Tag Archives: sheep

The Princess Violet, Sheep and Songwriter

Princess Violet and Fiona Riona Bologna
Each 2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics, fine liners, white gel pen

The Princess Violet was a difficult sheep child, a source of rarely ending exasperation for Fiona, her governess. When feeling particularly cheeky or impatient with her studies, Violet would sing little songs about a wise old fruit seller called Fiona Riona Bologna who sometimes played matchmaker to a succession of curious characters in a small Italian village.

Copic marker art cards for Paint Party Friday. Thanks for dropping in!

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Halloween Ghouls and More Autumn Cats

Three Ghoulish Halloween ATCs
Each 2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics, fine liners, white gel pen

A zombie goat! A Monk Ghoul! And a zombie sheep! Happy Halloween! We had a Halloween Art-a-thon all weekend at illustratedatcs.com. These were some of my favorite cards, currently en route to their new homes.

Also, more cats!

Three Autumn Cat ATCs
Each 2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics, fine liners, white gel pen

I do love the cats with the big ears! Particularly the Peterbald  and Oriental Shorthair varieties. (I always want to call them “Asian Shorthair” cats, but I’d be the only one.) From left to right:  Lionel in Hat, Meow Open (or “Housecat”!) and Lydia’s Kitten. The last refers to last year’s Peterbald cat with pumpkins:

Lydia with Pumpkins, 2012
2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics, fine liners white gel pens

Last time nini asked about the horse cards I got in trade for two cat cards. They were both by artist Nadine Thome. Here is her illustratedatcs gallery and Etsy shop! I was also very lucky to trade Lionel in Hat (above) for her Autumn Keeper. (This reminds me that I owe nini a cat!)

Thanks for stopping in! Not as many progress pics this time; I was in a bit of a Halloween frenzy and did not stop for many scans.

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Two Woolly Sheep for Illustration Friday

Two Woolly Sheep
5″ x 7″ Copic markers with digital frame

For the topic “Wool” at Illustration Friday. Did not manage an entry for Wheel or Storm but hope to be back in the saddle with these crazy sheep. My intention recently is to cut back on the thick black outlines. I did a bit of that, but could have done more! Still, I think the woolly parts are rather neatly colorful.

And here’s the last cat ATC for the cat swap I was working on:

Peach and Banana
2.5″ x 3.5″ Copic markers

Peach (the cat) and Banana (the bird) were named by a three-year old. Banana seems to think Peach is her mother. Peach tolerates this with as much dignity as possible.

Thanks for stopping in! New dogs posted at the Art Card Dogs project, if you’re following that thing. (Might be cats after that, who knows!)

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Sheep reference photos one and two.

Castle in the Mirror for Illustration Friday

Castle in the Mirror, 6″ x 8″
Copics, fine liners, white gel pen, white prismacolor pencil on toned cardstock.

For the topic “Mirror” at Illustration Friday. I’ve been seeing all kinds of IF entries on brown paper and I finally got a large sheet of mustard, and another of dark brown. The mustard is a card stock, so very absorbent and very thick, (though maybe not acid-free or ideal for one reason or another).

I can only manage to get greens or brown and oranges out of all my colors, which is a good start. But I may have to try blue paper too.

Princess Moira, 2.5″ x 3.5″
Copics, fine liners, white pen & pencil on white Bristol board.

Moira is not queen yet, but is next in line for the royal sanctuary. Her mother will probably give up the Queen’s crown by the end of the year, and Moira is content to wait. As princess she’s seen a bit of the workings of sheep bureaucracy, and she does not willingly, or hurriedly, seek more. (Which is not to say the perks aren’t excellent, too.)  Final card for Winged Queens swap at illustratedatcs.com. (You can see the first two, Floria the Fey Queen and The DogFaerie Queen, in my last post.)

Thanks as always for stopping by! Please double check your Illustration Friday link, if you’ve entered.

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(I was using artist’s tape around the edges because I planned to do a background, but then I didn’t!)

Sheep reference photo.

Fancy Goldfish are Fancy. Also, Sheep.

Maureen, A Goldfish
2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics

This is Maureen. She is best friends with a starfish named Dinky. This is my favorite ATC to date. I don’t know what happened, it just flowed. :)

Emilio, Another Goldfish
2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics

Then, another fish. Emilio wanted to be a seahorse when he grew up. Once he learned it was never going to happen, his expression turned into a scowl which has been with him ever since. Much too heavy-handed compared to the first one. Must stick to the tiniest nibs. Arrrgh! But still happy with him.

Then, after Maureen and Emilio, I did several new cards that I was not happy with. I panicked a bit. Have you ever done something you really liked and then worried you would never do anything good again? Well, I did that. I mentioned it to Leigh of Colorfulleigh and she said the same thing happens to her. So, I guess it’s a thing that happens but we keep pushing forward. ;)

I seem to be doing lots of sheep. Here is another.

Blue Swirl Sheep, 2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics

Grant the blue sheep was born in Hawaii. But he is allergic to macadamia nuts. Speaking of nuts, I’ve gone a bit nutty with the white gel pen! I think it’s an interesting effect for this sheep, and I think it also repaired a few ugly spots, but I probably need to lay off the gel pen a bit. Or just practice more. I thought it would be cool to see all the sheep together:

Five Sheep ATCs, oh my! From left to right: Pinky Mae, Patrick O’Keefe, Deeba, Grant, Arwen

Thanks for visiting! I totally skipped an Illustration Friday but plan to do “Freeze” this week. Probably!

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Adventures in Color, More Copic ATCs

Orange Tapestry Sheep, 2.5″ x 3.5″
They call her Deeba because her wool is magically silky. She was born to normal Chokla sheep parents two days after a mysterious shaman passed through the village.

Earth Elemental Maiden, 2.5″ x 3.5″
This daughter of Gaia has a magical chameleon familiar who delivers messages and sometimes heals small animals.

Strange Chameleon Five, 2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics
Ari is a Wish Lizard. If you catch him (nicely), and know to feed him figs and dandelion, he will grant you a wish.

Strange Chameleon Four, 2.5″ x 3.5″ Copic
Her name is Julie Goolie and she is an insect archeology hobbyist.

More Artist Trading cards for various trades at illustratedatcs.com (where my handle is CindyD). These are some of my favorites, though I do think I am still overworking them somewhat. I may need to do another pair of complementary chameleons so I can make a print with all four. But I’ve also got to finish more sheep and foxes and maidens. Oh my. Oh! And I’m up to ten on the 100 Maidens project.

I’ve included some progression pics below (though I’m not doing a whole set for each and every card). And now I must get to work on my “Bounce” entry, for Illustration Friday. Thanks so much for stopping in for a visit! I think I have a pretty good rate of visiting back – but I can only do that if you leave your address.

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Illustration Friday “Suspense” – A Copic Sheep

Suspense Sheep Poster, Copic Markers with Digital Text

This week at Illustration Friday: Suspense.

I was intent on using a sheep in a suspenseful setting. But what? First, I drew the sheep. I added one curled lip with a fang underneath! Vampire sheep! No, no, the vampire thing is so 2000’s. Then I thought, wall of flames! But no, flame colors would be too close to the sheep’s color. Then I thought, black hole! And I sort of went with black hole, but I decided on blue and the resulting effect was much more reminiscent of a temporal anomaly than a black hole. Which works for me. (Is “temporal anomaly any kind of thing outside of Star Trek? … Didn’t think so.)

Suspense Sheep Sketch

Suspense Sheep Color 1

I did something different here. Instead of an initial ink, I just left the pencil and blocked in some colors. One of my recurring problems is smearing the black ink, so I was trying to avoid that. It looks rather dreadful in this state, however. Scrap it? No way!

Suspense Sheep Ink 1

A basic outline in 0.1 Copic multiliner helps a great deal.

Suspense Sheep Color 2

The temporal anomaly. I kind of like the way the center of the anomaly is looking in this one, I probably shouldn’t have messed with it. Also, the dark blue/purple at the far right is rather a disaster and I left it looking far too markery but I left it for now. At this point I knew what the title would be.

Suspense Sheep 6" x 9" Poster, Copic Markers with Digital Text

I figured I still needed to work in the “Suspense” thing a bit more, decided to include the title on the drawing, and went with another poster type product like I did with my stalking cat in the “Forward” challenge. (UglyQua is the font again.) Adding the text element is fun and I predict this won’t be the last!

9:00 Saturday evening in Chicagoland, and 141 entries already posted. Thank you so much for dropping by mine!

 

 

Steampunk Sheep (Might Be a Goat) – Work In Progress

Steampunk Sheep (Or a Goat?) -Not Quite Finished

Straight from the pen that brought you that other steampunk farmyard animal-in-progress type post, comes steampunk sheep! Or he might be a goat.  If he’s a sheep do I need to add horns?  Could he be, like, a dandy who trimmed his horns way back so as not to adversely affect the tilt of his hat? The trouble is, I think, that I wanted to do a steampunk sheep and used a girl sheep photo as a guide. See for yourself:

Is this a Girl Sheep?

Which is fine, I would totally do a female steampunk sheep.  Except I just did a female steampunk llama, so I wanted to do a male steampunk sheep. Anyway, do female sheep tend to look like male goats?  Perhaps this doesn’t matter.  He is certainly at least one of, a sheep and a goat.  Here is what he looked like in the beginning:

Steampunk Sheep (Goat?) Sketch

And then

Steampunk Sheep (Goat?) Initial Ink

And then this monstrosity

Steampunk Sheep Color 1 (Horror)

I mentioned in the steampunk llama post that sometimes the first layer of color looks so bad I consider abandoning the drawing.  Well, I seriously considered abandoning this fellow at this point.  I mean, yikes.  First, the color combination is looking horrible, and second, I turned the brooch-type thingie into a cane, which is an idea I like but one which would have been nice to decide before inking the ear.  But anyway. I didn’t abandon him, but I didn’t have high hopes for him.  And really, is that fair?

I am pleased to report he is looking much better now (in my opinion) (thank you Copic markers!) and if it weren’t for that scanned picture above, I would find it hard to believe the color was as bad as it definitely was.  Not quite done:

Steampunk Sheep Not Quite Done

I have to decide whether to fill most of the cane in, in black, because it’s too busy and not doing the overall drawing any favors in its current state. Might do a background.  (I said that last time but decided against it.) I can picture an old style plane in the background but I don’t know how to draw a plane.  Actually, an airship would be cool.  Not this time, probably.  Might have to branch out into scenery with airships eventually, though.  Now there’s a thought.

Do you have an opinion on this or any remotely related topic?  Do share!