enayla's CGPortoflio Gallery

Nicoletta, vampire princess

Tue, 25 Jul 2006 22:56:57 +0000

So… this is a tribute to everyone who worked on the lovely Corpse Bride. I watched the movie again this weekend and was once more gobsmacked by just how beautiful it is. I was very inspired, and when I had some time to spare, I painted this.
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Nicoletta, the vampire princess – and her trusty companion Amadeus.
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Here she is, up close:

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Sorry if you were expecting something more serious

At long last, unveiled

Fri, 07 Jul 2006 01:12:43 +0000

She'd said to him,
"I can't".
Then the darkness
of coldstone sleep.
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Generations flutter by,
Mothlike.
Then, at long last, unveiled.
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Textures, textures, textures. The painting began with a garden in the background but I couldn't do it. It took attention away from the statue and it was cluttered and ugly, destroying the mood and ruining whatever thoughts I might have had. I admit I often lose myself in pretty clothes, clouds or flowers when I paint, but I think I stayed with the emotion of it in this one. Looked at lots of pictures of statues to get the feel of them (and to figure out how to do her figure), but referenced mainly from my trusty chair, pillows and blanket. I try to always keep fabric draped while painting, it really helps.
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Inspired by Rome ( :waves to the bunch of lovely Italians, they know who they are: ) and worked on over some time, coming back to it occasionally before diving into it completely this week.
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Sorry if I've not been around much lately... lots and lots of work, and now it's summer – we have such short summers in Sweden, I want to enjoy it while it lasts.

Heleane Mi Salain

Tue, 04 Jul 2006 14:39:04 +0000

Many, many years ago, I made an NPC that I named Heleane Mi Salain. She came to be first the princess, and then the young queen, of the kingdom of Rinavor in my Furiae world.

Heleane is, and everyone who was part of my roleplaying game group when I was younger would agree on this, graceful, eloquent and, above all, a manipulative bitch. She's gifted with the kind of angel's face and angel's grace that make many trust her intuitively, but she is not to be trusted. To those who know her better, she is vain, arrogant and disgusted with poor people, dirty people and loud-mouthed people to such an extent that she has, at times, had such executed for her own amusement. She plays games with people as if they were toys she has little care for.

She sent a servant to scar the face of a girl that claimed to be more beautiful than her.

She asked a man that loved her boundlessly if he would do anything for her – when he responded yes, she said,

"Then kill yourself."

Such is her charm, that he did.

So I've tried to paint her many times, and I have... and I have two pictures in mind for her now, as she will be part of a game a friend is designing. This one, and another one where she is holding a mirror, and showing a bit more of her true self. In this one, I wanted to show her the way she wants others to see her. Flawless and dazzling, without any shadows behind her eyes. Of exquisite taste and perfected grace – and, of course, the kind of genetics that can't be faked.

I'd like to say that she is at once one of the most beautiful, and one of the ugliest characters of the Furiae world.

The original image is 8000x5609 pixels, and the level of details is pretty nutty. I've never spent quite so much time painting strands of grass, flowers that are actually more hinted at than drawn clearly, and lace patterns of a gown I now want to have made.

Ungentle, gentle

Tue, 02 May 2006 20:03:13 +0000

Among the shadowy, mossy trees of the Eshreemn forest, there is a people that is feared by travellers. Humans call them Skinflayer Witches. The Elves and the Fae refer to them as The Hungry, or The Fallen.

Stories claim that there was once a Fae Lord and a Human maiden that fell in love – and that they had a girlchild that was a horrid abomination. The father was disgusted with this ugly, misshapen child and abandoned the baby in the woods where she would (or so he thought) die unseen and unknown.

The child did not die, though. The Eshreemn forest takes care of its own.

These creatures, whether they are descendants of abandoned children or if they are a species all of their own, prey on unwary and foolish travellers that attempt to take a shortcut through their forest. Though they are cruel and vicious towards those that intrude on their home, it is said that they are gentle and caring towards nature and animals... and especially to the woods they call their own.

Close-ups:

(this is a design for a board game a friend and I are making.. so simple background felt necessary)

Golden

Thu, 23 Mar 2006 08:12:54 +0000

Sometimes, I learn things the strangest ways.

I'll sit down and I'll paint an image – and it has something new about it. Something I've never tried before that makes a world of difference. I won't be able to put a finger on what it is, but chances are that this particular painting will be significantly better than anything I've done previously... even things I finished very recently.

Then, and here's the catch – it will take me over a year, sometimes more, to catch up with a piece like this. It will take that long before I can actually do other paintings of the same quality, and I have no clue of why this is.

This particular piece is one of those. I finished it, what, two summers ago? The stuff I did back then... I really don't think they can compare. I think I'm finally catching up with the piece... like, I feel that with my 'Hajieelkhe' piece, and perhaps the Spoiled one, I was pulling up alongside this one and figuring it out. I'm not sure if it works like this for anyone else, but it's quite frustrating. All the paintings I finish in between one of the 'break-throughs' and when I finally manage the same level in everything... man, let's just say I don't exactly like the in-betweeners. Sitting there, knowing I did a better piece recently but just... can't... repeat whatever fluke happened when I worked on the other one.

MOST frustrating thing about this painting is – I've not shown it around since it was done for my book (which is taking forever, I know), and I had to keep it under wraps. Not being able to show something you're happy with is VERY frustrating. I'm posting it now because, with the Posterbook and everything a lot of people have seen it already.

Anyway, back to the painting itself... It's titled Golden, and goes hand in hand with a story called Boy with the Golden hair. The story though... I'm not sharing until the book is done.

Yesterdays

Wed, 22 Mar 2006 01:08:04 +0000

Some of you know what Urban Dead is – and some may have seen a few of these before. For those that don't, and haven't... Urban Dead is a wonderfully wicked online game, about zombies!, that I've grown increasingly obsessive over. I do concept sketches for my characters... how pathetic is that? For more information, feel free to check the thread on Urban Dead in the general discussions.

The above character is my girl named Yesterday. She is the only character I have up and running that isn't part of The Uncanny Valley Alliance – she hangs with her buddy Fistrot, and she's one nasty lady. I imagine she was once a very quiet and obedient secretary that sort of flipped out after the catastrophe. You see her here in both her human and her zombie visage.

The below character is Soot. She is shy but unsettling, speaks rarely but stares unnervingly at anyone who addresses her.

And below here is Glitz. She's defensive and a little paranoid. Youngest of the lot, too.

Finally, there's Hushed. I've painted her in both her forms. I love her. She's wild, reckless and a little mad – but tries to be a good girl, she really does.

Normal:

And as a zombie!:

Self

Mon, 06 Mar 2006 00:53:03 +0000

It was an effort to let this go before over-working it. I did not want the details to be precise, I did not want the edges to be flawless. I find it very hard to know when to 'leave' a picture, sometimes. Now, I'm sitting here wishing I had a dress like that. Maybe I can bribe someone into making one for me?

This was painted almost solely in Painter for once, with some added touches (textures, details) in Adobe Photoshop. My friends say it looks pretty much exactly like me, so that part was successful

Closer:

Gone

Wed, 22 Feb 2006 13:13:44 +0000

I've decided to share my final piece for the Furiae book, since I've submitted it to Expos� 4, anyway :]
I've no inclination to go into the story behind it right now... but the painting took me ages to complete. I had such a vision of how I wanted it – peaceful yet sad, because the character depicted is no longer alive... and it was hard. It was very hard. A friend of mine, Johan, posed for the references almost half a year ago, and I tried to finish the picture on many occasions without ever quite 'getting' it. I couldn't achieve the look I wanted no matter how hard I tried.
Then, a while ago, I sat down and finally I caught the feeling for it. I think it was in the skintone that made the difference. Or perhaps the textures. Something 'clicked', anyway, the way things do very rarely.
The piece is done about 50% in Photoshop, 50% in Painter... with a lot of different textures applied chiefly to the foliage to give it the right look. The skintone is painted almost exclusively in Photoshop as I still blend colours best there The face, some people tell me, resembles my own – but for once I wasn't using myself as the reference! Not fair!
My Dior perfume modelled for the bottle, so I guess I sort of snagged the general shape of that bottle from J'adore – if you've seen the bottle, you know what I mean. In the end, I think the hands and the bottle took by far the longest to make. After, I've refrained from painting any other detailed hands, hehe, I guess these just took the spirit out of me.
And for the close-ups:

For a full size detail:

Hajieelkhe

Tue, 22 Nov 2005 19:12:01 +0000

Hi again everyone :]
It's been rough, getting inspiration back after the crash. I've done preciously few paintings since then and hardly any that have been finished pieces I've been genuinely happy with. Ironically, the new computer is AWESOME to paint on, so the lack of inspiration has been gruelling.
Aaanyway, a few weekends ago I sat down and started on the portrait of a character I've wanted to re-design for a long while. Some of you know I've got a 'world' going on, that's filled with all sorts of people. This is one of the ones that have been around the longest. When I first painted him (yes, in spite of appearance – it's a he) it was in water colour, when I was seventeen years old. The idea I had of him was to have his skin softly green and his hair black, but I couldn't quite pull it off. Thus, when I repainted him digitally many years later, his hair was green and his skin white.
The next version, skin was grey and hair black. Then, here, I decided to try my original idea again. I used dim reds to accentuate the faint greenish tones of his skin. I feel the colour scheme came out by far more discreet than I had imagined it at seventeen, but I'm finally happy with how I've depictured him.
As for the painting, it's part painted in Painter, part in Photoshop. The background textures are all Painter, while there is a faint, faint stone texture super-imposed over the fabric to give it some more substance. The hair is part Painter's palette knives, and part simple brushes in Photoshop.
That's about it :]
Here are some close-ups:

The image as such has been brightened from my original – as it seemed to show too dark on most computers. I think the close-ups haven't been brightened: sorry about that.
(oh, and I have to admit: I am very happy with the feet. I'm overjoyed! I usually hate all the feet I paint.)

Glimpse Of Summer

Sat, 06 Aug 2005 08:37:30 +0000

I felt I just wanted to share what summer in the cabin is like for me, when walking through the sunlit woods with my cat Azrael. I know this isn't anything I'd usually paint, but I had so much fun doing it (though I've got a cold so bad I honestly don't know why I'm sitting up) that I couldn't help but show it.
I hope you've had a lovely summer, too.
(the part I'm happiest about is that I actually managed to capture my monkey feet, ha ha).
A couple of closer shots:

Master & Servant

Fri, 20 May 2005 13:46:46 +0000

So... this is my Master & Servant entry. Firstly, I just want to say thanks, again, to all the people who helped me out with this one. I don't think I've ever painted anything else that I put so much time and effort into, and thanks to the very focused crits, repainted and redid things that just didn't 'work' in it. Congratulations on everyone who finished theirs - and those who didn't, don't worry, we'll have equal fun on the next challenge! Anyway, I'm partly posting this so that those who feel like, can see a much bigger version of it
Here are some close-ups if you're interested:

For those who haven't seen the actual M&S entry, here's the write up that goes along with it:
At times, Nature is the master of Humanity... and at other times, Humanity certainly rules Nature.
Nature makes us hurry inside when she weeps rain upon the world. With hurricanes, she toys with us. Tornadoes are used to punish, earthquakes to throw us about like pebbles in a child's game. We live on her land, and through that, she rules over us. Our very bodies belong to her - they age in rhythm with her, and they are subject to urges and desires that she imposes on us. In some ways, we're little but slaves to Nature's ways.
But Humanity... on the other hand... has found another way to dominate. Humanity destroys what we touch. We reach out towards pretty things in greed, and leave a trail of death behind. We fence the woods in, we run over the animals and poison the seas. Ours is a different kind of mastery but it is one nevertheless. Nature serves us because she has no other choice. Humanity always expects Nature to mend what damage we've done: heal the woods burned down, return the animals hunted to extinction and cleanse the seas... never considering what will happen the day Nature is no longer there to catch us.
In this piece, I tried to show this relationship. Humanity a na�ve yet destructive burden, the smile on her lips slight and dreamy as she thinks of the beautiful flowers she will pluck and the lovely birds she will see while all around her these very things now fade away. She's blind to the destruction she causes. She knows that Nature will be there for her, she knows that there will always be the scent of flowers and always the gentle surge of the sea. She is Nature's master in that Nature has no choice but to try to catch her and always try to mend the damage she has done... but she is Nature's slave because she must breathe the air, drink the water and eat the food that only Nature can give her.

Into Your Eyes

Sun, 17 Apr 2005 22:04:54 +0000

Thy soul shall find itself alone
'Mid dark thoughts of the grey tomb-stone --
Not one, of all the crowd, to pry
Into thine hour of secrecy
(Edgar Allan Poe)
A friend came over and calibrated my screen the other week. Now I'm thinking it might be a little messed up. But it shouldn't be - his calibration was nearly exactly the calibration that adobe gamma had suggested (and he used one of those thingabobs, it was attached to the screen and blipped and blopped, oh well)... the problem is that this particular picture looked absolutely iffin awful on another friend's screen. If the piece looks terribly washed out, please tell me - the colours are supposed to be a warm bronze-orange, and a purple-blue.
Oh well. I darkened it a little in hopes of it looking decent on most screens, instead of nice on mine and horrid on everyone else's :/ I might have to darken it further if my screen is the only one it looks okay on. If everyone is seeing it TOO dark now, I'd like to know that too. I'm going to take a peek at it on as many screens as I can, and then see if I need to change it back or something, sigh.
Originally, this piece was started for the M&S Challenge, but I decided to pull it out of the contest because I just didn't feel it fitted in, and I like my other piece more. So I finished this one and thought I'd show it to you guys in case someone wanted to see how it turned out :]
For those who didn't read about it in the challenge, I had a model for this one. She and her boyfriend just took a look at it, and could almost sort of recognise her in the neck-area, because apparently, her neck looks a little bit like that, heheh, so I will dedicate this piece to Mikaela - thanks for the help. Also, used a bit of reference for the cracks in the mirror. I've never painted broken glass before.
What more... Oh, perspective is skewed on purpose. The pattern on the dress took forever and a day to do and ended up showing very little, if at all >:[ The screaming faces freak me out a little, so I'm more happy about them than the rest of the image Blood textures were painted in Painter, the rest was done in Adobe Photoshop.
A few close ups? Well, here you go,

Anyway, enjoy <3

Ladies Of London

Thu, 03 Mar 2005 10:38:14 +0000

To the left - Madame Caramelle, to the right - Josephina
I've mostly been doing work for my book lately, but at the side, I'm doing designs for a roleplaying games campaign I'm doing for my friends and me. We're just going to have tons of fun and play, the setting being London in the end of the nineteenth century and the game system being Call of Cthulhu.
I'm skipping the major monsters, though, this will be more like murder mystery stories with a supernatural tone to them. Unfortunately, I don?t have much time to write the storyline nor to sketch the non-player characters, but I recently finished two of the female characters involved (the two prettiest ones, those are always the easiest to paint and design, aren't they?) Next, doing two of the male ones, and then two more female and two more male before I'm done with the character images for the campaign.
I'm wildly happy with the face on the left one, as I personally think it's the prettiest face I've ever painted. As far as pictures go, I suppose they're rather boring and without backgrounds, but look at them as what they are ' portraits of characters :]
Photo references used for the hand on Madame Caramelle, and for the frills and folds on Josephina's dress. Also, I studied a bunch of beautiful Asian girls to get the features right on Caramelle - also, her corset is based on one of my own corsets :]
I'm not at home right now but I'll post a few close-ups when I get home. Enjoy!
(edit, accidentally wrote 'eighteenth' century, when I meant 'nineteenth'... right around the time when Jack was sneaking along the streets of Whitechapel)

The Pale Voice

Wed, 06 Apr 2005 10:33:27 +0000

I�ve been fretting about posting this one here or not. I�ve received some critiques on posting only character work, and since this is yet another character portrait� I�ve put it off. However, now I have my Master and Servant entry for anyone wanting to see a little more than that, so I�m going to dare.
Anyway, this is a painting for a board game one of my best friends is designing � it�s just a pastime thing so far, but I think it�ll be neat. It�s based on the fantasy world I�ve had in mind for a good long while (Furiae) and this is one of the characters.
Anyway, here�s some background on the character �
It is a tradition that Gira, the first God of humanity, always takes a boy child as avatar... to be replaced when the boy reaches maturity.
Another God's avatar remarked once snidely that "Gira chooses children because only a child or a dimwit would believe his lies".
This is Samhan, now fifteen and according to whispers, soon to be removed from his exalted state as immortal. Taken from his family when he was ten years old, rumours speak of his tongue having been ripped out by the God when he screamed an insult in Gira's face.
Others claim that Samhan's voice is so lovely that Gira refuses anyone else the pleasure of its melody.
Above all, the painting is an exercise in painting fabrics. I took a clothes hanger and a chair, and I piled and folded and draped different fabrics over it, to get the look right. I spent� way, way too long, just detailing away at the fabric folds when, I know, I should have spent my time doing more meaningful things (like, brushing my hair, or taking the cat for a walk, ha ha)

Calamity Of Touch, Enayla (2D)

Sun, 07 Dec 2003 15:56:43 +0000

But here I am again, and here's another image.
Calamity of touch
In the dead of the night, they had surrendered to their attractions. Ivory skin to ivory skin in the darkness of the temple - lips like dew-moist petals meeting for the first time.
But their tryst did not go unnoticed - the God they both worshipped did not approve. And she, judged a seductress, was -cursed-.
At first, they did not know what was wrong. The first few people who succumbed to the plague went unnoticed. Then more died, and then he died... and she, a healer, fought desperately to save the others in the city. Corpse after corpse piled up, blackened skin like her grieving heart, and then one day... they were all gone. Desperate, she fled to the next city - to warn them of the plague. To warn them to flee before it would come to take them, too.
It was they, not she, that made the connection. It was they - the people of the city - that understood what was wrong when the emissaries that met with her were the first to be struck with the plague. She was cast out, spat on, and cursed by young and old alike... but not before having infected yet a city with the pestilence.
She realised then her punishment. He had merely died... she had become, instead of a healer, an infectious monster. A plague spreader. All who touched her, and talked to her, were taken by a sickness of rot and destruction.
She fled back to her fallen home, and waited there for her own demise. Little did she know then, that the God had also cursed her with eternal life.
Also, side note: I'd like to thank my best friend Ulrika for helping me out and modelling for poses :]

Eloquence

Wed, 20 Oct 2004 22:06:30 +0000

Working with my book, constantly it would seem - I finally decided I needed to do something unconnected to the book.
As for the picture - spent more time on it than I thought I would (given that there is no background to speak of), but I got fascinated with the curve of her back and the faint trace of muscles there. Aiming for a soft, discreet and quiet sort of look, here. No grand colours and nothing to interrupt the peace and silence.
Want to see some closeups?

(Edited version now uploaded - original version can be viewed at www.furiae.com/images/eloquence.jpg )

A Thought Made Flesh, Enayla (2D)

Thu, 08 Jan 2004 01:50:21 +0000

I've been busy working my tushy off - and then my computer crashed. Yes. Crashed. Hard drive failure. Network card gone bonkers. I haven't been able to access the web properly for ages. Anyway, during the downtime, I started sketching on a little something, and I finished it tonight.
I know it's another 'posing' character, but I was in one of those moods and didn't feel up to going out of my way to do something else. You probably know the feeling ;]
It's for my fairytale project. Story behind it withheld this time though.
And a closeup so that you can see what's going on (well, kind of, anyway)

(Aside from the normal referencing from my best friend (who looks nothing like that and wore clothes in the photos, hahah), I've also looked up a lot, lot, lot of references for marshes - I've never painted anything like this before :] )[/SIZE]