I thought I would update you guys on my current status on my projects. Before that I wanted to ask a question of you:
When you don’t have your materials redily available, what do you do about creating?
My position on this will be explained within this post.
Here I am working on a very long term project, “Relative Perspective”. (I plan to share the whole journey once it is finally finished.) I’m having breakthrough after breakthrough and making good progress, for this project. I find myself delayed, again. It’s not from any issues with the work.
As I have mentioned before, having a portable art tool has been a liberating benefit. My daughter is enjoying the benefits with her school work. Because she has assignments due, the tablet is spending time with her this weekend, again.
Luckily I have traditional work to continue. I was able to get some sketching done last night. I plan to bring that journal with me out today so that I’m making progress. As much as I hate multitasking and it’s horrible side effect, symptoms of procrastination, at least one of the projects waiting in the cue gets attention, today.
I’ll have to remember my mindset when I can resume “Relative Perspective”. I hope my daughter does great! I’ll keep plugging away on the other work.
Hey Guys! Here”s my first video uploaded on YouTube! I’ve still got to create banners but I think it turned out OK for a time lapse. I’ll be doing more of these along toe way! Thanks for viewing!
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!
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!
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.
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.
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!
I’m trying a different direction with the posts I will be putting here. This and the following posts under this title will share parts of my world. What helped to create the artist in me? Why am I driven to create? What has influenced and inspired me to do these things? What do I like to create?
As an artist, it’s important that my work find you guys and others like you. I want to share the things I imagine with everyone. There are so many people, places and things to show you.
But before that I should do a better job of introducing myself and sharing why this is such an important thing. My name is Richard Thaxton. In my Bio I explain about the reason why I chose the name XT Illos. The oldest being that an “X” was the way most people who couldn’t read or write would mark their signature.
Due to differing processes in training kids to read early on in school, many of my classmates and myself did not learn how to read properly. The new pilot program was not continued when we were transferred back to our original group the next year. This is where my choice to express myself visually took roots and grew. Even though I took an advance placement test in middle school and scored 11th to College level, I struggled with reading a lot all the way through high school. In the first quarter of college I taught myself to read.
I’ve been drawing for a long time. As a kid, I would try to reproduce small images of art that came in catalogs into larger pencil and colored pencil drawings. I got pretty good at catching the details. My favorites were the old tall sailing ships, pirate ships and different animals.
I was and still am a avid cartoon junkie which of course includes anime! Those and the live action dramas would keep me glued to the TV on Saturday mornings or the theater, when we could go. Many films about great works really mesmerized me. Some of my early favorites were Kimba the White Lion, Ultraman, Speed Racer, King Kong, Godzilla, Star Trek, Tarzan, the Seven Voyages of Sinbad, the Land That Time Forgot, Dracula, Frankenstein, the Mummy and the Wolfman.
There was lots of influences all around. there was lots of primers for the creativity to start flowing in my imagination. One day in high school a friend shared a book with me that really set things into motion. It was by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the John Carter series A Princess of Mars. This story and the artworks by Boris Vallejo and Frank Frazetta was the final push. I was enchanted and felt driven to learn how to tell stories with my art.
It’s been a long road from then until I could properly relate what I was seeing in my imagination. Lots of frustrating attempts in the beginning. As I would practice and study the things I was attempting to create I began to pick up more details. I took art in middle and high school. I also took classes in college for art both fine and commercial. One day I decided to give story illustration a try but that’s a story next time.
I don’t have any examples of my old work because of them being lost in a storage fire. I will drop in older pencil sketches, design processes and finished art that has not been seen since most of them were published.
Below is the current update on this project. I’ve reworked these mountains 4 different times since first creating them. It’s finally starting to come together. The funny thing is, with all the work going into this part, it will be quite small and part of the background. Still, since the project is to develop my technique and work on details, it will be worth it in the end.
The Tuac Mountains are to the northwest. Betkur is the river running from north to south through this region. The D’tir River crosses from east to west in the northern section. Lake Nor sits atop Mount Kar and flows down the mountain to the southwest. Lake Kir branches off the Betkur River to the north of the lake and returns south of the lake. The Moru River runs from the Betkur southwest to the Odi Ocean bordering the southern end of the Tuac Range.
Detral is a low valley region east of the Tuac Mountains. There is the small Mek Range in the northwest corner. East of this range is the Bol Forrest that reaches to the Umbur Ocean. The River Trel runs from north to south and divides the continent. To the east is the Great Sudr Lake, which flows west as the Tomal River, south as the Bez River and east as the Vor River.
Mount Tel sits in the southwest corner of the continent. It’s bordered by the Moru River to the north and the Betkur River to the east. the Tem Plains are to the east of the Betkur and is bordered by the southern River Trel. The Nir Forrest reaches from the River Trel to the Bez River. It is bordered by the Kauld Sea to the south. The Fra Plateau is in the southeast corner of the continent. Lake Eir flows from the top of the plateau southeast as the Ul River and Falls to the Umbur Ocean.
The Sul’r Island are off the west coast of Ba’anta.
More details to come as we delve into each region.
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