Life Candle Still Burns

I’ve been really trying to branch out in my art, trying new things with GIMP and seeking out new tutorials to learn new techniques to add to my repertoire. Sooner or later, I might actually do something cool with them, but probably not for a while. You know, other than selling t-shirts. Speaking of which, if you see an image on my website that you’d like to have made into swag, let me know. I’m all about satisfying people that want to give me money.

This candle picture is actually inspired by Eldaraenth. In the game world, the Shaman of the Burning Wheel all what is called a life candle. There is a lot of ceremony and things that go along with it, but the important part of the story is that my character is (or at least was) a Shaman. This is a picture of his life candle.

Emo Eye Picture

You know that phenomenon you see on Facebook and MySpace where little emo teenagers take close up pictures of their eyeball to seem more artistic and dramatic. Yeah, this is basically the same thing, except I painted it in GIMP. Really, it was an excuse to work on things like lighting composition and shadowing and to get better at using the little smearing finger icon to do detail work instead of broad strokes. I also am starting to practice with the dodge and burn tools, which is how the coloring is done in both the eye and the eyebrow.

Topless Guy proves Anatomy isn’t My Strong Suit

This picture was a chance to work with hair. Hair is hard. Extremely hard. It isn’t great, but I think I did a good job with it. Also, this is how I see myself in my head, except in my head I’m holding a sword and shooting lightning from my eyes and random passers-by. No really, sometimes I even catch myself making the pew-pew-laser-beams noises with my mouth and have to look away embarrassed and ashamed… but only because I didn’t actually smite the randomly convenient with eye beams.

It’s going to work one day, and then you’ll all be sorry you laughed at me. MWA HA HA HA HA HA!