Carnival Snake Charmer, originally uploaded by alida saxon.

And it’s done. I pulled the red from the background to help in the shadows, and opted for little going on in the background since there’s so much detail up front I didn’t want to compete with.

Carnival-SnakeCharmer wip4, originally uploaded by alida saxon.

So. Many. Brushstrokes. I think pointillism would drive me insane if I did it often.

I need to knock in some shadows, work on his clothes more and do something with the background. Next I post it’ll likely be done.

Carnival-SnakeCharmer wip3, originally uploaded by alida saxon.

And a little further. Defining the tattoos more, his face and some of the skin tones. I also tweaked the tail to something that didn’t look quite so inactive. Next I need to work on his hands and arms, then start tackling the albino python, which I think is going to take longer than anything else.

Carnival-SnakeCharmer wip2, originally uploaded by alida saxon.

Looks a bit freakish right now (no carny puns intended) with the first quick slap down of color just to get some hold on the shapes and tones. I’ve very faintly got tatoos on a separate layer to remind me where they go - I’ll be doing them last once I get the skin looking right. I switched him to standing because I just didn’t like the squat shapes of the crouch.

Carnival Snake Charmer wip1, originally uploaded by alida saxon.

Very rough concept sketch. Tomorrow, first applications of colors and adjustments to the figure.

Gentleman wip, originally uploaded by alida saxon.

This is a tiny piece of a big project I can’t really show yet, but I’m rather pleased with this face so far.

Also, something to show I’m not dead. Very busy, which is good!

Carnival Ringleader, originally uploaded by alida saxon.

Aaaaand it’s done. I’m quite happy with it.

Carnival Ringleader wip2, originally uploaded by alida saxon.

And a little further along, mostly in the face and the right hand side of the picture, and then in the background. I must say I do love working digitally for the ability to fiddle with things and not have it so permanent as working in traditional materials like colored pencil or watercolor.

Carnival Ringleader wip1, originally uploaded by alida saxon.

I’ve been a bit of a slacker on posting to my website blog. Well, I’m not dead! Just busy. Here you can see a work in progress on a set of pieces I’m doing for a Talisman Studios project. If you’d like to see more work that I’ve done for the project, jump on over to my flickr set here.

Forever Tree, originally uploaded by alida saxon.

If you’d seen one of my sketchbook pieces a few months back, you’ll recognize this idea. It’s a piece I finally got around to yesterday. Made on some of my teapaper with watercolor (deep scarlet and burnt sienna) with sepia and red linework done with rapidographs.