100 Maidens Project and Illustration Friday

Celestial Maiden Fara, 2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics

Celestial Maiden Deia, 2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics

 

The topic this week at Illustration Friday is “Lonely” and there are few lonelier than the Celestial Maidens. Whether walking the stars or talking to planets, they walk the heavens and rarely meet. These are the final two in a group of four created for a swap at illustratedatcs.com. The first two can be found in my last post.

I joined that swap as a challenge because I so rarely do people of any kind. But I had so much fun I decided to embark on a new project called 100 Maidens. I figure after 100 I will be much better at drawing women, at any rate! It’s not 100 in 100 days or any madness like that. Just 100 in the next year or so, hopefully a really nice variety (and not 100 young, beautiful blondes, for instance). I’ve got a Flickr set created to collect them.

The one below was created for a trade by someone who liked the second maiden and wanted a version with warm colors. Thanks for visiting!

Maiden Number 5, Pharandra, 2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics

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King Charles Cavalier and Celestial Maidens

So, it’s not just that making tiny works of art is immediately gratifying, it really teaches you things. In this installment I do a specific dog breed (rather than a cartoonish mutt):

King Charles Cavalier, 2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics

And it didn’t go as terribly as expected! I used this reference photo. His name is Vincent and he is a snack fiend (just like my dog Wilson,  a King Charles mix)! I experimented a bit with a white gel pen outline.

Celestial Maiden 1, 2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics

I also did some people! I never do people. For one thing, too many other people do it so well. And I didn’t take enough life drawing classes. And I haven’t practiced much. Lots of excuses! I bet you have excuses for something you should just go ahead and do. Really.

The impetus for the people was joining a trading card swap (at illustratedatcs.com) with the subject Celestial Maidens. And guess what? Not as terrible as expected! The one on the right is Rona, who creates the night sky for dreaming children.

The second is Jin, a starwalker.  (I got a bit frustrated with the hair so threw a big scarf on it, which turned out to be the perfect place for some swirly things.) I can see a lot of flaws but mostly I am happy they are not terrible! I still need to do two more for the swap.

Celestial Maiden 2, 2.5″ x 3.5″, Copics

Thanks for stopping in! You folks have all been so damn nice!

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Steampunk Elephant with Cat, Copics

Steampunk Elephant with Cat, 8.5″ x 11″ Copics with digital background

The topic is “Carry” at Illustration Friday. Another blue cat, this time a lovely creature called Delilah. As the eldest daughter, she will be inheriting the ancient elephant vehicle and the title Elephant Princess when her mother retires. She is both excited by, and dreading, the entire affair. Excited by the thought of riding the elephant in the parades, but dreading the procession of merchant cats and their tedious complaints about one another.

So glad I stopped before filling in the cat, because I think she makes a nice contrast with the very busy elephant. A bit too heavy on the outlines, but overall I think the steampunk elephant makes a worthy companion to the Cat Ship and Llama Genie Airship.

And one more thing. I’ve been listening to a great podcast while doing art over the last few weeks. It’s called The Dork Forest and is the podcast of comedian Jackie Kashian. She  talks to other comics and comic book people and movie people and loads of others about whatever it is they are really enthusiastic about. Very entertaining.  If you need a new thing, go see! Thanks for visiting!

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Elephant photo reference;  Siamese Cat Hybrid photo reference

Chameleon, Wombat, and Kettle in Copics

Strange Chameleon Two, 2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics

Edgar Wombat 2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics

 

 

Perhaps you are shocked to see more ATCs. For those of us joining for the first time, I started doing Artist Trading Cards about three weeks ago, and I’ve done about 20 now. Which is crazy. And I must mention illustratedatcs.com again because they are to blame. I mean, to thank. :) (They also have a bigger site, atcsforall.com.)

The thing about tiny cards is: instant gratification, nearly instant satisfaction and practically instant feedback. Ah, internet, you have reduced our attention spans to approximately 45 seconds. But I will try to work with you.

Edgar the wombat is a huge fan of the movie My Neighbor Totoro. Wombats rock.

Gnome Portal Kettle 2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics

Slideshows for all three! If anyone wants to see. Thank you so much for visiting. :)

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Chameleon photo reference, wombat photo reference.

Copic ATCs, Anteater Chameleon Stork Hornbill

Oops, forgot to change the order of creatures in the title. Too late now since the memos have been distributed!

Purple Rhinoceros Hornbill, 2.5″ x 3.5″ Copic markers and fine liners

Blue Stork 2.5″ x 3.5″ Copic markers and fine liners

 

More tiny Artist Trading Cards. I don’t know how long the enthusiasm will last but that’s ten in two weeks.  It is certainly much less daunting staring at a blank 2.5″ x 3.5″ than an 8″ x 10″.  For one thing, much easier to fill in a background, and I like to do backgrounds.

I have a lot fewer smudging problems since I’ve been using colors other than black for the initial ink. Copic has a fairly limited number of colored fine liners so I use Micron and Prismacolor fine liners, too.

 

Strange Chameleon 2.5″ x 3.5″ Copic markers and fine liners

Blue Anteater 2.5″ x 3.5″ Copic markers and fine liners

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Thanks for visiting!

Anteater reference photo, Stork reference photo, Rhinoceros Hornbill reference photo

 

 

Crossroads Mash-up for Illustration Friday

Crossroads Mash-up for Illustration Friday, Copic Markers and Pens
with a bit of digital correction, digital sky

The topic is “Lost” at Illustration Friday. This is an artist’s rendering of a place mentioned in two ancient and magical texts. A place where a lost person might find themselves, waking from a daydream, if the planets are aligned just so. Which direction would you choose?

Not so much in the way of Copic marker technique, but a lot of sketching and deciding and arranging and erasing. I’m calling it a mash-up because some of these things are not like the others! But I thought it was a fun and silly collection of magical places. And a bit of hand drawn text, though next time perhaps the styles could be varied more in both size and style.

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Crossroads Mash-up Key:

1. Asgard, home of the Norse gods; 2. Emerald City, in the Land of Oz at the end of the yellow brick road; 3. Cloudsdale, from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, home of the pegasus ponies; 4. Camelot, home of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, 5. The Shire, home to the Hobbits from The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings; 6. Pepperland, home of the Blue Meanies from the Beatles’ Yellow Submarine; 7. Narnia, found through a door in the back of a wardrobe, from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe series; 8. Wonderland, from Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass; 9. the Tollbooth, gateway to the Kingdom of Wisdom from The Phantom Tollbooth (and there is Tock the dog, waiting to join you!).

Another Art Trading Card Post: Cat, Kingfisher, Dog

 

Purple Peach Peterbald Cat ATC, 2.5″ x 3.5″, Copics on Bristol

I finally decided I should document these tiny arts just like any other. Or, some of them at any rate. So here you have the latest three (I am most pleased with the Cat), with a slideshow for one of them. It’s funny to see them in a blog post. I’ve saved them at 5 inches and on my screen they are the exact size of the original. Still trying to decide whether to list them for trade or for sale in my Etsy shop.

Green Crested Kingfisher ATC, 2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics on Bristol

Orange Barclay, 2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics on Bristol

Barclay the dog got a bit overworked, and the lighter background was probably a better choice. I thought about leaving him out  but this blog was not intended as a best-of production. (For one thing, way fewer posts!) Both the cat and dog could use whiskers and I just got a new Uni-ball Signo white gel pen, which came out on top after rigorous testing at ArtTrader magazine. I skipped the whiskers for now but I did use it on their eyes to good effect.

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Three Beastly ATCs – Llama, Horse, Sheep

Fuzzy Green Llama ATC, Copic Markers

 

This evening I was inspired to complete some Artist Trading Cards because I have joined a new community called  IllustratedATCs and it is all about trading art by mail. They do lots of stuff besides the ATCs, like moleskin journal swaps and inchies and twinchies and holy cow, tons of stuff. They have provided a helpful list of definitions (thank goodness).

I think I saw their link initially through someone at Illustration Friday, but I don’t remember! You have to apply and whoa, there are some seriously cool (and many professional) artists there. I got accepted (it takes 3-4 days), but then I was instantly intimidated. Super nice folks so far, though.  They have another site called ATCs for All where there is no application and everyone is welcome to join.

Horse with Blue Swirl Sky ATC, Copic Markers

I am pretty happy with all three, though the horse in particular is sort of caught between cartoonish and realistic as if I could not choose which way to go. I really like the blue sky on that one, achieved with the help of a Masquepen.

Pink Orange Sheep ATC, Copic Markers

 

Both the llama and sheep were done on top of light-colored swirly backgrounds also done using a Masquepen. I worked on all of them over the course of a few hours, doing some reading and IF visiting in between.

Thanks so much to everyone who visits! All comments welcome, of course. (Except spam.)

Llama reference

Horse reference

Sheep reference

 

Kookaburra Holding Court, Copic Markers

Holy cow, 100 posts!

Kookaburra Holding Court, 8×10 Copic Markers with digital corrections & digital sky

The topic is “Suspend” at Illustration Friday, and Thadeus the Kingly Kingfisher is holding court in an abandoned tire swing. He looks a tad cramped in there, if you ask me. His attendant today is a juvenile Boobook Owl, a smallish species. The elder Boobooks find Thadeus rather tiresome, if you must know. But he can usually get one of the kids to stand in. This one is called Lorna. She is very impressed by Thadeus, particularly the jeweled necklace.

The Kookaburra is the largest species of Kingfisher. Thadeus is a Laughing Kookaburra, though he tries not to laugh. He thinks it unkingly. This is my second kingly kingfisher! The first one with his mouse deer steed can be found here.

About 3 scans before the end I considered scrapping the whole thing! But I will be unable to do another this weekend, and I did spent quite a few hours on it. So here it is! I did some fixing up in paint.NET. The main issues were not enough refinement in the sketch and then trying to fix mistakes as I went. But each new drawing is a learning experience, whether it be post number 1 or 100.  Thanks for looking!

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Kookaburra reference photo from TrekNature, Boobook Owl reference photo on Flickr

Hornbill and Kingfisher, an Unlikely Pair

Yellow-Billed Hornbill and Stork-Billed Kingfisher, Copic Markers, digital sky

A somewhat smaller than expected Southern Yellow-Billed Hornbill and his best friend, a somewhat larger than expected Stork-Billed Kingfisher. Ari the Hornbill was born in South Africa. Shey the Kingfisher is from Sri Lanka. That they met at all is unprecedented!

Ari was flying northeasterly over the Indian Ocean, and Shey was flying southwesterly over the Indian Ocean, and they both landed in the Seychelles the same week in 2009. Crazy, right? Both natural comedians, they became instant friends and for a short time they performed a Strange Bird comedy show that was a huge hit with the local Red-footed Boobies.

As you may know I have been exploring all manner of exotic creatures at this blog. Most recently it’s the birds in particular that have caught my fancy, and thus today’s drawing. Started with a lot of refinement in pencil then several scans showing the blue .05 multiliner. After that, Copics and .1 and .2 black multiliners. Finally I attempted some highlights with a white Prismacolor pencil, to mixed results. (Still trying to find a white gel pen that works. Not sure about attempting some white acrylic. Hmm!)

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No Masquepen or swirls this week. Crazy! Thank you for stopping by!

Southern Yellow-Billed Hornbill photo reference; Stork-Billed Kingfisher reference.