Fae Gate//{Rewards Here} (Patreon)

A big reason I have always loved magical worlds and fantasy characters is that they can offer a brief escape.  Growing up, I never felt that I really fit in anywhere.  I was (and still am, let's be real!) the odd duck of my family, I was shy around kids at school, and always had my head in the clouds. 

I spent a lot of time yearning for a magical doorway that would lead me away to a fantasy land where I could become a magical being, go on adventures, and find a place to fit in and thrive in such a land.  And to be honest, there was a stretch of time in my early years where I truly thought if I believed and wished hard enough, that might become my reality.

Now, I obviously don't believe in such a literal gateway now that I'm a boring grown up, but I still have that sense of yearning for a fantasy world deep down.  The way that I try and quench that yearning is by getting lost in fantasy stories, and imagining my own through the characters that I draw.  

In a way, even though it is a little sad sometimes, I hope that this yearning for a mystical place never really leaves me because it really helps inspire and drive my work.  

I don't feel like I have reached a point where I have been able to fully express that passion and longing for the fantasy genre yet... I don't know if I'll ever be satisfied with my attempts.  But I'll surely keep trying!  And hopefully with each fantasy artwork, I'll get closer to that vision.

This piece started as another little drawing for my "elf myself" challenge to help promote it, but it kind of morphed and became something much more meaningful the more I worked on it.  

Rewards for this piece (attached to bottom of post):

• Full Res Art
• Timelapse Video of color process (sadly I wasn't able to capture the intial sketching process for this one.)
• Raw PSD<<download link
• Sketch & Lineart
• Process Shots