Here's my entry: "Trucks in a Bottle."

Just about done with the drawing phase for this piece. Still a few more things I'd like to add, but I'll save that for the painting stage. Gonna start on that tomorrow.

This image resulted from the idea of bottles floating in the ocean. I thought about in what context glass bottles live in the mermaid world and that led me to thinking about how sometimes people build ships in bottles. If a mermaid were to do the same, perhaps they would be more interested with land vehicles, being sea creatures themselves.

I think the rough layout is done...although I think the work table/rock needs to be fixed perspective-wise. Any feedback or things I'm overlooking is greatly appreciated.

Spent my Friday evening sketching this up.

Inktober Day Two. The Dragon Rider. There are species of dragons that do not breathe fire or have wings. The Eastern Blue Dragon is among the rarest of those. While mild in temperament, centuries of dragon hunting have made them quite fearful of humans and they will lash out if cornered. The blue diamond embedded in the forehead of the Eastern Blue is said to be one of the most powerful magical objects known to the world. A single blue diamond can power a small city for a century. The most common use however, is in weapons manufacturing; more specifically, in the forging of Legendary Blades.

While their fashion sense is a little odd, the Dragonite clan has gained the trust of the Eastern Blue, and the two species have formed a symbiotic relationship; the Dragonite mages provide firepower (a blue flame that the dragons are immune to) while the Eastern Blue is able to provide blinding speed and fearsome physical prowess.

Done for now. I'll revisit it a day or two before 3rd Thursday. Thoughts? Right now I don't have the mental capacity to do a version without the raincoat...

Final! (version 1) Thoughts? Feedback? Pizza? (I'm hungry right now).

As part of my Helmet & Hound series, I redid a piece that I drew December of last year. Hope you like it!

Progress pics:

And here is the one from last year:

Within the last year, I decided to take my art more seriously. I think I'm making improvements, but definitely still feel like a newbie. I feel that SVS (among other things) has given me a more solid foundation to work off of.

I finally purchased a subscription to SVS after a several year hiatus, so I thought I'd introduce myself again since there are so many new people here in the forum.

My name is Shinji Fujioka and I love art! By day I do sales and account management, but I daydream quite often about eventually having a career that is focused on some aspect of creating and distributing art.

I'm pretty inexperienced when it comes to creating art, and enrolling in SVS again is part of my commitment to learn things the right way. I want to get the fundamentals down so that there is as little friction as possible standing between an idea and a finished piece.

One of my biggest challenges is that I've been having hand issues for the last several years and have had to scale back quite a bit on how much time I spend drawing. This is another reason why I want to learn the "ins" and "outs" of drawing so that I can be more economical with the time I do spend holding a pencil or brush.

Looking forward to participating more in the forums and learning from this community

I'm wanting to wrap this up and upload it to the Mermay thread. Before I do, are there any glaring fixes that I might be missing? Depending on how much time I have, I may be able to do a few tweaks before the 31st.

WOW I love the storytelling in this!

@LisaF It looks like I didn't receive an email either. I subscribed last month. Would love to view the vid if I can

Welcome! Glad you're stepping out of your comfort zone to share your work here

Here's my entry: "Trucks in a Bottle."

Thanks for the suggestions!

Yeah, I love watching art vids on YouTube, so I'll be checking out some of those as well. The podcast recommendations were mainly so that I had new material to listen to on my commute to and from work.

But whenever a new 3PP episode comes out, that goes to the top of the queue!

Help...

I love podcasts, but I didn't think audio about creating something visual could be so enjoyable. 3 Point Perspective proved me wrong. And I'm in a pickle.

I've listened to all their episodes and I'm hungry for more. But the bar is set pretty high now.

What other podcasts about illustrating and the art of creating are worth listening to??? I've tried the Oatley Academy and it doesn't seem to have that same charm (it definitely doesn't force me to suppress a snort when listening to it in public). I dunno, maybe I need to give it another go.

All suggestions welcome!

@Jonas-Zavacky Love it!

@Andy-Nichols-Art Thanks Andy!

@nyrrylcadiz Love it!

@KajsaH Thanks! I'll see if I can push the lighting a bit.