The Firebli9ht Sketchblog

Green ball of flaming awesome

2011-11-11T20:26:00.001-08:00

I've worked on this as a test and it came out so sexy that I had to share it. I started out with a tutorial here, but I ended up doing quite a bit of painting. Next round I plan on painting start to finish. I love the green-blue color of burning copper, which is probably why I chose not to use the usual orange for my flame ball.

Dusk

2011-11-07T18:31:00.000-08:00

Drove past the water at dusk the other day and saw these fishermen out in their coats on the dock. The sunset seemed to look as equally cold as it felt outside, with the warm light giving out to icy blues, and taking the last traces of gentle summer breezes with it.

Want to see the progression? Dusk Painting Process

Hannya Mask

2011-06-21T14:34:00.000-07:00

Its been quite a while since I've posted. Anti-depressants finally bring new art! Truthfully I've been very occupied with non-art projects. This is a 3d sketch I worked on and haven't finished yet, but wanted to post as a sketch.

The Hannya mask is used in many noh and kyogen Japanese plays. It portrays the souls of women who have become demons due to obsession or jealousy.

The mask is said to be dangerous and demonic, but also sorrowful and tormented, displaying the complexity of human emotions. When the actor looks straight ahead, the mask appears frightening and angry; when tilted slightly down, the face of the demon appears to be sorrowful, as though crying.

Love Story

2010-03-23T12:30:00.000-07:00

My grandmother, my closest family and a surrogate mother to me in many ways, has died. I am lost. And so is the light. I cannot bring myself create anything, listen to music, or feel 90% of the time. So until I do, I added a random photo for the poem in the previous post.

Help. Me. I think my heart has died.

I've always had a song for many of the major people that influenced my life in some way. I've begun compiling a list of them these days because of how consistent this habit of mine seems to be. There was a music box in my room growing up that seems fitting for this occasion, it has been a personal song that reminded me of my grandmother since I was little. It doesn't really fit the poem, but I had to post it.

Andy Williams - Where Do I Begin [ Love Story ] (music box version)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWqUFF8lFsQ

Keeper of the Black Bridge

2010-03-12T12:20:00.000-08:00

My Everwatchful Owl.

Her perch is abandoned, leaving only a

bleak and hollow feather

in her stead.

That feather

is an iron weight in my heart.

The air is brittle,

with a chill that

shatters this straining breath

as I seek my haven.

My elder.

My Owl.

Only the massive void calls back to me now.

Ahead, a path's gaping edge of fog and dread.

A bridge suffocating in gloom.

The waters beneath.. black noir.

A decaying journey snuffed of it's guide.

Miserable, cold

liquid churning

through the rotted, cackling planks.

Rushing. Reaching. Angry.

My Mother owl.

Keeper of all which is lost.

Lover of all things abandoned.

I have not the strength to repair this bridge.

I have not the heart to cross it alone.

Oh you wicked, insipid branch.

Where is the moonlit creature you once held?

Your thin shadow stains my skin like a poison.

Therefore I say to this

May the hungry blight of this passway

never be blotted out.

May the world come fully undone.

My hope now lies

not in the death of these devils but

in their aid.

I must seize and cling

to this swarming chaos

and let terror consume

me, as fire.

Letha Mae Lehman

July 14, 1930 - February 20, 2010

The devil's in the details

2010-02-03T15:45:00.000-08:00

I actually am capable of rendering detail for those of you who've been really wondering! As proof that I'm completing something here's a progress shot of the Philosopher. Yes, I've changed the colors completely. I always try to push myself and it often slows things down significantly. Even in picking colors. I decided to quit trying so hard and do something that was easier in terms of color choice. And cloth! I love cloth.

Devil's Philosopher lineart

2010-01-15T23:48:00.000-08:00

I'm trying a new line art method. The result has been much cleaner finished linework, but it takes longer because I've never done it before. So far I like the result though! This is my finished lineart for this character, and although the colors are probably going to go through many more variations before I make a decision... I'm happy with where it's at so far.

I'm keeping busy

2010-01-07T12:21:00.000-08:00

A couple of new updates. The tree has been textured, finished, and made available for printing! There are magnets, mousepads, and high quality prints in several sizes here on my deviant art profile.

Also I did a color study from a drawing by Alvin Lee called Emma Frost and The Phoenix. I've always loved Jean Grey, and the Xmen. And I know you all like the hot comic book ladies.

Zbrush Vamp Bunny is complete

2010-01-03T19:21:00.000-08:00

I finally got to finish the bunny sculpt I've been practicing on. I'm pretty happy with it as a first real attempt at Zbrush. Improving the design in the modeling was quite easy, it came out much better. Especially since the original sketch was very rough and just a small idea.

Just looking at this model makes me laugh, so I consider it a success. :D

Happy Holidays

2009-12-29T20:05:00.001-08:00

Hope you all got a chance to enjoy the holiday and take a break. And presents! I was quite surprised to find a new intuos 4 with my name on it this year and boy am I excited! I think I will sleep with it next to my pillow for atleast a month..

Vampire bunnies in 3D

2009-12-07T16:41:00.001-08:00

Bit of Zbrush practice before my class tonight...

1st Zbrush sculpt

2009-11-18T22:10:00.000-08:00

I went to my first Zbrush class the other night at 3DTA. I definitely enjoyed it. We had roughly half an hour of sculpting time to mess around with a dragon head so I thought I would post mine. Once I started to get the hang of navigating I actually made a little progress. Not bad for a beginning, although I think it looks more like an antelope right now..

Firebli9ht.com

2009-08-13T12:05:00.001-07:00

I finally updated the firebli9ht tree with some color and mood. I tried a lot of different color schemes before I found what I wanted. I've had a tree look in mind for my portfolio website. I want to use this idea as a base, but for now this is the splash page until it's finished.

Lady of Summer

2009-07-22T19:30:00.000-07:00

The summer has kept me too distracted for art lately. But now it's probably another month before we move into our new house, which got delayed by unexpected paperwork. We've definitely kept ourselves busy by getting to know the Seattle area though.

Being stuck in temp housing is making me crazy now that we are going into our third month here. I decided it was time to do some work to keep myself from being so antsy! So here is my summer anthem of sorts. :D

2009-05-12T21:24:00.000-07:00

So! I've disappeared for awhile. Got a big upcoming move underway and haven't had time for art lately. I've been wanting to take a short break anyway..

So while I spend my days looking at houses and going through old boxes full of personal oddities, check out this artist for a bit of whimsey:

Peter Callesen
It's damn cool.

2009-04-14T12:00:00.000-07:00

Justin Sweet

My fiance and I don't typically share the same preferences for artstyles, as in we usually completely disagree(!), but he recently showed me this artist. Justin Sweet's look is very painterly and often quite colorful. Lots of energy and looseness. The watercolor work is absolutely the coolest!

Marshmallow Bunnies!

2009-04-10T15:00:00.000-07:00

So. Due to the extreme popularity of

the sad little bunny sketch I recently posted

(you sadists)

It was made very clear to me

(threats)

That there should be more sketches of this type
Plus!

(put down that pitchfork plz)

It's effing Easter!

Sylvanas Windrunner

2009-04-03T01:46:00.000-07:00

I like my gamer-chick habit. Did I mention I'm a fan of Sylvanas? I've actually wanted to do fanart of her from the first time I read her story. I had this started before the official redesign went live for WotLK a while ago, so I'm sticking with my take on the details!

So for all of you World of Warcraft fans out there here is my Sylvanas, the undead high elf queen of the Forsaken! No I didn't feel like finishing the feet yet. I have an early shading version but it's not finished yet either. No you can't see it. Stop asking already!

It taunts me!

2009-03-27T12:18:00.000-07:00

THIS WAS MY WEEK Q.Q

I got nothin.. I'm offically blaming the sunshine.

Tommy Grrl

2009-03-20T13:24:00.000-07:00

OH look at this. It's about time I did another sexy girl project, I know how you all like them.

Girls, do you ever go through half the day only to randomly discover that your bra is all twisted up in the middle? Annoying! I just did that :/

Not your average chick tattoo

2009-03-12T10:48:00.000-07:00

So a friend of mine asked for some tattoo designs recently. She said she wanted a tribal look but gave me a large variety of images as reference. One of the ideas she had was for a butterfly. This is the design I sent her. The art is in photoshop, I'm going to remake it in vector once its finalized so that everything will be exact. I will probably adjust some lines also as I go.

2009-03-09T11:00:00.000-07:00

Daphne Yap
sketch videos

This girl is seriously fun. She is an Otis College graduate (like me!) and the personality in her drawings alone is worth a look at her work. She recently published this book that I own and love! Her homepage is under construction so here are a few sketch videos.

The Tree WIP

2009-03-03T23:25:00.000-08:00

You'll probably want to full view this one.

This is a WIP drawing that I did this week. I'm going to keep working on the project and re-post but I got the tree done minus a few tweaks and I wanted to show it to you all. This is also a development on my first version of Firebli9ht as a plant.

Plus I felt that this awesome blackboard texture idea just had to be shared. Speaking of sharing, you can now give your reactions by clicking the little boxes below each of my posts :D

I like cloth.

2009-02-23T22:44:00.000-08:00

I felt like doing something simple this week so here's a quick sketch. I'm trying to loosen up a bit and play more with color and mood.

I think ever since I was first amazed by this sculpture in art history class, I've been a bit crazy about figures in cloth. The neat thing about it is the mastery of all the angles. It is practically equally awesome no matter what direction you look at it. Now that's not easy to do!

In fact, I also have my own little copy of it, and it's one of the few things I'd run inside for if my house was on fire. Which is probably because I bought it in college many years ago when I couldn't really even afford food, and it's taken on more meaning in my life now than just a piece of art.

2009-02-23T12:00:00.000-08:00

Kris Kuksi

Another great sculpture artist that I only just recently found. This guy's work feels like a Hieronymus Bosch painting in 3d. His pieces have a sort of old gothic architecture look with new subject matter. Super crazy and dark.

Zooey is a cat!

2009-02-20T12:24:00.001-08:00

I don't know, I've had a sort of girl-crush on Zooey Deschanel lately. I've used her as reference here and there but I wanted to try my hand at actually getting a likeness.

This project was many things before it turned into this, but I actually like the result! There is a possibility I'll do another one of her but it remains to be seen if I get distracted by something else first. :D

2009-02-13T12:00:00.000-08:00

Virginie Ropars (♫)

Friday the 13th! And an appropriate link to go with it.

An insanely cool Doll/Figure artist. She's got a really nice eye for detail and design as well as just an awesome ability to make these tiny things. I've linked her myspace page because her website is really difficult to navigate; it has a shit-ton of pictures. Feel free to look at both!

So. Effing. Cute.

2009-02-09T12:00:00.000-08:00

I'm out of town this week so here's a Mudbox 3d sculpt I started working on recently. I used this set of little wyrm sketches as my reference. First digital 3d I've done in... 4 years? Don't judge me! I'll get around to working on it more since it's still really basic.

Dance of Poison

2009-02-04T17:00:00.000-08:00

This sketch is part of a Death Dancer series I've been messing with. I have fun trying to get the body in positions I've never tried before, but it takes awhile before I get one I like.

2009-02-02T14:58:00.000-08:00

Terada Katsuya (nsfw)

This artist is in my top five all time favorites! It's hard to find his work online but I managed to find a fansite recently. He's quite morbid and sexual at times. Don't say I didn't warn you if you go poking around. Most of his online displayed work on the lighter side of crazy, but now and then you might be a bit shocked. :D

Fish hook

2009-01-27T22:38:00.000-08:00

I haven't done a lot of real painting in photoshop these days. I wanted to just take some time to do a study from reference of a face. This is the first one that actually turned out good!

I won't lie, I was sketching on another drawing for days and decided I needed a distraction, especially if I wanted to get anything posted this week. :D

Original reference photo by Zeynep Öztayıncı can be found here: http://estellamestella.deviantart.com/art/LIP-MEMORY-84634835

Got a Quarter?

2009-01-20T18:53:00.000-08:00

This week's drawing came from an idea I had for a halloween costume last year. I reallly had fun drawing this one. As for the costume, it's 75% built but my order came to me with all left-side feathers, thus the outfit wasn't completed in time for halloween. This does put me ahead for next year however. ^.^

Little Bird

2009-01-14T14:01:00.000-08:00

So the holiday break has slowed down my drawing, but fear not! I promise it will keep getting more curious around here.

Also, don't ask me if she found the bird like that or if she's responsible, I don't know either. That's what I like about it.

2009-01-06T15:32:00.000-08:00

Audrey Kawasaki

This is an artist everyone should know about. This chick is so good it makes me want to slap my mamma. Or something like that.

Sure, Christmas.

2008-12-24T20:47:00.000-08:00

Merry Xmas. Norly.

I can't ever seem to do a holiday themed sketch to this date, but its not for lack of trying! I just never like the results and end up starting over.. and over.. and over.

So here's a few little things that never got completed...

Hope your holidays work out better than my sketches! Feel free to post comments, share your reactions, or let me know of your intentions to mail cookies! :D

2008-12-23T21:00:00.000-08:00

Ludo Lullabi

A really great artist who's recently done work for the World of Warcraft comic. He is great at designing space in his work. The shapes are so strong that it gives his art an enviable confidence.

2008-12-16T21:00:00.000-08:00

Jin Han
Jin Han is an artist that graduated from Otis a year before I did and a very cool guy in person. And his work is pretty awesome too. Who can't love some good comic flavor Spawn renderings eh? Throw in some dragons and you've made a regular fan-girl out of me.

LostFish's Portfolio
LostFish's Blog (♫)
LostFish is an artist I found on myspace a bit ago. Myspace, for all its flaws, has some really great opportunity for connecting with artists. LostFish has a very feminine look but with a really compelling macabre feel. I have a thing for combinations like that in an artist's work.

Centauride

2008-12-14T22:07:00.000-08:00

She thinks you're hot.

Work in progress painting that I probably won't finish.

Apparently female centaur are called centauride? Google ftw.

2008-12-11T15:49:00.000-08:00

As I'm sure you know already, I post weekly updates to the 'Artlinks for the Bored and Evercurious' for all of you who are like me and sometimes wander over the web looking at images for hours.

This week's link additions are some of my favorites.

Akiza
The website is in french so I linked the translated page. I absolutely love this artist's work. Every piece is flat black-ink line, but there is so much dimension just from the variations in size and shape. Something definitely to check out.

Sally Mann (nsfw)
A really great photographer I discovered recently. The gallery I linked is a quick glance at her work. The nature of some of her photography has stirred controversy, but the perspective that comes across is really incredible.

Dance of Burning

2008-12-07T20:58:00.000-08:00

It's always hard to keep the energy that a first sketch seems to have, so I've left it like this for now until I can improve on it. The plan, as usual, is 'later'. :D

Dance of Drowning

2008-12-04T12:14:00.000-08:00

I've been working on my website design so this is a sketch I did a little while ago. I've started working on 2 more in the series so putting this one up now might be perfect timing. :D

Eat More Turkey

2008-11-24T22:43:00.000-08:00

Oh the irony of an emaciated figure just before Thanksgiving.. but hey.

It's all about the hair

2008-11-20T00:21:00.001-08:00

A quick chick-sketch for the week. Yes, there is a skull in her hair.

Bli9ht Under Construction

2008-11-17T13:30:00.000-08:00

I've been working on a new look for my porfolio website Firebli9ht.com. This plant is my first iteration of what firebli9ht might look like if it were an actual plant. For those that don't know it is actually a disease of trees.

It's also a quip from a tree character in an animated movie I watched roughly a billion times as a kid.

The angry tree curses at the unicorn: "Ooh, galls and fireblight! She shall never have you, the hussy!" Extremely tree-offending terms! I absolutely love the reference to a unicorn as a hussy. Just beautiful. Just fucking beautiful.