Nesta Archeron
I had this portrait nearly finished last spring but had to set it aside for commissions and life stuff. It's been so satisfying to finally finish.
Tools: Photoshop and Wacom Cintiq22
Website | Twitter | Instagram | DeviantART | ArtStation | RedBubble
Hawke Flynn. . .
The Dark One, Prince Casteel Hawkethrone Da'Neer. Cas.
(Lover of honeydew)
First finished painting of the year! Yeay! It's been a long time since I've invested this many hours in a painting, but I learned a lot, so worth it???
Website | Twitter | Instagram | DeviantART | ArtStation | RedBubble
This is the second cover illustration I did for Haley Walden. The first two eBooks are available of The Witness Tree Chronicles. Make sure to check her out for updates on the print editions and future books.
Website | Twitter | Instagram | DeviantART | ArtStation | RedBubble
I'm super excited to finally share this cover art I did for Haley Walden! This is the first cover in her epic fantasy series The Witness Tree Chronicles. The first two books are available as eBooks. Make sure to check her out for updates on the print editions and future books.
Website | Twitter | Instagram | DeviantART | ArtStation | RedBubble
Penellaphe Balfour
The maiden, the chosen, the Queen’s favorite.
Poppy.
Website | Twitter | Instagram | DeviantART | ArtStation | RedBubble
Work In Progress of Hawke Flynn.
I decided to go for some aggressive serrations on his short swords (maybe better for chopping up craven?🤷♀️ ), and I have a feeling I'm going to regret all the foliage...
I struggled to get this one going, it just wasn't fitting my vision. Then I did a bunch of gesture drawing and made my wonderful husband pose for reference😍 . I spent longer on the sketch than I wanted to, but now it's closer to how I picture him.
** possible spoilers in the tags **
Character belongs to: Jennifer L Armentrout
Tools: #photoshop, #cintique13hd
Work In Progress of a certain maiden with some night-blooming roses.
A lot has been going on this past month-ish. I had a sciatica flare-up that refused to chill, my 15m-old started walking and she is fascinated by my keyboard, I got my second covid vaccine, finished a large commission and and AND I finally read From Blood and Ash. Ok, I binged all three books and I'm re-reading them now, but it's fine. I'm fine. That's a lie, I'm SO not fine. *internally screaming about the end of The Crown of Gilded Bones*
So yeah. . . I'm still planning to paint all those SJM sketches, but I need to go off on an FBAA tangent for a little bit. I'm planning on doing Hawke, too, but I'm currently having one of those art days where I can't draw anything that resembles a human.
Character belongs to: Jennifer L Armentrout
Tools: #photoshop, #cintique13hd
Another new sketch!
I’ve had this scene on my mind since I first finished #KoA. I may or may not finish it at some point. . . .
Character belongs to Sarah J Maas
Tools: Photoshop, Cintiq13HD
I’ve finally started a painting of Nessian!
I know Cassian has officially been described with straight hair (I’m not crying, you’re crying!), but I can’t un-imagine him with some kinda texture at this point. . . .
Tools: Photoshop, Cintique13HD
Helion Spell-Cleaver, High Lord of Day.
I’ve wanted to draw Helion for a long time. I totally choked, ended up hating the initial sketch and started over. Must run in the family, because the same thing happened when I tried to draw Lucien 😆.
Tools: photoshop, cintiq13HD
Soooo it’s been over a year since my last post 😅. I didn’t intend to be off that long, but it turns out a new baby + pandemic was the extent of my mental capacity.
I had a bit of downtime between commissions and decided to sketch up a portrait of Nesta. I’ll be sticking mostly to sketches as I ease back into posting (I *may* have a sketch of Helion, too, but I’m trying to decide if I like it or not). Hopefully I’ll get around to finishing some personal pieces at some point 😗.
Tools: #photoshop, #cintiq13HD
If anyone’s been wondering where I disappeared to, I’ve been busy growing another kiddo. Baby Girl Shoemaker # 2 arriving March 2020.
Hi! This is probably a bit of a complicated question, so apologies for that. I've been following the great work that Muddy Colors has been doing for the fantasy art community for a while now, but it was only today that going through their contributors list I noticed that out of 25 contributors only 3 are women. I was wondering if you could shed some light on the dynamics that lead to this, given that there's such a huge number of insanely talented women in the fantasy art industry. Thanks! :)
Honestly Muddy Colors has asked, and it’s just that women say no more frequently than men. Actually there’s 4 now. Still not an accurate representation of the women in the community, but they really are trying.
I am a woman who is an art director and I will tell you women turn me down for jobs 500% more than men do. It is a direct effect of the difference in how genders are raised and treated in our society. Women are more likely told to be 100% sure they are qualified and 110% able to do the job before they put themselves in the running for something, and if they have any doubts they are more likely to decline. Men, on the other hand, are taught to say yes even if they know they’re not completely qualified, confident that they’ll figure it out as they go along. This manifests constantly in my inbox. Women artists who are more than qualified to work for me do not send in their art because they doubt themselves, while my inbox is full of not-even-close-to-qualified male artists who figure, hey, might as well throw their hat in the ring, what’s the worst that could happen?
These are gross generalizations, but that’s the short answer and it holds a lot of truth. I’m trying desperately to do my part to encourage and mentor women in our community, but it takes time to even out. Things are certainly better than they were 10 years ago.
I know for a fact many women have been asked to write for Muddy Colors and I know many have said no. I’m not going to name names here, obviously, but trust me, the big names you’re thinking of have been asked. They have reasons, and they include: they’re not confident in their writing ability, they don’t want to deal with potential trolls, they’re concerned that it’ll cut into their work time, and they’re scared to become public figures and put their opinions out there to be criticized. Sometimes they have to decline because of child care — parenting usually still falls more heavily on the women in a relationship, especially if that woman is a freelance artist because her schedule is more flexible.
Things ARE getting better, but it takes time to change such deeply ingrained differences. If you are a woman and have been scared to put yourself out there, either into an Art Director’s inbox or to write or to speak about your work, then please hear me and believe the opportunities are there. Throw off that imposter syndrome & take those opportunities! The creative world needs your voices in equal amounts to the guys.
—Agent KillFee
PS: Instead of a cute gif today I am leaving you with a picture of Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who won ALL THE EMMYS this year for Fleabag, which she wrote and performed in. Women, put yourself out there! We need your POVs
your nesta art is coming i can FEEL IT
I’m glad you can, because I can’t so much. She’s buried somewhere in my to-do list.
Hey, Anna! Do you ever think about making a portrait of Tamlin? I would really like to see your version of him.
Hey there! I do think about painting Tamlin, but I often get distracted by my hatred for him… . I don’t think I will ever do a large portrait of him, like I did for the Inner Circle and Lucien, but I’d like to do a bunch of mini portraits/sketches of all the High Lords (and Lady) and various other characters from the series.
Would you ever draw the Disney princes? By the way your art is amazing
I LOVE Disney, so there is a very high probability I will paint some Disney Princesses in the future.
I did a little sketch of Jude, too, and decided to go with the ram horns. No regrets so far.
Final painting coming eventually
