Alex's Illustration Blog

this blog is old as hell but i still post drawings + process work here sometimes my instagram is slightly more active @alexgilbertillo 😎 Commissions are currently open. My non-commercial rates are listed here; for commercial inquiries, please email me at [email protected]! Here's my official (VERY OUT OF DATE) portfolio :) Sort by: Finished, WIPs, Studies, Digital, Traditional, Commissions, Process

[alexgilbertart]

would y'all forgive me if i posted hetslop during pride month 😔

[alexgilbertart]

@ ezombieart’s DTIYS of their tiefling!

I recently collaborated on a project that forced me to render quickly & adapt to more stylized drawings. It was fun & I actually finished art in <30 hours, so I applied what I learned to my personal work and this is what came out :)

[alexgilbertart]

Fan art of Catalyst I made for her release!! I love her design 😭

[alexgilbertart]

Older drawings of some of my D&D characters! Lots of exploring costumes and poorly drawn swords lol.

The top one is Istli Firedancer, a level 15 yuan-ti pureblood artificer. She’s incredibly impulsive, always on the go, and an absolute genius when it comes to tinkering. 

The last two are of Piper Asterales, a firbolg forge cleric for a campaign that’s over now. The setting was part fantasy, part sci-fi, all post-apocalyptic. She grew up pre-apocalypse and was a blacksmith for her community, managed to engineer a mask that kept the plague at bay for herself, but failed to save any of her loved ones. She managed to retain the heart of gold as she ran into our party in one of the last standing cities, but her good nature gets strained as the party tries to survive on top of dealing with each other’s baggage.

I have even more drawings of these 2 exploring costumes, not sure I’ll ever be totally satisfied with their design 😅 Still thought I’d share! Enjoy :)

[alexgilbertart]

portrait of my friend’s character, Fang (they/them)!! they’re a kickass reckless monk and i love em :D

[alexgilbertart]

Here’s my usual ~character design process~!

I start with the character description and lots of reference. I pulled a lot of runway looks for this since this character is sophisticated woman & wears robes with lots of jewelry. Anything goes at this stage--I grabbed lots of pieces that she might not necessarily wear, but had interesting design elements that could work.

Once I feel good about the reference I’ve gathered, I move to thumbnails. I do tons of costume thumbnails, focusing on different silhouettes, shape language, and value patterns. Thumbnails that don’t meet the character’s requirements (in this case, bare arms to show off the tattoos) get the axe. Any thumbnails that represent the character’s vibe the best get a second pass for detail. The client sees the best 3-5 of these and gives their feedback. I also sent a quick sketch of the pose I had in mind for approval.

My client was happy with #2, but preferred hairstyle #1 and had very little other feedback, so I got combined them and got to work drawing! The process is pretty straightforward from here on out: working in layers (hot tip: give each element, like the dress or jewelry, its own layer for easy selections later on), blocking in big shapes first, and then moving to detail. I also like to keep a layer on top of everything that’s pure black, set it to color, and turn it on and off as needed to check values! It’s a lot more accurate than a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer. Here it helped me see how squished my values were. I used a couple curves layers to fix it before finishing the piece.

The client requested a couple small changes at the final drawing check in and again on final delivery, which were super easy to take care of thanks to our file setup :)

[alexgilbertart]

and another D&D portrait :3 this is my friend’s character from the campaign we’re in rn. dice is a tiefling alchemist who’s totally unhinged and a horrible influence on my sweet firbolg, piper. i love her anyway.

[alexgilbertart]

another character painting commission.... !!!

this guy has a sword inhabited by the spirit of a knight. how sick is that??

[alexgilbertart]

some more finished commissions + a portrait of an old D&D char i’m still fond of :3 first char belongs to @/flyonadog--it’s his Moon Elf Bladesinger!

im bumping the price up a bit to account for paypal fees + taxes ($175 for painted character illustrations now). portraits are still $75 n_n dm me here or email me at [email protected] to get a slot! RBs appreciated, as always 💕

[alexgilbertart]

hi y'all, i'm opening commissions!

please email ([email protected]) or DM me if you're interested. be sure to include descriptions or ref of your idea :) i'll let you know if i pick yours & give an expected turnaround time (typically 1-2 weeks).

reblogs appreciated 💚

[alexgilbertart]

here’s a collection of my work from senior portfolio/thesis!! it’s mostly my own IP stuff, not sure if I’ll continue working on it but it’s a fun world to explore and draw for. i also illustrated my own versions of some MTG cards, like Assassinate and Waylay.

currently working on more pieces that match the style and polish of the first image... it took the longest by far but it looks best and felt good to work with that style. i have a write up of the process on it, i have been busy moving/applying to jobs but i will finish and share it when i can. thanks for reading 💕

[alexgilbertart]

some character spot illustrations for my portfolio, friends, and for Homebrew for Equality/The Book of Lost Magicka

[alexgilbertart]

some more studies....!!! finishing up two more paintings for senior port so i’ll have actual illustrations to share soon 💕

[alexgilbertart]

Not sure if #StudyBuddies is on tumblr but!! I painted this little red panda fellow in about an hour along with the Nice Friends Club over on twitch c: was a great warmup and great way to practice bringing something to a finish quickly

[alexgilbertart]

have some paintings

second one is an underpainting for a master copy of the grape picker by bouguereau

ill share more progress from senior portfolio soon 💕

[alexgilbertart]

almost done with the first illustration for senior port. here’s the start of the next one in the meantime! it’s obviously in need of lots of cleaning up and i need to shoot ref to get the gesture/feel right for the character, but i wanted to spend some night planning the rest out, drawing the environment, and getting good ref for the croc & swamp c:

[alexgilbertart]

the start of my first piece for senior port