Week 7 - Lorem Ipsum Dolor II: In Monte

This week is the next track on my album focusing on the army from the mountain.  Here is my first sketch!

Got the background colors all done.  Now to add the army!

Here is the final! I decided against the trees in the background as well as some of the army stuff but you get the idea!

Week 6 - Lore Ipsum Dolor I: Urbem

Here is the first track (actually the 2nd track but this is the first "themed" track.)  In this track, we hear the theme of "the city" that was in last weeks art piece.

Here is the background all colored and ready!

The final!  I decided to leave out all the people because I didn't want to ruin it. i.e. I CAN'T DRAW PEOPLE :)

Week 5 - Pugna Lux Et Tenebrae

So this week is very special for me.  I recently completed a new orchestral album as well as my first "symphony."  I needed some album artwork done for the album, so I decided to do an album cover as my art-of-the-week.  The album is called "Pugna Lux Et Tenebrae" and this picture encompasses the whole album.

Here's my preparation for this piece.  I was working with lots of colors as you can tell.

Here's the final!  The city on the left, the bird army up top and to the left, the mountain army, and the beast behind the mountain army.  I will be doing a piece for every track on the album over the next 11 weeks!  Stay tuned!

Week 4 - Through Him, We Are Saved

So this week, I wanted to try something more religious (because I'm a very religious guy) and I've always liked the image of the cross protecting a person from all the harm of the world.

This was my first watercolor test.  I have never done watercolor up until this point.  I'm still not sure how I feel about it.

As you can see, I changed how the person is on the ground from my original draft.  I'm not sure how I feel about this piece.

Week 3 - Home

So after last week's creepy piece, my fiance told me to do something "less" creepy.  So this was my draft for her.  She said if it wasn't creepy, we could hang it up in our room. Score!

After getting the background done, I had to let it dry.  I used tissue paper and newspaper on this one!

And here it is!  Colorado! Home!  AND it's in our bedroom :)

Week 2 - Destroyer

So for this week I wanted to get back into my creepiness that I do through art.  Here's my first sketch:

...And here is my finalized piece!  I love how it turned out!  I'm gonna keep trying to experiment with more color stuff these next few weeks!

Week 1 - Civilization

So here is the finished piece for week 1 of my new project this year.  As I showed you in a previous piece, it was based off a piece I did last year for my 365 days project.  This one is on canvas so I can actually hang it up! The background was made using newspaper and matte finish.  Then I applied the charcoal and white charcoal. Sprayed it down, and repeated the process a few more times until I got it to where I wanted it.  So here it is!

First Sketch

Here we go 2014!  Remember this piece from last year?

Oh here's the one from 2013:

I'm going to make it bigger, more defined, and a little darker.  Wish me luck!

-Ian

So What Will I Do Next?

2014

If you've been following this blog over the last year, I just want to thank you from the bottom of my heart.  It truly means the world to me.

When I graduated high school in 2008, I wanted to keep pursuing art.  I had a lot of supplies, sketchpads, and imagination.  Then I got lazy.

I stopped doing art.  I made up excuses.  And I hated it.  So in 2012, I decided I was going to do an art piece or a sketch or something every day in 2013.  It was a rough start, as I didn’t know what to do.  I hadn’t worked with color.  I had never touched charcoal.  So I made it a goal to myself to work on all those.

Then, the ideas started flowing.  I was coming up with stuff left and right.  And finally, I started working with charcoal.  That changed everything.

It became my favorite art medium.  Then I started doing color, which was rough at first, and then it got better.  Then I did strictly pen and ink (which was originally my favorite medium.)

Over the year I tried to develop everything I was learning.  Then came the last 1/3 of the year.  Wow was it tough to keep up with art every day.  Sometimes I didn’t want to do it, but I pressed on.  And I got lots of encouragement from friends, coworkers, and family.  Without them, I never would’ve finished.

And here we are in 2014.  And I can say that I completed my goal of 2013.  I truly believed I grew as an artist and as a person because of it.  Art finally became an escape from everything rather than a void for boredom.  And what started off, as a chore quickly became my favorite time of the day.

So what to do now.

I thought about it a lot in December.  I decided that “1” day to work on a piece of artwork was not enough time.  There were times when I rushed pieces.  And some took many hours.  So I had an idea.

Rather than continuing an “Art of the Day,” I am going to now pursue an “Art of the Week” challenge.  This way, I will still get my art fix but it will be more relaxed.  And in the end, I will have 7 days to work on 1 piece rather than 1 day for it all.  This way, my piece can be more developed and look better and I can push myself to do bigger and better things.

So as I sit here with my brand new sketchpad and my sketch materials, I am officially starting the “52 weeks of art” challenge.

Please, continue with me on this journey.  I am so excited to continue sharing my art with you all.

And again.

Thank you all so much for believing in me.  You guys and girls are the best.

Thank you.

And God Bless.

Sincerely,

Ian Michael Krug