Oh hell yes. I am entirely in favor of sphinxen, joyous kitties, and technical excellence, and I see all of them here. :3

Thanks! It's definitely outside of my usual subject matter, so it was fun exploring new territory ^_^

You're extremely talented.

Aw, thanks!

Incredibly amazing work :D

Cheers! I really liked her half of the trade, so I wanted to really step up on my half as well <3

African Greys! :) It's an absolutely beautiful image; the texture in the background works extremely well as a contrast to the sleek and smooth sphinx.

Yeah, they wound up being a fanciful african grey-macaw hybrid. I originally sketched them in as macaws, but then decided that the more muted color scheme with the little bit of red pop of the grey parrots worked better, so I combined the two <3

(Sorry about the hidden reply before -- fixed a typo!)

Fabulous! Your work is amazing, stunning! And perhaps most important unique to FA. It revives some of my AHS years ^_^

I'm glad you like it!

Are you engaging in texturing one-upmanship?

THIS IS WAR

Naw, I think part of the reason cornershop and I dig each others' work is because we're both big texture nuts <3

Amazing artwork aside, I love how the parrots kind of look like a mix between African greys and macaws :)

Thanks, they totally are! I sketched them in as macaws, but then decided halfway through to change them up. I liked the forms of the macaw tails, though, so I figured I'd just bend the rules and keep 'em as-is. Part of the joy of painting, as opposed to photography, I guess <3

(Also, if I'm being completely honest, I thought it'd be funny to leave them in to see if people gave me flak about getting them wrong, considering they're right next to a cheetah-woman hybrid, haha. For whatever reason, furries seem really picky about certain animal details.)

I enjoy your hair.

Thanks! Hair is fun to do. You can just kind of get in the zone adding little strands and curls here and there ^_^

How did you do this.

In the Photoshops! Just grabbed a canvas-textur-y brush and started going to town <3

Oouh. What about those trees? They make my eyes gasm. <3

The trees are part of a new thing I'm trying out. I hit the park on a foggy day with my camera and started snapping photos of trees with interesting silhouettes (the fog gave them a clean, white background, which helped speed up step two, but is not necessary). Then I took the photos into Photoshop, grabbed the trees from them, and turned them into custom shapes. Using those, I can throw down a bunch of tree shapes in flat, graphic form until I've got a silhouette I like, then I locked the opacity on the layer and painted over the shape (in this case, using a circular cross-hatching brush). That way you can get loose, painterly texture while still keeping a really clean, crisp tree shape <3

Thanks very much for the information! <3

Cheers!

this is so incredibly beautiful!

Thanks! Glad you dig it ^_^

the spots really came out brilliantly

Thanks! Once I finally buckled down, they actually went faster than I'd thought. That said, if not for being able to lasso and move those fuckers around in Photoshop, it would've taken waaaay longer.

This is gorgeous. I love the rich colours and subtle texture. Not to mention the pose and expression. It all fits together so perfectly.

Aw, cheers!

Totally gorgeous! I love sphinxes, and on top of portraying one that looks realistic (and not overly freakish, given the nature of the beast...) your art is simply beautiful as always!

Yeah, as far as wacky hybrids go, sphinxes have a really classic look. I wanted to try to capture a bit of the sculptural quality I associate with them <3

Oh my... I always love the brown hues you put into your art work... but this time I am just astounded by that hair. You are such a talented artist. <3 Thank you so much for being an inspiration!

Thanks for the kind words! Inspiring anybody else to make art is like the best compliment ever <3

Well, you definitely inspire me and I'm sure many others. ;w; <3

Fuck yeah! Very beautiful

Thanks, dude!

Marvellous work~!

Thanks ^_^

Oh man. Beautiful.

Cheers!

Whoa! SO MUCH HAIR! Hair's always a pain to render, but it looks great man!
Also, love the muscular definition, it's enough to give form and be believable but not so much it's like Michelangelo kitty XD

Thanks! Yeah, the temptation with hair is always to take the 1-pixel brush and render it too much/too literally. Usually by the end, it's like add one detail, take two away ^_^

And I think I'm most used to seeing sphinxes in big sculptures outside of museums and such, so I wanted to go with a more chiseled, sculptural look to the musculature <3

Yeah I see that alot and it makes the hair look like it's been cg-rendered. Hair is made up of individual strands yes but those strands clump together and move as units so I think hair always looks more natural when it's drawn in chunks rather than strands.
And for sure. Sphinxes (sphinxi?) are badasses so they need those muscles to jack people up that get too close to their temples!

This is a wonderful piece! But the only problem I see is that African Grey parrots don't have long tails like that. Though, it is very pretty. Or perhaps that was done on purpose. Either way, wonderful painting skills.

also, cheetahs don't have ladyheads.

Since when?!

<3

It was definitely a conscious hybrid -- half the fun of painting is that you get to paint things that don't actually exist, whether it be sphinxes of animal mans <3 Glad you dig it generally, though

I had a feeling it might have just been artistic freedom with it.

Rare Conure -tailed African Greys :P

Favorite food of the woman-cheetah.

Wow. Every bit of this rocks. Is this the usual, working in color directly and at full capacity? Or is this over a grayscale underpainting too?

Yup, straight into color on this one ^_^ The parrots were greyscale when they went in, and they were going to be super rainbow-tastic macaws, but wound up staying fairly grey in the end.

Kamui you're so weird

You love it

Is this a homage, in a way, to Fernand Khnopff's Des Caresses?




Mark

I was not familiar, no! What a striking image, though. That's downright kinky <3

I just took cornershop's cheetah sphinx character and riffed on it, but had I known about the Khnopff piece, it may well have influenced the imagery I came up with!

ABsolutely beautiful! Reminds me of Franz Von Stuck art. <3

Nice! Stuck's stuff is awesome. The Symbolist painters were rad, and don't get enough love. Actually, talking about Symbolists and sphinxes makes me think of Moreau's Oedipus and the Sphinx. I was super happy when that painting cropped up in Satoshi Kon's movie Paprika <3

Nice meeting someone who really knows who Stuck is! :D I'm writing my thesis basically on a comparison between his art and Gustav Klimt art. You rock!

Klimt is definitely the rock star of the movement, but other folks have some interesting contributions as well, for shore. It's definitely not a section of art history that I'm super familiar with (especially beyond Klimt), and my jam is more on the illustration side of things around that period, especially American, but I do try to soak up what I can <3

that's the spirit, and I should spread to that side instead! LOL

No, no, remain with the symbolists! There's enough imagery there to occupy a lifetime.

Great dynamic pose and bg tree there

Cheers!

I just adore Sphinxes! So nice to see your interpretation, it is lovely!

Cheers!

This is really fantastic. I could see it in Spectrum.

That's high praise indeed! I've got a long ways to go yet, but maybe someday <3

Why is this not in my favorites yet? This is absolutely gorgeous! I love your rendition of Martlet! The movement on this piece really grabs you, I love the details you put in (especially that hair) and the smooth transition from skin to fur <3

Thanks, dude! Glad you dig it ^_^

Absolutely beautiful. Your art is amazing, and this also feels like a homage to the 19-century classical paintings.

Yeah, I think the Academic painters' take on Orientalist imagery factored in, for sure. Especially having just come off the Pelt Merchant of Cairo piece <3

I'm still trying to figure out why I hadn't favourited this earlier. The motion conveyed is absolutely tremendous, and that's only one of the many excellent things about this piece! I wish I had the technical words for half of it; palette, lighting, where the subject is in the frame, background... you brought it all together in such a way that I can almost feel the wind. :)

Thanks for the kind words! I'm glad you like it ^_^

is it weird to imagine that lady is Katy Perry?

Whatever floats your boat, I guess? I didn't reference Perry, for what it's worth, but if that's what you see, that's what you see ^_^

I am with Krinn on this - beautiful sphinx lady. =3

Thanks ^_^

faun has never seen a sphinx like this before. what a unique character! :)

Cheers!

What a stunning piece! The fluidity of movement really transfers into her posing, and makes it all that more wonderful! Great job on this piece =)

Thanks! I'm glad you like it ^_^

She is so beautiful and dynamic!

Absolutely incredible work!

Cheers!

You're very welcome!

This is a captivating piece of fantasy. It's beautiful really.

Thanks for the kind words!

i think this piece describes me pretty well when I'm on caffein and sugar