Foolhardy Quest

"Foolhardy Quest" Watercolor, gouache, acrylic, and ink on Fabriano 140 lb hot press watercolor paper, 14 x 20" (35.56 x 50.8 cm) 

Finally, after nearly a month of straight painting in my free time, I have completed this piece, which I had showed a color sketch of earlier this year. Things changed quite a bit in terms of color, but I think for the better. 95% was painted using watercolors, with final adjustments in acrylic, gouache, and white ink. 

Bretonnian knights may not be the wisest, but they don't lack courage! The serpent was based on traditional sea serpent imagery, combined with the bioluminescence, jaws, and teeth of deep sea species while the orange fins were inspired by oarfish. (Which was said to have inspired the sea serpent legend in the first place!)

I'm planning on submitting this for this year's Spectrum, so wish me luck!

Foolhardy Defense Color Sketch

Sometimes, it's a good idea to throw together a color study before proceeding from sketch to finished piece. And by sometimes, I mean always. It's just I wouldn't recommend getting so carried away with one color concept, if you can help it.

(Un)fortunately, I can't take my own advice, and what was meant to be a quick digital color scribble evolved into the following: 

Bretonnian knights errant can be foolhardy at times, though I suppose if a sea serpent wrecks enough ships and eats enough people, one might need to (try) to do something about it!

Photoshop CS3, Wacom Bamboo tablet, and various teas and coffee for fuel. Art © April Schumacher. All rights reserved.

Kelpie

A spontaneous project that I somehow managed to complete, despite the fact that I had little idea as to what I wanted for a final product. I would like to push my work a little more into stylized territory, but for now have some more "semi-realism" or whatever you'd like to call it.

I'd done many sketches of the mythical kelpie in the past, and always like the idea of a more or less approachable looking horse: Except, of course, for that terrifying, rotting skeletal head and writhing kelp-like... appendages? The (careless) victims don't know what they're sitting on until it's too late. How unpleasant!

Derwent Graphitint pencils, watercolor, and acrylic on Stonehenge, 4.75 x 10".

Jin the Kirin

Just a study of a personal character design, something a little different from my standard, more "believable" creature concepts.  Pencil in sketchbook, color tinted in Photoshop.