Forum Banner

I'm really in to the Aquarium hobby, and there are a couple of forums that I use regularly. The main one of which needed an over haul and a new look, and so I volunteered to do art for the forum banner.
Here was the final piece on it's own:

Which compared to other betta paintings that I've done in the past, it's a lot more simplistic. This is because it's viewed considerably smaller than my other paintings.
The concept behind the smoking tail was despite our forum being hacked and taken down, we just came back. The forum admin and other members though the concept of a phoenix fish was a good one, and so that's what I went with.

The smoke was done using this fantastic brush set by eMelody over on Deviant Art.

And here's what it looks like in action, after being merged with the text. Rusty, our forum Admin did a great job with it, and I'm really chuffed with how it's turned out, which is quite a rarity for me!

And this is where you can find it: The Fish Forum

Sketches

Just thought I'd post some sketches I did a couple of weeks ago. They were requests and I used reference provided.

I was actually pleased with how the Bearded Dragon (1st sketch) and the Piranha (2nd sketch) turned out. I might start taking requests for sketches again as they're great for when I'm struggling for inspiration or for ideas on what to draw.

Mr Beasty!

Just a quick and fun sketch I did for my boyfriend that I've been meaning to do for ages now ^^
Not much else to say really apart from it was fun to mess around with, although I think it's probably a bit too saturated.

Beauty and the Beast

Over the weekend my boyfriend and I watched Beauty and the Beast. I haven't seen it since I was little girl, and the only thing I could remember about it was that it was one of my childhood favourites. And it's still one of my all time favourite films. It's absolutely beautiful, and Beast has got to be one of the strongest and most appealing character designs that I have ever seen. Feeling mighty inspired, and although I very, very rarely draw fan art, I couldn't resist doing a quick sketch of Beast :D

Another daily environment study. I enjoyed painting this one a  lot more, although I think the foreground still looks poor. Just over an hour spent on this one, so it's a big improvement on yesterday's piece. I also made myself use brushes that I never would normally use- I think it's something I really need to get used to.
Reference photo used was a picture my OH took in North Wales.

Aimee Process

And here's a quick walk through of another way that I paint. This technique allows me to sort out the values before I add any colour. In theory this should help colours pop, but I don't think I'm quite there with it yet, as I've not played around with this technique as much. 

Daily Studies

So it's time I got this blog started properly. Here is where I'll post studies and practices.
Below is a list of what I think are my main weaknesses and areas that I need to improve upon the most.
1. Lighting
2. Perspective
3. Making images more dynamic
4. Composition
5. Anatomy
6. Learning to loosen up- I get obsessed on painting details.
Basically, I need to go back to basics and learn the fundamentals!

This is the first of many daily studies to come. Painting this one took me way too long and made me realise that I really don't enjoy painting environments any more (which is a shame!), that I'm crazy out of practice, and that I generally suck at them.

Time to get practising!