Category Archives: ATCs and ACEOs

ACEO Dog Quartet in Copics, Part II

Hound Dog Quartet, ACEOs with Copics

Clockwise from top left: Oliver, Edgar, Miles and Martin

Hooray!  Finished the 4-dog quartet. Went with similar dog for final image (see previous post for dilemma!) I’m calling it “Hound Dog Quartet” but it started as “Spaniel Dog Quartet” (and could revert at any time!). The inspiration photo (for all four) is a beagle. I think they resemble a beagle slightly more than Snoopy from Peanuts. But it’s still a stretch. (Which is fine with me.)

Oliver, the final member, in progress:

ACEO Dog Oliver Sketch

ACEO Dog Oliver Color 1

ACEO Dog Oliver

I believe a second 4-dog ACEO quartet is in the works, this time with standing ears (also known as prick ears or erect ears, but oh, such words!) Aside from that particular vocabulary conundrum, I can’t decide what to name the next set. I don’t want to go with Doberman Dog quartet or any other dog who has unnaturally erect ears – because I don’t believe in cropped ears (I won’t go on a rant or anything but cropping ears is an outdated and unnecessary procedure which causes a lot of pain in young dogs and also compromises protection for the ear canal. And doesn’t always work anyway!) So while I like Dobermans, I believe in “regular” ears for Dobermans, Great Danes and every other breed that up until recently had cropped ears as a matter of course.  But that whole discussion is probably best not held on an art blog.  :)

Many breeds have naturally standing ears.  A few that come to mind are smaller dogs like terriers (though not Schnauzers), Basenjis, Chihuahuas. Here is the initial sketch for one member of the Standing Ear ACEO dog quartet (a charming and discerning bunch, I am sure it will turn out to be):

ACEO Standing Ear Dog 1

I think this one definitely looks more like a Basenji than a Chihuahua, so I may use a Chihuahua photo as inspiration for the next one or two.  As always, thanks for visiting!

 

 

ACEO Dog Quartet in Copic Markers

ACEOs revisited. I was supposed to do an updated Magic Preparedness Kit (and I will!) but many days passed without the impetus for a new (or old) project. And then I was given the assignment of an anonymous gift to an internet stranger, and due to her interests in the colors seafoam, teal and aqua (with grays), and “Sad Etsy Dogs” (among many other things, but these were the bits I chose) – I was finally inspired to make a sad etsy dog of my own.  His name is Edgar and he is currently traveling to upstate New York with some Almond Roca and a box of vanilla spice tea.

ACEO Dog, Edgar

I decided to do three more in order to do another 4-ACEO Giclee, like I did here:

Four ACEO Print with 2 Llamas, Camel & Pony

I decided to stick with the spaniel face/ears and do a similar (but not identical) dog for the next two, but with different colors (though mainly blues and greens).

ACEO Dog Martin, Sketch

ACEO Dog Martin, Color 1

ACEO Dog, Martin

ACEO Dog, Miles

Martin got into the mud, as you can see. Otherwise known as, I muddied up the color by going with gray as a shading color instead of a darker green or blue. On top of that, the black ink ran more than normal. I may have used a Micron pen instead of a Copic multiliner by mistake.  (The Copic is designed not to smudge!) Arrgh. I also like the Color 1 version better than the overdone final version. But he’s still a cool cat.

Miles, possibly as a result, ended up on the slightly underdone side of the spectrum (fewer fine lined details). But he is also a cool cat. These two, only distantly related by blood, once planned a grand cupboard heist. They never went through with it, thank goodness.  Also, they were only about seven months old at the time.

And now, feeling a break coming on, I am going to post this despite having reached only a triptych and not a quartet yet!  I have to decide on the last ACEO. A similar style dog but with different colors? A dog with stand-up ears? A cat? A llama? I like the idea of the fourth being different (like I did with the pink pony in the other set).

In any case, thank you so much for visiting. All comments appreciated! I will update this post a bit later with the final creature.

 

Steampunk ACEO Beasts, Copic Markers

Well, I’m not sick of steampunk yet!  In fact, at the end of this post I’ll post the initial sketch for my next 8 x 10.  But mostly I wanted to post some ACEOs I’ve completed since the steampunk bug hit.  And their intensely engrossing stories, of course (*cough*).

Original ACEO Steampunk Llama

Chaz the blue llama is an inventor, first. The bird shaped device he is wearing over one eye is made of leather, brass and various other metals. From a purely aesthetic standpoint, he is particularly proud of the tiny wing fashioned from an orange washer. The mechanism, with a cable connected to a power source in his front pocket, has both long-focus and enhanced night vision capabilities.

Original ACEO Steampunk Goat

Dean starting inventing eyepieces in seventh grade. The first had a rudimentary long-focus device which he made in order to better see Eliza, a popular and adorable Nubian, across the playground. Yes, of course they had a playground in seventh grade. These are farmyard type creatures, after all. Need their sunshine. Just like people actually, but that’s another story, isn’t it?

It is many years later now, and in that funny way life has of going in circles, Dean and Eliza are now dating. She doesn’t even remember him from seventh grade. Which he couldn’t be happier about.

Dean is also Chaz’s roommate (see above). They have a blue and green cat named Phil who has about as much interest in their inventions as he has in other cats, which is to say, absolutely none.

Phil the Cat, Original ACEO

It may be no surprise to many that I am a dog person, and as such have been somewhat hesitant about drawing cats. Cats have an extremely long history in art (see Bast ).  Anyway, I wouldn’t say Phil has a particularly animated expression.  But sometimes that’s the way it is, with cats.

Original ACEO Steampunk Ferret

The very latest is this fine steampunk ferret. Or possibly a related rodent of indeterminate origin – which is to say – I’m not sure it looks exactly like a ferret (color notwithstanding).  He is a terribly friendly fellow, but I haven’t been able to make heads or tails of his squeaky language.  Anyone speak ferret?

And finally, the next steampunk beast. It was modeled on a donkey but the cheeks kept getting narrower so it may be a horse. With very tall ears.

Steampunk Donkey Horse Sketch

Decided to do goggles (currently quite lopsided).  Continued attempts to make quasi-mechanical seeming devices in the shapes of birds.  Added a pipe.  Not sure about the pipe.  :)  Thank you lovely people for stopping in!

Big are the Noses

Recently I have become obsessed with something slightly silly.  Close-up noses.  Of farm animals.  Well, mainly farm animals.  It all started with this one:

Bonny Bovines by RikkiVanCamp

I mean, how can they not put you in a good mood?  All props to the photographer!  You can find this item in her fine shop here:  Rikki’s Etsy Shop.  I purchased it and it arrived promptly in a lovely package.  Maybe you should get one!

Then I thought, I should get these bonny bovines more friends.  So I tried to find just the right ones at Etsy.  I didn’t *quite* find what I wanted.  But then I found the mother lode.  At DeviantART.  Want to see?

As these are all under glass (in decidedly not-pricey frames), some have a terrible glare.  I had to take this next bunch off the wall right above and slightly to the left of my computer monitor:

Llama and Two Horses Big Noses

Still a bit of a glare on them, but this is the setup.  I just love them.  I do.  But wait, there’s more!  Across from my chair next to my closet you can find these three fine creatures:

Three Big Noses, in Brown

(More glare, sorry!)  At this point you’ve either fled the scene or are becoming strangely  attracted to the Big Nose approach.  I warned you, right?  Oops.  I meant to warn you.  These three are a mere 4″ x 6″.  And insanely inexpensive over at DeviantART.  I feel guilty about that, since 1. The artists aren’t making much money off them, and 2. Things cost more at Etsy and I do like to steer people to Etsy.  But you should know where to find them should you find yourself in need of them.  :O)

Oh, let’s not forget the bathroom!  Not quite so close-up on the noses, but ridiculously silly sheep faces (9″ x 12″):

Holy Cow those are Silly Sheep

Here’s where you find Laughing Lamb and Running Man.  (Those are the names the photographers gave them.)

One guy left still looking for a home:

Donkey Big Nose

You can find this stunning fellow here, if needed.  I got the 9″ x 12″.

So then what did I do?  Well, I started some big nose art, of course:

Husband and Wife Cow Beasts

Sure, they look a tad crazed. But we all do at some point in a long-term relationship. Maybe Bernie left his socks on top of the television again. Or maybe Mavis added too much hot sauce to the tossed flowers they had for dinner. Or it’s possible they are both mad at that damn Shetland pony next door who lets his goats run wild. They have trampled Bernie’s tomatoes twice this year. But Bernie and Mavis are still in love. You can tell.

Buffalo (Kind of) Beast

This beast – part water buffalo, part highland cow, part woodland majesty – was once called Herman. It was a name he chose for himself because he did not like his given name. Which is Carl. He is trying Carl back on for size, lately. Maybe you can tell from his expression, but Carl does not abide rudeness.

Don’t get me wrong, he’d be more than happy to help you navigate a piano up your tricky and rather vexing apartment stairs. But he doesn’t like people who cut in queues or talk on their cellphones while in line at the grocery store. And he’s got something of a nasty bite!

You can find the drawings in my Etsy store, of course! The first two are an ACEO pair (2.5″ x 3.5″ on illustration board), and the buffalo is 8″ x 10″ on 150 lb. Canson drawing paper.  Original art created with Micron pens and Copic markers.  I think these are a fine start, but I think the next ones will have BIGGER NOSES.  Hooray!

So, are you a Big Nose convert?  Either way, thanks for visiting!

A Step-by-Step Copic ACEO Post

Some of my favorite blog posts are the kind that show the stages of a project from beginning to end.  So I’m having a go with my recent obsession – ACEOs (Art Card Edition Originals) created with Micron fine line pens and Copic alcohol-based professional markers.  Please feel free, should you stumble upon this post, to offer comments, criticisms or suggestions.  I can take it.  ;)

Please note I in no way resemble a Copic expert.  I wouldn’t even call myself proficient.  So this is clearly not a how-to post, although I suppose it is a how-to-if-you-are-me-today post.

One thing I’ve noticed is that I don’t get discouraged as easily as I once did, abandoning pieces before they have a chance to develop a personality.  These days I try to be more patient.  So let’s start here:

Step One

I sketch in pencil first almost always these days.  For a long time I didn’t sketch beforehand at all, and it led to a lot of wasted paper and no small amount of frustration.  I still doodle a lot without sketching first, but mostly I do a basic outline of a beast – particularly the legs (for alignment), nose (which makes a big difference in a beast’s personality), hair/spines (because it’s easy to accidentally make each piece  too similar, which is not an effect I generally like) and ears (which also affect personality).  I could have added a forelock but I wanted more white space.

Step Two

Just a simple line outline.  After I’ve given it a few moments, I erase the pencil lines with my handy Staedtler Mars plastic eraser.  I don’t even mind if the eraser fades out the ink at this point, because I’ll be going back over it at the end.

Another thing I notice and if you have been a doodler of any sort for any length of time you probably notice the same thing, and that is that I don’t hesitate like I used to with pen line.  So you don’t see a lot of starts and stops with little bits of line trying to line up.

Step Three

A basic covering with the lightest blue.  The opposite side legs and ear start off one step darker.  I tend to dab a lot to try to avoid lines in the marker coverage.  I also like to leave some white space to add depth in subsequent layers.

I should add here that the thing about not hesitating with pen is not serving me quite so well with the markers, which do have a nice brush tip but I haven’t trained myself to slow down quite enough (particularly with tiny ACEOs!) and I manage to color outside the lines with some frequency.  :D

Step Four

I decided a bit late to add some detail.  I forgot I wanted to do a striped tail but better late than never!  As long as I didn’t have my heart set on light colors that the light blue would bleed through, this isn’t a big deal.

Step Five

Decided on brown for the spots which covered the blue easily.  Did some sketchy shading with my next blue.

Step Six

The photo is a tad blurry but I went back over the beast with the first (lightest blue) which softened the transitions.

Step Seven

The next darkest blue.  As you can see, I am missing many shades of blue in between, but I am making do with the colors I have.

Step Eight

Another round of the second blue.

Step Nine

And then an overall cover with the first (lightest) blue.

Ten

One pass of the background with lightest green, dabbing and leaving white space.

Eleven

And then a second green around the edges.

Twelve

Back over with the lightest green at the sides and then covering the whole green background with yellow.  You can see where it catches the white spaces and adds a bit of texture and depth.

13, 14, 15

Oops, forgot to stop and take a picture or two.  I re-inked the outlines with a thicker Micron, gave him a closed eye and a nose, and added some hair after all (because he asked nicely for some).  I re-did a bit of the darkest blue, then went back over that with blue #2.

That’s it.  No particularly fancy Copic tricks.  This is a pretty basic beast with no landscape or friend or flora.  Although I started off doing lone beasts like this one, I do try to add a little something to make a bit more of a scene rather than a portrait most of the time.  Often a little dog!  But it is rough to fit multiple objects in a teeny 2.5 inch by 3.5 inch art card.

Copic Marker Adventures, ACEO-sized

Other have said it before, and more will come after, but hot dang!  Copic markers are really cool.  The colors are super rich.  I am still experimenting, mostly on ACEO-sized (2.5″ x 3.5″) illustration board. Part of the purpose of the tiny size is to have some completed original art in my Etsy shop.  Here is the first one I did, in which I also used Prismacolor markers (and you can see where those colors don’t blend as well):

Lorraine, a Bird

This is Lorraine. She is catching a few ZZZs on her favorite branch after a hard day herding prairie dogs.

Yesterday I added to my meager Copic collection by purchasing 15 more markers (they are not cheap!)  eeek, but worth it.  Also, I get the Ciao size which is the smaller, more economical size (without losing any of the quality of color).  Then I made more tiny pictures!

Liesle and Frederique Nap

Liesl (on the left) and Frederique were arguing about flightless birds when Frederique fell asleep mid-sentence. (This happens more than you might think.) Liesl, satisfied that she had won the argument by default – particularly after her intelligent comment about penguins, nodded off soon after.

Two Bright Beasts

For the second time in my blogging history (which is extremely short), I am embarrassed to admit I do not know the names of these two colorful creatures.  Part of the problem is that they are shy.  The other part is that the few tidbits I have overheard them whispering seem to be in Icelandic.  Or maybe Dutch.  In any case, a language I do not speak.

Jinni and Figgish Napping

Jinni the orange beast and Figgish the dog are excellent friends. They met at a seashell collecting convention in 2009 where they argued good-naturedly about whether you can really hear the ocean in a conch shell.

The depth of color is really quite lovely, with all credit to the Copic people.  You may also notice I have managed to color outside the lines in one or two of these teeny masterpieces, as well as smudge some of the line work.  I tell myself this adds to their handmade charm.

Argus and the Alien Flower

Sometimes Argus has the strangest dreams about alien flowers on colorful landscapes. He firmly believes his ancestors came from Sirius, the Dog Star, where many strange and wonderful plants and creatures still reside. (His amused mum never denied this story.)