Hot Springs

I actually finished this a while ago but didn't post it here.  Life just gets in the way I suppose.  I wanted to do a more fantasy type of drawing, so I came up with this.  There is another that I want to redo from like years ago, and hopefully I'll be able to get to that (and make prints of it) thats sort of similar to this image.

Below is the initial sketch that I came up with:

At first, the background was going to be like a cave wall with water pools cascading down, but the whole thing just felt really claustrophobic, so I decided to open it up a little bit.  And I wanted her robe to be sheer to the point where it was going to be a little more than slightly see-through, but since I was going to get this printed out in a public place, I erred on the side of caution and to make her robe more opaque.  (I don't understand why my sketches on white backgrounds post on here as slightly gray, but whatever...)

And below is the final image that I decided to go with:

The spheres weren't in the sketch at all, and I just threw them in on a whim, but I definitely like how they came out.  And as you can see, I made her robe semi transparent, and you can see a slight silhouette of her figure, and I think thats probably just enough to get by and get this printed in a family friendly place.

I posted several work in progress images of this on my Instagram feed, so you should definitely check it out and follow me for more work in progress shots of different illustrations and other randomness.

And as always, if you would like to purchase this illustration as an 11" x 17" print on high quality gloss cardstock, you can do so at my Storenvy site and see my other prints for sale there as well.

Without Wax,

-Charles

2013 Remnants

I can't believe I haven't made a post here for the new year yet, which is a shame.  I somehow got this blog out of sync with my Tumblr one and my Facebook page (Google+ is all out of sync, I probably have to do a massive art post dump there as well to catch up).  This year I'm dedicating myself to keep this blog with at least parity to my other online spaces as well as adding some exclusive stuff to here that I don't post elsewhere.  Actually, for all of my online portals, I'm posting stuff to each one that I won't post elsewhere to keep me motivated to updating all of them with different content.  I guess that is a new year resolution, even though I'm not really big on resolutions.

Let's not bog this post down with a lot of talking though as there is quite a bit of new art I need to share.

A while ago I posted a sketch of Black Canary that I was hoping to compile into one mega image that really never materialized (maybe in 2014?), but I decided to finish it anyways.  So here's that:

Black Canary 2013

And even further back in the year, I posted a sketch of Alice in Wonderland that I just never really got back around to.  I guess in December I felt that I had a whole bunch of unresolved sketches that needed to be seen through, even though I didn't finish all of them.  And here is that one:

Wonderland

And of course with it being December, I had to do the requisite holidays inspired drawing, so here's that as well:

I also did several sketches and redraws of what eventually turned out to be a Dark Phoenix and Scott Summers illustration.  I made a preliminary sketch a long while ago and just sat on the idea until I decided to revisit it with a sketch that went in a slightly different direction:

I just took the best elements of both sketches and combined them into one.  And then after I did that, I couldn't decide on a single background....so I did two.  How's that for not being lazy when it comes to backgrounds?

And then I had an opportunity to do a Jem and the Holograms commission...and why would I not jump on that idea.  I used to watch the show (and maybe still caught a few episodes on Netflix), so this was right up my alley.  Plus it was a chance to exhaust all of the shades of pink and purple that I know...a stark change from the usual color palette that I tend to go with.  It turned out to be...wait for it....truly outrageous.

Jem and the Holograms: click for higher resolution

That turned out to be my last illustration of 2013...which looking back went pretty well art wise.  Looking back at how I started 2013 and how my art has progressed throughout the year, I'm more than excited as to what 2014 has to offer.  I'm definitely looking to new avenues to share my art and get myself out there, and 2014 will definitely be the year for that.  

All of the above illustrations are available for purchase on high quality semi gloss paper at my Storenvy store: Illumistrations.Storenvy.com.

And I guess as always, follow me everywhere: tumblr, twitter, instagram and yadda yadda....the user name is Illumistrations.

Without Wax,

-Charles.

Soundwave, Superior

Well looky whats finally done!

I've been feeling very creative lately...which is great.  And I'm struggling to find enough time to get down all of these sketches so I can get the ideas out to finish later and juggle commissions, but its an issue I'm glad to take on.  I still feel as if I need to draw more, and having like 2 months taken out of productivity really put a damper on things, but I'm sure that I can catch up. 

I have other sketches that I need to finish and hopefully make into prints, so I'll squeeze those in if I have the time.  But in the meantime in-between time, this illustration is available as an 11" x 17" print on high quality poster archive paper...and you can definitely be one of the people to call this your very own!  Obviously on the print, the watermarks are not there, those are only there for online posting purposes.  But you can head on over to my Square Market page, or right here on this blog to my Commissions and Prints link to purchase your own print.  

And feel free to look me up on any other social media sites that I'm on (the links are on the right hand side of the page in my profile).  Thanks for stopping by and checking out my art!

Without Wax,

-Charles