Next up? I’m working on the middle to foreground main images. This has been a very long time! I’m glad to see it’s finally coming together. First element in, three to four to go. I’m anxious to finish it now! I hope you like the update!
Tag: #Drawing
Relative Perspective WIP Update #8
I was able to make some progress on the mountains! This was a major sticking point before. This time I really like the results! I was very apprehensive about adding the snow.
I had a couple of reworks. Then half way through the previous one I hit the right technique.
So I restarted once again. I was able to really get good details, this time.
So I give you snow covered mountains! I actually would love to go hiking there!
Next I’ll be working on the middle and foreground. This thing might actually get finished in the near future!
Relative Perspective WIP Update #7
I finally have some updates on this project to share with you!
I’ve got screenshots of my progress! It’s been good having this tablet. The freedom to take my work anywhere and some really great tools. I’m still learning it’s limits but it’s been very helpful!
I’m debating on putting snow in the mountains. I’ll put them on a separate layer so I can change them if it doesn’t work out. The details are coming out very nice! There’s still a lot to do but the scene is setting up pretty good! I’ll post more proper progression photos next time.
What’s Been Happening?
Hi everybody!
I thought I would ask you what’s happening in your world. Aside from the recent holidays, what events are influencing you? Is there great positive things going on? Maybe it’s not so positive. It’s ok, you’re welcome to share that, too.
Many of my friends are gearing up for this year’s convention circuit. Either submitting work, getting notifications of their submissions or preparing for an upcoming convention.
Some of my friends are dealing with tough life events. Physical or emotional pain has entered their lives. Stress in dealing with these situations, trying to erode their peace of mind.
For myself, it’s a mixed bag. For the negative side, problems from a old injury have come back on me. Sometimes there’s pain for days, even weeks. My real world paying job is affected because of this. I’m stressing over where my future is going. What about my family? How will I continue to be able to support them? Will I return to having constant pain? How much this is triggering my blood pressure and depression. A lot of heavy things.
On the positive side I’ve celebrated 20 years of happily married life with my wife! Both her and our daughter are my whole world! I’ll be turning 54 soon. I’m reworking a piece of fantasy art that was started as a pencil sketch in ’96. I’ve posted progress photos of it before here, “Relative Perspective”. I’ll post updates of it later.
Here are some photos from before:
I hope all is well with you and your world is great! If it’s not, I hope you find a way to get peace and balance. May the right side always win.
New for the New Year 2018
Happy New Year to everyone! I hope you’re enjoying your holidays! Hopefully you have plans for something great this year!
I’ve got a new project that will need your help! More about how that will work in the upcoming posts! I hope to roll parts of it out in stages this year. I’ve been sneaking out images of the plan, recently. It’s focused around the fantasy self-portraits I posted before and some creature drawings. Like this Lupine-Naga:
For now, here’s to many great things for you in this New Year!
Side Note
Hi all! I’ve not been posting as often as I would like. I feel that I need to share with you whats going on. I’ve purposefully kept personal things out of my work. While they affect the outcome, I was always told to keep things professional. I’ve realized it is not really possible to separate these things. all of it goes into creating. It’s part of the emotional influences. We create from our heart more than anything.
I’ve had problems with my health for a while. for the most part nothing so life threatening. Just things to make some days more difficult. lately there has been more of the difficult days. This has caused problem with my day job because of having to be out so much lately. Being able to pay the bills is important to me. My family is my highest priority.
To depend on my greatest skill for support is my ultimate goal. I love creating images for stories. To show people the things I see is a great ability. I look forward to doing this forever or at least as long as I can. I guess to be able to do this and survive, I need to find an audience that will buy my work.
What I guess I would ask of you is to please share my work. If you would like to purchase my work, prints or commission something please contact me to discuss arrangements at richard.thaxton@xtillos.com.
May we have many more fantastic adventures in the future.
Scribbling
A little sketch I made this afternoon 12/12/2017.
My Ipad Was Almost Mine
Well, after experimenting a little with my new Ipad, it turns out that the Ipad is really helpful for doing school work. In particular IB Art classes. So it has been quite useful for my daughter. I got to play around with Garage Band before the second wave hit. It’s OK though I still have old school illo journals to work in!
A Quick Update
I’ve finally joined the Apple community! My wife and daughter recently got me an Ipad Pro. Now I can create digitally untethered, Yay! I can’t wait to see what comes of this!☺
An Artist’s Journey
Part 3
Because it’s been a part of my art for most of my life it seem like a good time to explain my signature and current web name.
XT comes from my family name, Thaxton. My father’s name was Thackston until he went into the Air Force. His original documents were burned in a courthouse fire. So when he got new documents he changed the “cks” to “x”. So my brothers and I were the first generation of Thaxton in our family.
When I was a kid, learning about art history, I found out about signet rings that was used to stamp the wax sealed communications. I was very intrigued by the double signet. I played with different forms until I figured out a modified cursive lowercase “xt”. When it is flipped over the “Rt” is there.
Long before created anything, I started incorporating this signature in my work. Many times it would be hidden in the work. I’ve used this with almost everything that I’ve created. If you happen to have one of my older pieces let me know if you found the hidden signature.
I got a chance to play with jewelry making while I was in Merchant Marine training. Because I was able to test out of math class, I got to take a couple of electives. In the jewelry class I got the chance to finally create my signet ring. This has been used to put my maker’s mark on 3D that I’ve made.
XT Illos is my current web name for the illustration work that I’m creating. Fantasy Art is my favorite genre. I also create logos and tattoo designs under XT Illos.
