Mermaids in the Deep

I made a piece for Julie Dillon’s Catalogue of Merfolk challenge on Tumblr.

This was an interesting thing to make, because it didn't go anything like how I wanted it to go. But I think despite these difficulties it came out decent. 

I made an anglerfish mermaid! Anglerfish are my favorites and they don’t get nearly enough love in my opinion. Plus it was another reason to make glowy things!

I hope you like it!

Kerrigor

I promised new stuff would come, and here it is! This piece is meant to accompany my earlier rendition of Sabriel.

Kerrigor is the villain of Garth Nix's novel "Sabriel". He is a powerful Free Magic sorcerer and it has fallen upon our heroine to put him through the final gate of Death where he belongs....

Done in Adobe Photoshop CS6 with a Wacom Intuos5

Sabriel

My latest piece is a reinterpretation of the cover of  Garth Nix's "Sabriel", one of my favorite books. I know it was a long time coming, but I hope that the wait was worth it!

Done in Photoshop CS5 with Intuos5 wacom. 

***** I also just got an account here to sell some prints!!! http://society6.com/AshleyHankins*****

Environment Redesign: The Old Man and the Sea

So, this is an Environmental Redesign for Hemingway's "The Old Man and the Sea". It's related to the character redesign project I posted about a month ago.

As the name entails, we had to come up with a new place for these characters to live in. For my part, I chose a world inspired by the Russian/Mongolian Steppes. The characters are nomadic sky fishermen, hence the docks in the middle of the fields. The dock that the Manolin character is currently sitting on is further away and more decrepit than the one that's hinted at closer to camp. It is assumed that this is the dock that Santiago will depart from when he goes on his journey for the biggest catch.

I think that our deadlines for the class got pushed back, so now we might not have the time to do the monster design, or the boat design, but these are things that I would like to do in my free time when I get the time :D I think the boat design, while being something that I'm the most unfamiliar with, would also be the best opportunity for me to show what this world IS in terms of its technological level: One that combines the sci-fi and the fantasy, one of magic and science.

I still have some issues with it, but I think that this is my best digital work thus far.

Jenny Greenteeth

So, here is the finish of the long-awaited Jenny Greenteeth piece.

For many reasons, this is my most ambitious piece to date, and even though I am positive there are flaws (which I am not sure how to fix at this time), I am rather proud of it. It took a lot of time and complaining but I am left with something that I didn't think I would even be capable of a few months ago. There are a few touch-ups I want to make but for all intents and purposes, it is done. Of course once the touch-ups are made I will repost with the update, but yes.

I hope that you all enjoy this!

Done in Photoshop CS5 with Intuos5 Tablet

Character Redesign: The Old Man and the Sea

These were done for a class assignment in which we had to read and redesign the main characters, Manolin and Santiago, from tHemingway's "The Old Man and the Sea" to a fantasy or science-fiction setting.

I chose to genderbend the characters, and though the other elements aren't yet apparent (the assignment hasn't been done yet) also made them into sky fishermen, hence why the Santiago character is holding a bird rather than a fish. The "fish" Santiago will eventually catch is a sky dragon and the boat flies through the sky.

This is also why I gave heavy coats; Even though the skirts and headdresses denote that they aren't necessarily from an arctic environment themselves, the coats are needed for high-altitude sailing.

The next step for these is to color them and put patterns on Manolin's skirt and headdress and refine the birds/birdcage but for the time being I am calling them done and am excited to show what I have :)

These were done entirely digital in Photoshop with a tablet. While they're still not perfect in many ways, I consider this to be by "Bedb" of digital work; an opening of doors, so to speak, of what I am actually capable of.

Bedb

This is the first painting that I did in the semester of Fall 2012 that I was proud of.

It is a piece based off of the goddess Bedb, an Irish war deity.

For many reasons this was a great success; it was probably the most realistic piece that I had done at the time, and was complex because I was doing things that I hadn't ever done before in it. For a few reasons, it was not as good as it could have been due to inconsistencies on my part.

That said, even though I can look at it objectively and see its flaws, it remains one of my favorite pieces, because it was like an artistic "opening of doors" for me.