rosiere

Here's my second Values Study

My first Value Practice

ValuesPractice9
Originally uploaded by m_rosiere

This is my first real values practice.

Back to the Basics

I've been torn for quite awhile now about getting back into art. I feel that I had so much potential back when I was fresh out of High School, and here, 14 years later, I feel I wasted alot of my time on unimportant things that did absolutely nothing for me. I worked jobs I hated, with people I loathed, and for what? I ended up right back where I started, jobless, and wondering what in the hell I'm going to do with my life. I've decided to do what I should have done from the day I graduated High School. Pursue a career in art, doing something I thoroughly enjoy. So, back to the basics I go, to relearn all of the stuff I've forgotten over the last 14 years.
First off, I've started working on Values, once I can grasp values, I will then move on to anatomy and proportions. Once I have a good base in both of these, I will tackle color. My plan is to do a massive array of sci-fi/fantasy work, that will be put into a portfolio, and hopefully garner me the attention I should have strived to attain back in the day. I'm 32 now, and I hope with all of my heart, that I have not missed my opportunity at true happiness. Art makes me happy.

You can follow my progress on ConceptArt.org here.