Tag Archives: Copic Markers

Four More of the 100 Maidens

Cerys, the Hope Queen and Goth Girl Tess ATCsEach 2.5" x 3.5" Copics, fine liners, white gel pen

Cerys, the Hope Queen and Goth Girl Tess ATCs
Each 2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics, fine liners, white gel pen

Holy cow, will the ATC madness ever end? (I hope not.) If you’ve been here before you may know I started a project called 100 Maidens on Flickr to catalog my adventures in illustrating maidens (mostly maiden faces, truth be told, but I had been avoiding doing people for years). These are four of those maidens, who now number 49!

Cerys never wanted the crown but when all the other options were exhausted, she wore it justly and little complained. And so she kept Hope alive for another generation.  Made for a “Kings and Queens” swap at illustratedatcs.com.

This is Tess. A few years older, she is a bit like a den mother to the local Goth scene. She is a bartender at the The Shady Maiden and occasionally sells mysterious potions out of a very small room in the back. None of the thieves who occasionally break in hunting for her stash can ever find the entry to the room. Made for a trade at atcsforall.com.

Natasha's New Hat and The Wizard's Daughter ATCsEach 2.5" x 3.5" Copics, fine liners, white gel pen

Natasha’s New Hat and The Wizard’s Daughter ATCs
Each 2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics, fine liners, white gel pen

Natasha has always been drawn to strange hats and in her new apartment she has created The Misfit Hat Room. People who visit the room often describe a strange craving for pastries after spending time there. Made for a swap at atcsforall.com

Dahlia has picked up quite a few tricks from assisting her wizard father for so many years. She does not fear walking in the woods alone, and has twice foreseen events that allowed her family and their animals to avoid danger. Made for a trade.

You guys! While I was making this post I was looking through my site stats and saw that several people had come from a particular page, so of course I went to see. And here’s what I found. A big thank you to Dogster!

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Elaine and the Bachelors, for Illustration Friday

Three Bachelor Snowmen

Three Bachelor Snowmen and the Fair Elaine
Each 2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics, fine liners, white gel pen

For “Snow” at Illustration Friday.

This is the story of three dapper bachelor snowmen, all vying for the fair Elaine. Join us in Episode One as Alfred (with the extremely fine top hat), hatches a plan to heat the apartments of his two rivals, Leo (in the blue) and Grumby.

I took no process scans of these creatures! However, here are two more ATCs I did recently that I really dig (and for which I have some progress scans – apologies for the hair on scan 12)!

Noise Monster and Ursula the Priestess ATCs
Each 2.5″ x 3.5″, Copics, fine liners, white gel pen

Jangle is a particularly irritating little noise monster. He rustles papers and makes other small noises whose source you can never find! Fortunately he only stays in the same house for one day.

Descended from a long line of priestess healers born with elaborate facial tattoos, Ursula left the cloister and founded a small alpaca farm. She sometimes fosters girls who help with the flock while she prepares tinctures and various healing balms for the local community. Ursula is Maiden Number 45. Holy cow, 45!

AND ONE MORE THING!  A lovely person called Bettina has interviewed me for her site! If you have a moment, take a look! I don’t sound too dorky (I don’t think).

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Explore the Widsy Waddle! For Illustration Friday

Explore the Widsy Waddle! Steed Rental
9″ x 6″ Copic Markers, fine liners, white gel pen, digital text

For the topic “Explore” at Illustration Friday.

I started off with a giant bird but got frustrated with the wings and went back to my old standby, the horse beast! I was going to put a fairy or some other humanoid on his back but then I thought about my imaginary advertisements like Llama Genie Airships and the Elephant Shrew Urn.

Now that I’ve got a handful of these I should do a series. And then a book! Alternatively, I could build on all my creatures who live in the Wonder Woods, merge the advertisements into the same world, and write a historical document and/or  book!

It’s fun coming up with potentially original, commercial ideas! Doing them, on the other hand – much more tricky!

Progress pics below.  (Hmm, I should add a shadow at his feet.)  Please feel free to leave a note, and thanks for dropping in!

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Whiskered Tinkerer Dog for Illustration Friday

Jasper the Tinkerer
2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics, fine liners, white gel pen

For “Whiskers” at Illustration Friday, a rather late entry!

Jasper has always been a tinkerer. As a youngster he fashioned a rudimentary mechanical ball thrower so Felicia, his younger sister, would give him a few moments peace. It only threw three balls before jamming, but his fifth prototype several years later would regularly work for a full thirty-two minutes. He moved on to snack-delivery devices after that -snacks being the primary canine motivator. He won’t show anyone yet, but I think that device beside him is one end of a conveyor belt.

I’m not actually sure that the whiskers are working here. I used a white prismacolor pencil because the gel pen leaves too thick a line. I think these whiskers are too long, but it is a whiskers experiment for a whiskers topic.

So as I’ve mentioned, I’ve been making lots of art for secret santa swaps. It is fun and I can’t wait until things arrive at their destinations. But it has also harshed my blogging vibe because I can’t post any of it. (But I will later!) Here is one card that didn’t make it into a box:

Celestina Calavera
2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics, fine liners, white gel pen

Celestina is a Day of the Dead Calavera girl, similar to ones I posted a few weeks back. Many of the ATC folks do really elaborate and realistic ones which are super cool. Mine are more cartoonish (and the hair highlights are funky) but they are very fun!

Thanks for stopping in! I hope to get back to regular posting again.

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Alice and Cheshire Cat, Illustration Friday

Alice and Cheshire Cat, 9″ x 6″
Copic markers, fine liners, white gel pen on Canson smooth Bristol

For the topic “Tree” at Illustration Friday. I started this sketch a while back but set it aside like so many other things recently. I’ve been in a weird mood I suppose and keep changing projects. But I couldn’t NOT join IF this week with a great topic like “Tree”! When I first saw the topic I thought I’d do another tree house (can never have too many) but then I decided to work on this and figured I’d make it into my entry. Which I did.

Tons of progress pics! You can see how I couldn’t decide about the background. In the end I probably should have left it that solid fuchsia. And the curlique thingers aren’t working so well here, though I am considering filling the rest of the block with them to neutralize the effect a bit. I do really like the odd cat (despite some anatomy problems) and cute girl (shoulder issue). And I’m happy with the bold color because I thought my goat entry for “Shy” was a bit anemic, color wise. Ah well, back to the drawing board!

Thanks a bunch for visiting!

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Sugar Skull Girls and Arlo Dog ATCs

Four Calavera Girl ATCs
Each 2.5′ x 3.5″ Copics, fine liners on Bristol board.

These were made for a Sugar Skull Girls Swap at atcsforall.com. I am not sure whether to call them Sugar Skull girls or Calavera girls (calavera means skull in Spanish). I think it is the same thing, but someone please tell me if I am wrong! This face painting style is done in celebration of The Day of the Dead. They are also fun to do!

I’ve actually done some other work that I really want to post, but that stuff was made for a secret santa swap at illustratedatcs, so I cannot post them until the recipients have received them. Arrrgh!

Arlo Dog ATC
2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics, fine liners, white gel pen

Arlo Dog is a minor warlock specializing in the removal of drawing-block. He has a sister named Astrid who specializes in the removal of writer’s block. Their mother can do a little of both, though less reliably.

In fact he did help me get over a couple days worth of drawing block funk, mostly. I’m hoping this week’s topic at Illustration Friday, “Tree”, will help too!

Thanks for stopping in! Tons of progress pics below.

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Shy Goat and a Little House for Illustration Friday

Shy Goat and Little House, 5″ x 7″ on toned paper
Copics, fine liners and white gel pen.

For the topic “Shy” at Illustration Friday. Initially the goat was going to be peeking out of a barn or from behind a tree or something, but it wasn’t working. Then I decided I would do another little house, but less spooky, because people seem to like the little houses. Now the goat is peeking from the frame of the scene, and I suppose that still works. ;)

It also occurred to me that perhaps once in a while I should cut out the long-winded rambling, so that’s it for today! Thanks for dropping in!

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Goat reference photo. (His name is Gilbert!)

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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