Monthly Archives: October 2012

Haunt for Illustration Friday, and Captain Nemo

Haunty House, 6″ x 9″ Copics, fine liners, white gel pen

The topic is Haunt at Illustration Friday. I decided to try a larger version of my little spook house ATCs. It doesn’t actually have much more detail than the tinier size, but I do like the vulture! Also, I forgot the “Keep Out” sign. Dangit.

Three Spooky House ATCs, Copics

The other thing I did this weekend is this Captain Nemo ATC, for a Steam-Powered swap at illustratedatcs.com. To remind those who aren’t familiar, an ATC is an Artist Trading Card, sized 2.5″ x 3.5″, and usually traded from one artist to another. The sites I belong to are atcsforall, which is for everyone, and illustratedatcs, which is a juried site for folks with a fair amount of experience. They are both great! And also responsible for a lot of art and inspiration in the last few months.

Captain Nemo ATC
2.5″ x 3.5″ Pencil, Copics, fine liners

 

Captain Nemo is the result of about 1.5 months worth of stressing over having to produce a kind of a portrait of an actual person. But in the end I chose Captain Nemo because instead of a portrait of one of the actors who played the character, his unique outfit really helps determine who it is. (Also the little nameplate I added helps!)

It is a relief to finally have him done, much of his face left in pencil because I didn’t want to destroy it with a stray pen line. When I started him I never thought I’d end up with anything approaching a decent face (the first sketch in the progress set below came after a lot of restarts and erasing), but I kept at it, which is all you can do. :)

Progress pics below. Thank you so much for stopping in!

Oh! One more note! I have a blog pal called Moonsword who finds cool art all over the interwebs and posts about them. He is having a giveaway for a $25 Etsy gift certificate. Go leave a comment on this post and you’ll be entered to win!

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Beneath the Zombie Sky, Undead Dogs and Cats

Sometimes I want to post something that doesn’t go with the Illustration Friday topic. So I have to create a new thing that combines the thing I wanted to post with the weekly topic. Today I wanted to post the zombie cats and dogs I made this weekend for the Halloween-a-thon at illustratedatcs.com.

But the word at Illustration Friday is sky. So, I fooled around in paint.NET and ended up with the Infected Pet Kennel, giving guided tours nightly during a green zombie sky.

Zombie Dog and Zombie Gearhead Dog
Each 2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics, fine liners, white gel pen, white pencil

I am not a zombie person but I thought I would do one because people seem to like zombies a lot! And I thought, well maybe a dog zombie. Anyway, as you may have guessed it was super fun and then I made some more. :)

Zombie Cat and Zombie Gearhead Cat
Each 2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics, fine liners, white gel pen, white pencil

And then I couldn’t even trade them. But I am going to make a print of the four of them. And I am thinking about a metallic ACEO print set (my first)!

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Cats and Spooky Houses for Halloween

Lydia with Pumpkins, Moon Cat, & Cat with Pumpkin
Eaxh 2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics, fine liners on smooth Bristol board.

Here is Lydia, a bright but mischievous youngster. She likes to scare the other kittens by waiting in dark corners in order to POUNCE when least expected. Some of them don’t appreciate it quite so much, and she should probably expect a little retribution one of these days.

Sylfaen the Moon Cat travels the night roads of the world, following the Autumn moon. Her true purpose is hidden, though some say she will hasten death in kindness for men and beasts who have suffered fatal wounds.

The last fellow is Tom, a very tall and wily tomcat. He doesn’t say much but can yowl with the best of ’em.

Two Almost Spooky Houses
Each 2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics, etc on smooth Bristol

These ATCs were all done over one weekend for a Halloween-a-thon. It was was fun! But a tad exhausting despite the fact it was my choice how much to participate. I am of the opinion that all drawing helps improve us so hooray for an exhausting weekend.

You guys, I am going to try making pendants soon with some of my favorite ATC images. If you have any glass tile pendant notes, please feel free to leave them here! (I decided to start with glass tiles instead of resin because it’s easier and I don’t have to worry about fumes!) Thanks so much for visiting!

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Steampunk Maiden and Christmas Cat

Georgie Gears ATC
2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics, fine liners, white gel pen

Despite being raised with six brothers, Georgie was always the one their father came to for help with the family tractor. No one was surprised when she went on to found her own airship engineering company. Reference photo.

Made for a steampunk swap at illustratedatcs.com. I am very pleased with the style of this one. On the one hand it’s a rather typical “pretty girl” image. But I think she has some charm and personality. And I’m sure my 100 Maidens Project made a difference. I recommend these projects – repeated practice with a particular subject.

Nikolas the Christmas Cat
2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics, fine liners, white gel pen

Nikolas wasn’t always a Christmas cat. At ten months old he ate some tinsel and that soured him on the whole subject for several years. But then he found his person – a woman named Lizzie living firmly in the spirit of Christmas six months of the year – so Nikolas gave it another shot. It was much better the second time. Made for a trade at illustratedatcs.com.

It’s very odd the number of cats and sheep I have been doing! I am a dog person. But I’ve gotten the most trade requests for cats and sheep, so I’ve gotten a bit quicker at them. But it’s still several hours each. Or more.

I’m going to try my hand at glass tile pendants with prints of my images, and these two are on the list. We’ll see how it goes! Thanks for dropping in!

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A World in a Drop of Water, for Illustration Friday

Drop of Water World, 6″ x 9″
Copics, fine liners, gel pen, pencil with digital background

My entry for this week’s Illustration Friday topic “Water” is based on a misquote. Here is the first stanza from “Auguries of Innocence” by William Blake:

To see the world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour.

The rest has some mighty depressing imagery which has no place at my blog! But you can look it up if you like. Thanks for stopping in!

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Woodland Creatures ATCs, in Copics

Basilisk Lizard, A Master of Zen
2.5″ x 3.5″ Copic markers, fine liners, white gel pen

I have to admit I am very fond of George. He was going to get a tree or a fern leaf, but I decided not to risk mucking up his Zen space. He does meditation most evenings. I almost abandoned this card (like many other half-sketched images recently!) but I told myself it would work out. And it did! Possibly my best one yet. I would keep it, except I’ve been keeping too many lately and besides, I have to mail it off tomorrow!

A few weeks ago I made the fox (a different style than my other foxes, though I’m not sure my rudimentary hatching went as well as I’d like), and also the elephant shrew. Photo references are usually linked at the bottom of my posts. I use photos as guidelines and try to make the drawing very different.

Alastaire Fox ATC
2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics, fine liners, white gel pen

Alastaire is a forest elder and renowned peacemaker. Feuding foxes accept his judgement on a variety of matters from kit-rearing to boundary agreements.

Giant Elephant Shrew ATC
2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics, fine liners, white gel pen

Unlike her hyper brother Alec, Francesca is shy around strangers. All bets are off once you get to know her, however, because then she’ll chatter at you for hours. Mostly about shrews or bugs. But once in a while, if she’s in a strange mood, about the circle of life.

All three Artist Trading Cards (ATCs) were made for the Woodland Creatures swap at illustratedatcs.com. Thank you for visiting!

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Basilisk lizard photo reference, fox photo reference, giant elephant shrew photo reference.

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.

Steampunk and Fantasy ATCs, Tales Included

Geoffrey Teeth and Lilah Steampunk, Artist Trading Cards
Each 2.5″ x 3.5″, Copics, fine liners and white gel pen on smooth bristol board.

Because of a cleverly designed spring mechanism in his lower jaw, Geoffrey’s mouth can open and close in speech every once in a while. Because the motor takes so long to re-charge, he makes sure to save it for something important. The last time, several days earlier, produced the cryptic phrase, “Toads cannot move roads.” Made for Robots, Rocketry and Rayguns swap at atcsforall.com but I had to keep him.

Lilah is an adventure girl. She was raised among wild animals by a rural physician and his military-trained wife. As a result, she can fly most small planes and stalk unseen through dense undergrowth. She can also set a broken leg and makes very neat stitches. If needed. Made for a Steampunk swap at illustratedatcs.com.

Roland One Eye, 2.5″ x 3.5″ ATC
Copics, fine liners, white gel pen

A veteran engineer of the Mechanical Horse Wars, Roland disappeared from city life for many years. But when a second generation of the Merrano Gang started causing trouble in New Chicago, Roland was reluctantly pulled from a quiet retirement.

Floria the Fey Queen and The Dogfaerie Queen
Each 2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics, fine liners, white gel pen

Floria the Fey Queen was the result of a forbidden union between a Valkyrie and a rare tree spirit. Hers is the final word on all matters of justice and death in the Wonder Woods.

The DogFaerie Queen was the first of her kind, created by a mad wizard’s experiment. He made four more before his death, and from these five all the others came. Nobody remembers her name. Only that she outlived the rest of the original pack by three generations. Both made for Winged Queens swap at illustratedatcs.com.

Lots of stuff outside my comfort zone but surprisingly pleased with the outcomes. Which is nice. Because that is hardly always the case! Thank you very much for stopping by! I am still looking into issues with my email subscriptions. Arrrgh.

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Books and Cats for Illustration Friday

Books and Cats, 8″ x 10″ Copics, fine liners

Totally ran out of time! I would have liked to do a lot more finishing. As well as add that spiral staircase sketched out on the left (below). Alas! For “Book” at Illustration Friday. I was seriously excited about this topic (and there are SO many awesome entries). But it turns out a bookshelf is not as easy a thing as one might think! (Egad – angles!) I do plan to do more of them. Not sure if I’ll finish this one or waltz on to the next thing.

Books and Cats, at least the name, was inspired by an extremely silly video called Boots and Cats. I STRONGLY suggest you stop watching when the bees show up. Particularly if you don’t like bees. But before that, the boots and cats are surprisingly mesmerizing. Possibly you are one of the 1.3 million people who have already watched it!

In other news, my last post did not seem to get emailed to any people following this blog. So, if you are one of the people and you didn’t get it, please check your spam. And apologies for the technical difficulties! I think I will be trying to find a new widget for followers because this is not the first problem.

Thanks for visiting! And please double check your link at Illustration Friday if you’ve entered. Lots of bad links last week!

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