Showing posts with label Commissions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Commissions. Show all posts

Saturday, December 31, 2016

New Art, My 2016 Art, An Upgraded Workshop, My 2016 Year in Review, and More!

The last couple months have been incredibly busy and productive for me on multiple fronts, so I thought I would write up a comprehensive blog about it! :)


More New Art


I've been very busy working on prepping some original wood panels for sale as well as taking a few commissions, fulfilling orders, and trying new things. One of these new things was offering some original lithograph prints with hand-painted, real 24k gold leaf accents. You really have to check out the video to really appreciate it: Video Here. I also have lithographs of it and some other recent art prints for sale as well! If you're interested, please feel free to contact me at kimberly.lecrone@gmail.com. :)


"Fire Tiger" - Real 24k Gold Leaf Lithographs $65 - Video Here

"Dragonfly Mandala" - Prints $15

"Macaw Mandala" - Prints $15


12 Glimpses of My 2016 Art


During 2016, I created over 70 pieces of original art!  Here are twelve of my "top" projects:

You can learn more about below:
  1. Jeweled Lion Sculpture: One of the first sculptures I did this year, and one that I'd started many years prior!
  2. Sea of Stars: One of a number of story sketch pieces I did this year, and one that I would definitely like to revisit!
  3. Color: Another sketch story piece I did that shows one of the major towns of the third book in my book series. :)
  4. Huntress: Yet another sketch story piece, this time of one of the creatures in my novels (a gryphowl!)
  5. Ornate Dragon 2: A watercolor painting I did while at Lightning in a Bottle this year!
  6. Messenger: A wood panel painting that really got me rolling back into acrylics this year!
  7. Aeterno Kymba Facepainting: A fun facepainting fan art of sorts that I really enjoyed creating!
  8. Mandala Fox: An enjoyable exercise in combining my love of animals and mandalas.
  9. Fire Tiger: Easily my favorite painting of the year! :)
  10. Sun Spots: I had a lot of fun trying to level up my mandalas with gold leaf!
  11. Hummingbird and Kitten Memorial Sculpture (Work in Progress): A memorial sculpture (and accompanying short story) I hope to complete in January of 2017
  12. “Sashah's Song” – Mixed Media Sculpture (Work in Progress): I started this sculpture way back in late 2014, and it sat around for the bulk of the year before I got moving again on it in the later half of 2015 and beginning of 2016. It's a sculpture of one of the lead protagonists of my stories, who happens to be a werewolf enchantress. Much like the Yak, this project has encountered numerous technical battles along the way, including not fitting properly in a home oven, which meant I had to build an oven to bake it, so... suffice to say, she has continued to be a labor of love, and I'm really hoping I can finish her off in the near future. :) I figure I'm around 200+ hours in at this point, and there are a lot more photos of her over on my Twitter accounts @KLeCrone and @Vaeflare. To date, this is very possibly the project I'm proudest of so far! 


An Upgraded Workshop


Over the last week and many, many hours of hard labor, I spent the bulk of my time inside of my garage in order to clean, organize, donate, sell, and purge items. While I wanted to downsize, the overall goal was for me to reclaim my garage workspace, which had been compromised when my mother moved closer, and thus gave me back the boxes I'd stored in her garage for many years.

I cleared out so much space, in fact, that I was able to install the new workbench and some upgrades I'd gotten from the holidays (or from gift cards)! :)

While I am physically exhausted, I am thrilled beyond belief to see my hard work pay off in such a tangible way! I love how far it's come, and it's not over yet! This will easily allow me enough room to continue my woodworking projects, as well as the molding and casting I want to do in the new year!

Before...

After!

 

 

Since I was sharing workspace photos, I figured I would also show you my two other primary workspaces. The first is my art and writing room. The second is my computer area (for general web-browsing, gaming, digital art, scanning, printing, etc.).

My Art and Writing Room

My Multimedia Digital Workstation



My 2016 Year in Review


I hope to have more to report next week, but in the meantime, I'm excited for the prospect of making some real headway with my various projects over the remainder of my holiday vacation (the first half of it was dedicated to family events, the garage overhaul, cleaning, errands, and other busy-work). My 2016 year in review:

The good:

  • Really felt the self-love this year. This can be a hard one sometimes, especially when I’m not in the shape I want to be in, but I know that who I am is encompassed by so, so much more than that. I tried to be kinder to myself and more realistic with my goals in 2016, and felt that really made me a happier person.
  • Grew closer to a number of new friends and long-time friends this year. This has made my day-to-day so much richer and more enjoyable. It feels wonderful to be able to talk about “real stuff” with supportive people I feel like I can be myself around.
  • Hugged my SO even tighter. <3 He is such a wonderful, supportive light in my life.
  • My mom moved closer, so I get to see her more often, yay!
  • Donated, purged, and gave away a dramatic number of boxes of stuff I had stored in my mom’s garage (sorry, mom!), as well as a ton of unneeded review items, art supplies, clothes, and more. The heavy downsizing continues!
  • Felt very happy with my career performance and trajectory this year!
  • Did a lot, a LOT of Amazon reviews, and learned a TON in the process!
  • As a fun result of this reviewing, I probably produced more art this year than in any other year to date! I think somewhere in the ballpark of 70 pieces of new art! Having to use so many real media art materials (some of which were…subpar…) for reviews reminded me of how nice and manageable it is to do smaller “bites” of art.
  • Resumed selling personal art on the side, and managed to have a surprisingly great year of sales too!
  • Took a number of commissions, and completed all of them within 1 month of when the original order was placed. I managed to walk a careful line between keeping busy, but not becoming overwhelmed.
  • Finished general outlining my 8 book series!
  • Swapped gears and finished fine outlining v4 of “new” first book!
  • Restarted prose for v4 of “new” first book! 25,000+ words in or so!
  • Learned more about woodworking, and leveled up some necessary skills in that realm!
  • Went to various conventions to meet up with people and had a great time, but tried to manage my hours and energy level better so as to not get overwhelmed and exhausted.
  • 2016 was one of my healthiest years on record!
  • Got Contoura Lasik!
  • Did a massive overhaul on our garage and purged/donated/sold a TON of stuff, opening up a lot of room to rework and upgrade my garage workshop space!
  • Started ordering molding and casting supplies to move forward into that realm in 2017!
  • Kept my optimism intact.
  • Pushed myself to learn new things and experiment!


 The not so good:

  • Lost a kitty (we still miss you, Augie)
  • Gained some weight. >_>
  • Had a health scare with my kitty, Opal (she’s okay now).
  • Had a repetitive stress hand/wrist injury at work, but it’s on the mend now, and at least it’s my left hand!
  • Didn’t finish my own self-imposed 30-day sketch story challenge, but made it to day 18 or so!
  • Didn’t finish “Sashah’s Song” sculpture, but hopefully next year!
  • Admitted temporary defeat on my life-sized hydralisk head sculpture and relegated him to the garage so I could prioritize other projects.


Diablo Fan Art Watch #300: The Art of Kimberly “Vaeflare” LeCrone



This year I was honored to ask to partake in an in-depth interview about my personal art and roles at Blizzard Entertainment. You can read the full interview (and lots of art and videos) here: http://www.diabloii.net/blog/comments/diablo-fan-art-watch-300


On to 2017!


All-in-all it's been quite a year, and I can't wait to see what 2017 holds! Some personal things I'm aiming to accomplish in the new year include:

  1. Complete "Hummingbird and Kitten Memorial Sculpture"
  2. Complete "Sashah's Song" Sculpture
  3. (Re)learn how to mold and cast
  4. Keep moving forward with one or more novels
  5. Finish at least one outstanding art project and selectively retire others
  6. Continue to grow my creative side-business
  7. Continue to infuse my unique vision into my work

Overall, 2016 was a pretty solid year for me, and I’m really eager to see what 2017 brings personally, professionally, and creatively. :) I’m so thankful for all of your support along the way of this crazy journey called life. <3

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Friday, December 11, 2015

The Tweet That Spawned Story Sharing

How It All Started


So the other night I saw a few people from Facebook and Twitter post saying that for every Like, they would share something about themselves. The idea of such a social experiment sounded interesting to me, and I decided I'd do the same thing on my art & writing Twitter, except instead of sharing information about me, I'd share information about my stories, characters, and their world. I figured since it was pretty late at night, perhaps I'd get maybe a half a dozen Likes to prompt sharing, but... my original tweet got far more attention than I ever expected.
I received 64 Likes within the first few hours, which eventually hit 88 Likes! I soon found myself spending the evening sharing art and information. Since Twitter can be a bit of a tricky best to follow, I decided to put my first batch of replies together into a blog so that they can be more easily digested. I hope you enjoy them!

The posts below include a great deal of art that is my own, as well as pieces that were gifts or commissions from a variety of talented artists. Those pieces can seen below on Deviant Art where they can be enjoyed in their full glory.


My Responses
































































*****
Since the original Tweet has even more Likes now, I'll have to write up a few more facts to share soon! :)
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Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Many New Sketches and a Fantasy Commission

It's been a busy last few months, and I figured I'd take some time to work to get this blog updated with some of my recent projects.


Assorted Sketches




 
  

Over the last months, a few sketches have snuck into my sketchbook, including some studies from life involving objects and animals, as well as some odder critters, including my fantasy loirin (lion/kirin) above, as well as a demon pig I drew during this year's 2015 BlizzCon Sketch Group! I'm on the home-stretch to finishing a sketchbook too, which is always a welcome feeling!


(Incomplete) 30-Day Story Sketch Challenge



30 Day Story-Sketch Challenge: Day 1: The Flower

30 Day Story-Sketch Challenge: Day 2: Protection


30 Day Story-Sketch Challenge: Day 3: Glimpse of the White Forest

30 Day Story-Sketch Challenge: Day 4: Whitepaw

30 Day Story-Sketch Challenge: Day 5: Helpless

Back in July I also told myself I would undertake a self-imposed 30-day challenge to sketch something from the worlds of my stories every day for thirty days. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to complete the challenge at the time, but I'm hoping to dip my toes back in and complete it soon.

I'm hoping it will be a good opportunity to help nudge me to not only work on content surrounding my stories more often, but to be willing to work on a broader range of subjects.  You can see the five sketches I completed in July above! I'm particularly pleased with the second one with the wolf and girl.



Tugrik ACEO Commission
 

Tugrik ACEO Commission


  





I've been busy with a few commissions recently, and here's one of my recent ones! I had a ton of fun illustrating this character and cramming in as much detail I could at the scale I was working with. The final piece is a mere 3.5 x 2.5 inches: the size of a business card!

Continuing to Find Calmness
 

My Native American fetishes, gemstones, feathers, and more.

It's been a grueling last few months, but I'm so excited to have some time again to work on personal projects, and I'm excited to see what the next few months will hold! I'm eager to see what I can accomplish in the remainder of 2015 and onto 2016!

I hope all of you have a great week!

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Saturday, September 27, 2014

Nature, Art, Writing, and the Possibilities Approaching "Balance"

The smile of someone who is at present, exceptionally busy and craves balance.

The last few weeks have been exceptionally busy for me, and amid the general craziness of life, I've been doing what I can to work towards getting things back in balance.

I went on three separate trips (one for work and two for pleasure), which meant a lot of the productive creative schedule and routine I had going was interrupted by travel and an assortment of adventures. It also meant that the time I've had book-ended around these events has definitely been a lot more jam-packed than usual, and even with other busy periods on the horizon (BlizzCon, I'm looking at you here), I'm understandably eager for things to settle down so I can dig back in to personal projects with renewed gusto.


Travel Tidings



 

Seeing friends from near and far on my adventures to Seattle, San Diego, and San Francisco was a wonderful breath of fresh air! It's always such a blast meeting up with old friends and new friends alike to get together and be raptors just have fun and be myself. I certainly wish we had lush woods or towering redwood forests a bit nearer to me! They were exceptionally calming places to visit.


Art Adventures in all Shapes and Sizes!

It seems that part of my methods of trying to obtain a state of zen and stability during times like these is three-fold: 1.) Increased cleaning, 2.) Increased organization, and 3.) Increased beautification. I've been doing a lot of all three of these things these last few weeks, and one of the more notable examples of this is my tenacity for getting some art up on walls both at work and at home.

The first of these pieces was a 30 x 40 inch all-acrylic painting that you can read about here. It's one of my favorite paintings that I've ever done, and I've had it up on nearby walls for many years since, but it's never been framed. The few times I'd looked into getting it framed, I'd simply balked at the price and told myself I'd get around to it "some other year." For some reason, I thought it was time to finally dig in and "git er done," as it were. I was very pleased with the result, which I've hung above my desk at work with a bit of overhead accent lighting. :)

"Ethereal Tree" Completed on April 6th, 2006
 

I also attended the first class of a "Sculpting the Figure from Life" class held at Blizzard last week! I'm really having fun working with Chavant NSP hard clay, and am eager to see how this personal project evolves in the coming weeks!

The bare bones of my next sculpture.

I also decided it was high-time I get to hanging up some of the loads of framed and matted original art I have at home! Here's a glimpse at some of the many pieces that are now hanging on the walls. You may notice a bit of a theme of familiar characters running through them, and that's no coincidence: over the years I've often commissioned artists to create their own interpretations of my story's characters. In addition to being gorgeous to look at, their presence on my walls also reminds me on a regular basis that I need to keep on writing so I can share my stories with others out there so others can see why this motley crew means so much to me!

Art by Gabby Vee, Malikaa, Emma, Kimberly Swan, MurderousAutomation, Caroline Muchmore, Nambroth, Sixth Leaf Clover, Cara Mitten, myself, and many more.
I also hung up a few more pieces of art in my art/writing/parrot room above the cork-board that acts as a repository for reference images for my various projects. I will also be the first to admit that having a (much) less writing-only laptop and little area all to myself has really helped my overall productivity.

Art by Kharnage, Emma, Tessa Thornberry, and Cynthia Reep.

20,000 Words... 30,000 Words... So About That Writing...


The first three paragraphs of "Secrets of an Accord," still sitting in their first written draft, eagerly awaiting editing.

A few weeks ago I hit a pretty big milestone for me concerning my next novella, "Secrets of an Accord": I broke 20,000 words on the first draft! In the weeks that followed, my rush of productivity continued, and I'm actually sitting at over 30,000 words now. By my estimation, I should be well over 60% of the way through the first draft (hopefully further). Below is an spreadsheet chronicling one of my recent productive weeks in early September!

This, this was a good week.

Unfortunately, since the last few weeks became unexpectedly (and sometimes mind-numbingly) busy, I've decided to push back my next milestone for "Secrets of an Accord" to November 1st, at which time I hope to have the first draft of it completed so I can start editing it. While a part of me is sad that I wasn't able to meet my initial estimates for my given milestones, I'm also increasingly aware that as the scope of this project has grown exponentially in size, so it makes logical sense that the time to complete it will also increase. 


Looking Ahead


The weeks ahead are due to be busy, but I'm aiming to do my best to keep moving forward with my various creative projects, and I'm looking forward to sharing them!  How are you doing on your own projects and hobbies?
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Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Druids, Magic, Demons, and Little Girls

It’s been quite a busy week! It hasn’t been as productive in terms of story or art as I might have preferred, but every step forward is one step closer to being done.

ZBrush and 3ds Max Class Post Mortem

In addition to attending E3 last week, I also finished off my 3ds Max course from Gnomon. I would have liked to get a bit more out of it, but that’s how it goes. I feel as if my final project for my zBrush course a few months ago was much stronger: 

"ZBrush Night Elf Druid Fan Art" - Completed on April 1, 2013

For those who are unfamiliar with the creature: in Warcraft, Night Elf Druids can shapeshift into elfy-looking cats. This particular one is running a flag from Warsong Gulch (a sort of "capture the flag"-style PvP Battleground). She’s personal fan art that was modeled and polypainted from scratch, and the background/setting is a very, very modified screenshot from World of Warcraft.

 My 3ds Max project, by comparison, was a fine learning experience:

"3Ds Max Island" - Completed on June 15, 2013


It really doesn't feel as if it has much personal “flavor” to it, but that's what you get for trying to learn a new program with limited time available to you. ;) This is a sort of “beauty” shot of the island, plants, and rocks I made from scratch, but let’s just say I’m much more excited by the prospect of starting anew in 3ds Max, learning more about it, and really taking it out for a test drive. As it is I feel like I got a basic overview of what the programs is capable of, but I really want to dig in and make something that has a bit more personality to it.



Progress on “The Apprentice of Rook” (Working Short Story Title)

My work on the story this week was slow and steady. I managed some solid editing time and came upon another mini-arc I’d like to insert in there, so I’m trying to find the best way to do that. I’m really hoping that this weekend I can really get cracking on it.

Story Art

I found an old thumbnail that wasn't very developed (and whose characters weren't interacting, nor had any real story implied), and so I took a couple hours while watching some Netflix and tried to change it into something.

"Campfire" - Thumbnail from ~2006

It's still a WIP, but it's neat putting all five of these characters together to share stories in front of a campfire (there's due to be magic involved with that smoke, too).

This is a type of scene that would been in Book 1 or later. While there are often places to be, people to meet, and challenges to complete, there's also a fair bit of downtime during travel. In terms of getting to know each other, you learn a lot from sharing stories, and I think having magic to illustrate and accent one's tales could be quite an experience.

(I still haven't figured out what tale the two on the left are telling, but the smoke will help relay that once I figure out that particular detail.)

"Campfire" Redo - June 16, 2013


I’ve always loved the idea of using magic for the purpose of storytelling, and for the character of Sashah, that’s definitely a niche she enjoys. Below are two illustrations by the incredibly talented Emma Lazauski showing this facet of the character. I love them to bits.

"ACEO: Sashah and Richard" by Emma Lazauski - November 4, 2011

"Sashah's Spell" by Emma Lazauski - January 11, 2012


The Big, Wide Internet and Story Themes

Another thing that’s been on my mind this week are wider story themes. Now granted, some of my characters have been around in one way or another for over a dozen years, so they’ve had some understandable maturing to do along the way, but there are also newer characters and side characters that have only come about in the passing years as I tried to rework and deepen the main books, short stories, and world as a whole.

One of the thoughts that came out of this was that some topics I am privately very passionate about were often not addressed in the world of my story, and that… well it REALLY bothered me.

Now here’s the thing: this is the big, wide, internet, and it’s full of all sorts of personalities. There are people that are passionate, some that are even bold to the point of being intentionally offensive. There are people who lurk, who have barely no internet footprint at all. There are some who secure themselves behind aliases in order to express themselves, and some that let themselves me out there for all the world to see. There are all of these, and everything in between, and very early on I decided that in terms of my online presence, well, I wanted it to be positive. Not only is it smart from an employment perspective, but I also really wanted to be a force for “good,” and to be someone that people could point to online as never trying to be demeaning or cruel to others. That’s just not me, and I never wanted to be represented that way online.

Along these lines, I tend by and large to avoid critical-speak online. I’ll say what movies or products I like, but I generally try to avoid calling out those I don’t. That’s not to say I don’t have opinions, of course (trust me, I most certainly do, ESPECIALLY in terms of entertainment – I went to film school for a reason ;) ), but I’d rather leave most critical talk to offline. After all, not only do you never know who is reading your stuff, but you never know how it might come back to haunt you or flavor other’s perceptions of you. It’s a risk you take when you put anything up online, but generally I believe it to be a good idea to spread positive vibes rather than sneering ones.

And in some round-about way, those thoughts are part of what made me realize in recent months that I was sort of “copping out” in my own personal work if I outright avoided sensitive topics.

There is a lot of bad in our world. Really bad. To the extent that I don’t even pretend to comprehend how deep the rabbit hole goes on some topics, but the more I thought about them, the more I thought that if I simply avoided them in my own personal work, I was doing myself and my audience a disservice. 

Some of them are big, sweeping issues that are probably best served in other stories or frameworks, but that doesn’t mean I should feel intimidated to shuffle them away and ignore them entirely just because someone out there may not share the same opinions as I do.

These issues can range from anything from racial bigotry and gender issues through to gay rights and the sexual abuse. That doesn’t mean necessarily that I feel a need to stand on a podium about them (nor do I feel that I would be the best equipped to do so), but I think it’s fair to acknowledge that those undercurrents are there, even if the world itself is fiction. Why? Because the world is diverse, just as our own is, and I think there is something to be said for allowing your work to bring up topics, even sensitive ones, so that readers can walk along with your characters and consider the relevancy of these issues in the world of the story as well as perhaps their own lives.

The Alchemist and Friend Story Art

That brings me to this piece.  This piece has not one drop to do with the short story I’m currently working on, but I realized this week that I was sort of copping out by not giving it some context. And oddly enough, I was prompted by a song that my mother sent along to me. It’s not the usual genre of music I listen to, but I heard the song, and the whole time, I couldn’t help thinking of this character I’d created some years ago.


"Alchemist and Friend Sketch" - Completed on September 15, 2011


“Blown Away”
Audio Here

"Dry lightning cracks across the skies
Those storm clouds gather in her eyes
Her daddy was a mean old mister
Mama was an angel in the ground
The weather man called for a twister
She prayed blow it down

There's not enough rain in Oklahoma
To wash the sins out of that house
There's not enough wind in Oklahoma
To rip the nails out of the past

[Chorus:]
Shatter every window 'til it's all blown away,
Every brick, every board, every slamming door blown away
'Til there's nothing left standing, nothing left of yesterday
Every tear-soaked whiskey memory blown away,
Blown away

She heard those sirens screaming out
Her daddy laid there passed out on the couch
She locked herself in the cellar
Listened to the screaming of the wind
Some people call it taking shelter
She called it sweet revenge[...]"


Trying to go into the different types of magic that exist in my world and everything about them would be some long diatribe starting with a spoiler tag, but suffice to say, one of the types involves bargaining with demons. 

The girl had... really bad childhood. Really. Bad. There was physical abuse and sexual abuse leading up to when she basically made a pact with a demon in order to get away from her abusive father.

The thing is, once said pact was completed, the demon had found that it actually grew quite fond of her, and she of it. So in a way, you have this situation where this little girl (who has her own story) has an "imaginary friend" who is pretty much her best friend and saving grace.  

So is the demon evil? Is she evil? Neither? Both? It’s a really grey area, but one that I think bears consideration. What is justice? Who deserves it? Who decides who deserves it? And what happens to those left in its crosshairs or aftermath? While this character might have made it out of the proverbial fire, many children (and families) aren’t as fortunate.

Regardless of the questions, there is something almost comforting to me about the idea of the unlikely demon being there for the young girl in her time of need, and how the events changed its perspective and purpose. You can bet at some point that I’ll try my hand at illustrating these two again, and they are definitely a pair whose wider story might make for a good short (they’re also recurring characters within the main books).

What themes are important to you that you wish were nodded to more in traditional media?
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