the illustration of a. fienemann

Heavy Rain Fanart – Norman

a. fienemann — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 21:32:18 +0000

Another Heavy Rain fanart/wallpaper, this time featuring Norman Jayden, who is the best character, end of story. Click on image for full size – it’s a 1680×1050 wallpaper.

Heavy Rain Fanart – Scott

a. fienemann — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 02:34:53 +0000

My new obsession is the PS3 game Heavy Rain. Instead of doing work for grad school tonight, I whipped up a wallpaper featuring one of the four main, playable characters.

I was going for a real Saul Bass aesthetic here. I have great ideas for the other 3 PC’s – Madison, Ethan and Norman – but I don’t ever have any time these days.

P.S. Click on the image for full size. It’s 1680×1050, feel free to use as your personal wallpaper… but if you share it around, please credit Alex Fienemann <3

It’s Never Lupus

a. fienemann — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 02:52:29 +0000

I made my sister a postcard! All of my watercolor pictures seem to migrate into her hands eventually.

I had a hell of a time capturing Dr. House’s likeness. At least the colors came out OK. Watercolor.

Painting time!

a. fienemann — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 23:09:09 +0000

I do non-digital, non-watercolor artwork, too! I used to HATE painting until I figured out a completely obsessive-compulsive way to do it: mix up colors at random, save them in jars and give them funny names (with the “recipe” for the color on the label), and then just do flat semi-abstract quasi-kawaii paintings on canvas board.

This is my first full acrylic painting in a long time. I call it “Bubbleclops.” It’s also for sale at my Etsy shop here!

Massively Artwork Roundup

a. fienemann — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 01:18:03 +0000

I realized it was stupid to just re-post all my Massively work here, since most of the people who visit this page come here FROM Massively.

Those who do come, that is.

Hello out there? *crickets*

Ahem. Anyway.

I’ve decided to post some of my favorite recent Massively work here, with some commentary on the pieces and/or process.

This little piece is one of my favorites. I love the phone cord breaking up the composition. And for the record? I actually DO have a phone in my house with a curly cord! Yes! Not everyone uses cordless phones or cell phones exclusively! I feel like a relic. Anyway, this character’s name is Mr. Swift, ‘cos he’s actually really dumb. He looks a lot like his mom, no?

WON’T YOU TAKE ME TO…. FUNKYTOWN?

I did this one after visiting Dinosaur Crossing down in Salem, CT. This is the best stegosaurus I’ve ever drawn, and no one will ever take that away from me, dammit.

This one is Eliot, my writer’s, favorite. He even gave the three guys names and made up a little narrative about them. Sounds like he has too much time on his hands.

This one sparked a LOT of questions in the comment field. I really like the soft color scheme – it looks like the inside of Aerie or Victoria’s Secret, no? The one thing that makes me looks at this drawing funny is that it is one of the ONLY FFXI column pieces I’ve done that doesn’t have any value. See? It’s all flat! There was too much going on as it is to add value. Also, I feel kind of scummy drawing uh… detail on the underwears, and I’m not talking about the patterns. :O

I watch TV shows on Hulu while I do my illustration work, just to give my left brain something to do. I watched the entire run of Community in a month. I. LOVE. COMMUNITY. It’s snarky and sarcastic and Abed is just SO adorable (in both normal human form and Elvaan form). A lot of the Massively posters said it looks like Galka!Starburns is checking out Elvaan!Abed. I responded that that’s because everyone loves Abed. Maybe that’s just me being an Abed fangirl. I’m a Dean fangirl too, since he’s so ridiculous. “Don’t SAY that, it summons him!” Anyway, I really like the value here. It looks like my figure painting classes really paid off. For the record, the professor in that class looked like a combination of Starburns and Dr. Steve Brule. Okay, time to stop rambling.

Okay, last one. I did this one in honor of Lost ending. Most of the comments for this column consisted of “CHARLIE NOOOOOO.” Charlie was my favorite character in Lost until last season, when Jack took over. Which is weird because Jack used to be my least favorite character. Oh well, Lost was so awesome, and I’ll miss it.

WoW Roleplaying Characters #1 – Vrina

a. fienemann — Sun, 16 May 2010 03:27:06 +0000

I have been playing World of Warcraft for about four years now, and roleplaying in that arena for about three and a half. I’ve brought multiple characters to level caps – I have two level 80′s and multiple 70′s – but it seems that my WoW career is winding down.

I love telling stories with my characters, and before I say goodnight to the world’s most popular MMO, I want to immortalize each of my characters in a piece of art.

This is my draenei paladin Vrina, my very first level 80, and probably the character, when I look back, that I was the most attached to.

Vrina always wanted to be a leader, to be important. Although she was not gifted with the Farseer’s touch like her cousin Truce was, she used raw physical strength to train and find some success as a paladin. She had few holy abilities, but sheer willpower overcame this shortcoming. Rejecting the Silver Hand, Vrina started her own order, the Order of the North, which was eventually bought out and disbanded by the Argent Crusade.

Vrina finally became the hero she always wanted to be when she died in the depths of Blackrock Mountain, taking the traitorous night elf Airelle Snowkissed into the fiery lava with her.

(( Ink and Photoshop ))

Etsy!

a. fienemann — Tue, 04 May 2010 01:14:28 +0000

I have a new Etsy shop! I’m starting with my handmade books, and may branch out to things like giclees and handmade paper art later. Take a look and see if there’s anything you like!

Clicky!

Sketchbook: Cow!

a. fienemann — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 22:27:38 +0000

I bought tickets to and attended Cow Patty Bingo today – for those of you who don’t live in the boonies, it’s where you “buy” a 3×3 square in a field (usually there’s 1000 or so squares), they release a cow in the field, and if the cow craps on your square, you win. Unfortunately I didn’t win, but I did get to see an animal, which, if you know me, is almost as good in my mind. The cow was actually a 2500-lb ox named Tom. He was adorable and I had to fight the urge to go over and nom his fuzzy ears. I got bored waiting for him to poop so I whipped out the sketchbook and drew him. I especially like the sketches of his legs.

The Magic of the Metasketchbook

a. fienemann — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 16:31:50 +0000

A few years ago, I realized that I was completely OCD about my sketchbooks – once I did something that looked crappy, I couldn’t work in the sketchbook anymore. (Obsessive, huh?) I ended up with about five unfinished sketchbooks that had some really good stuff buried in them.

So in August of 2008, I took all my sketchbooks and tore out all the used pages. I threw out the mistakes, the scribbles, the notes I didn’t need to use anymore, and I kept the good drawings. I had sketchbooks dating back to about 2002 or 2003, and I tore all the stuff out of them, making “brand new” sketchbooks for me to use.

I took the good drawings and bound them into a book called the “Metasketch,” effectively making a compliation or “greatest hits” of my sketchbook.

I found some awesome 70′s upholstery for the cover

The front page – I used Letraset letters for the words. Yes, that’s a self-portrait there.

I had sketchbooks of all different sizes. It was difficult to bind them into one book – it took forever to sew all the pages.

Yesterday, I bound a new book, since I had finished my current sketchbook. The tough thing was that the sketchbook, which my mom had given me several Christmases ago, was HUGE! I didn’t have enough bookboard to bind a hardcover book like the first Metasketch. I also wanted to use a more efficient sewing technique. So what I did was cut some cheap paper , folded it into a signature, sewed it, and then used rubber cement to glue all the pictures in.

I used some Egyptian bark paper for the cover. It was expensive and hard to fold, but it’s so pretty and distinct!

This page has a bunch of Persona 4 fanart. I especially like Scary Granite Grown-Up Nanako and Adachi’s Little Girl Bike.

Sketchbook Stuff, First Installment

a. fienemann — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 19:27:09 +0000

I’m trying to work in my sketchbook more – to focus less on creating final products, and more on the process, refining skills and generating ideas. My friend Steve and I always say that we just want the final product to be done once we see it in our heads, but we both know that’s not the case! Hopefully doing studies and free-association and doodling will help me come up with some good stuff. Ideally I will be putting stuff here every day but knowing me that probably won’t be the case. But I can always try! <3

Yesterday I cooked some white chicken chili and sliced up an avocado to eat with it. I fell in love with the perfect, round little pit once I opened the fruit up, so I decided to poke at it and draw it. This is a 40-minute sketch with part of the pit casing peeled off.