djamilaknopf

Character Concept - Nate

I'm having so much fun designing the little details and facial features. To me, it's as if the characters are becoming real once I see them from different angles, which is really cool. I can't wait to dig into the story and finally let you know who these people are.
At the moment, I'm watching a series of lectures given by Brandon Sanderson and I'm learning a ton about storytelling and character development.

Character Concept - Leigh

She is the main character, so I spent a lot of time getting her right. Especially the hair was a challenge to figure out.
I'm really putting a lot of thought and effort into making the faces distinct. Where Jun's face was rounder and softer, Leigh's features are supposed to be sharper and pointier. I hope that shows!

Character Concept - Jun

Hey guys!
It's been a while. I'm sure you're all in holiday-mode by this time of the year. I hope you're having a wonderful and peaceful time with family and friends. This crazy year is coming to an end and I think we can all use some time off!

So here's what I've been up to:
I've been working on the story, world and characters all at once. When I figure out a bit of story I realise that I need more characters for it and vice versa. So I'm constantly going back and forth. Everytime...

GIVEAWAY

Hello everyone, how are you doing?

I decided to do this giveaway and I'd be really happy if you joined. It's just a small thing to thank you for your support, but it is something. :)

At the moment, I'm in the middle of restructuring my whole business to focus more on print sales than commissioned work. There are so many things to consider and new skills to learn in order to do that! So full disclosure, I'm really in over my head right now. I'm finishing commissions, researching online st...

Worldbuilding - Behind the Scenes

Hey guys! I hope you're doing well and it's warm and cozy wherever you are right now. It's been cold, dark and rainy all day here.
So I took the chance to rearrange my Pinterest account for you to follow along if you like. At this stage in the project development, it's a lot of planning, thinking and figuring out. As I said, I've been reading stuff on character and story development, but I'm still learning. But at the same time, I'm putting together inspiration boards to get a clearer idea of...

Snowy Field - Process Video

Hey guys! How are you doing? :)

For me, one of the big challenges of this project is improving my environment skills. So I want to so more studies like this in the future. It's not much, but I recorded the process and want to share it with you. My computer handled this one just fine, so there's a good chance there's going to be more where this came from.
I didn't do any fancy editing, but I hope you'll enjoy it anyway.

Take care!

Announcements: November

Hello my friends! I have quite a few things to share, so let's get to it.

Month of Fear: I managed to create 3 illustrations this month, but unfortunately, I'm not able to meet the deadline for the topic "Darkness". Some unexpected revisions for my freelance work came up, so there was no time left. I'm sorry. :(

Rewards: Will be posted tomorrow, include Secret Place and Passage.

Changes on Patreon: After running this page ...

Fragments - Finished illustration

As promised, here is the coloured version of the illustration done for this week's Month of Fear challenge. I hope you guys like it!

"Metamorphosis" - Sketch and Lineart

For this week's challenge, I did not do the usual preliminary planning. Instead, I just started drawing to see where it would take me. I had a certain mood and expression in mind that I wanted to capture. This is what came out of it. I thought it might be interesting to put the digital sketch and the pencil lineart side by side for comparison. I'm going to colour it today and post the final as soon as it's done!Also, I have finished the rewards for "Secret Place" and I'm working on the ones for ...

Passage - Finished Illustration

The illustration for the Month of Fear theme "Doors" is finished. I must say that I'm having so much fun with these challenges! They give me all kinds of ideas for the world I'm creating. What do you think could be behind that door? :)

"Doors" - Lineart Phase

I think the lineart is my favourite stage in each drawing. I hope you like it!

"Doors" - Sketch Phase

I just finished the sketch for the next Month of Fear challenge. As the previous drawing, this scene looks rather peaceful at this point. But I'm going to add dramatic, mysterious lighting in the colouring stage.

Lineart will be posted tomorrow! :)

Also, I made a twitch account for streaming some drawings in the future. I'm going to announce each livestream separately. I'd be happy to see you there!
htt...

"Doors" - Concept Phase

I skipped the "Wicked" challenge and went ahead to work on "Doors" instead. Five illustrations within one month is a lot and I'd rather do a good job with four of them than to rush things. For now, I'm exploring the world visually in putting the characters into some key locations rather than focusing on a specific narrative.  So this is what I have planned for "Doors" so far. Of course, I'm open to ideas, speculation and constructive criticism. :)

Secret Place - Finished Illustration

Officially, this is the first illustration I managed to create with your support. I hope you like it. Thank you all so much!

"Secret" - Lineart Phase

I printed the digital sketch and traced the lines. I'm going to colour this and finish it today. :)

"Secret" - Concept Phase

Finally, all the client work is done and I'm ready to move on to the Month of Fear illustrations I've been looking forward to. September has been a rough month.

Anyway, here is a little insight into my thought process. Before I start drawing, I like to start with word associations, symbols and icons. Once I get a vague idea of where the theme is going, the next step is looking through illustrations and photographs to find inspiration and reference. Colour palettes, environments, costumes -...

"Secret" - Sketch Phase

I just finished the sketch for the first Month of Fear topic "Secret" and you guys are the very first to see it! After giving it some thought, I decided to go with a secret hidden place, like a shrine within a tree. Next, I'm going to print this out and make a clean line drawing with mechanical pencils. For the colour scheme, I'm going to keep it dark and moody with light coming from the symbols in the tree trunk. I hope you like it so far.Edit: I deleted the previous post because I accidentall...

Announcement: The Month of Fear challenges are here!

http://monthoffearart.com/challenges

Hey guys!
I hope you're all well.

As I announced earlier, I'm going to create four illustrations in October that loosely fit within the topics of the Month of Fear challenges.
Week one is going to be all about Secrets. I can't wait to get started on this.
Once I wrap up all my client work for this month, I'm going to start the ideation p...

Announcement: Plans for September and October

Hey guys! :)

I thought I should let you know what I'm up to in September and October.

September: I've already accepted a whole lot of client work that needs to get done until the end of the month. But I'm trying to fit in as much personal work as I can. Though I probably won't be able to finish a full illustration, I'm going to keep you updated on sketches, studies and planning that goes into the project.

October: Here is where it gets exciting. I've deci...

Resource: Pencil Brush

I just created this brush and figured it would be a nice little thing to share on here. You can find a .rar file attached that includes the brush, sketch and a short instruction. :)Have a great week everyone!

The Wanderer - Finished Illustration

This is the very first full illustration in the series that I previously created to get a better idea of  the look and mood of the following artworks.

The Wanderer - Process

I'm launching this page today. I'll do the best I can to provide you with valuable content and keep you updated on my works in progress. So if you're going to support this project, I'm happy to share process shots like these along with notes and explanations for all my illustrations. No more secrets! :)