My Love for You is Like a Truck

Etymological trivia: "berserker" comes from the Old Norse words "ber" (bear) and "serkr" (shirt), referring to the bear-pelt coats worn by the fierce warriors. For some time scholars mistook "ber" (bear) with "berr" (bare), which led to the now-abandoned idea that berserkers fought in the nude.

Pillage and Burn!

Sketchbook Thumbnails: Ballpoint + Marker

Celtic Cross

I enjoyed my last knotwork project so much that I wanted to up the challenge: connecting a radial grid to a rectangular grid. I'm pretty pleased with the results:

Here's an animated version of the process:

I started by tracing the radial grid off the template I made in Illustrator, then used the points I wanted to transition at to created the rectangular grids. Once the grids were done, I drew boundaries and turning spots to guide the designs. After a quick pass to lay in the over-under weave patters, I penciled in, then inked, the connecting strands. A little grey-tone shading helps add depth to the weave, and some adjustments in Photoshop straighten everything out. It's pretty straight-forward from start to finish, unless you mess up the weaving and have to spend an hour tracing every ribbon to make sure the patterns link correctly. 

The whole process is time-consuming and meticulous, but once you get into a groove it's an enjoyable, even relaxing, thing to do.

St. Patrick's Day

I'm not Irish, but I have a soft spot for Celtic music and design. I've recently been studying Celtic knotwork, since it is not far removed from Viking designs. There's a great tutorial here on making knotwork using a grid system. It's so easy to use that I feel like I'm cheating.

Good News, Everyone!

I do my best to keep this blog focused on my art, but sometimes life give you news big enough to break out of the norm. Today is one of those days. Today, after a year and half of waiting, plus tons of time and money spent on lawyers, government fees, and travel, my wife was granted status as a US Permanent Resident. I don't know that I can properly express how big of deal that is for us. Suffice it to say that we have had to put off establishing our honeymoon, careers, and living plans until now.

Medieval Doodles

Digital painting is fast and handy, but the feeling of drawing on a table just can't compare with the experience of drawing with physical media. I picked up a Sharpie and some of my wife's old Copics yesterday and went to town on some medieval stuff.

I haven't really used Copics like this before, so I was pleasantly surprised at how nicely they fit the way I work. The limited palette freed me up from worrying too much about color selection, and the translucent blending made it super easy to block in shading.

EDIT: Added some axes I worked up after my initial post.

BunBunBun

Another sketchbook quickie; this time a rabbit from the Royal Winter Fair.