Girl with Berries v2 WIP

A while back I painted this quick digital painting for my (now defunct) 365Days blog.
I came across the original file while cleaning out my harddrives and without thinking started working on it again.
Here's a peek at how it's going.

The original:

Ugh, look at that neck, actually... don't o_o

 The work-in-progress edited version:

Obviously, a few changes here an there, (don't know what's happening to that branch yet) including the beginnings of a brand new hand... Godknows the poor girl needed one... -____-


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Woodless Watercolours

Haven't had much of a chance to create anything finished, other than books. I'm all into the bookbinding at the moment :D

Had a little play with some Mont Marte Woodless Watercolour Pencils at work, they're very different from traditional watercolour pencils, they require less precise control thus I found it rather challenging! However, they have a lovely effect and some beautiful lush colours; fun for splashing about with messier, looser work.

This was done at work in the spare 10 minutes before I started, so yes, not that original. ^^

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Lino Print Girl

Quick post before work.

I've been messing around with lino printing lately, this is my second attempt. First on this particular type of lino.

And this is after printing and worked over with pantone tria markers and white paint.

Apart from gouging out my finger tip with one of the blades, I think it turned out ok for a first try at this style of work. ^^

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Whatchadoin? Vectors??

I was about to say, "not much" but in reality, I've been doing a fair bit of art things lately.

Unfortunately, I don't have very much to show for it as most things end up scrappy and/or permanent works in progress.

However, I've been going back to quite a few of those older WIP's from my failed days of "365" and finishing some of them up.

I've also been very interested in participating in competitions and such, I'd love to maybe get some of my work published some day, especially now that i'm starting to feel a little more comfortable in my chosen style... whether I continue in this new style or not is to be seen, but for the time being, I'm just going to go with it.

Erm... tangent.

ANYways, I'm aiming to get some work published (already have been accepted for a book coming out in 2011 some time), unfortunately, the software I am using may or may not be commercially legit (I may or may not have only the student version from uni), and thus I am having a crisis of conscience right there; I want to participate in published and commercial work etc but I need legit software.

Illustrator, the one I'm playing with at the moment, is out of the question. $2000+ dollars for the standalone program or $3000+ for the package. Yeah. Let me just pull that amount out of my richly bejewelled @$$.

So, I've had to leave Illustrator aside for now

*sob* when it comes to commercial work, and I've started experimenting with freeware and more wallet friendly programs.

So far, I've only found one I've felt relatively comfortable with and that allows me to create in a similar way than in Illustrator: Xara.

I like it enough to take the time to learn it so here's hoping I'm not so pigheaded as to be unable to adapt.

This is what I've managed so far, it's taken me probably 3 times as long to get to this point in the drawing but it's a start. :3

Sorry, it's only a scrap and blogger compression is evil on vector images.

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Moved... for now.

Have successfully moved into a new place off Tamborine Mountain (thankGOD for that!). This is, however, only a temporary move as I shall be moving into the city in early January-ish with the fantabulous Dr Nayu. I'm highly looking forward to moving to the big smoke! :D

Here's an arts in the meantime. :3

Cyber Blue - Vectors.

Available as a print on RedBubble and DeviantArt.

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Some July Works-In-Progress

We're currently in the middle of a major renovation of our current home while looking for a new place to live. My life is currently a mess of rather large proportions with packing, painting, house hunting and constant CONSTANT driving which is, frankly, driving me a little nuts!

I thought, with the untimely demise of my day job, I'd have more time to pursue my creative passions... this is infuriatingly not so :(

Ah well, I'm still managing to chip away at a few current art and binding projects, here's a peek.

Book binding:

Arts:

(vector work for now, as I only had photoshop open and it doesn't open painter files :/ )

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Finished Something!!

Haven't completely finished a drawing/artwork in a while now, so it's a good feeling when it's finally done :)
Drawn on tan mountboard then inked in various colours with Sakura Micron pens. Coloured with coloured pencil. The full size image is actually a little smaller than the work itself which measures 9.7cm x 15cm.
Sorry about the watermarks, this one's going up for sale (without the watermarks of course).

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Updated Serpentine Girl Sketch

Just an update on one of the sketches from my previous post.
I'd say this one's about ready to be inked now. :)

Click on the image for a close-up, there's a lot of detail in there.

Sketches and WIP's - September ALREADY?!

Ink Works in Progress

Better late then never ^^

I've been doing more bookbinding then drawing lately but here's a few works in progress I'm slowly chipping away at.
Mainly during work, of course.


Both are drawn with Sakura Micron pens. <3
Ink washes to come.


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Gold and Girl Book - a quick preview

Latest book I've been working on.
This one took me a little longer due to the drawing I added to the cover.

Do take a look at the full size image (click on it) for better detail.

The book is soft card cover with a reinforcement of a secondary inside cover of gold paper, same paper used for the cover drawing. The pages are thick, off-white paper, bordering on cardstock; really nice to draw or write on.
The book will come in a silk case, once I get it done lol.

The drawing itself was done in sepia pen which I moved around with a detail brush and a little water, to get that watercolour effect. Highlights were added in opaque white pencil.

Unfortunately, pearly gold paper doesn't photograph very well. Click to enlarge for a better view.


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Work is going... quietly.

Work was unbelievably quiet today (read: painfully boring) so I got to do a bit of sketching in Painter; haven't used it in ages, it was nice to crack it out again, even with my old 4x6 graphire.

Basically just messing about with shading and pose. Yeah, sorry bout the scratchy lines mess XD

Actually, I managed to do two sketches today but one is getting coloured so i'll post it within the next few days, work permitting.


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Imperfection - Ink Drawing

Inked with micron pens on cartridge paper, added a little pink pencil for colour and effect.
This one's going to my Artfire to be sold as an original, no prints on this one, thus, pardon the watermarks.

"My imperfections make me who I am."

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Catching Up on Crafty Things

Today looks like it has the past four days. Like this:

So my goals today (because weather doesn't really allow me to go anywhere other than my room which is the warmest place in the house right now) are to get a few more book making things done, since it's fast becoming one of my favourite crafts.

I'm trying my hand at stitching over tape bindings today, i've already had a go at basic codex and Japanese stab bound (more about that in the next post) with relatively decent results.
These are yesterday's efforts at getting the signatures ready and cutting out the cover boards, as well as choosing the materials for the cover and tape bindings.
Notice the candelabra? I prepared during another blackout (out of sheer boredom I might add), they're coming fast and frequent these days, one per day at least this week.

So getting more on this done is today's goal.
That and working on a pen drawing I was also daft enough to start by candlelight last night. Night photo fail there. Sorry. ^_^



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The End of TaD

The end has finally arrived and I am sad :(
I loved doing this project, it was inspiring and fun and hard and great all at the same time and i'll definitely be doing this again next year. :)

To commemorate, I finished an old pen drawing and added some colour in coloured pencil, haven't cracked out the ole' pencils in forever, it was a lovely change from digital.

"Macaw"

Here's to Thing-a-Day and all who participated and inspired me on this great little journey. :D


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ACEO - Yellow Foxy

Cross posted from my TaD.

My first ACEO ever! I’m rather chuffed! XD

Drawn by hand with sepia ink pen on yellow archival card stock.
The background is washi paper then the back was covered with another yellow card stock for stability and uniformity.

Yay! This was so much fun!

Pardon the watermarks, obviously they’re not there in the original ^^

Also, here’s a photo for a size comparison of the card in it’s little plastic sleeve and my chubby hand.

I've wanted to make one of these for such a long time but I never plucked the courage to do it, for some odd reason, and now that i've actually gone ahead with it, I found I really enjoyed drawing at that size as well as picking out the washi paper that best matched.I will definitely make more of these, perhaps to sell even! ^^

Unearthly (i.e. totally BS) Flora

I managed to churn out a little finished drawing. It isn't much, isn't very big (about half an A5 page) and the flora is totally made up, but I quite like how it turned out and I rarely get to do finished drawings in pencil these days. ^^

Pencil in my sorely neglected Moleskine sketchbook.

Day 17 Thing-a-Day

Day 17's Thing-a-Day will be posted here coz the site is down at the moment :(
Not that today's in anything to throw a party over. :/

Base sketch again, this time for another painting i'm working on in Painter at the moment.
Only a sneakpeek though. ^^


Yup, now if I could just get to sleep sometime before the sun starts coming up, that would be neat.

Bunny Slippers

Tonight I dun a drawingz!! XD
Drawn specifically for TaD actually, and drawn laaaaaaate late at night after a deadening day at work -_-
Muse decided the path to follow which I had no say in, thus the weirdness!! XD

Paint sketched in Painter this time.
Funny but I just drew something that incorporates two things I'm not particularly fond of; anthropomorphism and rabbits. :/
Sleep deprivation/exhaustion does funny things to your mind. :3

Magnolia (also Day 9 of TaD)

Sketch for a work i'm planning on developing later.
Drawn in my beloved brown paper journal <3