Char Reed Illustration

Hork-Bajir Chronicles Alternate Cover- Aldrea

2012-02-01T15:22:00.000-05:00

All done! Finally!

This is the first half of the alternate fan-cover I'm doing for the Hork-Bajir Chronicles. If this were printed on a book jacket, this would be the back of the book. This is Aldrea, as she is running/skidding down an embankment to check on her family, who she fears is in danger, hence her expression. Next, I'll be working on Dak Hamee for the front. It never made 100% sense to me to have the cover of the Hork-Bajir Chronicles feature an Andalite, so that's part of the reason I made this alternate cover.

I changed some of the intrinsic Andalite features, namely her nose. I never really liked the vertical arrangement of the nose as it was depicted on the covers. I studied cow, horse and other ungulate noses to get a better, more natural, yet still alien look to the nose. As a nod toward the book descriptions of the Andalite nose, I made a dark vertical marking, similar to the cleft below the nose of a dog or cat.

The Hork-Bajir homeworld is surrounded with gigantic trees hundreds of feet tall. They emerge from deep valleys cracked in the planet's surface and grow high into the atmosphere. I tried to make these trees large and imposing, but we may just have to imagine these trees as saplings compared to the really giant ones.

Hopefully you like what I've done so far, keep your eyes peeled for the next update! :)

Baby Andalite Redesign

2012-01-27T14:54:00.001-05:00

I was looking at one of my baby Andalite pictures I did a while ago and realised the legs were WAY too stubby so I decided to rectify that problem.

I always figured that baby Andalites had these long foal-like legs with a chubbier upper torso. Their legs would be the same height as an adult Andalite, much like a lot of ungulates. I considered prey animals and many young have long fluffy hair along their backs (I was keeping baby king cheetahs in mind for reference). I figure the tail could stick up while they crouch in the grass and do a fair impression of a sapling Derrishoul Tree. :)

I'm getting all the feels for Animorphs and Andalites again. Comic is starting back up and I'm almost done with an Aldrea piece I'm pretty pumped about. Stay tuned!

Livestreaming Killer Whale Revision

2012-01-23T15:13:00.001-05:00

Got some revisions to do from the client, so I decided to Ustream them here: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/charreed

Feel free to going me and chat! (Otherwise it's really boring!) :)

Killer Whale Enemy Card Final

2012-01-20T16:53:00.001-05:00

"Killer" being in their name primarily because that's what they're doing in the picture, not because they're based on orcas ;) In fact, these guys are based on false killer whales. Look em up, they're cute! A lot cuter than this bunch, who really don't like people getting on their turf, sadly, for this bunch of adventurers!

Another card for Fasolt Publishing's new RPG!

Frantic Andalite WIP

2012-01-18T13:05:00.000-05:00

Not just any Andalite, but Aldrea from The Hork-Bajir Chronicles in the scene where she is running to see what's happened to get family, hence her scared/frantic pose and expression.

I started this the other day as just a little sketch to get back into doing Animorphs related stuff and it's turned into a full blown illustration. I'm having way too much fun with it! I'm even considering extending the image to make an "alternate cover" for The Hork-Bajir Chronicles :)

Let me know what you think!

Killer Whale Enemies

2012-01-16T23:27:00.000-05:00

Well, false killer whales! The adventurers have gone outside the safe zone and into the perilous waters of the extremely territorial killer whales (based in looks off of the false killer whale)!

This is the next card in the series for Fasolt Publishing's new RPG.

Flying Barracuda

2012-01-04T15:09:00.000-05:00

Done for Fasolt Publishing's new RPG boardgame.

Christmas Gifts!

2011-12-26T13:08:00.001-05:00

I finished a majority of these on Friday, but I couldn't post or I'd ruin the surprise!

The black kitty is Sassy, who was my mom's favourite cat of 18 years, so I did a portrait in memory of her. The dobie is my dad's dog growing up, Kerry. All throughout my childhood, I heard stories about Kerry, so I decided it would be nice to do a portrait of her, even though I never met her before. And the little picture is my brother's cat Snickers. She's just a year old and full of trouble :)

Even If I Tried...

2011-12-21T23:04:00.001-05:00

A slice of life web comic I started chronicling the funny misadventures of my life. This has to be documented somewhere and what better way than if front of the entire internet?

To start off... My take on online dating.

Final of Jett's Memorial Portrait

2011-12-19T11:43:00.001-05:00

Jett was a special horse to me and the whole barn where I ride.

I started riding a little more than a year ago and he was the horse I took my first lesson on. I'd ridden here and there before, very sporadically, but never consistently and never on the same horse twice. Jett was my only lesson horse for quite a few months. I'd moved to different horses at the barn, but I always liked his calm, even temper (though sometimes he was TOO calm- "Trot Jett!"). It also didn't hurt that he was an Arabian/Quarter Horse cross. I really love Arabians and I felt privileged to be able to be around one that was so sweet and great tempered.

This is my memorial to such a great horse. I really miss him and wish that he could have been with us longer.

Love you Jett!

Giant Sand Crab Final

2011-12-16T23:57:00.000-05:00

Almost didn't make my Friday post! I'm still waiting to hear the final word on the piece, but here's the final of the sand crab. This is my second giant crab piece of the year. Who knew this was an apparent specialty of mine?

Horse WIP #2

2011-12-14T13:43:00.000-05:00

More progress on the horse!

I'll explain why he's so special after I'm finished! ;)

Horse WIP

2011-12-12T12:19:00.001-05:00

Sorry for the grainy picture- got to love first gen iPhone cameras!

WIP for a gift I'm working on ;) I won't say much more about this one, updates to follow!

Giant Sand Crab WIP 2

2011-12-09T08:01:00.001-05:00

I'm really happy how this is turning out so far :) Some pieces just seem to flow along really nicely and are just plain FUN to work on and this happens to be one of them!

Giant Sand Crab WIP

2011-12-07T16:27:00.000-05:00

The latest installment in the RPG card series commissioned by Fasolt Publishing. This time it's a Giant Sand Crab.

I played around with several compositions before I finally struck on one I liked. I thought the dynamic angle would really work to make the piece more dynamic and add a sense of motion :)

Knight Enemy Final

2011-12-06T00:47:00.001-05:00

Sorry about the lack of update on Friday. I was waiting to hear back from the commissioner and get the "ok" to move onto the next piece. Good thing too! I got a good suggestion that I think really improved the piece.

Here's the Knight Enemy, commissioned by Fasolt Publishing for their RPG!

Knight WIP 2

2011-11-30T16:40:00.000-05:00

Well, I intended to be finished today, but I'm not quite there yet, so I'll leave you with another sneak peek. Hopefully I'll have it complete for Friday's update!

Knight Enemy WIP

2011-11-28T02:42:00.001-05:00

I think I have a problem :) Ever since I figured out how to share on all my social networks by updating just a couple, I may have gone a bit nuts. So I decided to keep posting to just 3 days a week. It's hard, since I draw something or make progress on projects everyday, but that just means I won't run out of fuel any time soon!

Here's Monday! (I've also taken to going to bed at 3am and waking up at 9am… Dunno about that one!) This is the progress for Fasolt Publishing's new card for their RPG!

Sookie from True Blood!

2011-11-26T13:00:00.001-05:00

I'm pretty sure I hopped aboard the True Blood train too late and all the fans have gone back into their coffins until next season, but I'm here to be enthusiastic about the show anyway! :)

I can't wait to find out what happens next!

Dragon Slayer Final

2011-11-24T13:47:00.001-05:00

My most recent piece, just finished yesterday. It's the cover to an RPG that's being printed tomorrow! I'll get pictures posted once I get them!

I'm debating if I'll submit this piece to Spectrum. What you you think?

Dragon Slayer RPG Cover WIP

2011-11-21T19:40:00.000-05:00

A blend of heroic reference photos. Can you guess which actors/characters I picked? :)

Full picture to follow shortly!

Giant card for Fasolt Publishing

2011-11-18T12:04:00.000-05:00

Giant card done for Fasolt Publishing's new RPG!

Minotaur Final

2011-07-29T13:27:00.002-04:00

Doing a bit of a test with a cross posting feature I'm experimenting with- hope it works!

If it does, here's Soterios, a minotaur commissioned by Hans: http://hccummings.wordpress.com/

Tangled WIP- All Gryphons Great and Small

2011-07-29T11:39:00.001-04:00

WIP of a piece that flashed in my mind a couple days ago. I kind of like it as is, but I'd also like to see it more rendered and fleshed out. It's not like I can't have both versions!

Minotaur WIP #1

2011-07-19T20:19:00.002-04:00

Soterious is a big worrywart. Don't let the big axe and armour fool you!

Commission for http://hccummings.wordpress.com/

Cardinal Gryphon

2011-06-23T11:49:00.002-04:00

I heard a story about a friend of mine seeing a cardinal and a cardinal/red fox gryphon popped into my head. I did this version first, but I thought the legs looked too stiff. I need to do more gryphons!

Tiger Study

2011-06-10T16:10:00.001-04:00

I was really inspired earlier today by Luckywolf's Character Design gallery over on DeviantArt and decided to try my hand at that animal character design style. I'm trying Posterous again, after a year off from using it. Last time, my images I posted to it disappeared, which was extremely frustrating. It still doesn't have all the posting options I want, but we'll see how it goes!

Tanya Galperin Commission Final

2011-06-02T12:28:00.000-04:00

Final for Tasha. I got the ok from the commissioner to post- so here you go :)

Tanya Galperin Commission WIP

2011-05-31T17:44:00.000-04:00

I got a lot done today! Here's where I started from this morning. I'm hopeful I'll be able to finish this one up tonight :)

C.O.W. #213 Game Critter Quadruped- Final

2011-05-27T20:51:00.000-04:00

This is my final for the challenge. I didn't enter it into the voting because I didn't have the time to finish it to the level I wanted. As well, I'm not entirely sure it fit the exact specifications to the challenge. I'm still pleased with the creature designs in general though. :)

C.O.W. #213 Game Critter Quadruped- WIP 2

2011-05-24T10:10:00.000-04:00

I have the three forms of quadruped for the challenge. Tomorrow I'll move onto rendering them more. Looking forward to it, it should be fun.

C.O.W. #213 Game Critter Quadruped

2011-05-23T09:47:00.004-04:00

WIP of the initial concept for the C.O.W. #213 Game Critter Quadruped challenge on Conceptart.org. After getting inspired by the creature design demos by Terryl Whitlatch I watched this weekend, I decided to get back into creature design and make it a much greater focus of my studio.

For this guy, I wanted the focal point to be on his great big maw. I used a crocodile, hippo, bison, various dinosaurs and a porcupine for inspiration. Tomorrow I will work on the three different versions that the challenge requires. :)

Giant Scorpion Card WIP

2011-05-18T15:08:00.000-04:00

Working on this card for a client. I'll have to make a couple of changes as requested, but the overall dynamics of the card will stay intact. I'm really digging this sketch. I especially like the scorpion's little face! I'm determined to keep the fluidity and motion while rendering this piece.

WIP Lorelei Aldanae

2011-05-13T21:04:00.000-04:00

Working on a commission for an RPG setting. Here's my WIP:

She's an elven mystic. I wanted to give her an otherworldly appearance while still keeping her looks within conventional measures of beauty.

Haters Gonna Hate

2011-02-20T11:17:00.001-05:00

Click Me to Animate!

In response to some bad mojo on the internet, I turned Haters Gonna Hate dude into a chick.

Just remember, haters gonna hate, so STRUT!

Character Study- Wolf Girl

2011-02-17T13:29:00.001-05:00

I've been doing daily figure and gesture studies over at Daily Figures, a blog I started this week to study and get better with figure drawing. From that kind of sparked the urge to also get better at character studies. To look at a character and get an emotion from them, know a bit about them just by looking at them.

This is my first study. I just drew a figure from memory after my daily figure drawing and decided she would be "Wolf Girl". I thought about things that when you first looked at her that would make you think she was Wolf Girl. The feral pose, the furs, the tribal markings... I tried not to stop when I usually would and pushed into knowing the character more. As my first attempt, I am pretty pleased, but I look forward to tomorrow's study! :)

Jan 28- Gesture Drawing

2011-01-28T12:23:00.002-05:00

15 mins worth of gesture drawing. It's something I'd like to get better at, as I feel like it's a weakness of mine- capturing the essence of something in under 30 seconds :) I started off with the big figures then I realised i just couldn't work as quickly in that size, so I switched to the small thumbnails so I could more properly convey the pose with fewer lines.

I used this awesome tool: http://pixelovely.com/tools/gesture.html It's seriously one of the best artist resources out there!

Santa Barbara

2011-01-25T12:07:00.000-05:00

Colour study of a photo I found of Santa Barbara. I really liked the oranges and blues and how they met each other.

ArtRage Studio Pro.

Yorkie Pet Caricature Final!

2011-01-21T13:09:00.004-05:00

If you've been keeping up with my Twitter, you've probably already seen this finished caricature, but if not- here's the final! You can pick up a Yorkie print or a t-shirt in the Shop! Also I started up PetCaricatures for exclusive updates on Twitter!

My new ebook!

2011-01-18T13:24:00.001-05:00

Hey guys! Sorry for the quietness around here. Since the start of the year, I've been working hard on an ebook as well as revamping up my old Colourisma site. Long time vistiors to my blog might remember the site ;)

I revamped Colourisma mostly because I wanted to give something back to the greater illustration community, but also because I felt it was a good place to have the articles that I wanted to share. I wanted to keep my personal blog more art-oriented.

My first ebook is now available through Colourisma and it's all about how to go about finding your first client as an illustrator. I have been told it works for other disciplines such as writing and graphic design, but it was written with illustrators in mind.

If you'd like a copy, it's on sale for $9.99 until March 1st! Be sure to pick up a copy if you feel you've been struggling to find your next client!

Buy yours now! :)

Yorkie WIP

2010-12-31T16:30:00.001-05:00

German Shepherd Caricature

2010-12-29T10:40:00.002-05:00

Just finished thhis German Shepherd caricture for the Shop! Hope you can take a look :)

Sarus Crane Colour Study

2010-12-23T12:00:00.003-05:00

The Sarus Crane is a beautiful bird. They live in India, Southeast Asia and Australia. You can read more about them in this article. I loved the colours especially and tried a colour study, not using any white or black, just trying to emulate the natural environments and the refraction of light. Used ArtRage Studio Pro and the oil brush, using as big brush and strokes.

Khaos Cat Caricature WIP

2010-12-23T00:10:00.002-05:00

WIP of Khaos the kitten!

German Shepherd Caricature WIP

2010-12-21T16:14:00.001-05:00

New caricature in the works for the Shop! I wanted to complete several of the most popular breeds, moving on to the German Shepherd!

Emmy Boa Constrictor Caricature

2010-12-12T01:15:00.002-05:00

I had a great opportunity to expand my caricature skills with Emmy the boa constrictor. She had these awesome shape to her head that I wanted to play up!

Amazon Horned Frog Caricature

2010-12-06T13:48:00.002-05:00

When people say "frog lips", they're talking about this guy!

Azu Pet Caricature

2010-12-02T17:12:00.001-05:00

"Azu is ridiculously sweet and snuggly, loves to play ball and go hiking, and is quite clever. So clever that she's pretty good at manipulating most people to make them do her bidding"
-straight from the owners' mouth!

I tried to make Azu look convincingly adorable enough to give a treat!

Pet caricature prints now available!

White-collared Mangabey Monkey Baby Caricature!

2010-12-02T12:15:00.000-05:00

I'm usually not the biggest fan of monkeys, but this guy had those EARS, and the wrinkly face- he was begging to be caricatured! :)

Baby Jaguar Caricature Studies

2010-12-01T16:26:00.002-05:00

Gyoza Pet Caricature Complete!

2010-11-29T19:22:00.001-05:00

Little Gyoza the Alaskan Klee Kai!

Pet caricature prints now for sale!

Rhino Caricature Sketches

2010-11-29T13:46:00.002-05:00

I wanted to start doing some daily warm up sketches, so I've been collecting some really cute or caricaturable animals. I thought this baby rhino and mom would be a lot of fun and they were! :)

Important Tools Most Freelance Artists Overlook

2010-11-27T14:09:00.000-05:00

While I've not been a freelancer for all that long, I feel that I'm pretty hip to the goings-on of the internet and I try to take full advantage of what it has to offer. Even if you do artwork 100% traditionally, you still need the internet to help market yourself, display your works and even get inspired for that next painting.

To celebrate the 300th post on my blog, I decided to help out others and list some things that I take advantage of on the internet. When I tell other artists about many of them, they are astounded by the fact they haven't been doing these things also!

Your Inbox

I use Gmail. This little comic strip explains (rather accurately IMO) about why I do. All jokes aside, Gmail allows me to check multiple email accounts (I have one for almost all of my projects), sort my email productively using labels and even gives me an ad-hoc to do list via Priority Inbox.

You can check multiple email addresses in Gmail by following these instructions. That way you only have to check one email account and get all of your emails.

You can make and use labels easily, sorting your email in such ways as "Home" and "Work", then further drilling down by adding a "/" after your main category, like "Work/Marketing", "Home/Friends". I have about 25 labels that I use and I can sort all of my incoming email with these categories. If you aren't as picky as I am, then maybe you can get by with even less.

Priority Inbox allows you to have several inboxes when you first open up Gmail in your browser. I separate my email into 2 categories:

1) emails I need to respond or take action on
2) emails where I'm waiting for someone to respond to me

I archive all emails I don't need a response from or need to take action on any more. That way my inbox stays relatively uncluttered. The easiest way I designate an email as needing to take action on or not is with a star. I star emails that I no longer need to take action on and I'm waiting on a response. I don't want to completely forget about them, which is why I don't archive them and keep them in my inbox. I can close up the "Starred" category of my inbox and check it only once a day or week, emailing back those emails I still haven't received a response from if needed. The rest of the emails in the "Everything Else" category generally stays open and it motivates me every time I check my email to do something about these emails so they can get archived or starred!

Podcasts

Podcasts get me through the day. There are tons of podcasts related to freelancing- and even specifically freelance art! Here are 13 good ones related to freelancing right here. Some of my favourite art-specific ones right now are Drawn Today, Escape From Illustration Island and W.I.P Podcast. Do take a listen if you care about doing well in your career, especially if you feel you are kind of struggling. Once you get caught up (most are an hour, so you'll get caught up quicker than you think!), you'll have some easy listening every week and a lot of good tips that will get you through rough patches, invoicing, marketing and a lot of things that you, as your own sole proprietorship, never thought you had to worry about. Best of all- they're FREE! Great information at that price is just unbeatable. I listen while I work on my art, so I feel doubly productive!

RSS Reader

This is probably the most undervalued tool you could have in your arsenal. I wouldn't know about even half the stuff I've written about here without reading my RSS reader every night before bed. Even if you just use it as a nifty article collector, you still be so much more informed, so easily! I just use the Google RSS reader because it's easy to collect interesting blogs to read and it integrates well with my workflow.

I read my RSS feeds on my iPhone, though the computer works just as well. I use the iPhone app Reeder. Yeah, it costs $5, but I don't have ads in the articles and it loads up quickly. Also, it allows you to easily Tweet and email articles (as well as some other options)- this is handy when it's late and I want to quickly run through my list and email myself articles to read in the morning! I suggest making categories for your blogs, mine are: Animals -because I need my daily cute animal fix!, Art Related- for blogs talking about art or process but not individual artists, Artists- individual artists, Ect- stuff that doesn't fit anywhere else, Freelance- for all the great freelance related blogs out there, Jobs- sites that have art job related news and posts, and My Sites- so I can monitor my sites to ensure articles show up well in RSS feeds.

I don't recommend using the "Follow" option on Blogger sites, because they will clutter up the top of your Reeder list and you will have to scroll past all of them to get to your nice categories. Maybe this is a fault of Reeder more than Google, as Google lumps them nicely in a folder marked "Blogs I'm following" when you go to the Google Reader site, but that's just a recommendation. It's too much hassle for me to unfollow everyone now!

---

Well, I hope those three tips helped you out. They came to me today as I was checking through the emails I sent to myself via Reeder and realised that not a lot of artists probably do this in their daily workflow- but they totally should. Feel free to pass this article around, I hope to help as many people as possible! :)

Feel free to list any helpful tips you have in the comments!

Shop's Open! New Chocolate Lab Caricature!

2010-11-23T20:08:00.002-05:00

Chocolate Lab prints now for sale!

Gyoza Pet Portrait WIP #2

2010-11-18T21:36:00.001-05:00

More work on Gyoza the Alaskan Klee Kai- working on the details of the face and body. SHould be finished soon!

Gyoza WIP #1

2010-11-17T21:59:00.001-05:00

Working on the next caricature in the line- Gyoza the Alaskan Klee Kai! Such a cutie! You can see the reference photos here and here.

Holiday 20% Discount!

2010-11-16T17:05:00.003-05:00

Place an order and receive an instant 20% off your pet's caricature. Guarenteed delivery by the Holidays*, but offer ends Dec 1, 2010!

Order now!**

*Illustration is guarenteed by the holidays (December 20 2010). Merchandise delivery is held responsible by third party company creating the merchandise. Read FAQ for more info!

**Offer lasts until 15 orders are entered or December 1 2010, whichever comes first. Discount will be applied to first 15 entries only. No coupon code will be honoured with this discount. Notification will be displayed when discount period has expired.

Isis Caricature Complete!

2010-11-16T15:23:00.001-05:00

Completed caricature for Isis! I decided on spot colour to emphasis the pretty golden brown eyes she has and I thought a nice teal in the background would be a good compliment. This one was so fun to do!

Isis WIP #2

2010-11-16T02:04:00.001-05:00

Desmond Caricature Complete!

2010-11-12T14:39:00.001-05:00

Desmond! All finished! I chose spot colour since he was a grey cat already and it seemed to make the elements of the image pop and look rather nice :)

Now onto working on Isis some more!

Isis

2010-11-11T23:19:00.001-05:00

I finished my caricature of Desmond, but I'm waiting on what the owner thought before posting it up. I definitely want to thank the folks over on the Ning ArtOrder for helping me achieve a better likeness to the kitty. Here is the next caricature on the list- Isis! I definitely think dogs are way easier to caricature than cats. I had a few people ask if the Desmond illustration was even a caricature! Not all caricatures are big heads on little bodies! ;)

Desmond Pet Caricature WIP#3

2010-11-10T15:08:00.000-05:00

Changed the design and caricature direction a lot since the last update, but I think it definitely suits the image and the likeness better this way! Just have to do the details, lighting and fur and I'm calling it done!

Desmond Pet Caricature WIP#2

2010-11-08T19:10:00.000-05:00

Working more on the caricature. I think I'm pretty much finished playing around with the shapes and I'm just concentrating on rendering the fur, paying attention to keeping the outlines from being too crisp and "digital" looking.

Pet Caricature - Desmond

2010-11-04T19:12:00.002-04:00

I'm starting a new line of illustration work for my business, branching out into Pet Caricatures! I noticed it was a rather empty market that no one seems to specialise in, so I figured I could help fill that niche. :) I had a hugely limited time offer to draw 6 free pet caricatures to help expand my portfolio for the website I'm creating. This is a work in progress shot of the first guy on the list, Desmond. He was described as "spoiled, bratty, he likes to do things he knows he's not allowed to and then when you catch him he tries to act all cute and innocent". I hope I'm capturing some of that in this image!

Posted via email from Char Reed's posterous

Horsemen WIP

2010-11-03T20:25:00.000-04:00

Working on finishing up my entry to the Horsemen of the Apocalypse entry for CGHub. It was due on Halloween, but given that's my birthday, I didn't get it done in time. I'm mostly trying to focus on lighting in this painting, as I've been told my lighting has a tendency to look uniform and 2 dimensional. Hopefully I can get it done this week!

Self Portrait Day (A Day Late)

2010-11-02T23:15:00.000-04:00

A day late, but better than never! I was experimenting with using a limited colour pallet and more big, broad paint strokes. I only spent an hour on it to keep it a speed painting. I think some proportions are a little off, but it was a fun experiment.

Werewolf Calendars!

2010-11-02T13:34:00.001-04:00

Buy one while you still can!

http://www.werewolfcalendar.com/

Only 10 days left to preorder! Beyond that, supplies will be extremely limited! (I'll only have 10 copies to sell!)

Attention all pet owners!

2010-10-28T18:09:00.000-04:00

If you have a fish, cat, dog, horse, bunny, bird or anything else fluffy, feathery or scaly- I'd REALLY like your honest opinion please!

As a pet owner, what do you think about the idea of a caricature of your pet?

Example WIP:

I'm collecting opinions because I'm curious as to if there would be a market for this if someone were willing to offer it (namely, me!). Please take a second if you have a little 4 legged loved one to let me know whether you like this idea, don't like it or like it but would want it modified some (various options, more realistic, less realistic, ect).

THANK YOU! :)

Fantasy Pet Portraits!

2010-09-20T14:40:00.000-04:00

Everyone's seen a painting of Fido and Fluffy on the mantel, noble pets portrayed in all their grandeur...

But let's get real!

If you ever wanted a more realistic (and I'm not talking painting style!) portrait of your pet, then maybe what you're after is a fantasy pet portrait! I take your pet's personality and put it into a portrait worthy of sharing with friends, family and co-workers- sure to bring a smile to anyone's face for a birthday or the holidays!

Maybe you've always pictured your parrot more pterodactyl than bird. Perhaps your feline friend seemed to have the personality of a ferocious dragon than a tame house cat. And maybe you have 3 dogs who act more like a united goofy Cerberus than their individual counterparts... Either way, I can morph your fuzzy companion into a custom creature that will have you saying, "Yep! That's totally my pet!"

Prices start at $75!

Please email me at char.reed@gmail.com for a quote! Options include head busts, full body portraits, fantasy pet portraits and pet caricatures. I really look forward to working with you!

Ever needed a certain pose to reference?

2010-09-10T00:54:00.003-04:00

Maybe it was a really unique, interesting or plain hard pose to find anywhere online or impossible to shoot a reference pose yourself without expensive tripod equipment. Maybe you live alone and getting friends/family just isn't feasible or practical.

Enter my ideal solution: A website that allowed you to pose a 3D model.

Sounds simple, but it doesn't exist (maybe the universe is trying to tell me to do something). Until then, here's a free solution!

Go to DAZ Studio's website. Download either the Mac or Windows version. Check out the store full of free models. Install any you fancy. I went ahead and got the Victoria, Michael, The Freak 4 Base, The Kids 4 Base and Millennium Baby 3.0 models, to cover the bases for most of my fantasy illustration needs (though there are a few more that look cool too).

After installation, go to the content tab on the left hand side of the screen and physically scroll the scroll bar back until you get to this screen:

Select "content" ->Figures -> content. You should see a couple of the models you downloaded:

At least, that's as far as I could tell. I don't know where the other models I downloaded are. But anyway! We march on. Double click on one of those models and you'll get this screen:

You'll get this ugly grey blob thing. It made me pretty annoyed until I realised I should click on the Pose/Animate tab at the very top of the menu:

After you do that, you'll get a decent looking model:

Awesome! Now we can start posing! Check out the menu on the right side called PowerPose. There's a bunch of green dots. I found that this is the easiest way to pose the model. If you're busy, posing away and suddenly the PowerPose model looses it's green dots:

Select anywhere on the big model, a yellow box should pop up. Your green dots should reappear and you can keep posing away. Trust me, it took me a few minutes to figure that out, and that made me mad too! I swear if I invent an online posing model, it'll be really easy and so much less hassle ;)

Well, I hope that helps out someone! It's the easiest (unfortunately), freest option I've managed to find so far.

I'm alive!

2010-08-13T18:41:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the delay in posting everyone! For one, I've been away to the land Down Under for the month of July. So that took a lot of my time and I didn't have too much bandwidth to blog while I was away. On top of that, I wasn't able to complete a ton of art.

However at least I managed to get a lot of pictures! And with horses and cheetahs no less, 'cuz that's how they roll in Oz. ;)

On the horizon, I have a lot of professional work to share and some more gryphons of course, so stay tuned!

Help Me to Help the Animals of the Gulf!

2010-06-11T20:28:00.002-04:00

ALL PROCEEDS OF THE SEA GRYPHON PRINT WILL BE DONATED TO HELP THE ANIMALS OF THE GULF!

Buy any greeting card or any sized print and 100% of my earnings on this print will be donated to the International Bird Rescue Research Center (http://www.ibrrc.org/) and The Institute for Marine Mammal Studies (http://www.imms.org/).

Please help spread the word!

Werewolf Conflict WIP

2010-06-10T00:21:00.001-04:00

This is a WIP for my entry into the Werewolf Calendar. It's a project I've admired for a while and I thought I'd like to give it a shot to be a part of it, even if not as a month of the year :)

I thought I'd go a route I thought of almost as soon as I saw the contest- two alphas battling for lead dog! If you know about dogs, when two dominant animals get around each other, the results are usually pretty fierce. There's a lot on the line! I've worked up the one wolf's face up a bit. The jaws seem a little off still, any critique at this stage is appreciated!

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All Gryphons Great and Small Prints via RedBubble!

2010-06-09T18:44:00.002-04:00

I've set up shop and I am now offering my line of gryphon prints with RedBubble. Prints are available for sale as greeting Cards, Matted Prints, Laminated Prints, Mounted Prints, Canvas Prints and Framed Prints- prices starting at $2!

Check it out now and consider purchasing a print!

Giddyup

2010-06-02T19:44:00.002-04:00

Done for the "Unusual Cowboy" contest over on Parka Blogs, a betta fish cowboy :)

This one took about 2 hours start to finish, which is sort of rare for me, but I wanted to keep it loose and unrefined to a certain extent. Hopefully I succeeded in achieving that effect!

As Kramer says, "Giddyup!"

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Mountain Gryphon WIP

2010-06-02T14:41:00.001-04:00

I know, I know- SO many gryphons! :D I'm obsessed, what can I say? I'm taking part in this year's ArtSlam over on Livejournal. I started last year's, but wussed out pretty early in the game. This year I'm on hardcore mode, 3 months of dedication to this project. I've already put a week or so into it, so I'm on a roll, just have to keep going.

I've made my other WIP's and projects take a back seat to this project for the time being. I'm going to try to work in some more studies, but as far as the challenges go, I'm going to give them a break for a little while. If one sounds really intriguing I might give it a go, but I find while I work really hard on those challenges, they don't necessarily yield all that much in way of results. Whereas my gryphon project is picking up steam and people are excited about it. I can't get people excited about my one entry in a random contest. It's not my baby, I'm just not PASSIONATE about every contest that comes along. I think people can tell and your artwork suffers. Not to say you shouldn't go outside your comfort zone- that's what my studies will be there for. But I just want to focus on this project for a little while and stop guilt tripping myself when I miss 1 out of the 1,000 contests due this week!

Hopefully you won't get too sick of gryphons by the end of summer! I promise I'll make them varied enough that I'm sure you'll like at least one of them ;)

Can't get enough gryphons? Check out All Gryphons Great and Small for the final versions of these critters! Don't forget to follow AllGryphons on Twitter too!

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Discover A Muse WIP #2

2010-05-26T18:23:00.002-04:00

This is another WIP shot I've taken for my Discover A Muse challenge going on over on ArtOrder. Still working on it... Just been distracted by a flurry of gryphons, not unlike this one:

;) (See more here!)

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All Gryphons Great and Small- Jungle Gryphon WIP

2010-05-24T13:20:00.001-04:00

I'm really happy to officially announce my project All Gryphons Great and Small- A Fantastical Bestiary of the Animal: Gryphon.

Please take a moment to check out the blog and add the Twitter account for exclusive updates that won't be shown on this blog. WIP's and some tidbits will be shared here, but all the final images, information about the gryphons and prints will be sold at the All Gryphons blog!

One tidbit- the Jungle Gryphon WIP:

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My A-HA! Moment...

2010-05-20T15:30:00.001-04:00

Ever have one of those ideas? That REALLY good one? Maybe as you're staring off into the blank space between your face and the monitor or the window? Or when you're about to lay down for a nap and your brain is buzzing at the speed of light?

I just did.

I came to the realisation that I keep doing things for other people expecting everyone else to notice- but the big secret is this: The most famous, noteworthy, creative people all came up with their own ideas and then executed them. Sure, some people have made a living essentially doing "fan art", but in the grand scheme of things, the products, movies, books and art that people recognize and remember the most are ones that the creator came up with themselves. Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Star Wars, Avatar... Who are the people that come to mind when you hear those titles mentioned? The fans? Or the person that created it?

Now the hard part is YOU coming up with that unique idea. You certainly can't force it. You have to listen reeeeeeally closely. To yourself. What is it that sparks you? That ignites you? That gets ideas flowing and buzzing around in your head? It may be looking at other people's works and imagining you being a part of it, but there's got to be more. That's been me all this time, all the time I've been creating. Drawing fan art and being in love with everyone else's art and ideas other than my own. But the people who I admire so greatly, they all have that spark, that ignition from within themselves. They love what they're doing and they know it. And it shows. It's what attracts you and me to their work. Why we like it. We see it, that spark of life that doesn't appear in a piece unless the creator somehow puts it there. A lot of artwork, books and movies are like shells, husks- apeing off of someone else's spark. But it's a thing that can't be duplicated.

So what's my spark?

I'm starting a new blog. It's called All Gryphons Great and Small, A fantastical bestiary of the animal: Gryphon. It found it- my thing, that spark, that ignition. I remembered it from way back when I was in high school. Back when I wanted to be a wildlife artist. Now I'm going to blend my two passions- wildlife art with fantasy and create my own thing. I know a mythic bestiary isn't the most original concept, but I'll add my own twist to it. I feel energized about this. And the best part is it'll be mine. I'll own it, it'll be my pet project.

And I want to share the journey with all of you. I am so pumped about it, I'm planning on adding my first post this weekend. I hope to see you there!

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ArtOrder: Discover A Muse WIP #1

2010-05-18T19:11:00.001-04:00

This is the first WIP shot I've taken for my Discover A Muse challenge going on over on ArtOrder. Lots of great entries so far. I figured I'd turn the model,Veronika Kotlajic, into a D&D Phoelarch, as the world needs more Phoelarch art! Phoenix + human = awesome! :)

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ArtOrder Pinup Final

2010-05-16T02:29:00.001-04:00

A tiefling gets herself into trouble by stumbling upon a gryphon nest!

My final entry for the ArtOrder Challenge! Hope you all like :)

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ArtOrder Pinup WIP #4

2010-05-13T15:18:00.001-04:00

Today's Livestream

Better luck today with Livestream. Starting to like it over there, just need to get a bigger monitor. ;) Making more progress- only 3 days left to finish! I am happy with how my beach gryphon is turning out. Now I just need to ensure my tiefling doesn't fall too far behind in the rendering department. This piece has been so challenging, yet so fun!

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Kayleigh Commission

2010-05-13T00:04:00.001-04:00

Commission for a friend of a werewolf RP character. Super fun! I'd love to do nothing but draw RP characters all day :D (Oh, and get paid for it! XD)

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ArtOrder Pinup WIP #3

2010-05-12T13:19:00.001-04:00

Video WIP

Some general weirdness going on all around... First my computer decides that it needs me to do a reboot to fix my wonky tablet issues, then Firefox won't open after rebooting, then my computer runs uber slow, then I try to Ustream, THEN got banned from Ustream.

LAWL WUT?

No idea why, no email or anything... yet O_o

So now I'm on a new streaming channel- back to my old Livestream account. They seemed to have fixed a lot of bugs that prevented me from streaming there for all this time. Now just have to update my info and the look of the page and I'll be back to normal tomorrow. I feel bad for the ArtCast network I'm a part of... I ask for changes in my stream way too often it seems- but some of them aren't my fault! I swears it! XD

Ok, well, rambling post is rambling. Hope you like today's WIP.

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ArtOrder Fantasy Pin-up Challenge

2010-05-11T13:49:00.001-04:00

Today's Video WIP

This is for the Pinup Challenge going on over at ArtOrder. Maybe not the most original idea ever, but I thought it was cute! A mommy gryphon pulling a tiefling away from her baby! :)

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Animorphs: Andalite

2010-05-05T22:49:00.001-04:00

All finished! This guy is a male Andalite, a centaurian race from the series Animorphs. This one came together a little more quickly than I thought. I'm still open to critique if anyone wants to offer :)

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Andalite WIP

2010-05-05T17:28:00.001-04:00

Video WIP

ANDALITE BANDIT! Anyone familiar with Animorphs should recognize that phrase. I've been inspired by Dave Rapoza of his recent alien painting and Romas Kukalis, who did the original cover for The Andalite Chronicles series. Here's my attempt at highly realistic fantasy painting. So far I'm about 2 1/2 hours into it :)

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ArtRage Night Elf WIP

2010-05-03T16:58:00.001-04:00

Today I experimented some more with ArtRage Studio Pro. I really like the oil brush and the palette knife. I did a tutorial using those two yesterday, I'll be sure to post it once it gets approved by the website! :)

Take care all and thanks to those who viewed the stream this morning!

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Night Elf WIP 2

2010-04-29T14:03:00.001-04:00

Video WIP

Anatomy is like wonk-sational today. I'll be sure to use reference and try to fix that up. I'm finished with the commission I was working on yesterday, so I have time to work on this one.

I promise I'll try to stop complaining so much during my vids, but I still think my complaints about Painter are valid and I still think you can't complain about my complaining if you just lurk during the stream ;) I joke! The cool kids don't wanna log into Ustream anymore, which is just as well, since I babble to myself enough for an hour anyway. Haha, I dub my lurkers "Char's lackies" now, so you all have a name.

I appreciate all who watch, Ustream users and lackies alike! :D

Take care all!

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Painter Challenge: Night Elf

2010-04-28T13:02:00.001-04:00

Video WIP

I struggled with Corel Painter and chatted about freelance illustration today during my Ustream session. I kept wanting to go back to my tried and true Photoshop, but I managed to stick with it this far with Painter.

I'm working this week on portfolio pieces to appeal to the MMO company Blizzard. This is my first piece of the week for this goal, I plan on making two. I'd love for the second to be a commission of someone's play character- if interested, feel free to email me!

Next week I will tailor a piece in my portfolio toward... Well, just stay tuned to find out!

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Wallaby WIP 2

2010-04-26T19:17:00.001-04:00

Sorry for the lack of updates over the weekend. I was pretty busy and feeling a little bummed about my lack of business recently on top of it. So I gave everything a break and decided to tackle it head on today. I feel that being productive is the best way to get out of a slump. Also helping someone else out can be really rewarding too.

If you feel down, try offering a helping hand to someone who needs it and see if you don't feel a little better yourself :)

Take care everyone! Hope you like my wallaby progress!

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Skippy, the Soccer Playing Wallaby! (WIP)

2010-04-23T16:46:00.001-04:00

Ok, so I know that's not how the song goes, but it's how it goes for my entry into the Parka Blog challenge ;) I might even make a couple more entries- it's a lot of fun!

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Donation Creation: Atlantis

2010-04-22T12:18:00.002-04:00

I'm pretty happy at the colour range I managed to achieve in this piece. The building was a huge challenge for me, but I think I managed to make it work. The verbs I tried to keep in mind for this piece are: stoic, calm, tranquil with a little bit of sadness.

Image

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Donation Creation: Atlantis

2010-04-21T12:46:00.001-04:00

Still a work in progress. As usual, I stream every morning at 11am EST. I'll be working on this piece more tomorrow, if you want to drop by and check it out. Thanks to Robking21, drawinks, and yathadon for dropping by and keeping me company and listening to my rants about how hard it is to get freelance work and how my dogs are so cute :D Oh, and helping me out with my piece! You really push me to improve, appreciate it!

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Video WIP: 1 & 1/2 hours (linking to it because Ustream doesn't embed videos very well)

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Personal Illustration Commissions- Now Open!

2010-04-20T14:35:00.001-04:00

The title is a little misleading, because I've never been closed to personal commissions (illustrations for private individuals), but I figured, what the hey, maybe people need a reminder, right?

Well, I decided to make it easier and just offer up some options I'd really like to do for ya!

Standalone figure (No BG) Colour: $100

Standalone figure (No BG) B&W: $75

Examples:

Bust Illustration Colour: $50

Bust Illustration B&W: $35

Examples:

All you have to do is email me with your character's description! I look forward to working with you!

Thanks!

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Donation Creation: Basking (part 2)

2010-04-19T12:35:00.001-04:00

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Donation = Creation: Basking (Part 1)

2010-04-18T13:04:00.001-04:00

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Crimson Daggers: Male figure study

2010-04-18T11:31:00.001-04:00

I'm going to start studying in the morning privately and then streaming in the afternoon. I'm still trying to find a good time to stream. 10am works for no one but me... I'm debating on 11am, 12pm or 1pm. I can't do evening streams because I dedicate that time to spend with family. I'd very much like to keep the streams in the AM, as I tend to have plans and everything in the afternoons- plus that encroaches on commission time. So I dunno, suggestions?

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Donation = Creation: Hobo Part 2

2010-04-17T13:15:00.001-04:00

Not sure what's up with the video, if it only recorded part of it or if there's another half somewhere in my video page. Anyway, hobo is coming along!

Any suggestions for another word you'd like to see illustrated? Check out Donation = Creation on my blog!

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Video WIP

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Donation = Creation: Hobo

2010-04-16T14:48:00.001-04:00

Announcement:

Char Reed Illustration is now official! :D I just registered it yesterday. I feel so... official! I'm really excited!

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Video WIP (extra long: 2 hours!)

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