Merry Christmas!

Wishing all you wonderful blog readers out there a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

This is an illustration of a changed Mr. Ebenezer Scrooge and a grateful Tiny Tim that I did for a Christmas card this year. I was pushing it for time, and barely got it sent to the printers in time. But I managed to send several out to friends and family.

Here's a bit of the process I used to create it - I used this project as a chance to

apply what I'd learned from Cory Godbey's "Fox" demo (which I really can't recommend to you enough). I look forward to continuing to explore more digital/traditional techniques in the coming year. Here's a bit of how the project progressed:

 Final drawing, scanned, cleaned up, and levels adjusted.

 Linework adjusted to a warm color, sepia underpainting on the characters.

 Flat color added.

 Adding in some lighter colors.

 Pushing the light and dark colors.

 

Painted texture applied over the characters with a layer mask.

Texture applied over background.

Color balance layer applied over the background, with local color added to the background elements.

And Finished!

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Merry Christmas everybody! Looking forward to sharing some new projects 

with you in the coming year!

Hobbit Giveaway!

Announcing: The one and only Hobbit Giveaway!

 I am giving away two, (yes two!) brand new Hobbit drawings.

How can you win them you say? Well, all you have to do is enter my drawing! Here are the prizes:

Prize number one:

1 (one) "Riddles in the Dark" original drawing - pencil on bristol

8.5x11"

 

 

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Prize number two:

1 (one) "Forest Goblin" original drawing - pencil on bristol

8x10"

 

 

How to Enter:

 

There are 2 ways to enter. Here they are:

 

1. Leave a comment on this post saying something like "I have got to have one of these drawings" or "I hate these drawings but I just like to win stuff - count me in".

Or to make it easy, you could just tell me your favorite character from The Hobbit.

Make sure your comment profile has an email address, so I can contact you!

 

2. Send me an @mention on Twitter using the hashtag #hobbitgiveaway This way I can see that you want to win something, and all your Twitter friends will know that you are an official member of the Drawing the Sword Fan Club.

 

The drawing will end on Friday, December 21st 2012 at 11:59PM!

 

When I finally drag myself out of bed on Saturday, I'll select 2 winners. The first winner will be contacted via email, and they will get to choose their drawing. Then I'll contact the next winner, and they will get the last one. If the first winner does not respond within 12 hours, I'll move on to the next winner.

 

Good luck! And I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Riddles in the Dark

 

Riddles in the Dark

pencil on bristol 8.5 x 11"

"Now he drew it out. It shone pale and dim before his eyes.

'So it is an elvish blade too,' he thought; 'and goblins are not very near,

and yet not far enough.' ...

 Now Bilbo was in what is called a tight place." 

Drawing number two in my Hobbit series. Hope you like it. I think I'm getting a little better at this drawing business. I still think I fuss over a great deal too many things that don't need to be fussed over, and ignore quite a few things that need desperate attention. Ah, well. I shall keep pressing on. Until next time, here is an excellent video of J.R.R. Tolkien himself, talking about his Lord of the Rings trilogy (and Hobbits too if I remember correctly. Watch for the 1960's college kids talking about what a Hobbit is, and the red-headed girl who rambles on about the story. You'll know what I mean, you can't miss it. Enjoy! And stay tuned - next week, I'll announce the BIG GIVEAWAY. Don't miss it!

Part 1:

Part 2: