The Art Group » Discussions


Meli's Gallery

Tags: #Gallery 
  • Member
    June 22, 2015

     

    Hello all, following a recommendation by Curse Never Dying and Golden Fool to create a gallery over here in the Art Group, here goes..

    I have been drawing on and off for years, and quite a stubborn art student when taking my GCSE's, not sure how they put up with me! My mum taught me most of what I know and has encouraged me to experiment and find my own comfort zone for both medium and style. Mostly though I'm a copy artist, over the last few years most of my artwork has been gifts for family and friends and not for pleasure. When I found the Blog as it was then, I decided that would eventually change, and after some not so gentle nudging from Sotek, I began my first TES piece... The College of Winterhold.

    The following pictures are my attempts so far, constructive criticism and questions are more than welcome

    The College of Winterhold (May to August 2015)

    The “College” is my first piece of Skyrim art, and for me, is quite epic in terms of scale and detail, it is mainly pen and pencil, though the pools of magic when completed will be blue. I'm not sure if this will ever be truly complete in my mind, but at some point I know I will have to say it is finished.

    And finally as of August 22nd, 2015 I think I am done. After testing a number of theories in GIMP, I settled on drawing the initial outline of the magikca on the main drawing in coloured pencil. Then scanning (again), and modifying the magicka using a number of different techniques in GIMP. This included motion blur and a shift distort filters:

    Entry for Dragon Week (May 2015)

    This is a small-ish mainly pen drawing that was rustled up when Paul announced the upcoming Dragon Week. This was quite fun to do as there was quite a lot of small scribbles to get the scales on the dragon just right, knowing when to stop though is tricky.

    Dragon Week Entry

    Lakeview Manor (June 2015)

    This picture was an attempt at being re-inspired to continue my work on the “College”, Sotek suggested drawing my favourite place in Skyrim, this was the result. It was also good practice for the pine trees as I was yet to complete these on the “College”.

    Lakeview ManorLakeview Manor

     

    Mirric Farseer - An Interpretation (September 2015)

    This image was born from curiosity, Sotek had created a drawing of Mirric Farseer in his unique style, and I wondered what it would look like if the colours were reversed. After a short amount of tinkering in GIMP, this image is the result, who knew that scanned paper could create such a fantastic effect. The original version of Sotek's piece is located here - Mirric Farseer.

     

     

    The Home of Auguris Cedas in Cyrodiil (April 2016)

    This piece is associated with my blog The Imperial Auditor, after progressing to four published parts, I really wanted to get more of a feel for where Auguris came from, I ended up purchasing Oblivion and wandering around to find the perfect home that tied in with the basic back story that I had.

    Enter Weye, small, close to the Imperial City, perfect for Auguris to commute from and ideal for Ladia (his wife) to grow herbs and raise their twin children.

    Final shot after adding more definition in pencil, and then a little editing in GIMP:

    Home of Auguris Cedas, Cyrodiil

    ESO: Orsinium Echatere (April 2016)

    A quick sketch of one of Orsinium's domesticated beasts of burden, this took around an hour from a screenshot which I found on Google. This was inspired by watching Phil's Twitch stream based in the Orsinium DLC, I get the impression from Phil, that you would not want to get too close to one of these guys in the wild, the tusks look bad enough, but the forelegs?

    Described by other members as "Orc teddybears" or "if Bethesda made plushie Echatere's, I'd buy one", I'm inclined to agree, especially when I saw the Echalette!

    ESO Echatere


    A sketch of an echalette, this was a rather quick one:

    ESO Echalette

     


    Morn is one of my final PS3 characters, soon to be transferred to TES:IV SE on PS4. My first orsimer character, a huntress with her own agenda in Skyrim, the Dragonborn will not be receiving her assistance.

    Orsmier huntress

     


    Originally inspired by watching Minophis playing Oblivion for the first time in years, after I picked up a copy for the PS3, a discussion regarding the design of the Crusader's helm ensued and Sir Bouq'uet Hei'd was born:

     


    The Khajiit Thief was created as a token of appreciation for someone who had spent a number of months in our team at work, another TES fan and also a lover of cats. This was also an attempt at a new techique using crayons in a similar way to pastels.

    Khajiit Thief

     

    The Two Moons Mandala is part of my Tales of a Quite Peculiar Cat, and hand drawn in pen on acrylic paper:

     


    The Spriggan was an experiment in using Aquawash crayons with a waterbrush, and also addng the final pen lines before adding colour. The resulting effect of using the crayons with water is almost identical to watercolours, just no messy tubes. The reference image was located on the TES Postcards blog via Google.

    [Last updated 20-October-2017]

  • Member
    June 22, 2015

     This looks great Meli.

    All my nudges are gentle... Until I bite.

    Can I make a suggestion. Add the picture of Lakeview Manor before you added the tree as well. (You know the one). A lot of the art members like to see work as it progresses. I know I do.

  • June 22, 2015
    I'm glad you made this discussion. You've got quite a talent there.
  • Member
    June 22, 2015

    This one Sotek? ^

  • Member
    June 22, 2015

    Yep, that's the one. It shows the rocks in their two stages as well as the house before the fine detail was added.

  • Member
    June 22, 2015
    Looks amazing! I wish I had your talent :D
  • Member
    July 14, 2015
    Wow! Never dare stop drawing, your work is awesome.
  • Member
    July 14, 2015

    Thanks, I think this year has been my most prolific artwork wise since I was at school, definitely enjoying it.

  • Member
    July 18, 2015

    Added updates of the College of Winterhold

  • Member
    July 22, 2015

    The details are stunning!  I wish I had the patience to draw like you!