Okay, okay, I know. March 6th has rolled around, and the image isn't finished. Turns out all of my free time has been devoted to finishing all the random little jobs around the house. And my wife is serious this time, so I've done a lot, just not on the project. But I'll just have to find a way to do it anyway.

Well, here's the next update. Starting to have some fun now, although I'm still pretty busy, but I want to finish this by next saturday (March 6th). Anyway, haven't painted much stone before, so the wall in the background is a first for me. Needless to say, I like it so far, but it's early and still time for me to stumble on the intricacies that surely exist.

Here's an update on the first illustration. I'm still pretty busy with some things outside of illustration, and I might have a website that I committed to doing a while ago start back up, but I'm still going to try to keep this up.

Well, okay. I've been very busy lately, and not with art. Laurel and I are in charge of the Ward Youth Conference, so most of my free time lately has been devoted to that.

Anyway, my first illustration is going to be of Dallben, reading from the book of three. Here are two sketches, ideas for the illustration, and the colored image is my under-painting for the illustration. Doing it in photoshop, if you're interested.

Anyway, I hope to get some time at some point to pick this up more seriously. But please, don't give up on me yet.

Here's the update. A few pictures of Dallben, the old wizened keeper of Caer Dallben, where the story starts, as well as a few more sketches of Taran, our hero. I think I'm ready to start in on the first illustration, which, hopefully, I can finish and post some regular updates on.

Anyway, until next time.

Well, I, uh... yeah. I haven't been good at updating the blog as much as I'd like. I'll have you know that I've been drawing almost everyday still, just haven't had time to update things, but I'll do it tomorrow. I promise.

Or maybe saturday...

Okay, so here's some sketches I've done over the last couple of days. I've finally settled into a routine, so I'm starting to get the "bug" as it were. Anyway, the first sketch, or two sketches, are of Hen-wen. She's a large pig, whose also an oracle for those who know how to speak to her. Anyway, the first sketch (on the top) was done in the "I can draw a pig - no problem" phase. Only after I drew what is evident to anyone with eyes something exactly not a pig did I realize my incompetence. Hence the second sketch, which turned out much better and was done using reference.



This sketch is my first attempt at what Coll would look like. Coll an older gentlemen, a little portly, and bald, who runs Caer Dallben, where the story takes place. He has other parts in the story but that's another story. Anyway, it's a quick sketch, but I like the looks of it.

Okay, so it's the first of the new year, and my journey begins today. Well actually it began a few days ago, but this is the first time I've been able to sit down and scan in some drawings done over the break.

Anyway, here's a quick outline sketch thingy of the horned king. I really like where this is going, and enjoyed the practice, I'll definitely have to do it again in the future.


I really liked the silhouette of the helm on this as opposed to the first sketch, and so I sketched out another quick version of what I thought the helm would look like in this design...



I really like this version. It conveys the feel of the horned king much better than the first. I took some inspiration from General Kael, from Willow, as well as a mix of Sauron's helm from Lord of the Rings. I'm going to try some more studies of this.

The next image is of Prince Gwydion. I've seen illustrations of him depicted as a younger man, maybe late twenties, but in reading the book, I picture him more in his late thirties, early forties. A man with considerable experience and wisdom, even more so than his age. I know he looks even older in the sketch, but just imagine him with blonde/brown hair.


And lastly, a very quick sketch of the Dwarf king. I'll tell you his name later, I seem to have... uh... "misplaced" it. Yeah.


Anyway, there you go. I'll post another batch in a few days. As always, please leave comments and critiques.