Paris

Being in Paris has been really awesome these past few days. We're staying in a really nice apartment on the Champs Elysees, and we've already visited L'Arc de Triomphe (totally amazing, both the Arc itself and the view from the top), la Tour Eiffel, Versailles (yo have you seen Versailles? There is more fine art per square inch over there than anywhere I have ever been), and tomorrow we're doing the Louvre. I'm getting my old sketching mojo back, and drawing stuff I like. It's a nice reawakening after Ringling, where I feel like I froze a bit because I was exposed to so many styles, now I get to do my own thing again :) 

In other news my dragon piece is an epic fail and it didn't stand out in the competition, when I could have easily done something much much more original. I won't let that happen again. Here's to next time.

Finally, as I type this, Italy just won their game over Germany, so the streets are a cacophonous symphony of honks. Last night it was Spain winning over Portugal. Also, it's going to be the second Euro Cup in a row that I'm going to be in Spain as they go to the finals. They won last time, and it looks like they could do it again. Fiesta.

Ragnarok

When there's nothing left to burn, you have to set yourself on fire.

Ragnarok WIP

Thanks to everyone who tuned in to today's livestream painting of Ragnarok, it was an interesting experience. I'll have to get better about being so distracted but on the plus side I received some great feedback. I'm going to try with all my might to finish this tomorrow cos the deadline is Tuesday, when I leave for France.
You can check out the recordings here (though I can think of a million better uses of your time):

http://www.livestream.com/victormaury


PS can't wait to color it, it'll probs look something like this:

 

Edits and Studies

Nothing drastic here. Changed some small stuff, like detailing the mouth and eyes, adding smoke from the nose, lightening the tower and cave so you can see the colors (it looked good on the Cintiq but got a lot darker on my laptop, so I adjusted accordingly, might still be a bit too dark), tweaking the overall saturation so there's less bright green and blue, and redrawing the front hand. Unfortunately, there was no elegant way of fixing the tangents of the wing and ground with the tower walkways, just something I'll have to be wary of for next time.

Here's some studies to prepare me for tomorrow's illustration :)

Here's a teeny tiny preview ;)

and a rando quick self-portrait

The Slumbering Tyrant

It's done! woooooooooooooooooooo. At least until you all start poking holes in it and then I'll have to go fix it (actually, I'd love to hear your critiques, just give me at least a day to think it's ok). But yeah, here we are. I ended up being proudest of how the tower came out, of all things...

Also, the knight is riding a giant dog, maybe they should nickname him "the Hound".......Ha!

Enjoy the FULL VIEW

Big thanks to everyone who pitched in some help, especially Gal and Matt

Slumbering Tyrant, Day 2

So, after a lot of good feedback from everyone, Here's what we got. Unfortunately, due to my lack of either confidence or decisiveness, the piece has not moved forward very much. I did decide to run with the cave idea and have more selective lighting so as to really narrow the focus of the piece (to the dragon's face). Other than that I mostly noodled more vines, which is fun to do. I promise I'll get to that tower and fix those darks........just please ignore the entire left side for now

Here is the accompanying piece: "Opposite of a Dragon"

Slumbering Tyrant WIP

I'm going for a more naturalistic lighting inspired by the Pyrenees. Haven't touched the tower since the initial sketch (yet). I changed the point of view so that you're seeing the dragon from a cave. I feel like the composition was good enough to where it didn't need that but I like the effect of claustrophobia or entrapment it has, like you have nowhere to run when this guy gets going.

I'd love to hear some feedback before I (hopefully) finish this tomorrow :)

Color help is particularly appreciated...

I've been having a lot of cool dreams lately...

but I haven't been very productive. Let's change that today!

girls from tumblr

random warm-up pin-up

Here There Be Dragons

Yo so William O'Connor is hosting a dragon-drawing contest (!!!) and he's even inviting some of his buddies to help guest-judge the submissions. Yeah, I wish I could call Lars Grant-West, Dan Dos Santos, and Todd Lockwood my friends too...

Anyway, here's a potential idea, done in about 2 hours, comments and suggestions welcome and encouraged

Drawing Contest HERE

the Sphinx