Plant-Spirit Deer

in #art5 years ago

Hi Everyone!

A few days ago I stumbled across the Art Explosion contest, and the theme was Spirit Animal, which seemed interesting so I decided to make something for it :)

20200112_deer_005-3.resized.png

I've liked deer ever since I was a kid, mostly because the name Hart is also the word for a type of deer. Honestly, these days deer generally annoy me since they like to stand in my driveway at all hours of the day. But at least they look pretty.

So my original concept was a standard deer with some leaves tangled in his antlers, but my sketch looked too much like a mounted head so I kept sketching things and eventually wound up with a kind of creepy tree-creature deer. And that's what I decided to go with.

IMG_20200118_055131546.jpg

And the anatomy is not so much deer-like anymore, but I also used to draw a lot of dragons when I was little and this deer-creature is now reminding me of that so it's all good. Here's a progression of the lineart.

deer_l.png

Everything digital is done in Krita, btw.

Then I painted it. I'm getting better at remembering to take progress shots, but I forgot to take one early on which I'm sad about 'cause honestly it looked really bad. The creature and trees were more reddish-brown and forest-green colored like normal trees should be and it was just terrible and I wish I had saved it somewhere.

I also had problems because at some point I decided that I wanted the creatures's horns/back to be a light source and that made dealing with shadows confusing so they're more artsy shadows than realistic, haha.

deer_proc.png

I'll also mention that I usually try to avoid using green since my monitor severely under-saturates green and cyan so sometimes something that looks grey-ish to me will actually be like crazy bright. But I wanted this to have green and turquoise, and it looks only somewhat crazy bright on my phone, so it is what it is.

Here's the final thing again.

20200112_deer_005-3.resized.png

Now my only problem is that this creature turned out pretty sleek and cool, but I'm more of a scruffy mess like the actual deer that hang out in my driveway. So I'm not sure if this is really my spirit animal anymore, haha. But it's a spirit animal. Like a plant-spirit animal. And I'm not even completely sure if the contest is still active, but this was fun to work on either way, so thanks for the prompt @juliakponsford :)

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Hi alnhart,

This post has been upvoted by the Curie community curation project and associated vote trail as exceptional content (human curated and reviewed). Have a great day :)

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Thank you! :D

This is a fantastic piece. I love the whimsical-and-fantastical features of it; it looks like something that might appear in JRR Tolkien's Middle Earth. Awesome!

!tip

Thank you so much. Looking like something from Tolkien is quite a compliment :)

hi dear @alnhart, this is amazing !! i really love your design, i love this deer / lizard with its paws that maybe wonder if the water is cold !! congratulations on your work and on your curie vote

Thank you! The water probably is cold! I'm glad you and others like it :)

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Nice pictures, your step-by-step well explained. I loved how your drawing looks with a lot of depth and good composition. I congratulate you on your art and curie vote. Good luck in the contest.

Thank you! Having a good step-by-step and art composition are things I'm working on so I'm glad you like it :)

Hello @alnhart

This drawing is great, you make me remember a scene from a movie because the space moved me to it, I like the explosion of talent that has the platform and how it combines to bring the best to the readers, also the colors in pastel shades gives a delicate touch to your work. You are excellent in this art, I congratulate you and wish you good vibes for what is to come.

Greetings.

Thank you! I'm really glad you like the art, and I'm also glad to be here on steem and I hope I'll be able to post many more things in the future :)

Congratulations on the great artwork that did it. In my assessment it is very delicate and incredibly original. I hope to continue seeing your artistic explosions because you have a great talent. A big hello @alnhart

Thank you! I hope to post lots more things in the future :)

I like it a lot!! Congratulations!!