Justin Owens » 2d http://dragonworld.com Illustration Tue, 17 Jan 2012 00:34:42 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Well hello there! http://dragonworld.com/2012/01/16/well-hello-there http://dragonworld.com/2012/01/16/well-hello-there#comments Tue, 17 Jan 2012 00:34:42 +0000 jay http://dragonworld.com/?p=3388 Ouch, way too long since posting! I started a new job back at the end of October, I’m now the Content Care Admin (of the student site, not the public site) at AnimationMentor.com. It’s an awesome place to work. I’ll get to that in another post.

I’ve been doing some sketching here and there, but I haven’t done nearly as much art as I’d like. Yesterday was the first time in months where I had a sustained session. I ended up doodling and just getting comfortable with painting again. It felt awesome to be painting again.

12_01_15_fleshy 12_01_15_sketch 12_01_15_blue ]]> http://dragonworld.com/2012/01/16/well-hello-there/feed 0 A froggy Halloween http://dragonworld.com/2011/10/27/a-froggy-halloween http://dragonworld.com/2011/10/27/a-froggy-halloween#comments Thu, 27 Oct 2011 22:56:23 +0000 jay http://dragonworld.com/?p=3375

I’ve been quite absent from this blog for a while and this was one of the projects that led to it. I was hired to redesign and implement Frog Hollow Farm’s new ecommerce site. They switched from a custom ecommerce solution to Shopify. I was able to get up to speed rather quickly and help them reach their target launch date. And I got to add in some cute illustrations ^_^ I also did quite a bit of product photography for the site which was interesting. I’ve always loved photography, but in the past have tended more towards landscapes and portraits.

Today I finished up this quick illo for a splash of holiday flavor on the site in time for Halloween. Fun Fun!

]]> http://dragonworld.com/2011/10/27/a-froggy-halloween/feed 2 An elemental adventurer http://dragonworld.com/2011/10/02/an-elemental-adventurer http://dragonworld.com/2011/10/02/an-elemental-adventurer#comments Sun, 02 Oct 2011 19:59:25 +0000 jay http://dragonworld.com/?p=3371 Started as a quick sketch in Photoshop that I decided to develop a little further. I’d like to revisit this guy again, perhaps see where his adventure takes him.

I think I’ll make a promise to myself though, that on the next image I work on, I create a location (rather than just the gray background)!

]]> http://dragonworld.com/2011/10/02/an-elemental-adventurer/feed 1 A sketchpage, digital http://dragonworld.com/2011/09/21/a-sketchpage-digital http://dragonworld.com/2011/09/21/a-sketchpage-digital#comments Wed, 21 Sep 2011 22:35:17 +0000 jay http://dragonworld.com/?p=3363 I spent some time this morning doing a few warmup sketches before work.

I’m not sure what this guy is up to, but more practice in rendering form and texture is always nice.

I’m liking this guy, dubbed “The Admiral”. I want to do something else with him, but I’m not sure what. I did a quick splash of color on him and an armor tweak, but I’m not at all satisfied with where he’s at. These will work as exploratory sketches for a later painting.

]]> http://dragonworld.com/2011/09/21/a-sketchpage-digital/feed 0 A yorkshire terrier, painted http://dragonworld.com/2011/09/03/a-yorkshire-terrier-painted http://dragonworld.com/2011/09/03/a-yorkshire-terrier-painted#comments Sat, 03 Sep 2011 20:31:54 +0000 jay http://dragonworld.com/?p=3353 I’ve been working on a commission to do a painting of someone’s dog, but before jumping into the finished piece I took a break to do this little test painting. This test happened to coincide with a friend’s birthday, she has a family of Yorkshire Terriers, so I used them as my inspiration. The commission I’m working on will be for a dalmation, fun fun! I love animals and having more reasons to paint them totally works for me.


Oil on canvas
8″ x 8″

]]> http://dragonworld.com/2011/09/03/a-yorkshire-terrier-painted/feed 1 From the depths http://dragonworld.com/2011/08/08/from-the-depths http://dragonworld.com/2011/08/08/from-the-depths#comments Tue, 09 Aug 2011 00:57:20 +0000 jay http://dragonworld.com/?p=3345

A sketch painting I did this afternoon in between work projects. It lacks any real specific design, but was a fun and quick mood piece to break up what I was doing. Also, I hadn’t posted anything in a while!

]]> http://dragonworld.com/2011/08/08/from-the-depths/feed 1 Draco Spinosa http://dragonworld.com/2011/07/19/draco-spinosa http://dragonworld.com/2011/07/19/draco-spinosa#comments Tue, 19 Jul 2011 20:50:16 +0000 jay http://dragonworld.com/?p=3336 Draco Spinosa, or the Thorny Dragon, is an elusive predator found mainly in the dry brush regions of the great desert. It’s natural camouflage lets it blend in to the briar thickets found throughout the area.

]]> http://dragonworld.com/2011/07/19/draco-spinosa/feed 0 A sketch painting of a knight http://dragonworld.com/2011/07/13/a-sketch-painting-of-a-knight http://dragonworld.com/2011/07/13/a-sketch-painting-of-a-knight#comments Wed, 13 Jul 2011 22:30:17 +0000 jay http://dragonworld.com/?p=3333 Something I’ve been noodling away at when taking short breaks from work. I had the idea to practice painting armor and just kinda went from there. The armor doesn’t make a whole lot of sense (as far as functionality), but my goal was to work from imagination. Reference definitely has its place, but I want to get comfortable designing armor/clothing without having to rely on it (reference).

]]> http://dragonworld.com/2011/07/13/a-sketch-painting-of-a-knight/feed 1 I’m back, after having not been away http://dragonworld.com/2011/07/11/im-back-after-having-not-been-away http://dragonworld.com/2011/07/11/im-back-after-having-not-been-away#comments Mon, 11 Jul 2011 22:27:30 +0000 jay http://dragonworld.com/?p=3330 Time to get myself back into a regular posting schedule. Just under a month ago I decided to retire my daily image project. After around two and a half years, I was ready to move on. The original purpose was to just get me drawing at least a little bit each day. I used to spend weeks thinking about drawing, but never actually picking up a pencil (or the digital equivalent). By sticking with my daily images, I conquered that problem. Now as I’m working towards doing illustration to support myself, I’m wanting to focus on more finished works. There were enough times over the last few months where I didn’t have much time to put into a particular daily image, that I was extremely unhappy with the resulting sketch.

Since setting aside the daily image project, I’ve easily been still drawing each day, but I feel much freer. That makes me happy. I do want to post regularly here though, at least twice a week would be ideal. I took a break from on of my work projects and doodled this creature.

]]> http://dragonworld.com/2011/07/11/im-back-after-having-not-been-away/feed 0 Small adjustments to the lil’ mercenary http://dragonworld.com/2011/06/09/small-adjustments-to-the-lil-mercenary http://dragonworld.com/2011/06/09/small-adjustments-to-the-lil-mercenary#comments Thu, 09 Jun 2011 22:00:52 +0000 jay http://dragonworld.com/?p=3316 A lot of times when I finish working on a piece, I’ll keep coming back to it in the following days. I’ll see how I respond to it and what stands out as needing work, refinement, clarification etc. In the case of the character I posted the other day, the lighting just wasn’t popping enough for me and overall the image felt a little too desaturated.

I haven’t decided if it’s done yet, but I’m going to let it rest a bit and see what I think in another couple days. Areas that I’m considering working on: overall texture pass (on skin and clothing). Storytelling elements (other characters? Perhaps silhouetted in the bg and fg).

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