Thick Mixture

Angel Token

2011-10-01T16:25:00.000-07:00

Here's an Angel Token I did for MtG: Innistrad. I cheered when I got this prompt, an angel with a sword flying in a lightning storm?! How much more awesome an assignment can you get?

© Wizards of the Coast

My first Magic cards!

2011-09-26T07:49:00.000-07:00

Some of my Magic cards have been released. This set's all about vampires and horror; I got to paint a lot of blood! And also pretty people.

I went to Art Out Loud in NYC this weekend, and it was so much fun. I'm really inspired and excited to get more oil painting done, I'll be pushing around the real paint today!

Reno Worldcon!

2011-08-10T15:52:00.001-07:00

I'll be appearing at Renovation (Worldcon in Reno) showing my work and giving a few talks and panels; if any of you followers are going, check your programs for my name :)

Whispering Wood progress

2011-03-03T21:09:00.001-08:00

A little further along. I made some changes to the of Robb and Jaime to give their gestures a bit more force. I'm using lots of separate reference images cobbled together for armor pieces from different angles... Need to shoot some pictures for that cape soon. Whee!

Whispering Wood WIP

2011-03-02T00:22:00.001-08:00

A personal piece. I stated this thing a long time ago and finally had some time to pull it back out. Robb Stark vs. Jaime Lannister, from A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin. This one is going to be ongoing for some time longer, methinks. But oh man, horses and knights and violence and mayhem, what on earth could be more fun?!

Casseopeia cover

2010-10-18T10:08:00.000-07:00

Here's a cover/pinup for my short comic Casseopeia.

Another 3d head study

2010-09-30T09:29:00.000-07:00

Another one. This guy has somewhat fleshier features, so that was really fun :)

3d

2010-09-29T18:53:00.000-07:00

Playing with 3d :) This is a character for a personal project (he has hair, I just didn't scuplt it). I used Sculptris, a free 3d program that works pretty much like ZBrush except that it has dynamic tesselation - so it adds polys as you sculpt detail. It's awesome.

IMC 2010

2010-06-24T13:06:00.000-07:00

Here's how my painting from IMC turned out. There's a little bit of digital in the buildings.

The jetbike was painted from a model I kitbashed. So fun!

I'm on Gurney Journey

2010-06-21T20:36:00.000-07:00

James Gurney got a picture of me with a kitbash I made for reference in the piece I was working on at the Illustration Master Class. The painting itself is almost done, I'll post it soon :)

More kitbash!

2010-05-14T23:43:00.000-07:00

I made a little escape pod tonight. Here it is, along with some other angles of the first one.

Kitbashing!

2010-05-14T13:32:00.001-07:00

I got a bunch of model kits, mixed all the pieces up, and come out with this little fighter.

No Kissing

2010-05-07T09:32:00.000-07:00

Here's a new cover I did for Issue 2, No Kissing, of Yaoi911's Tough by Alex Woolfson. I did colors for this issue too. Check out the comic here, get prints of the cover here!

I snuck one of the characters from the 90-page graphic novel I've been working on into the background... Technically these characters couldn't exist in the same world, since the graphic novel is a scifi set in the future, but I like to think the boy whose room this is might be a fan of the comic :P

Spectrum 17 piece

2010-04-17T16:17:00.001-07:00

I've posted it before, but I just found out this is the piece that got accepted into Spectrum :)

2010-04-16T15:16:00.000-07:00

Here's an oil portrait I did for a friend... I didn't have much time on it, cuz I forgot about how much time you have to spend waiting for oils to dry!

Live painting

2010-03-29T17:28:00.000-07:00

I'm going to be live painting for a few hours tonight, starting in just a few minutes. I'm starting a new cover painting, so tonight will be the thumbnail/rough phase.

Here's the link: www.livesteam.com/nonie

TOUGH

2010-03-04T13:55:00.000-08:00

This painting may look familiar... It's a cover I did a while back for a yaoi comic, TOUGH by Alex Woolfson, and it's just been released.

The first 16 pages are on the site and the rest of the first issue can be downloaded for free. Issue 2, for which I did colors, will come out on May 1st!

It's yaoi, so don't look if you're uncomfortable with depictions of gay romance (don't look at the picture in the post either then :P). It's also really well written and both sweet and totally kick-ass!

Check it out here!

You can also buy prints and other items with this image here.

Color study

2010-02-16T00:12:00.001-08:00

Sorry for the lack of new posts! I've been very busy with a lot of stuff I can't show... But I did this study tonight just for a break. From a random photo in my folder of heads... It's an actor, wish I could remember the guy's name, he has a cool face. If anyone can recognize him from this, let me know :)

Wolf Studies

2009-12-11T20:40:00.000-08:00

The first page of these studies was garbage so I didn't post it 0_0 Wolves are harder than horses! All that fur!

Battle Elf

2009-12-10T01:28:00.000-08:00

New one!

Horses!

2009-12-09T13:16:00.000-08:00

More 2-minute studies, only this time I'm drawing from a folder of horse photos instead of heads.

Huntress Process

2009-12-05T13:04:00.000-08:00

Here are some process shots of my most recent painting, Huntress. Usually I start out with a pencil thumbnail sketch, but for this one I worked entirely digitally.

Martial Arts Sketches

2009-12-03T00:13:00.000-08:00

Wachaaaaa!

Mor heads

2009-11-20T23:35:00.000-08:00

I haven't done any 2-minute head studies in a while, and talking with some art friends recently I got excited to do them again... Sooo fun :) I'm putting together folders to use for poses and animals too.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-16T18:51:00.000-08:00

I started this as Illuxcon and just finished it :)

Cartoonier

2009-10-11T12:35:00.000-07:00

A bunch of my more stylized stuff :)

Evil Dead Poster

2009-09-23T09:57:00.000-07:00

Well, this is done. I'm on the road at the moment or I would have uploaded it sooner. My good friend Nathan St Germain is playing Ash and I'm so excited! I'll be seeing the show on Halloween :D

There will be lots of sketches from the trip soon :)

And another

2009-08-12T18:17:00.001-07:00

Another head study

2009-08-12T15:59:00.001-07:00

Kind of a sucky likeness... Color was fun though :)

Warhammer cover

2009-08-12T08:44:00.001-07:00

My first book cover has been announced so I can show it now! I did this piece for the first book in a new series of Warhammer fantasy novels - Bloodborn by Nathan Long.

Edit: The Black Library's just blogged the cover here http://www.blacklibrary.com

Evil Dead Musical

2009-08-12T07:52:00.002-07:00

I did these thumbnails during an all-day meeting at work... A friend of mine is starring in a production of Evil Dead: The Musical and asked me to do a poster. Any favorites?

Random head study

2009-08-10T18:08:00.000-07:00

~1.5 hrs... This is done from a photo off of a movie capture blog, I forget where, dunno what movie. Loved the dude's skin tones and layered, subtle expression, hope I captured that...

Sketchiz

2009-08-06T14:57:00.001-07:00

Some from Comicon, some from LA, and some from back home in San Francisco :)

Cards - Finished!

2009-07-17T02:36:00.001-07:00

Finally. Phew.

Moar Progress

2009-07-16T04:54:00.001-07:00

Just the last figure now. I'm gonna have to pay a lot to get these delivered in time 0_0

Card Set Progress

2009-07-15T03:32:00.001-07:00

Chipping away... The longer this takes me the more I have to pay for rush delivery :/ But I'm excited about how it's turning out!

Lady of the Lake (Finished!)

2009-07-14T11:32:00.001-07:00

It's done :)

Sketchcrawl and Lady of the Lake progress

2009-07-13T01:14:00.000-07:00

Sorry again for the phone photo of my painting... It's almost done, and I'll get a better picture then :)

Lady of the Lake progress

2009-07-11T10:12:00.001-07:00

Fiiiinally putting some more paint on this. Scrubbing in some value for the clouds. Sorry about the shitty picture, I have only my phone camera at the moment...

Color study

2009-07-06T16:13:00.000-07:00

Progress shot of the cards. I did several gradient map layers and then erased in and out of them, then painted on top one I had something I liked.

This year's card set - WIP

2009-07-05T10:04:00.001-07:00

Just doing 3 this time. I started out with 5 and really liked the rythm of figures between each card, but I didn't have enough characters in mind and couldn't figure out who would go in the middle two anyway. So 3 it is. Here's the thumbnail, more refined sketch, and value study.

Lady of the Lake

2009-06-28T13:19:00.000-07:00

For Illustration Master Class, I chose to do an illustraion of the Lady of the Lake. And then I wasted a bunch of time watching westerns and suddenly decided to add a western theme.

Here's the whole progression from thumbnails to preliminary sketches to the painting underway. I haven't finished it yet. It's my first attempt at illustrating in oils so I'm learning a lot!

Illustration Master Class Sketches

2009-06-28T13:15:00.000-07:00

Doodling during lectures...

Starting to feel batter about these

2009-05-26T19:06:00.000-07:00

2 minutes is feeling longer and longer. I checked the timer a couple times, not believing it was still set to 2 minutes, but it was. But then, some turned out horrible anyway. Oh well :P

I've noticed I draw the initial head shape was smaller than the head ends up being. I guess once I get into the facial features I get a little too big and then draw a new head in better proportion. So the initial head line ends up just circling the face. It's not the same as drawing a head on a figure cuz it'd ruin the drawing to change the size of the head to accommodate the face :P

Today's drills

2009-05-25T11:06:00.000-07:00

More heads. When I'm not sure I understand what's going on I just focus on shadow shapes and hitting the darks. I probably err too subtle though.

Drills!

2009-05-09T14:15:00.000-07:00

I've been telling a lot of friends about this exercise and my buddy Vince started calling them drills - which I like so I'm keeping it! So here are some more timed drill head drawings, and some gestures. Some of the more contorted faces, I hit "back" and did 4 minutes instead of 2... More important to me to get it right than to go fast, even though the speed forces me to be more loose and quick.

The photos I'm using are just collected from google and flickr searches, with terms like "fight" or "unposed" or actors' names (this works best when using the name of a movie or character so you don't get so many press shots), looking for different expressions and angles. Don't bother looking for specific emotions like "anger" because this just brings up badly-acted stock photos of businessmen yelling at their laptops and stuff like that. Sports and news images are good for expressions too, and sometimes just looking for a very common name like "Michael" will get nice unposed shots too. They don't have to be very large images since these are very quick drawings, but I do look for clear lighting as it's really hard to see the form when it's just omnidirectional indoor light. Really large images or ones where the whole head is not in the frame are a lot more difficult to draw from for this, as getting the proportion and placement of features and the structure of the skull are extremely important for getting any likeness (and just for getting the face and expression to look right at all).

Shaking off the rust

2009-05-05T16:44:00.001-07:00

I used to get to do a lot of head drawing in my commute, but my train ride is much shorter, so I've been missing out on my daily exercises. One day I was looking at some images in a slideshow and found I could change the interval between pictures. Awesome. I've been filling a folder with faces - actors and regular people - just trying for a lot of different angles and expressions. Real looking expressions, not stock photos cuz those have bad acting and I don't want to draw fake expressions. Anyway I started drawing from a slideshow of this folder, with the images set to change every 2 minutes (I downloaded a free image viewer called FastStone because Vista's previewer only has "slow" "medium" and "fast" for the interval and the slow one is only like 30 seconds). Here's my first session.

Tough

2009-04-17T11:23:00.000-07:00

I've got an ongoing job with a man named Alex Woolfson and his Yaoi911 publishing. I've got a graphic novel in the works with him (not going to be done for a while yet) and do some other odds and ends, such as this cover for another title of his, Tough.

Prints of this are available, just click the image below.

2009-03-02T07:59:00.000-08:00

This is my entry for the Dominance War "War General Portrait" Mini-Challenge. What greater commander is there than Endger Wiggin?

Turnip Murder

2009-02-22T17:58:00.001-08:00

Hey look! I finally have one new painting. Sorry for the lack of posting, I've been working a ton of hours on things I can't show for a long time yet. But I'm tired of never having work to show so I made a resolution to save a few hours a week for personal work.

This is for the conceptart.org Battle of the Sexes Thunderdome, for which the girls' topic was Brotherhood. A friend of mine suggested the Mario Brothers as a joke and I liked it so much I ran with it. Thanks Mark!

Barbarian Queen

2008-10-22T20:03:00.000-07:00

Had some downtime at work so I doodled :)

Night Sketching (DS Colors!)

2008-09-03T23:58:00.000-07:00

I went out sketching with my boyfriend Jake and our good friend Marc Taro... (Actually the first is from lunchtime last week sometime but I haven't gotten it off my DS yet). The DS is the absolute perfect medium for night sketching! No need to find adequate light to see by, only gotta find a cool view and you're set :)

Sketchesssss

2008-08-29T08:47:00.000-07:00

Doodling in a park, some life drawing, and some cats...

Wowow

2008-08-21T23:48:00.000-07:00

First time figure drawing in months... Rusty...

New Job - and Prints for Sale!

2008-08-09T23:41:00.000-07:00

I got a new job at Planet Moon Studios! I'm really enjoying my coworkers already and can't wait to start. The project I'll be working on is so exciting! And now that my jobhunt is over I will hopefully have more time to make stuff I can actually post :)

And now another shameless plug... I have a few prints for sale on InPRNT! Check them out here!

3deeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

2008-08-04T22:20:00.000-07:00

I made this guy when I first got Zbrush and forgot about him but I found him tonight. I had a lot of fun making this - started as zspheres and just worked from imagination trying to get this type of craggy cheekbones I always like, but I ran out of polygons to finish his ears though...

Look, cool stuff for sale!

2008-07-31T13:36:00.000-07:00

I'm selling something! Specifically, charming little envelopes containing a set of 5 cards, each with a different character on the front and descriptions on the back. Each card is 2" x 3½". This is the first set in what will be an ongoing series which I hope to do twice a year. The characters depicted are from a story I was writing when I was in high school, which I plan to start on as a young adult comic sometime this year.

If you want a pack, they are $5 (which includes shipping in the US). If you're somewhere besides the US, email me and we can determine any additional shipping needed. Just Paypal your payment to operator@winonanelson.com. I only have about half of the original run left so if you want one be quick! I will sign the pack if requested and include an original sketch with each set :)

A small price to get a cool product and help support a recently laid-off artist! :)

Comicon Sketches

2008-07-30T15:39:00.001-07:00

Sketches from the trip - train, panels at the con, and in the airport :)

2-week pose!

2008-07-16T23:42:00.001-07:00

30 hours, graphite on bristol. This model was AMAZING. 30 hours of standing!

And figgers!

2008-07-16T23:38:00.000-07:00

6-hour poses... Also from when I was at the Atelier, over half a year ago now -_- I miss that place.

My casts!

2008-07-16T23:32:00.000-07:00

These are my casts drawing from back at the beginning of my study at the ConceptArt Atelier... I've been too lazy for over a year now to scan them :P They are all graphite on smooth bristol.

Hellgate Wallpaper

2008-07-02T23:01:00.000-07:00

Well, they released this as a high-resolution wallpaper so I can show it now. This is the new splash screen I painted for Hellgate: London - Chronicle II. It shows up every time you start the game! Yay :D

<3 my pen

2008-06-26T09:51:00.000-07:00

Sketchcrawl and train sketches :D

Look, I'm Funny

2008-06-15T14:00:00.001-07:00

HAAAAAAA

6 hours

2008-06-12T22:43:00.001-07:00

We did the second 3-hour session of this pose tonight. I'm pretty happy with this one :)

Old and New

2008-06-05T22:49:00.000-07:00

First one is a really old (7 months) piece I never finished until now. All I had to do was paint her boots and I just never did it. Now here it is :)

And second we have the first half of a 6-hour pose. I'll be refining it next Thursday.

Moar Portraits

2008-06-03T01:18:00.000-07:00

Not exactly new, but I hadn't scanned these yet. 3-hour ala prima sessions.

SNS and Monday Night Figurepaintingball

2008-05-06T00:17:00.000-07:00

The first one is from Sunday Night Sketch, whenceupon I was really sleepy so I did a quickie of the Sandman. Second is the result of the Monday night figure session at Marc Taro's house. Third is a process of the second.

Garuda

2008-04-29T07:34:00.000-07:00

Last night's 3-hour pose :D It's been a while for me and I really enjoyed doing this one. Can't wait for next week!

Nintendo DS Sketches Yayfun!

2008-04-24T22:32:00.000-07:00

My first messings-around-with DS Colors... I need to play with it more :)

Some Various Stuff

2008-04-15T01:21:00.001-07:00

Couple things I did at my Sunday Night Sketchgroup, and a doodle I started at work (it's an old character from my high school days!)

Cherry Blossom Festival Mini-Sketchcrawl

2008-04-13T14:45:00.001-07:00

This Saturday was the Cherry Blossom Festival... A few friends and I went to sketch and it turned out to be a great chance for some really quick gestures.

Taiko drums and tiny-kid karate!

Long Pose OILS!

2008-04-09T20:37:00.000-07:00

6 hour pose... First three hours were little more than fighting with the crazy ground but it was fun :) Got some ideas out of it!

Sketchcrawl 18

2008-04-06T15:54:00.001-07:00

Yay skethcrawl! Had a blast :)

CHOW on CA.org

2008-03-03T01:39:00.001-08:00

I did this for the Character of the Week event on conceptart.org... Topic was "hot male vampire pinup" but I didn't really want to do a traditional pinup. I was going for more of a narrative. So... y'know, dude's about to pop into the shower after some hanky panky and realizes as his reflection fades that he's been bitten. So really he's barely a vampire at all yet :P

Work work

2008-02-23T13:01:00.000-08:00

They released two of my concept pieces on Hellgate's official page already! So here they they are, my monsters.

Monday long pose

2008-02-19T13:37:00.001-08:00

3 hour pose... Getting tired of that mauve/liver colored couch.

Saturday life dawin'

2008-02-17T00:14:00.001-08:00

They go 2 min, 5 min, then a confusing one with a 4 and then a 20 and then a 10, and then 20s. Still focusing on line, I dunno, I'm inot it :)

Tuesday Portrait

2008-02-13T10:09:00.002-08:00

Tuesday night head painting... Liked how he was sitting though so I did the whole figure. 3 hours.

Monday Long Pose

2008-02-11T23:59:00.001-08:00

3 hours... Messed with it a bit afterwards though. Trying something a bit different. Pretty happy with how the face and hands turned out. Doing this... made me want to render something out more :P

Bear on the Rocks

2008-02-11T11:09:00.000-08:00

Y'know, chillin', lordin'... I went sketching at the zoo with some arty friends on Saturday and was inspired to paint this at mah Sunday Night Sketch group... ~4-5 hours

Studies and Sketches

2008-02-02T00:10:00.000-08:00

Couple more sketches from the Gallery Girls event, and two digital 3 hour model sessions.

Digital sketches

2008-01-27T14:02:00.000-08:00

First one is a 3 hour portrait session, the others are about 15-20 min, from a medieval themed costumed figure drawing party called Gallery Girls. Traditional sketches from that event coming as soon as I find my usb cord :)

Just news, no art, sorry!

2008-01-03T01:20:00.000-08:00

I'm leaving for the Conceptart.org Workshop in Seattle tomorrow (technically today now, I guess) and I'm starting at Flagship Studios as a 2d concept artist the day after I get back... Hooray! So excited for them both!

Digital Figure Drawing

2007-11-28T09:25:00.001-08:00

Digital life drawing... Longest one is 2 hours I think, I don't really remember. Shortest is 20 minutes.

Demon armor!

2007-11-26T19:02:00.001-08:00

He's kind of a bumbling guy... More armor, I like armors....

Environment

2007-11-21T23:57:00.000-08:00

More enviro practice

Devil

2007-11-17T09:40:00.002-08:00

Here's the devil to go with the angel design. I'll be doing armor for him too.

More armor stuff

2007-11-14T23:52:00.000-08:00

I did different levels of armor for the angel...

The Girl Without Hands

2007-11-10T16:13:00.001-08:00

The contest is done, and I can finally show this!

MONSTER

2007-10-16T13:37:00.001-07:00

Nasty mutant zombie monster dude... I'm trying to get some gross scary stuff for my portfolio :P

Angel Armor

2007-10-10T00:49:00.001-07:00

Armor design! Hooray! I tried for an andorgynous design for an androgynous angel. And he/she definitely couldn't fly in it :P

Head paintings

2007-10-04T20:39:00.001-07:00

Head paintings! 3 hour poses.

More figures!

2007-10-04T20:27:00.001-07:00

Another figure drawing dump. All 6 hour poses.

New site design!

2007-09-30T03:18:00.000-07:00

Hey, everyone go check out my updated website/portfolio at www.winonanelson.com! There's even a brand new image in the character section and there's probably some stuff you may not have seen (even though it's all old)!

Thank god that's done -_-

Agoraphobia

2007-09-26T17:32:00.001-07:00

Phobia illustration for school... I don't have any interesting phobias so I just picked one.

Still Life Thingie

2007-09-12T23:58:00.001-07:00

homework!

2007-09-08T11:33:00.001-07:00

Got around to painting the queen base character design... I'll be doing color passes of a few of the dress thumbnails paper-doll style and then paint up an ortho of one.

2007-08-15T21:13:00.001-07:00

Angel ortho update... Colored the back view.

Figure drawins

2007-08-14T15:34:00.001-07:00

Figure drawings from school!