More 3D

I am continuing to teach myself 3D modeling. I find it fascinating; some of it is very unfamiliar and I have to work hard to comprehend new concepts. Other concepts in modeling build on what I already know as a 2D artist. I've built a second model, a cat, and I'm working on learning to paint texture maps on it. Have a look at this WIP to see how things are coming along.

WIP for Amy T part 2

December has finally gotten cold in Michigan; there's even a sprinkle of snow on the ground. It's enough to keep me inside, avoiding the blustery wind and blogging. This morning I'm posting a follow up image to a project I'm doing for Amy T. The earlier November post showed pencils for this piece. Here it is digitally colored. Have a gray clouded leopard in the background and a reddish clouded leopard anthro in the foreground worked nicely. There's a lot of detail on these two figures but its still possible to clearly see what's going on in the picture. Thanks again, Amy.

Claudia and Robert

Good morning people. I'm caffeinated, happy and ready to blog. Have a look at a wip for Claudia and Robert, which shows them as samurai warriors. I love illustrating Japanese armor; it's detailed, often colorful and pretty much an art form in itself. Thanks again for this commission, guys.

Magic Card Proof Sketches

On my website I sell Proofs of Magic Cards I have illustrated. For those who don't know, a Magic Card proof is a card with printing on the front and nothing on the back. These were produced to test colors when Wizards of the Coast originally printed these cards. They generously sent me some of these proofs for almost every card I did for them. In some cases I only received a few dozen proof cards; in others I got more than a hundred. Proofs, by definition, are limited in number and I have been selling them as collectors' items. I also sell sketches on the backs of proof cards, which take ink and marker very nicely. I've posted some sketches I drew on proof backs below. I'm grateful to Jared, who purchased the proofs and commissioned the sketches. Thanks!

Badge for Bleis

Happy December, everyone. This morning's post is a badge commission I accepted at FurFright this year. Bleis commissioned this as a badge, resulting in a simple design, but it came out so well I am likely to sell it as an 8"x10" print too (sans name, of course). Thanks again, Bleis!

Black Friday Experiment

Twelve different 5x7 unmatted prints at $6.00 each

The Order Page is right here. Check it out.

Dragon Storm Booster ten packs $125.00 each.

Home from MWFF

Good Evening, folks. I'm resting up at home after Mid-West Fur Fest. I usually don't blog the day after a show but I didn't want to wait to thank all the people who helped make this a terrific show for me. Patrons, friends, and show staff alike were absolutely wonderful.

Also, I want to follow up on the promise I made last week and show off Edbain's finished commission. I had to post the piece at a reduced size to show the entire image; to see it larger, click on the picture. I sold out of prints at the show but I will more prints available at FC in January. If you can't wait that long, drop me a line.

Storm Howler

Hello, folks. I've been preparing for MWFF. One of my newest pieces is a commission. This I will post it after the show, after the patron has had the chance to see it in person. This piece I did because the idea popped into my head and asked to be painted. I've had some requests for a new, hand painted wolf so maybe that prompting had something to do with it. In any case, enjoy. If you are planning to attend MWFF, please drop by the dealers' room and have a look. Both the original painting and prints will be available at my table.

Storm Howler by Susan Van Camp is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Friday Post

Hi! This is an unexpected Friday post to replace an unexpected Thursday post--which I took down because I made an error on my patrons' names. Here it is again, done correctly; the pencil sketches for Kevin and Stacy. These will be digitally colored and turned into custom Dragon Storm cards. Thanks again!

Wip Amy T

Good morning, folks. It's a mild morning in November, I have my daily cup of Ahab's Revenge with organic cream (yum!) and all is right with the world. I also have a new post for my blog. Here is a work in progress for Amy T. It is her DS clouded leopard character. The character will be a reddish tinged clouded leopard and the winged form will have a grey tinge. I am going to have fun doing the colors on this piece.

Sean in Color

Good Morning. Here's an update to a piece I posted last week. In my Halloween special I showed the black and white version of AW's commission of Sean. Here's the finished color version. The symbol behind him came out especially sharp.

Seth's Painting

Here is final installment of my postings regarding Seth's painting. Earlier I posted the pencils and digitally colored versions of this piece. Here is the final painting. The original is a 16"x20", acrylic and oil artwork painted on multimedia board. I really enjoy the 'movie poster' design of this piece; it makes a striking painting that nicely illustrates the character's life. I plan to make prints and sell them at upcoming conventions and on my Etsy site. Thanks again, Seth!

Halloween Special

It's two days before Halloween and I'm celebrating on my blog by posting a group of pics instead of just one. These came mostly from commissions I completed at Fur Fright, which makes them perfect for Halloween. The last one is a piece I plan to deliver at Pentacon in early November.

Taminin commissioned this lovely badge. I like to do complex designs for these little pieces and he had this long braid and a feather......

Have I mentioned that I like drawing horses? No? Well, I really like drawing horses! Thanks Ard.

Newie has commissioned some terrific story pieces, but I think this one is the best I've done for him so far. It is his saber tooth tiger character who happens to be employed as a paleontologist. All those old bones got to be too much of a temptation. This one is called "Guilty Pleasures."

This piece is a first for me; Missy commissioned not one but two characters. Each reflects different aspects of her personality; the innocent, excitable great dane in cowboy boots is one aspect and the lovely, demure, well dressed hyena is another. In this pic the great dane is trying to get the hyena's attention, getting in the way while she is trying to strike an alluring pose. I call this one Vampus Interruptus. Thanks Missy!

I am having a blast with this WIP. This is for AW; it's his son Sean, done as an anime character. Working from photo reference, he asked me to illustrate Sean as if he was the star of his own series. I love my job. Thanks AW.

Peregrin Griffin

Good morning, people. I am on my second cup of coffee and blogging. Somehow, caffeine and computers seem to go together---so long as the one doesn't come in direct contact with the other.

As promised, here is the first of my Fur Fright commissions. This was commissioned by Giles and it was a pleasure to draw. I like griffins, I like peregrin falcons and I was enchanted by the idea of a mix of the two. It's another happy combination. Enjoy!

Blue Fairy

Hi, folks. I am resting up from Fur Fright and I will be posting some of the commissions I completed there soon. In the meantime, I wanted to show the results of my efforts to teach myself 3D modeling. Have a look at the Blue Fairy. I built her from scratch, created a skeleton for her, then posed her and made these renders for her. I am having quite a bit of fun learning 3D, using a program called Cheetah. If you are a Mac user interested in learning 3D, I strongly recommend Cheetah. It's the easiest, most intuitive 3D software I have found and the price is great for what it delivers.

The last two images are posted a little smaller so that my signature is not cropped. To see these full size, click on the image.




Blue Fairy Flying by Susan Van Camp is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.




Blue Fairy Flying 2 by Susan Van Camp is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.






Blue Fairy Morning by Susan Van Camp is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.






Blue Fairy Face by Susan Van Camp is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

New DS Character Portrait

Hi folks. I have a piece to show off that I did for Jeff G. a couple of weeks ago. It is a portrait of his character in elven and shifted form. I find the blue birthmark appealing; it looks good on him no matter what shape he's wearing!

New Nomad card art

This post shows new art for the DS nomad background card. This piece was done digitally, without a pencil sketch on paper. I'm very happy with the painterly style I'm getting using my Wacom tablet.

Brash

Here's a piece I finished for Doug H. at Comic Con in May. I took an Iphone photo at the time but it did not come out well. Doug kindly brought the original with him when he was up for a game last weekend. I scanned it and present it here for your enjoyment. It's one of his rpg characters. I enjoy this guy's attitude; he seems to get a lot of pleasure out of adventuring, even when things get dicey....

Silence of the Foxes

The title says it all. ^^

Many thanks to Blue Dragon, who commissioned this piece. I like his sense of humor.

Universal Blood Surge

Looking at recent blog entries, I see that it has been a while since I posted a new piece of Dragon Storm art. Today this changes. Have a look at the art for Universal Blood Surge. Although it's a simple design, I am pleased with the overall look of the image. The background is based on a 3D model that I built, textured and rendered, then modified in my paint program. I am having a lot of fun blending 2D techniques with 3D renders that I have created myself.

Zeriah

This is a new piece that I have just completed for Brian L. It's an illustration of his character, Zeriah. She's a graceful, muscular black dragon--exactly the kind of character I love to do. The moody colors really worked for me on this one. I paint a lot of pieces with bright colors; it's great to play with subdued hues too.

The image for this one is pretty big so I have posted it here as thumbnail. Click on the small picture to see all the nice scale detail in this piece.

WIP Ebdain

Here's painting in progress that was commissioned by Ebdain. It's a detailed piece that I've been having a lot of fun with. Thanks Ebdain!
The pencils are shown first and the digital colors below that. Those mountains in the background were cloned in from a photo I took some years ago; it took a good amount of fiddling about to make them match, but I am happy with the results. I've used this technique successfully in the past when building color reference and I'm confident that it's going to serve me well again this time. I'll be posting the results around MWFF, where Ebdain will pick up this piece. If you're planning to attend, please drop by my table and have a look at the original.

Dogs

Good morning. Today's post is what it sounds like. I am posting a couple of my dog commissions. This is a new subject matter for me and I find that I'm enjoying it quite a bit. Doing portrait pieces of this type let's me see just how much personality each dog shows on it's face.

Emma is a neighbor's dog. Marilyn adopted her and has taken wonderful care of her. I had a lot of fun illustrating her perky ears.

Zelda is a husky with a gold eye and a blue eye. This makes her gaze quite compelling!

WIP for Seth 2

It's a lovely morning in Michigan and I have a new image that I have been looking forward to posting. This is the second of three images showing progress on a project I'm doing for Seth P. The first was a pencil sketch. This one is a digitally colored version of the same piece. I like these colors; I believe they will make a strong basis for the finished acrylic painting, which I hope to post here next month. Thanks again Seth.

New for David

I am just putting the finishing touches on a couple of new pieces for David S. This is one of a series of commissions based on an old comic. I always have fun with these; it is stylized and interesting work. Besides, I always wondered what a tiger would look like in a fedora. ^^ Thanks again, David.

Skyler

In early May of this year, I had a post with multiple images; among the pics was an early pencil draft of this painting. This is Skyler, an a acrylic on multimedia board, sponsored by Mark and Beth M. Thank you both. I am pleased with how it came out; his face, in particular, has that 'I know something you don't,' expression that I glimpsed in the photo reference. I displayed the original at Gencon where it was very well received.

Happy at Home

Hi! After two weeks 'staycation', I'm refreshed, relaxed and ready to blog. It's amazing how a couple of weeks puttering around the house can get push the reset button in my brain.

Here's one final piece from the summer; it's a wolf shaman, which is one of my favorite subjects. Looking at it made me realize that I haven't done a new piece in my wolf shaman series lately. I think it's time for a new painting along these lines.

Beer, Anyone?

Good Morning! This morning I'm posting with two goals in mind. The first is to display another commission I completed at Anthrocon. This piece was commissioned by Eric B., A great guy and long term patron. Thanks Eric! There's a nice sense of movement in this one. Besides, how can you go wrong with beer? ^^

My second goal is to send out a heartfelt thank you to the good people of Stormcon, a Cleveland area Dragon Storm Convention that I attended last weekend. We did well but that's not the best part. I was able to play DS and run games and that was a blast. It was both profitable and relaxing. To all attendees and staff of Stormcon--great job folks and thank you again!

Business Cheetahfox

Good morning folks. I still can't keep much of a streak going but I do seem to be getting more consistent. More frequent posts here are partly due to the efforts of my husband, Mark, who starts every day with, "Have you posted yet?" Eventually, after enough repetitions, my subconscious appears to have anticipated his words and I wake up with that phrase ringing in my head. Darn, he's good!

Today's piece was commissioned by Bismark at Anthrocon. I enjoy doing characters in various styles of clothing and he likes his characters dressed in business suits. It's a good match. This guy has style. Thanks, Bismark!

WIP for Seth

Here's a piece that I've been looking forward to showing. It's a black and white version of an image that will end up being a painting in September. Seth P commissioned this piece of his DS character and I am tickled with the way it's turning out. Stay tuned to this blog for a digital color version of his piece, which I plan to post in August.

Morning Fire in the Afternoon

Good afternoon everyone. I woke up late today and so I'm blogging when the sun is well up in the sky. Today I want to display a piece that I debuted at Origins. It's called Morning Fire. Like Dress Up Three, it's an acrylic painting. Special thanks to Sandy S., an artist friend who was visiting the day I started painting it. Her comments helped me make some of the color choices for this piece.

More DS Art

Happy Monday everyone. It's a beautiful day in Michigan--sunny, with blue skies and warm temperatures. I hope conditions are pleasant where you live today--if not outside your window, then inside your head. ^^

Since I started digitally coloring black and white sketches, I've seen a good amount of progress in my mastery of this medium. Usually my progress is steady but occasionally I create a piece that looks exceptionally good to me. The one I've posted this morning is one of those. Done as a piece of card art for Dragon Storm, it makes use of the kind of bold color schemes that I like best in digitally colored art. It also shows a selective use of detail that draws the eye without cluttering the design. Have a look and enjoy.

More from Origins

Here's another piece from Origins, commissioned by Gordon N. He hired me to do several pieces, including this piece of one of his characters from a Hogwarts game. Doing characters with familiars is always a lot of fun. One of the other images from this set was a character from another game who was an adult; in this game, he is playing the same character as a girl. This is an interesting role playing concept that I might try myself some time.

Fleet and Company

Far a second post, please have a look at this work in progress that I'm doing for Chris B. Chris is from Australia, which makes the savanna background for this piece especially appropriate. I really enjoyed drawing his mischievous friend catching his tail. Cheers, Chris!