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aprillee

April Lee
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I took a SmArt School online class with Dan Dos Santos, February-May 2016.  It was fantastic!  HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!  Dan's an amazing teacher.

SmArt School Website

The first assignment was a portrait of some kind. 

Sketch of a sort of winter queen elf... (yeah, it needs a lot more thought! like can we have something a bit more detailled?  story and personality -wise?) 

Digital (Photoshop and Wacom Intuos)



Dan suggested maybe more of a headdress...  I couldn't make it work, snow-queen-wise... My wintery designs were crap.  So I went in another direction... Went for a more desert-like style and changed her to an antelope girl, and made her face 3/4 instead of profile...

Worked up digitally.



Put some texture around the doorway around her, cleaned up outfit--



More work tightening things up--jewelry, hair; put in a door so cast shadow falls across it--

Progress so far.  I need to define the arm a bit more...





EDITED:  
I'd like to add that I was looking at references (photos) for faces (various... and I had to change the lighting on them), and antelopes (a ton), and Moroccan or N. African architecture throughout this process.  

I was just reading something about how the brain processes things, and apparently it doesn't just take snapshots and store whole images.  So you shouldn't expect to pull things from your memory.  In fact, that will mess you up because you'll remember only the basics, like a kindergarten painting with a yellow sun with rays and puffy green trees with straight brown trunks and green grass.  

Reference is important!!!  Yes, you will be able to recall more and more through experience, but even artists who have been drawing ONE thing for YEARS still use reference... they just might not need it quite as much as they used to.
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I will be in the IlluxCon Showcase.  October 19-23 (Showcase Friday/Saturday Nights).  Reading, PA.  

www.illuxcon.com/
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So 2015 was all medical problems.  Wow.  Never saw hospitals and doctors so much!  Never had medical problems (of that magnitude) before... Never had stitches or broken bones or whatever.  So it was all an experience.  Seems to be as over as it can be, though.  Still on some meds, but no big deal.

I have NOT been doing any card art... so anyone interested in more of that won't be getting any news.

I did do another SmArt School!  Seriously, a GREAT program that is on-going:  Online hard-core fantasy illustration with the best guys in the business, online, with some great fellow students!  I took a class with Dan DosSantos as instructor.  He was AMAZING!  (And I say that after having already had the fantastic Donato Giancola as an instructor.)  I took the class with two lovely fellow artists and IMC alumni:  Diana Stein and Judy Riggenbach.  We learned so much and worked hard and had a great time!

I'm doing a Showcase Table at IlluxCon, in PA, in October, this year (2016).  I haven't often been in that area, so it'll make a nice trip for me since I'm definitely doing some sight-seeing while I'm there.  

I have pro-badge for ComicCon, but I'll see if I am up to facing the crowds.  No booth this year, but do stop by and say 'Hi' to Diana Stein in the Fantasy Illustrator section!

I'm hoping to have some new art, but it's coming slowly.

Oh, and had an insane thing happen recently.. a Magic Card painting that I sold about 20 years ago was put up for sale on Ebay, and a lovely friend told me about it.  It was "Lotus Petal" which was a popular card from day one due to the whole Magic Lotus thing.  It ended up selling for $26,700.00!!!  Crazy, huh?  I guess I should have held on to the painting, but who knows about whether something will still be popular in 20 years?  Paintings need to go to a person who wants the painting, and I sold it to someone I knew, so that was cool enough for me.
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Sorry... I've been busy lately with health issues!  Haven't done anything much all year aside from dealing with that.  But I've got some more fun things coming up.  Just went to a BJD thing, the Volks L.A. Dolpa, which was great.  And November will be the San Diego BJD Con.  Going to a book conference in Oct. (GRL retreat) also in S.D.  And then the holidays will make things busy. 

No art or cons this year.  I'll see if I can get to the IMC next year, or maybe do another SmArt School, but who knows?  Not sure about the con-going.  Comic Con is getting too big and crazy to be as fun (and it's been mostly all work and little play the last few years I've been going anyway).  GenCon is still fun, but also less fun than it was 5 or 10 or 20 years ago when it was all newer to me.  Maybe I'll try some other cons, but I'll need to get more art done before that happens!
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Convention Season starts for me this weekend.  Going off to Spectrum Fantastic Art Live, in Kansas City, MO.  It's an all-fantasy art expo that started last year.  It's run by the folks who do the SPECTRUM: Best in Fantastic Art Books.  And they have their awards ceremony there.  Tons of artists have booths and guest artists do panels and presentations.  It's pretty cool if you love fantasy art at all.

Here's the website:
www.spectrumfantasticart.com/s…

I'm sharing a booth with Diana Harlan Stein... and friends, Karen and Joseph Bovenmyer will be there to help us out and just hang out.

Other upcoming events:

Illustration Master Class -- (attending as a student) in June
www.illustrationmasterclass.co…

San Diego Comic Con -- (booth with Diana Stein in Fantasy Illustrators area) in July
www.comic-con.org/cci

GenCon -- (table in art show) in August
www.gencon.com/
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Featured

Antelope Girl (I need a better title!) by aprillee, journal

IlluxCon Showcase by aprillee, journal

Back! (No promises about posting more often, tho') by aprillee, journal

Been Gone for a While... by aprillee, journal

Cons: Off to SPECTRUM Fantastic Art Live! by aprillee, journal