Ink with Attitude. Serious. Attitude.

Blake, and an Evil Mime Queen
Each 2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics, fine liners, white gel pen

Blake arrived closely on the heals of his cousin Maureen (seen below). This family much prefers their right profiles. You’d be surprised how plain the other side looks!

The evil mime queen was made for someone who like evil queens. And mimes. And pink with turquoise. And creepy cute stuff. She is maiden #126!(Any future mimes should have instead of this streaky white gel pen, a smooth application of white ink with a brush. Live and learn, and all that!)

Another Maureen
2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics, fine liners, white gel pen

One side blog note. I believe I’ve got categories covered. Tags, not so much. For one thing, almost all of my (208!) posts have many of the same tags (Copic markers, pen and ink, illustration). (Which are separate, I think!, from keywords for my SEO widget.) Geez! If you are a person with insight into this tags business, do share.

Thank you for stopping in! Progress pics with attitude, below.

[portfolio_slideshow size=”large”]

 

Grisly Tudor Portrait. My Dark Side!

Two and Five.
Henry VIII with portraits of his two beheaded wives.
5″ x 7″ Copics, fine liners, white gel pen

Hooray, I can finally post the gruesome portrait I made for a Secret Santa gift. The giftee, AnnD, is in love with the Tudors and has a fondness for historical beheadings. (She also does hilarious crafty things with her pals over at wonderstrange.  And, she made and sent me this coolest Marie Antoinette ornament. )

I do like how it’s *almost* tasteful. Then I feel guilty because those poor women. Dang!

I may need a whole new page for the Dark Side (which will need a much better name than the Dark Side).  I hope the people who like the cute animals and cities and houses here will not be offended. (But I’d wager you odd ones will dig it.)

Next week it’s back to imaginary birds. Or tiny houses. Or some other, cuter, thing.

Thanks for stopping in! Leave a note! Lots of progress pics!

[portfolio_slideshow size=”large”]

A Blue Queen, A Fancy Hat, and a FB Page

Hjordís
2.5″ x 3.5′ Copics, fine liners, gel pen

The latest Maiden, number 125!

In other news, finally, it’s The Slumbering Herd Facebook page! I’ve only been saying I would do it for ages. It is started.

But know this, friends, visitors, aliens, imaginary creatures large and small:  I shall never, after this moment, type the words “please like my Facebook page”. I like things I like. You like things you like. The whole likes thing is rather confounding.

I’m not sure what to do with the page just yet, but I’ve put up a bunch of art card albums, including dogs, cats, tiny cities, tiny houses and imaginary critters. Can I just say – holy crap. I have inked a LOT of little art cards.

Here’s another fancy maiden – fancy hat mostly! – that I did last week.

Frederica
2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics, fine liners, white gel pen

Progress pics for both below. Thanks for stopping in. ;)

[portfolio_slideshow size=”large”]

A Dandy Dog and Some Unfinished Business

Vincent Mundy, inked and complete
Each 2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics, fine liners, white gel pen

Vincent Mundy is a barrister who represents canines (and occasionally other species) in the entertainment industry. He’s also my favorite new dog ATC.

Meanwhile, I have so many stacks of unfinished cards around here! Some inked ones:

Four inked
Each 2.5″ x 3.5″ Prismacolor fine liner (browns), Micron fine liner (blue)

Some sketched ones:

Three sketched ATCs
Each 2.5″ x 3.5″ Staedtler 2H pencil

These are all drawings I will probably finish. The blue inked maiden in the frame, and the far left sketch, may be two more snow queens.

One day maybe I’ll show you the scads and scads of cards that I probably won’t finish. Because they are TERRIBLE. (But you never know. They are not all equally terrible, for one thing. Which is why they’re still around. Plus, I hate to waste the paper.)

Thanks for stopping in!

 

Further Adventures with Snow Queens, Ink Art

Bronweyn of Galac Clan
2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics, fine liners, white gel pen

Ilse of the Bright Snows, and Wise Helene
Each 2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics, fine liners, white gel pen.

Three more for the Snow Kings and Queens swap over at illustratedatcs.com. I like to make them very different, when doing a swap. Face shape, eye size/shape/placement, hair, accessories – all easy to change! It’s good practice to make sure I don’t do the same face every time. It’s one thing to have a “style”, but another to repeat oneself too much. Do you have any strategies like that?

These are also maidens number 121, 122 & 123 for the newly upgraded 200 Maidens Project! (There are actually more than 123, but I’m just going to go with the number of uploads, and ignore that time I put four in one post.) :)

If I may add one more bit of news. I finally put some artwork in a local shop. I cannot take credit for finding this shop, as she found me (and some other local artists) at Etsy. Early the day after Thanksgiving, I met Di at her new shop, Honey Poo Poo’s. She was very kind and appreciative, and the shop is really quite adorable! Her art is colorful and whimsical children’s furniture, rocking horses and really cool and elaborate updated musical instruments.

On the off chance you’re reading this and in driving distance of West Dundee, IL,  you should go peek! Anyway, by the end of that first day she had sold one of my 8×10 originals. Holy cow, the first day! And I’ve been thinking lately I want to do more larger works, so of course this is very encouraging.

Progress pics below. Thanks for stopping in!

[portfolio_slideshow size=”large”]

A Happy Dragon Accident and Two Colorful Houses

Teal Dragonet
2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics, fine liners, white gel pen

This is the happy dragon accident. Someone asked for a dragon in trade, and this is what happened! I wasn’t sure about him, but he got quite a lot of positive feedback (and requests for more, to boot).

Home of the Joyful Engineer, and The Pitch Inn
Each 2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics, fine liners, white gel pen

Pink and orange make a joyful home for some happy engineer, who also seems to be using the small balcony for refuse and empty bottles – perhaps from a joyful event the previous evening!

The Pitch Inn is one of my favorites of the tiny houses so far. Maybe because it has a nice variety of textures, and plants, and things. And tiny birds. I like the rounded window on the right side. It is missing a trash can, but perhaps that tiny mailbox could be used as a portal. These two tiny houses are numbers 29 and 30.

As always, thanks so much for visiting! Ugh, 10 days since my last post. This is what happens around the holidays, particularly when one goes out of town. Getting back in the art-ish groove can take some time.

[portfolio_slideshow size=”large”]

Another 100 Maidens?

Multicultural
Each 2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics, fine liners, white gel pen

Snow Sister, a Witch for Oddbreed and Cousin Naini. Multicultural maidens! Because I try to branch out from drawing conventionally pretty white girls all the time. I don’t always succeed. In my defense, I don’t want to offend anyone by drawing an unfamiliar culture poorly! Or accidentally including an offensive detail. (Please tell me if you see any!)

One thing, at least, is clear. I need more work on noses and mouths. Also, I should do some three-quarter views. So many things! Which is why I thought maybe I’d upgrade the 100 Maidens project to 200 maidens. I’ve probably got at least another 15 or more already done, including the three above.

Here are a few multicultural maidens from my first 100:

Maidens from Distant Lands, previously created
Each 2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics, fine liners, white gel pen

Thanks for dropping in! A few progress pics below.

[portfolio_slideshow size=large]

Further Fancy Frocks! Ink ATCs

Cecille in the Portrait Room, and Housedress
Each 2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics, fine liners, white gel pen

Cecille, on the left, is probably my favorite bit of vintage fancy clothes so far. I’m running a “Victorian & Other Elaborate Feminine Costume” swap at illustratedatcs. So, I like to make a lot of examples to draw people in. (It’s a few months off yet. I should probably pace myself a bit.)

As often happens, two of my current fixations merge into one! Here we have the Housedress – part fancy frock, part tiny house.

This ATC mashup brought to you by The Slumbering Herd. I have actually been thinking lately of changing the blog name. It’s a bit too long and unwieldy. You’ll be the first to know. Well. Probably the second.

Red Gold Dress Study, Ainsley Rabbit
Each 2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics, fine liners, white gel pen

Ainsley Rabbit was made in response to a request for something Scottish. I think he’s pretty cute. (Or cat! Some people think he looks like a cat.) :)

That’s for stopping in! Slideshow below.

[portfolio_slideshow size=”large”]

 

Fancy Some Fancy? Old-Fashioned ATCs

Two Vintage Portaits
Each 2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics, ink, gel and sparkly pen

Two maidens full of secrets submitted for the topic “Secret” at Illustration Friday. The young Tudor maiden on the left might be a lost portrait of a young Anne Boleyn. The one on the right is called “Antonia of Barcelona” and may be the only known portrait of a mysterious young woman who practiced fortune telling for the amusement of Spanish nobility in the mid-eighteenth century.

I’ve got a new mini obsession: Victorian and other fancy dress. Which makes life difficult when one has ongoing projects for previous obsessions: Tiny Cityscapes and Tiny Houses! But I shall muddle through it. :)

Lucille of Rhodan
2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics

This is my 200th post, holy cow! The first was way back on May 1, 2011! Many thanks and welcome to new visitors and old friends! Slideshow below.

[portfolio_slideshow size=”large”]

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.

[portfolio_slideshow size=”large”]