Sorry for missing last weeks update, for family issues and lack of materials had prevented me from doing as such. But enough with my usual excuses-here is the update for last week:

Jade-Emerald



And the update for this week:

Old World Charm



Jade-Emerald was pure hell to make, with making all the little loops for the quad-part of the necklace. Plus, I couldn't find the right chain for the necklace, so I had to stick to the one shown. Despite hating making it, I am pleased with the results.

Old World Charm was slightly easier to make, as no jewelry wire was needed-just elastic string. With it's cream and gold color scheme and Pearl-esque beads, I tried to emulate olden-style Pearl necklaces, which were beautiful and simplistic.

I think I'll go back to drawing for next week, though.

Until next time,

~Symphony

Ha! Take that, midnight updates!

My job has been cutting hours a lot lately, and sending people home when they get too close to having 40 hrs. And that has been the case with me. Having this new found time to laze around and recuperate, I decided to get the update drawn early and ready for submission:



I quite enjoy making these fish/mermaid creatures! I always thought that mermaids in general were too boring looking. I mean, there's so much you can do with them besides making the human half look beautiful and embellishing the tail. That's why my mermaids look more fish-like and don't have that many human characteristics.

I was inspired by listening to the song "Arabian Coffee" from the Fantasia (1940 version) soundtrack. I want to draw a few more to match the beautiful white & black fish from that segment: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GuxYSHxb_U&feature=related . There, I dub this an Arabian Gold-Fin Mermaid.

Media used: Copic Markers, Gold Gel Pen, .005 Micron Inking Pen, and Photoshop CS2 for clean-up.

Well, until next time!

~Symphony

Hahaha, I'm suck at updating on time! I had been working on finishing up some jewelry all day Saturday, and because my copy of CS2 sucks so bad that it almost froze my computer it isn't until this morning that I'm finally getting to uploading it. But enough of that, here's the update:



It's a huge file, so I apologize if it kills someone's computer. I know Photoshop froze on me several times while compiling the photos.

To make up for the lateness these past few weeks, I decided to upload nearly all of the jewelry I had made. Rather than making updates as I go along, like I said I was going to do with the necklaces, I decided to combine them both, so that you can see the whole matching set of jewelry.

From left to right, starting from the top row:
1. Lunar High, 2. Gemstone Jumble, 3. Cloisonne Simplistic.
4. Tribal Beat*, 5. Stellar Orbit*, 6. Evening Colours.
7. Apples n' Grapes, 8. Engrave*, 9. Stellar Star*.
10. Grasswater Swirl-, 11. Steel Moon-, 12. Nature Simplistic-.

* = Earrings were apart of a previous update.
- = Necklaces that do not have matching earrings.

I'm just now starting to get serious about jewelry-making, but I'm still a novice, as you can see. My work is pretty simplistic and amateur right now, but I think I'll get better as time goes along. I think the hardest ones to complete were Stellar Orbit, Tribal Beat, Apples n' Grapes, and Steel Moon, the first being the toughest. But I'm happy with how they came out.

Well, I have to get to church soon, so until next time!

~Symphony

Sorry, didn't get home till 9 last night. But enough excuses, here's the update:



This character, Arcadia P. (which is what I'll call her until I think of a proper name), loves seashells. Princess though she may be, she'd take a shell over a jewel any day. When she can manage it, Arcadia will send out her sentries and have them collect as many as possible. She'll then pick out the most beautiful ones and squirrel them away from her nosy servants.

I must say, I love how this came out, even though I pretty much botched up the anatomy for the arms and hands. I especially love how the water came out too.

Well, until next time,

~Symphony

For whatever reason, my scanner isn't wanting to work right now, so update will have to be tomorrow. Also, updates will either be on Sat. or Sun., so that I won't have to worry about missing either day.

~Symphony

Whoops!

So sorry! I had last week's update all ready and waiting to be uploaded, but I completely forgot to!
So, here it is:



During my hiatus, I had begun to get more serious about making jewelry. I figured I could make my own and not have to pay $3-$10 for the ones you see in the store. I buy beads at the craft stores (just because I don't have the time, energy, or money to invest in getting equipment to make my own.) With the exception of the last 3, half of them were already ready made-I just had to put the beads in them. I'm not that great at framing and molding wire just yet, but I think I'll get better as time goes along.

Next weeks update will be necklaces!

Until then,

~Symphony

Hey! I'm back, after my long hiatus. I basically used that time to A.) Give myself a break and B.) Work on other projects, which I will be uploading photos of here in the next few weeks.

For right now though, here's something for you:



This was drawn and colored on Bristol Paper. I had been hearing other artists online talk it about it, so I snagged some and lo and behold, I now love them! Super smooth surface that allows me to blend easily, and paper that doesn't bleed all the way through.

This was just a simple experimentation, and I like the end result of it! This was inspired by some pic's I found online of African tribes in which the women are topless.

So, now that am done rambling, I'm off to bed! I'll try to have something for this Saturday, that way I can resume my regular updates for the end of the week.

~Symphony

And just when I though it couldn't get any worse, I've been struck with the ol' Art Block syndrome, smack dab in the middle of working on my series. And here lately, I've barely been keeping up with the updates.

So, until I finish this series, and build up enough art to make up for all the crappy updates I've been making, this blog is going on Hiatus, at least till the 20th of September. It sucks, I know, I'm very sorry folks, but until I can get myself out of this funk, I can't really draw anything productive right now.

So, until then!

~Symphony

So, in breaking of my tradition of updating a few minutes before midnight, here is the upload for this week:



2 bust shots of Nyte and Pearleena, leering at one another as normal. Nyte is content to just leave Pearl alone and leave it like that, but because of certain things that have happened in the past, the same does not hold true for Pearleena. She never misses a chance to antagonize Nyte, much to the latter's dismay.

I know that Pearl's head looks bigger than Nyte's, but her face and chin are more pointed, and her hair is poofier, verses Nyte, who has a wider face and rounded chin, and whose hair is flat and straight. The golden thing around Nyte's neck is a crown, and is just apart of the many gold themed jewelry she wears.

This was more or less of a challenge for me to color, since I am still trying to find a shading style that I like (that, and I can't shade metal-like things to save my life!) I mean, I like this one because of how smooth it looks altogether, but it's a little time consuming when you making each shade color lighter or darker than the next. Anyone got any better shading ideas?

Anyways, until next weekend,

~Symphony