From Gandalf to the Red Death- A Digital Art Adventure

The worst thing about life is that there is no “back” button. And that’s why digital art is cool. Where else can I spend 30 minutes coloring a piece and then decide I want it to be black and white? I’ve been doing digital art for about a year and a half, and I thought it’s high time I did an art dump here, but I have so many pieces I had to pick a theme, so I decided that this should be a chronological history of my digital art adventures; what I’ve learned, how I’ve improved (or not), and how I mostly draw stuff from books. Onward!

1. Gandalf

This isn’t my first digital art piece, but it was the fist one I felt really proud of. I was Gandalf in a play of The Hobbit, and I was so excited about it I wanted to draw the Wizard Boi himself. Does that make this a self portrait? Who knows.

2. Violent Delights Have Violent Ends

This is another example of the genre of art “I got excited about the play I was in and drew fanart for it.” I was in Romeo and Juliet last year, and felt the need to illustrate my favorite line I had. It’s ~*~forshadowing!~*~

3. Horse

I don’t know why this horse has a blue mane, but seeing as his body ends at his neck I think he has bigger problems.

4. Portal Turret

I just realized I haven’t mentioned a single thing I’ve learned, despite what I said at the beginning. Well, learning things is for NERDS! I’m too COOL to learn from my mistakes!!
But in all seriousness, I drew this after a period of lowkey artist’s block. I couldn’t get up the motivation to draw, until I started remembering how much I love the game Portal. That motivated me to draw some fanart, which in turn motivated me to draw in general, and broke that artist’s block. I guess there’s a lesson in there, if you’re feeling burnt out and unmotivated… draw a robot. (Or whatever makes you happy. Preferably a robot.)

5. Cloud with Human Feet

It’s a cloud with human feet.

6. Doge

My Minecraft dog that I had tamed the first day I got the game had… an incident… involving lava…. and I channeled my sadness into art. I’m not sure who the player character is supposed to be, I started drawing my Minecraft skin, and then winged it from there.
RIP Doge. You were a good boi.

7. Ghost Guy

I’m not really sure who this guy is, but I got inspired the Dead Men of Dunharrow from Lord of the Rings, and said to myself “I wanna draw a fantasy ghost guy who’s less than enthused about being a ghost guy!” And so Ghost Guy sprung forth.

8. Masque of the Red Death

Heavily inspired by Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Masque of the Red Death” and probably the hardest thing I’ve drawn, shading-wise. Skulls are fun, though.

 

I realized that I should probably say when all these were made, but I honestly don’t remember for most of them, so let’s just say Gandalf is from autumn 2018, the Romeo and Juliet quote and the horse are from 2019, and the rest are late 2019/early 2020.

 

That’s all for now! See ya in a couple weeks!