Ranarh's Art Blog

I had been to town in the early evening one day and saw a guy lean next to the entrance of his snack bar just like that. I'm rather sure he wasn't called Kolya, but that's the name I read out of the neon sign ;) Some steps: First, I set up the lighting and general colour scheme; added more details with custom textured brushes, refining the lighting from the shops and fleshing out the other aliens; finally made the neon signs with either the Glow Brush or by copying, softening, and setting to screen layer mode. I also addes serval layers to correct the colour, textures for the walls and windows and finally threw out the sketch layer.

I frequently visit a toy shop (I looove toy shops, I wish I had time to play all those things), and my fiancè said, "why not take some street chalks along, you'll probably do something nice with it". And since flattery goes a long way with me ;) I took them and attacked my mother's terrace with it. First a fish, then a portrait of my sister. Apparently, it looks like her. Must be the smirk.

If you are interested in following my other artistic endeavours, I also have these accounts: Ranarh on deviantart – my main account. The place I publish my recent works, as well as the other stuff the platform offers, like news articles. Ranarh on conceptart.org – I'm not that active there, but I take part in the Character Of The Week contests every now and then, and sometimes open up wip threads. Ranarh on cgsociety.org – about the same... I haven't had much time to network there. Ranarh on Elfwood – just a little account for the fun of it. Not particularly recent since updates take so long. So you see, finding a "Ranarh" is an almost safe bet it's me ;) Except in the Imaginefx forums, where I go by Aeon. I'm also open to suggestions which other platforms to join.

I was off to a family visit and made a sculpture as a gift - say hi to Ernö. Obviously inspired by owls, but not quite one himself; ceramic modeling clay, dove dunes and acrylic paint. Ernö Rubik is the guy who invented Rubik's cube (obviously). The professor of architecture came up with it to teach 3D thinking to his students. I haven't solved mine yet. My second sculpture took residence in my mother's garden. Fiete the Sixteenth fishes birds - if that makes any sense. Fiete (pronounce vy-teh) is a northern German name and fitted his fisherman's appearnace just fine, and he got his royal descendance when my fiancé noticed Fiete's resemblance with a certain hoverchair-riding Dominar. Sorry for the bad picture.

Michael Ende is definitely one of my favourite authors. His fantastic creativity and poetic storytelling, with a deep philosophical content that's easy to understand even by small children the way he tells it - it's marvelous. A friend gave me Momo a while ago and I read The Neverending Story again; I can only advise fantasy artists to do the same. Where Lord of the Rings is epic and heroic like the sagas of old, The Neverending Story is amazing in its new and previously unseen ideas. This is Xayide, the evil witch that tries to turn Bastian to her will. Her description just screamed for an illustration: She has bright red hair in a curious hairdo, marble skin, and is clad in purple; one of her long-lashed eyes is red, the other green; she sits in her carriage, made of coral, and blows rainbow-coloured smoke from a pipe with the shape of a snake's head. Done in Painter 11.

I'm not sleepy anymore after getting up. I read recently that sleeping cycles are approx. 90 minutes long, and if you sleep a multiple of 90 minutes, you are always waking up in a light sleep phase. So far, that works fine for me; I'm as alert as a rodent all day long :) Or maybe yoga has something to do with it. I also found that there's a club for people like me: delta-t is a club for all who like to sleep in and get up late, and their social issues. Seriously, have you tried getting an appointment with practically anyone after ten o'clock? Or telling your parents that since you're freelancing, getting up with the birds is a waste of time and concentration, and your clients overseas couldn't care less anyway? What's more. I made this nice new notebook for the plot of my graphic novel. I even got a gold pen to write in it, but oh no! It works like shit. The ink grows to twice its size when on the paper, stupid expensive thing; I wanted an Edding - those...

I used Apophysis 2.09 for the fractal flames and Painter's Pattern Chalk for the fairy's dress. Ever since I had seen a workshop by Android Jones about abstract painting, I had wanted to try it myself. I had started this several weeks ago, but it had a long pause; then Painter 11 had one of those pictures in its opening dialogue, and I decided to finally finish it. Getting shapes out of Apophysis on purpose isn't that easy...

You know how inspiration goes - not in any way you could explain later ;) I was flipping through the latest ImagineFX when it suddenly struck me while looking at a small picture. I created this pelty fella with the Artist's Oils brushes from Painter. I could tell from his reaction that this rodent won't be one of my sweetheart's favourites ;)

My job as a concept artist at Pernsickety Studios , among other things, requires me to come up with the monsters: "Meet Mike. Two days ago, he ate the chief surgeon of the Cardiac Care Station."

Space scenes are such fun. I love playing with the scale, and there is always room for some extra moons.