Masks

I have recently added two tabs near the top of the page that are linked to galleries with my "paintings" (or non-design related artwork) and my designs. I don't know why I did not think of this before. It was by way of inspiration from another blog, Muddy Colors, that I came to realize the full capabilities of Blogger.

Speaking of Muddy Colors, I would like to talk about my favorite blogs. The first blog that I ever came to visit with any degree of regularity was Muddy Colors. It was there that I also discovered a spectacular pool of mostly traditional-media illustrators, which to me, seemed like an anomaly as digital art is sweeping the internet. Don't get me wrong, digital art is a beautiful thing, but for a while, it seemed to me that working with traditional mediums was a dying art form. What keeps me coming back to the blog is the helpful advice shared by seasoned artists about how they make a living and the passion so evident in the artwork they share and their process in making it.

Another blog that has proven worthwhile to visit is James Gurney's Gurney Journey. This blog is chock-full of oil painting tips that have inspired two five-star books: Imaginative Realism: How to Paint What Doesn't Exist and Color and Light: A Guide for the Realist Painter, authored by Mr. Gurney himself. There is a good balance of fun facts and science interspersed between masterful tips on painting that will entice you I am sure.

A third blog that I look at occasionally is The Featured Creature. It is an endless source of inspiration and would be an invaluable reference for creature designers. Just look at this Scaly-foot Gastropod:

And now for a little update on the senior project. I did a little study of masks, which will help me create something believable for the masked man in my concept sketches.

 

These are all Indonesian masks. The top one is a monkey mask, and the two bug-eyed masks are lions. I did my best to create an "original" mask on the bottom right and while it does resemble an Indonesian mask, it looks more like the face of a mandril than a lion. I may end up scaling back the detail quite a bit and do something more sleek and akin to the Japanese Kitsune mask.