New prints & experimenting with traditional media

The paper I ordered finally arrived a couple of days ago, so I spent a bit of time yesterday experimenting with different settings and trying to get the color just right. Hopefully this is the beginning of a very different way of getting ready for conventions. :P
Needless to say, having more control over the quality and consistency of my prints feels great.

Also, I have recently undertaken the task of recreating a couple of pieces I had previously colored digitally in traditional media. One of them is "Ms. Jelly Anne," which I was commissioned to color by someone who stopped by my table at NYCC/NYAF. At first, I thought a combination of pastels and colored pencil would suit the original lineart the best, but I ended up using colored pencil almost exclusively:

Colored pencil is not a medium I normally use, but working on this was a pretty interesting and refreshing experience precisely for that reason. It felt like the progress went very smoothly and I was able to complete the coloring fairly quickly.

Recreating "Coucher du Soleil," however, has been a bit of a different experience. There was not much I could do with the original lineart--it was drawn on the same type of sketchbook paper as "Ms. Jelly Anne," and not wanting to render it in colored pencil, I decided to experiment with........ oils! D:> A bit intimidating, since I haven't touched oils in about 4 years or so, but I dug out my little set of oil paints and brushes from high school times XD, bought a couple more tubes and a couple of small detail brushes (as well as the necessary mediums), and decided to give it a try. *__*
The idea to do this was inspired by the commissioner I mentioned above, who actually decided to hold off on having me color "Coucher du Soleil." I just figured that I might as well go through with it and, if anything, display it at the DuPage Art League during their January exhibition. I had been wanting to try out something in oils after going down to Atlanta to spend some time with Sasha this past September, and this seemed like a good enough excuse~~

What was perhaps more intimidating than the unfamiliarity (and price!) of this medium was the time restriction. I transferred the pencil image onto the canvas around Dec. 17 and knew that I would only have about 15 days to complete the painting, after which point it would take at least a few days for it to dry--just in time for the date of entry for the January exhibition. It would've been nice for those 15 days to have been completely free, but thanks to my work schedule, that potential working time was severely cut.

I still have a bit of work to do on the painting, but I think that the hardest parts are done. An associate at Blick suggested Galkyd as a painting medium--it drastically reduces the drying time, which gives me today and tomorrow to work. :)