The finished work. Available through Monthly Fantasy Art Auction through October 31. Also available at Sketch Fest.

This started as a 2.5" x 3.5" (ACEO) graphite sketch. I'm making revisions digitally. When I'm satisfied with the way it looks, I'll hand paint it resized to fit on a 12" x 16" canvas.
It's still a WIP that I started on for Sketch Fest. The prompt was Blue Wolf. Sketch Fest is held for any interested artists at its website at the end of every month.

Here it is cleaned up with a hairdo makeover for the elf woman. I wetted some of the colored pencil strokes to blend them on her face. Modified her facial features to beautify and give more contour. Blocked in some crystals. Colored in some areas. Outlined some. I like it so much at this stage, I don't want to do too much more. I'd like to darken the cave background so that it creates contrast for the crystals. I plan to add color to oil lantern and maybe add details to her clothing. I was thinking of black lace for her neck band and hands, but I like the whiteness. I need dark areas in the cave walls if I'm going to dot them with small crystal sparkles.

The concept: An elven woman in a cave. She holds a candle lantern. The lantern light shines on crystal studded walls, making a dazzling display. The play of light against darkness in the candle-lit room is planned to be a key feature. It will be developed at the end of the process. For now, I'm laying out composition. Maybe she needs a pet dragon on her right shoulder?

The beginning stages of my artwork for this month's Enchanted Visions theme. I'll give it a title soon. I have a few possibilities. It parallels my external situation in some ways. I've been visiting Sacred Chambers for personal spiritual purposes. I'm thinking of calling it Secret Chambers. Or I can just make it more generic and call it Crystal Cave. To be decided.

To bring it to this stage, I did a rough graphite sketch onto 11" x 14 " sketch paper. The outer dimension of this represents that size. The blue rectangles are tape. They attach a smaller piece of paper onto which I sketched a revision of the elven woman's face. In an earlier version, her face was narrower. I widened it.

The current theme at Monthly Fantasy Art Auctions is Steampunk Fairy. It got me thinking about Victorian lace for her hands and neck. I researched fingerless gloves yesterday. I liked the ideas that came to me to make the lace black. I added small indications to her hands and neck area of lace. I plan to refine those areas to show fingerless lace gloves & a lace choker at her neck. I'd like to extend the lace choker to be attached to the V-neck of her clothing. I'll play with it until I get desired results. I'm thinking of make the lace color black, but that might change to dark green or blue. A vision I had of the color harmony in the final artwork was in burnt sienna, blues, and greens. I still have to land on what materials I'll use. Maybe colored pencil combined with paint and alcohol marker pens. I haven't picked the paint yet. Leaning toward acrylic, but maybe watercolor or water-based oils.

I'm very pleased to have just been unanimously welcomed by the board of  fantasy artist peers as a member of the Enchanted Visions project. Members each submit their own artwork to be displayed at the Enchanted Visions website according to a monthly theme. About 7 of my completed works are now available for viewing at the Enchanted Visions - aka EV - website. They can be seen by visiting the EV website link given below. More coming.

Enchanted Visions was started by 2 highly acclaimed fantasy artists, Amy Brown and Jessica Galbraith. Monthly theme challenges were formed as a basis to help stimulate the artists to create artwork in a fun setting. The artwork was published on a website devoted to this. It's now open to an expanded list of participants thanks to them and equally great fantasy artist Coriander Shea. Coriander, another great EV artist, Lisa Cree, and possibly others I don't have info about, have worked as admins for the group website and other activities. Coriander recently resumed the distinguished role as head administrator for EV. Lisa remains active as an EV artist.

Rebecca Brogden Nance and Mayumi Ogihara, also exceptional EV artists, have formed an EV Deviant Art group. Its primary purpose is for showcasing EV member artwork at DeviantArt.com. Rebecca and Mayumi publish member artwork there based on the same monthly themes.

Many thanks to Amy, Jessica, Coriander, Rebecca, Mayumi, Lisa, Monika, and all those who have gone before for all your wonderful work and dedication.

Links to the growing list of EV's lively internet activities:

LOL - When I started on this story, I had no conception of how many people are working behind the scenes. Here's the entire current list of the EV artists who voluntarily hold positions on behalf of the whole group. Each of them is also an EV artist. Thanks to all of you.

ENCHANTED VISIONS ADMIN LIST

Katerina Koukiotis- EV Pinterest

Monika Holloway- EV part of Monthly Fantasy Art Auctions, shares EV MFAA items to EV fanpage, keeps an eye out for new artists in MFAA

Rebecca Brogden Nance- EV Deviant Art group, keeps an eye out for new artists on Deviantart

Mayumi Ogihara- EV Deviant Art group, keeps an eye out for new artists on Deviantart

Maria Gonzalez- Monthly theme folders on EV fanpage, posts periodically on EV fanpage, misc. EV fanpage tasks

Alexandra Eff- EV Twitter, keeps an eye out for new artists on FB & elsewhere

Catherine Swinford- Miscellaneous tasks, Web help, Keeps an eye out for new artists

Coriander Shea- EV website, EV Member Artist group, EV merchandising, whatever else needs done

Such an honor to have my paintings at theme pages alongside some great fantasy artists' work. I'll be hanging the original in The Katbird Shop, Schenectady Art Society - SAS - gallery today. Stop by to see it among art by other SAS members at 425 Liberty St. , Schenectady, NY after today. Here's how a print of the finished watercolor painting looks with white border. The finished watercolor painting is 16" x 20" on archival Arches Watercolor board. It will be available at the store ready to hang, mounted in a wood frame w/ a metallic champagne gold finish.

 Here's a pencil sketch I did as a draft for picture pendant. This is not available as shown due to my time limitations. BUT...

...You can get the even nicer version & its many variations in silver or gold, as a locket, round or square at Zazzle.

A sneak peak at what I'm working on as part of my first auction offers at Monthly Fantasy Art Auction. the auction takes place on Facebook. New work is offered the 5th of every month. Anyone can join and bid or choose Buy Now options.

The bright blue border is tape that comes off when the work is finished.

NOW she's Sizzlin'. Top row, in 3 exposure variations. Bottom row, what she looked like before her extreme makeover. I used my trusty acrylic paints right over the watercolor to make the changes. That way, there's no struggling with using the paint's opacity to cover up the layers underneath.

I made changes to how her face reflects light from the glowing globe she's holding. Some of the details in the face didn't come through in the photo with today's lighting conditions (low light levels). Good enough for now. I'll get better shots once I've finished more editing.

The whole painting with a new Sizzlin' face for the fairy. Cleanup of stray paint was done here and there with acrylic paint.