Grey Crane Whatnots. Please don't just LOOK, READ.

[The Grey Crane]

I've been away for months, so, to mark my return I've finally decided to post some of my artworks here at the forum's gallery. I'm gonna be postin' totally random stuff here, some are sketches and some are tight, some are done and some undone, some are colored and some are not, some are digital and some traditional. Take note that every artwork posted and shall be posted here are, like what i've said earlier, RANDOM. That being said, all of the artworks are not chosen to show the best, and the worst, of what i have to offer. This is, after all, not a portfolio but a way of sharing my vision with you guys.

To kick things off, here is something i've done four, five, or six years ago - Ascetic Illithid. It is a part of my so-called 'STASIS SERIES', a collection of my unfinished artworks from my earlier years, some date back nine or ten years ago, and some date back to more recent years like 2008 and January of 2009.

"Stasis - a period or a state of inactivity". Such is the fate of good old Ascetic Illithid here, an illustration i made years ago depicting an illithid (mind flayer) unusually living an ascetic lifestyle. Somewhere along the way, this particular artwork ended up on the stasis chamber... unfinished.

Illithids are usually garbed in grand robes and other black garments, to move away from the norm i decided to strip this poor illithid down - giving him only a pair of trousers, a wooden staff, and a rope-bling. To make him look more ascetic, i decided to place him on an urban undercity background... Yes, as obvious as it is, the background, and the poor illithid itself, went unfinished.

Drawn on a board using graphite pencils...

NOTE: This image isn't a scan, the artwork doesn't fit on the standard scanner. Instead, my cousin just took pictures of it with her buddy's camera. Thanks to both of them anyway....



I'm wholeheartedly welcoming all comments regardless of their content.... Thank You.

[Necro'lic Enigma]

This is........unique. I mean i dont care from which device you took this picture and all that , i just mainly see the drawing and the talent inside it.

I must say , this is something i dont see in everyday life , its different , the structure and everything about this drawing is so much well done.
You made me forget my words , just last thing , keep posting your work.

[The Grey Crane]

Silent Madness, I'm giving you a thousand thank-yous for the comment.

Yes, i will keep posting my works. Keep visitin' this thread.

EDIT: This is the FAN ART FORUM, not exactly all stuff that shall be posted here are 'fan art'. I may have done the crime of postin' a thread in the wrong forum. Moderators, if that's the case please relocate this thread to where it should be. Thank you.

[Papersoft]

Its Sooooooooooooooo Great. I Am The Art Is Just So Well Made That I Have No Words To Express How Much I Liked It. Keep Posting.

[The Grey Crane]

Big thanks to you too Papersoft. Btw sorry for the bad quality of some of the images, as i've said they don't fit on the standard scanner. Instead i relied on photographs, but don't get me wrong I'm a photographer myself. I just got too lazy to take photographs of these artworks so i asked my cousin to do the dirty work with a digicam instead... (I'm not a fan of digicams btw, SLRS and DSLRS rule, but i love LO-MO more)

Keep postin' you say? Here it is...

The second entry in my Stasis Series, i present to you... Lady of the Loch.

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"Stasis - a period or a state of inactivity". Such is the fate of good old 'Lady of the Loch' here, an artwork inspired by mermaids and the Loch Ness monster. This drawing was made back in 2004 during my first year at college. Somewhere along the way, this particular artwork ended up on the stasis chamber... unfinished.

Mermaids are popular subjects in art, they're so common that 8 out of 10 artists have already made artworks depicting their grace and beauty. Mermaids are usually depicted as half-beautiful woman half-fish creatures, with long flowing hair, delicate skin, and colorful scales.

Prior to the creation of Lady of the Loch, i have never tried using a mermaid as a subject in any of my artistic endeavors. In order to run out of the pack, i then decided not to follow the common and traditional design. Instead, i chose to combine the mermaid with one of the most popular water creatures humanity has ever known, or told tales of - Scotland's very own Loch Ness monster.

Partly-inspired by Little Mermaid's antagonist, Ursula, i put two tentacles as a tribute to the character. Yes, this drawing might not be considered a "real" mermaid by purists and fans alike, but to me, this is my first ever mermaid creation.

If you look at the other two pictures you could see multiple signatures. I accidentally brought this drawing on a certain convention, i got to know several strangers and asked them to sign this one hence those signatures. You could see that the body of the creature in the illustration abruptly ends on the lower part of the paper, water was supposed to be drawn there. The bristol board went untouched for years and drawing on it again was tough to do mainly because the surface became too contaminated with dirt. So, i just decided to let those people sign on that part.

The scottish landscape was also supposed to be drawn on the background.

The artwork never got colored, never got finished...

Lady of the Loch is a speed drawing, i can't remember the exact time it took but it's roughly around 3-5 hours (that's rather quick considering all those details and such) complete with coffee and cigarette breaks. This is drawn with graphite on a bristol board surface.

NOTE: These images aren't scans, the artwork doesn't fit on the standard scanner. Instead, my cousin just took pictures of it with her buddy's camera. Thanks to both of them anyway....






*Forgive the redundancy of the artwork descriptions of all artworks from the Stasis Series, they all begin and end with similarities... and i just copy-pasted 'em from my blog.

[schreatch]

Wow, thats vrily amazing....! I like them

[Necro'lic Enigma]

Dude , i have to laugh at myself for what i am watching....i cant believe what i am watching seriously.
There are no words in the english history that can help me to express how much i am amazed by your drawings.
I am telling you will go really very far in future in this artistic field.

Seriously , respect.

[Ayame_Sohma]

Wow *my mouth drops open*..Wow.. I never seen art as good as yours. I really love it..


I can't wait to see more from you

[Inamorata]

whoa I love the dragon. The face on his forehead is very original and interesting. You have a very vivid imagination, which I admire. I can't
wait to see more from you.

-April

[The Grey Crane]

@Schreatch. Thanks for the comment, keep visitin'. I've been visitin' your thread too, keep postin'.

@Silent Madness. Speakin' of artistic field, (i don't wanna sound arrogant and boastful here) i am in fact an "artist" by trade. I have participated in art exhibits and sold some artworks there, i have an upcoming art show (a painting exhibit) this July which mean i'll get really busy once the canvases arrive, and just recently i did some tattooing and photography for a film to be released internationally (Europe i guess). I've been asked to do some prop design work for an upcoming musical but i haven't said yes to that yet. I don't really like callin' or considerin' myself an artist, i'm just another young man able to do some stuff that artists do.

@Ayame_Sohma. Thanks for the comment, don't say that other artworks aren't as good as mine. All of you can produce uniquely good stuff too. Keep visitin' coz there's more.

@Inamorata. That's not really a dragon but a water serpent (Loch Ness monster right?) but you're free to call it what you want, people are capable of imagining and seeing things their own way. Thanks for the comments, keep visitin' to see more.

BTW people, i need to ask a favor from you. If you're having problems in viewing these works please inform me. I'm having problems myself, my window can't seem to view 'Lady of the Loch' properly. To be specific, half of the image remains blurry and pixelated, are you guys getting the same problem too?

I am a Mac user and i use Safari as my net browser, I'm trying to identify where the problem really lies. Is it another Safari f***-up? A bad upload? Or is this simply an isolated case that only i am experiencing? So if same or other problems occur please inform me. Thank you.

[Inamorata]

I am terribly sorry I didn't read more. :P I'm a slacker. heh *not proud*
Anyways yeah I think its interesting that is how you portray a mermaid
as well as combining it with Nessy. I have been trying to create my own type
of mermaid.. something more reptile-like. You have definitely inspired me, Grey.
Mind if I know your real name? :P Mine is April. Anyways love the picture. Hope to see more!

[The Grey Crane]

I'm glad i could inspire you. My name is obviously identifiable with my signature - the battle ax thingy right beside the serpent's tongue. Heh.

[Inamorata]

Oh ok! lol terribly sorry.

[chuunin7]

Whoaaa-- Awesome! So real and the details, *faint* I'm speechless here.. I don't what else to say.. Too great!

[naotavespaboy]

Very cool artwork. Its so detailed and everything looks so professional. Those must take some serious time to produce. Anyway thanks for sharing them with us and please keep up the good work.

[The Grey Crane]

@Chuunin7. You're great and awesome too. Thanks and keep visitin'.

@naotavespaboy. Thanks, yeah i love details, too bad you guys are missin' the actual quality of these works. The actual stuff really looks so damn better and cleaner compared to the images i've posted here. Maybe when I'm not feelin' lazy i'll go take better photographs of these works and replace the ones i've used here. You mentioned time, despite being detailed and such, my works (even the most detailed ones) don't usually take a long time to produce. I guess I'm just too accustomed in throwing a lot of details to the point where my speed ain't hampered too much anymore. Speed ain't much of a factor anyway, we all have our own pace in doing things.

The biggest artwork i've done is 3 and a half feet by 9 feet, it's full of detail, gestures, characters, yadda yadda and it only took roughly around 4 days to finish. But that's a rushed one tho, just like 'Lady of the Loch'. You can easily tell whether my artwork is rushed or not just by looking at how i shaded it. Go figure.

I've been visitin' your thread too and everybody seems to like what you're doin', keep up the good work and keep postin' 'em.

Okay now, for an update here's somethin' purely digital...

I don't have any decent title for this one i simply call it 'The Reject'

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"Stasis - a period or a state of inactivity". Such is the fate of good old 'The Reject' here, another one of my illithid creations. Somewhere along the way, this particular artwork ended up on the stasis chamber... unfinished.

It is simply called 'The Reject' because of the history behind it. Just about a year or so ago i created an artwork with no characters in it. The artwork was an image of a laboratory, a mad lab should i say, full of weird lab equipment and cryogenic chambers with humans contained inside as guinea pigs. The plan was just to use the lab as a background layer for another artwork with several characters in it - which was supposed to be three illithids conducting a bizarre experiment. This one here is supposed to be one of those illithids but it became a reject because of a single reason: I changed my mind and decided to use roach-like humanoids instead of illithids.

Roaches are theoretically dubbed as the great survivors when humanity finally falls so i thought it was a much better idea to use them instead. I stopped working on 'The Reject' and carried on with the roach-people.

The said background and this one are both digitally done with Corel Painter and a Wacom Intuos3 graphics tablet. I could still use 'The Reject' someday when the need arises, but then again, me being me, i guess not. Let's just leave it here in its 'unfinished glory'....

[Niiro Kitsune]

Wow, this is pretty amazing work compared to a lot of other stuff on here and what I can do myself, very amazing stuff here. What do you use, paper-wise and utensil-wise? The paper on the second one looks like some form of cardstock? And I'm amazed by the detail by all of them.

Edit: Ah, graphite pencils. Sorry, I was stunned by the work, I didn't bother to read the descriptions... But now I know, but amazing work.

[Doctor One]

The painstaking texture on the "Lady of the Loch" is really impressive. You obviously put in more time and effort in to your work then I ever have. I cannot give you critique because of how far you exceed me. I give you a Bravo and adieu.

[Papersoft]

I see u r really a GREAT ARTIST and i just loved the lady of loch. I really like the talent of urs and i want u to keep it up. Keep posting.

[Lordoftheflies]

Man that first one looks really cool... reminds me of the demon from the movie Pumpkinhead!

[The Grey Crane]

@Niro Kitsune. Heh, yeah graphite pencils and bristol board. That's why the thread was named that way, each work comes with a corresponding description, history, information, and answers to what-i-expect-to-be-FAQs like the one you just asked me. But if you have any more questions, feel free to ask them. Thanks for the comment and keep viewin'.

@Shedra. Your art is good in its own way. Your comment is greatly appreciated but yeah i'm handin' that "how far you exceed me" statement back at you. Heh, i don't see things that way but thank you anyway. Keep visitin'.

@Papersoft. Glad you could appreciate lady of the loch. Thank you but i'm just an artist by trade, like what i've said earlier i'm just a young man able to do stuff that artists do. Thanks again. Keep checkin' my thread for more.

@Lordoftheflies. I haven't seen that movie, but yeah, thanks for the comment. Drop by again sometime...

[Niiro Kitsune]

Well, the other thing I wanted to ask was where do you sell your works, if you have a website or some place where you sell your works. And I was curious if you did any paintings? Your work is quite remarkable, and I'd love to see more work from you.

[The Grey Crane]

Here are the answers to Niiro Kitsune's questions:

Kitsune, some of my works have been sold at some art exhibits or art fares 'round here. Some were sold to certain "clients", but not really clients per se, they were just random people who happened to approach me and said "i like that one, how much?". And some were commissioned...

And oh, the works i've previously posted are still with me, i mean c'mon who would buy old unfinished stuff like these? Heh.

Yes i do paintings too, and like what i've said earlier i have an upcoming exhibition this July with two fellow young artists. A lot of my paintings are done at school and all if not most of them are rushed, why? Because i'm a bad student and i don't really like what we're doin' at school, i don't really care 'bout gettin' the high grades or what as long as i finish what i'm doin' and move on to what i really want to do. Yeah i'm the kind of student who can finish a single painting in just under 15 minutes because i never took it seriously. I'm still lucky enough to get passing grades by doing so tho. My "more serious" paintings (not the school-made ones) are the ones that i present at exhibits and art fares.

Don't have a website yet tho, never even thought of makin' one to sell stuff online yet. Someday i guess, maybe a few years after i graduate college...(which happens this year)

My style and mediums are quite versatile i guess, i have presented fantasy-related stuff here but i can pretty much do anything from abstract to anime. Medium...medium...yeah, i can pretty much use any of them too, from Corel Painter to Charcoal.

Okay, guess that's it, hope i gave you decent answers...

[The Grey Crane]

Entry number four: Little Blue

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"Stasis - a period or a state of inactivity". Such is the fate of good old Little Blue here, an illustration i made a few months back depicting an exceptionally "little" blue dragon terrorizing an unfortunate human. Somewhere along the way, this particular artwork ended up on the stasis chamber... unfinished.

The "dragon terrorizing an unfortunate human" part might be quite vague enough for anyone who sees this artwork. As you can see there are a couple of trees and a little house just below the dragon, two weird parallel lines are also visible on the left and right, with one of the lines being overlapped by the dragon's head. With those features being said, the final image intended for Little Blue is:

-a rectangular margin contains most of the drawing
-a small part of the dragon's head should seem to be coming out of the margin
-a terrified human is running for his life should be drawn far outside the margin where the dragon's gaze is supposed to be pointed.

Visualize it.

Now, this dragon is obviously black & white, why am i sayin' blue? For those not familiar with the "Todd Lockwood dragons" of third edition D&D, blue dragons are one of the five kinds of chromatic dragon species. Besides the blue color of their scales, blue dragons are very identifiable by a huge dual-pointed horn on their blunt heads. Some blue dragon identifiers seen in this illustration are their frilled ears and a scaly beard-like formation on the chin.

Though i rarely use images as reference, the urge to draw Little Blue was kick-started by another illustration in the book called Draconomicon.

'Tis a pen & ink/graphite illustration drawn on a bristol board.

NOTE: These images aren't scans, the artwork doesn't fit on the standard scanner. Instead, my cousin just took pictures of it with her buddy's camera. Thanks to both of them anyway....



Sepia'd on iPhoto...i kinda like how it turned out.



A BAD image... too much pixellation. Maybe i'll go clean this one up sooner or later.

[IFS]

wow thats some of the best abstract art I've ever seen the detail is awsome, outstanding