art!

Sorry, haven't been on top of things!
artartart.
Also, I put a LOT of sketches up on Twitter of entirely inconsequential things.
http://twitter.com/meralynndis

Yeah, this is basically where I want to take my art now.

artworks and concepts

Okay, here's some art I've been working on.  Mostly a lot of conceptual stuff.

First we have a few more conceptual designs I did for Fishbone's House
... and speaking of Fishbone... I did a more finalized drawing for the characters (Not a char. sheet, though)

So, we hve Fishbone, the girl and the boy (who I'm still thinking of names for.)

Mostly just to test what style I want to draw this in. And to practice children, ahh!
I was then asked to come up with mass transit, and considering the animal connection on this world, decided to concept a Roc (mythological bird) that carries a sort of carriage.

Rough ROUGH designs.

This was my first idea... roughly some sort of raptor/rooster/harpy eagle.
Then I realized it was a stupid idea.  Plus, no one liked the bird (not majestic enough), so I ran back to the drawing board, took the parts I liked, and made them better.

This was my more finalized design.  More of a Quetzalcoatlus (the massive pterosaurs dinosaur rather than the mythological creature) meets cassowary.  I like this design a lot better.  The bottom are some carriage designs, although I'm going to go back into those AGAIN and make them more aerodynamic as well as work out exactly how it sits on the back (I came up with some horrendous design ideas while sitting in a bar, but I won't upload those)

These are just some simple mood shots to get a feel for it.  Again, these need work: too rough.

Finally, here's another image I'm working on for The Snow Queen.  I'm going to re-work the composition, so this is just a rough stage.

It'll be flat colored like the last piece.

The Snow Queen

Finished cover for The Snow Queen and a detail shot.

I plan to do more illustrations from the same story :)!

WIP

Work in progress for my Snow Queen cover.

I'm attempting to make a more complicated version of my cut out style.

Just need to add the children, snow, borders, and then effects!  I hope the reindeer is done.

Mongolian fashion

Sorry, I've been doing a lot of research for my snow queen cover, and Mongolians have some of the most nifty fashion ever!  Interestingly enough, I found out that Queen Amadala from Star Wars is almost directly based off of Mongolian traditional wear!

Here's a few images, just to show you some of the variety in their garb.

Uncanny... isn't it?

 This would be their traditional wedding attire ^
What do you think?  I guess, though, maybe our wedding attire looks strange to them!

LOTS of amazing hats, you see.  And finally, here's an image from eastern Siberia I found when googling Nikolai's hometown.

I can't even imagine what it would be like growing up in such a strange place.  This guy, though, is basically the Siberian version of Santa!

Hope you enjoy the images!