Showing posts with label Art. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Art. Show all posts

Friday, September 18, 2015

Hello! I am still alive.

Hi everyone! Wow...I've been gone a year...a whole year! I don't believe how much time goes by so fast. Feels like when you are a child, time just crawls by so slowly and when you grow older, it speeds up much to quickly. I am sorry for my sudden departure from my blog, but I am back. I've missed you all so much!

I guess I needed some time away while I thought about my art, where I'd like it to be, where I really want it to go and generally to sort my whole life out. And I finally think I'm ready to tackle tackling the whole art business seriously, because, I realized during my working days at my day job, that it's where I truly want to be. So, I have been around the interwebs on various social sites that are my regular haunts, and trying to improve my work. I think I am finally getting better and to a place on how I want it to look.  I am totally looking forward to sharing that progress with all of you. *big Internet hugs*

So! I guess you could call this illustration my first after a whole year away. Looking at it, it has turned out to be a turning point drawing where I feel I've changed so much.

 
 
 
This little lady is called "Bewitched". She was for an October auction on Facebook last year. I am happy to say that she found a lovely new home. One of my first successful sales in a long, long time.  She was done with pencils and white ink on Deleter Art paper. She actually took nearly three months to finish! But, that was probably due to a hectic work schedule at the time.  When you work in florals, you come to dread the holidays. *laughs*
 
 
So again, so happy to be back! I hope all of you have been well? Cannot wait to catch up on lost time. See you all very soon! Cheers!

Thursday, June 26, 2014

Portrait of a Lady


Good Tuesday afternoon! Finally feels like summer here in Vancouver, after a rather chilly start to this month.  It is very lovely to see the beautiful sun and feel it's kind warmth.  Also been pretty stormy in a lot of other places this year, eh?  Those of you that have been through some harsh storms already,  I hope you are all well and safe.

So, I posted this a little bit back on Facebook..(which I've been naughtily been on more and more lately.)  Since I had started a picture book for my mum, as a gift for her birthday back in May,  I soon realised that I wasn't going to finish in time.  So, I created this as a backup drawing for her.  It was finished about three days after her birthday and I was so happy to finally give it to her!  She loved it.  Which makes me more happy. *laughs*

I wanted to go for more realism this time around and found a gorgeous photograph in a hair magazine and just could not resist the call to illustrate it myself.  The fur ruff was quite the process!  I started out with flat pencil rub and slowly built up the lines, then took a fine pointed eraser to create highlights in the ruff.  That process I did several times over, until I was eventually happy with how it looked.

I didn't want to overdo the background or do something that was too busy and have the woman disappear, so I kept the background simple and uncluttered.  I kinda really liked doing more of a realistic style and so want to do another like this at some point.  It was so much fun!

I've been pretty busy lately working out the kinks to my book, revising the writing and characters; and, been have loads of fun creating maps and drawings for it.  I never thought map making would be that joyous to do!  So far, things are going slowly, but surely. ^_^

I wish you all a wonderful and sun filled day!  Cheers!

Thursday, May 29, 2014

Princess Peach





So, a little video game art today.  I've played Super Mario Brothers since it first came out on the Nintendo system back when I was a kid in the '80's.  It's still one of my favourite games ever!  I just wish I had the new Wii system to try the new ones out on. *sigh*  One day...one day.

My inspiration for this one was, I thought it would be awesome to be able to play the Mario games as just Princess Peach herself, but for that game to have all the beauty and game play as the Zelda video games.  I would adore that!

I wish the castle could have looked a bit better...maybe, more Gothic for Bowser's castle.  I should have used a reference for it.  I'll remember that for next time though. ^_^
This pose came from an older drawing I had done a few years ago.  I so loved the pose, but not the actual drawing itself, so I re-used the pose and revamped it for this drawing.  Much better results this time round.

Took my mum to Starbucks for her favourite coffee and a peanut butter cookie....delightful way to spend an afternoon!




Wishing you all a wonderful and coffee filled day! Cheers! xoxo

Sunday, May 25, 2014

A Doodle A Day


Hello!  How is everyone this fine May afternoon?  I think last post I mentioned that my mum had given me a challenge to do every day....as you can see from the picture above, it was to do a doodle every day.  Doesn't matter what it is, only I can take just thirty minuets to one hour on any doodle in the book.  And the stress point is, the doodle doesn't have to be perfect.  The idea here is to try and free myself from the trappings (which can sometimes be crippling when it comes to finishing the drawings for me) of perfection.

I've really enjoy doing this, it was very hard at the start not to use the eraser constantly, but it's fun and offers a way to do stress free drawings.  And I get to play with some new styles. Heeheehee....
The idea came from a book my mum bought for me called by the same name, "Craft - A - Doodle".  The book is by Jenny Doh and features 75 different artists to inspire creating doodles.  If you can find this book, my gosh...check it out!  It's an awesome book!

I used a sketch book I had laying about for awhile to use for this challenge.  It has a lovely craft cover and was perfect for drawing on.  Makes this feel more personal than just going out and buying a sketch book with an already pretty illustration on it.

I've already done a few doodles in it:




This purple heart, created with a purple Faber castel fine liner:




I also tried out a little digital doodle on Coral DRAW:




And so far my favourite of all...these little Catfish:





I have a fair bit more, but I'll share those a bit later.  Anyway, I'm loving this challenge and will most likely continue long after the deadline, it's so relaxing.

Also, my mum turned 67 on the 20th of this month....




I started a picture book for her, about her Nana...but soon I realised that finishing the book would take a little longer than I thought,  I started this one for her instead:




I still didn't quite finish, but I still presented this to her on her birthday.  I was so happy when she loved how it looked.  I'm just finishing the background and I'll be done tonight. Woo to the hoo!

Wanted to try a bit more realistic style and doing portraits.  It's not as hard as I thought it was going to be, so I just may do more like this.  ^_^

Well, that is all for now...I wish you all a wonderful and creative week ahead! Cheers!

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Empress: A Royal Elf


Hello! *phew* My bad for not blogging in a few weeks!  My laptop died and I had to wait a bit before I could replace it.  I have a nifty little tablet now, which I'm still trying to get used to.  It's only seven inches big, so seeing things on-line is hard. *laughs*  But I love it!  Been busy catching up with everything, since.

So, how was the New Year for all of you?  I completely forgot about the countdown, (I was busy playing Zelda for, like, six hours), until my mum woke up, she had a bad case of the flu, and reminded me.  I love opening the patio door and listening to the city as everyone makes noise at midnight.  It's such an awesome sound!

Anyway, this little lady here I finally finished!  I had to stitch some of the art together in an art program because it was much too large for the scanner, but I still did not yet quite fit all of the drawing in the frame.  She is going to be included in my book, though, she won't show up until the very end of the series.

As for the book, I am about midway through now and I'm guess that the first draft will work out to be around 90,000 words.  It's very hard not to edit as I write the rough draft, but I have to keep reminding myself to think of it as a rough sketch to stop myself. *laughs*  What I'm enjoying most out of the writing, seeing the characters come to life on the page!  I'm still in awe of them taking over my brain.

Well, my lovelies, I hope you all are having a wonderful week.  And I wish an early spring thaw for those of you going through the terrible winter storms. Cheers!

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Tangled-Plus a NaNo and PiBoIdMo update


Oh hi there! My goodness, December already, where on earth has the time flown to?!  November was so crazy busy, but I feel that I got the most done out of all the other months past. Yippee!
I'll start with this drawing here.  I finished this actually close to the end of last month.  She's done with pencil and white ink again, as I'm running very low on my watercolour pencils and the like.

She's inspired by one of my favourite, and a little rare, Grimm fairy tale of  three women who are turned into flowers and only one can return to her good husband at night.  They form a plan and he rescues her from her enchantment.  It's such a sweet little story, and by little I mean very wee.  It's barely a paragraph long.  I wanted to illustrate something that might go along with it, so I hope I did it a fair enough composition.  Hmm, it might also make for some lovely writing paper.

I also participated in NaNoWriMo and PiBoIdMo this year as well.  It wasn't a challenge juggling the two as much as I thought it was going to be.  For NaNo, I managed to make it just past the 20,000 mark by the end.  Which I think is still quite good for my first try, since I didn't quite know what the heck I was doing in the first place. *Laughs*  But, I have a super awesome start (finally) to my first middle grade book.  It's all very exciting to see the characters, settings and plots come to life.  I'm still writing strong and have a goal to make it to almost 50,000 by this month's end.  (I'll try my best at least, so no biggie if I don't quite make it.)

And I totally completed PiBoIdMo! Woo to the Hoo!  I have about 40 ideas written down for a children's picture book and I've narrowed it down to five ideas now.  I've two really rough manuscripts started and I'm currently noodling around with some rough concepts for the illustrations.
It's a brave new world and experience starting for me and I'm very much looking forward to see where that sails me to.

I never knew at first that I would start to head in this direction of children's books and writing, until last year I took a serious look at just who I was reading out there in blogger land.  I was very surprised to see it was mostly mums who were writing, illustrating and crafting, but the largest majority was children's writers and illustrating.  That actually surprised me, as I've done comics for so long.  It's weird how you don't always know yourself, isn't it?  So a change was in definite order.  The thought of being able to one day inspire a little one (maybe one of own one day too), fills me with a joy I never got from doing comics. I just can't wait to get started!

Oh no! I'm rambling...I'll be quiet and leave you to your lovely tea! *laughs*



I've been doodling a lot lately.  More so than getting to finish pieces, really.  This one here, "Forest Elf"  is for my middle grade novel.  She's a lot nicer looking than she really is, so don't  be fooled too much by that elegant face. *wink*  I'm almost done with her, I just hope my colours will last long enough for me to finish.

And one more sketch to show you...



This again is for my middle grade book.  I'm calling her "Empress" for now.  She doesn't show up until the end of the series, but I wanted to draw her so I can flesh out her details in writing a bit better.  She a very nice young elf lady and has a twin.  I'm going to have to use pencil for this drawing, I wont have enough colours left after I finish with another drawing.

How was all of your Thanksgiving my dear American friends?  Did anyone dare to go Black Friday shopping?  Omgosh, I never do that kind of shopping, I'd like to keep all my limbs intact, thank you very much indeed. *laughs*  This is why I'm very grateful for having Hanukkah early this year.

Wishing you all a very merry and candy cane coloured week! Cheers!

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Featured In Art Doll Quarterly!

Hellooooo! First I want to apologise for last week's sorta dark post that I wrote.  I've made a note that when feeling lower and low and not my happy self, leave blogging till that passes. *laughs* So, I'm also sorry for not going around to visit. Forgive me, please! *Giving Sad Puppy Eyes*

Anyway...I'm feeling sky high happy today, which is such a great feeling to have again. I think I said some time back that I would have some news in November? Riiighhhtt?? And if you've been with me on Face book during the summer, I kinda blabbed early, but I was so excited!  I'd like to announce now that one of my paper dolls, Toko has been featured in Art Doll Quarterly!!!  I'm still excitedly waiting for the issue to arrive in my mail slot, but I just couldn't wait to share!!

And here's the little lady:


And the gorgeous front cover this the winter issue:





I'm just so super happy to be part of this issue, with all the marvelous doll artists that are are always in there and to share a page with them is such and honour and treat that I could ever hope for!
So, in my uber excitement, I'm going to create some new paper dolls this weekend.  I have one here that is actually part of the book I'm working on:




Her name is Fable and I'll have a better photo shot of her up a little later on. She's fully articulated, her wrists, ankles, head, torso, knees, elbows and shoulders all move.  My first time making a larger paper doll.  I have another one waiting, for the past two months actually, to be inked and coloured, then put together.

My gosh, I still cannot go on about how happy I am.  I've spend the last four years really pushing at the direction I really want to go in.  Submitting things and submitting things and feeling like I've been getting no where. No even getting rejection letters....just a void of silence.  But with this, I strongly feel a change in that, I see a light at that dark tunnel's end.  Seeing that email in the summer, that joyful acceptance letter....someone saying "yes" and thinking that it fits in with their publication, has given me the courage and strength to keep fighting for longer now. You guys have given me that too! So thank you all and Art Doll Quarterly!  The future looks bright again!

Ooh! Before I go, I'll share a little sketch:




I originally posted this on Face book. This is "Juliet" from William Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet". Just a simple pencil sketch while watching a movie.  I always liked Clare Danes outfit from the 1996 film version and I wanted to draw something like it.

Well, that's all for today. ^_^ Wishing you a wonderful, happy and creative week! Cheers my friends!

Friday, November 1, 2013

Little Red Ridinghood


Happy November 1st everyone!  How was your Halloween? Did any of you dress up or take your kids out?
I stayed in, my street is a little scary to actually go out after dark on that night. So I stayed in and watched the Charlie Brown Halloween special on TV and also watched Paranorman. There was a ton of fireworks going off right outside my apartment! Just happy nothing caught fire. *phew*
 
So, as for this young lady you see here, this was done close to the end of last month. I wanted to post her up yesterday, but just plain forgot. I'm still feeling a little blue. Anyway, it's my own little take on the Grimm's fairytale, Little Red Riding hood.
I wanted the whole drawing to sort of tell the story and I purposely made the lines of the house a little off to make it seem like there was something not quite right about it. I'm still not too happy
about how the wolves look....but, I'm going to spend some time practicing drawing animals. This took so long to draw! A little too long, about three weeks and 1/2...I think. *laughs* 
 I did this with a mechanical pencil and white ink.
 
So, I've also joined a few challenges this month.  I'll be doing PiBoIdMo this year, and already have about ten ideas so far! Yay! I also signed up for NaNoWriMo. (wow...lots of acronyms! *laughs*) After my head nearly exploded from plotting my first book, I think I'm ready to start writing out the first rough copy of it. Don't know if I'll get to all 50,000 words, but I do my best!
 
I finally  started up my Face book page ! I'm doing this all in the hopes to get myself and my work out there. I desperately want to do this for a living...I want so much to be able to do children's book and write them too! I want someone to at least see that I can do good illustrations and I want to share that with so many people that I admire and hope I can be part of their ranks one day. I'm not good at marketing, but again, all I can do is try my best and see what happens.  Hope this doesn't sound like I'm complaining,  never would, not that kind of person....I just want this more than ever to be a dream come true. Thank you my lovely friends, for always being my sunshine and I hope I show as much support for your work like you always do for me. Much Love to you all!
 
Wishing you all a lovely, and creative weekend ahead! Cheers you awesome people!

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Captured Butterfly ATC


Wonderful evening to you everyone! Man, it's super foggy out tonight, the fog horn has been going off for quite sometime now.  At first I thought it was the movie I was watching, only to poke my head out and realized it wasn't. *laughs*

So, this has to be one of the smallest drawings I've done...ever!  It's on a 4" x 4" square card and I used a mechanical pencil and white ink.  I did this for a reader challenge call, "The Faces Of Mixed Media", over on Cloth Paper Scissors.  I have to get the original mailed off, but, if it doesn't make it in time I went and shared it on their reader forum today.  I had originally titled this, "No One Suspects The Butterfly"....buuuttt...I wanted something that sounded a bit more ethereal.

This one was done close to the beginning of this month and took about a week from start to finish.  I can't believe I forgot all about it sitting in my closet until I was tidying up and it fell to my feet. *laughs*

For a little size comparison:





Thank you all for the wonderful comments you guys always give me....I love reading them and they always make me smile. I've been feeling a little more up beat this week and I can't wait to feel like myself again.

So that's it for tonight....I wish you all a lovely creative and happy week! Cheers!

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

The Little Prince


Afternoon all you little wonders out there! The sun is shinning, it's a beautiful day and the crisp fall air is deeply tangible now....ahhh..and, I'm getting very excited for November to roll around. I'm sitting here all giggles and smiles, but I can't tell you yet what it is. But I cannot wait! I feel like an impatient child with a brand new dress, but not allowed to wear it just yet.

So, leaving you with that cryptic message, let me introduce you to another lead character  for my middle grade novel.  Of which I'm just starting to plot out...it feels kind of daunting and scary to plot, but I've got a number of books out to help that path along smoothly.  It'll be awesome to see where it leads to.  Then, I'll move on to the actual writing part....which will be very messy and I'll have to learn to not edit as I go along.

Anyway, this young man right here is Nemo. (Again, I'm going to be mean and not mention his last name...because I love doing word play that incorporates the story) The male lead and is Sandy's closest companion in her strange new world.  He's not actually a prince, he kinda looks like one though in his white and gold finery.  He is twelve years old and has been in this other world for so long that he no longer remembers what his last name is, how he got where he is and only partly remembers where he's from.  (Shh, just between you and me....he's from Cornwall, England. *winks*)  He loves battle games, sweets and stories.  He enjoys being a bit of a joker and playing pranks on certain people that scare easily.  He's headstrong and very independent after needing to fend for himself for such a long time.  But also he's kind and gets great pleasure of helping those in need.  He becomes very protective of Sandy and will stop short of dangerous heroic acts to aide or save her from harm.

All that black hair of his came out slightly more Emo than I thought, *laughs*, so I hope that aspect will somehow work out in his favor, a young man that's already unusually stylish.

I used watercolours pencils from Faber Castel used dry as they give a wonderful air brushed look along with a colourless blender to smooth things over. In all took about three weeks to finish.

Currently I'm working on a drawing for a friend.  He runs a comic called "Reynard City", which is so cute and zany to read.  I'm making for him a decorative writing paper drawing:

 



Colouring is about halfway through. Yay!

 
That's all for this week my friends, I'll leave you now with some words that I hope will inspire you all to go for your dreams!  I saw this in a car ad, I believe and it got me so charged up, I cut it out and stuck it in my inspiration journal.


Wishing you all a very happy and wonderful week! Cheers!

Saturday, September 7, 2013

The Dreaming Elf


Good evening!  I hope you all had a splendid week and are enjoying a good weekend.  It's been a busy few weeks for me.  There's been a lot of planning and preparing for Rosh Hashana this past week and now upcoming is  Yom Kippur. I wish you all a very happy L'Shana Tova this new year!

Phew, man, I didn't think I would ever finish this drawing...it has taken me at least three weeks to finish. I've been so obsessed with my current book project, that I have to remind myself to also juggle the other illustrations I have started on the side as well.  She's done with mechanical pencil and white ink.  I wanted the chance to brush up on my pencil and shading skills with this piece and it reminded me how much I love to work in black and white...and...with pencils too!  I found the pose in an old hair magazine and I knew I wanted to incorporate it in a drawing somehow as it was such an elegant and dreamy pose.

I wanted to have a background that sort of reflected what she was dreaming about.  Some far away land that maybe she had not seen in a long time, and missed.  The bird represents my own dreams where I'm flying and the egg meaning to represent unhatched ideas. (At least that's the best way I can describe it.)  An elf who has horns?! Well, I just can't help it, I love to draw horns on about everything...and you never know, maybe some elves do have horns. Right? *laughs*

Anyway, I've been taking daily walks down to the pier park in downtown New Westminster for a little inspiration and quite time to just sit and think by the water.




























Ha ha..well, I'm not the best photographer ever, but I think I need something better than just my phone one day. I love going down by the water, nothing is more relaxing than watching the water lapping against the rocks. I'd love to make it out to Stanley Park one of these days.  I haven't been there in a very long time.

Wishing you all a very wonderful week ahead! Cheers!

Sunday, August 18, 2013

The White Lady: Drawing Up For Auction


Good Sunday afternoon to you all!  Hope you are all doing well and have had a good week that's now past and headed into a new one.  The cooler weather here in New Westminster has been a very grateful relief after a nearly two month long heat wave and endless sun.  I love the sun, but I also love cool, cloudy days like now too.  Where I can curl up with something warm and watch the day slip by.

So! This lady up here will be up for auction tomorrow evening and all next week until next Monday at Femme Thou Art Collective on Face book.  This month's theme was "White Lady".  The thought I immediately had for this theme was a white elf of the night who can swoop in the moon with one twirl of her mantle.  I wanted the beads on her head-dress to mimic the stars.  The jewel on her forehead is inspired by Ozma from the Wizard of Oz books, she wears the same piece of jewelry on her head as well that very stylishly spells out "Oz".  (I have a lovely old copy of "Rinkytink In Oz")I loved it so much that I wanted to put it on this lady as if she too could have come from the Emerald City royalty.  The ram's horns just sort of snuck themselves in there...so maybe she's half ram as well. *laughs* 

I did the background digitally...in part to save some time and also in part that I thought something digital would look very cool.  This was originally supposed to be a black and white ink drawing, but I had a thought that just a single pair of red eyes would had something interesting to the black and white inks....as you can see....I totally gave way to colouring entirely!  I just could not help myself...so maybe she wanted to be in colour after all. *laughs*  This has taken nearly two weeks from start to finish.


I was going to share some photo's of a little trip I took to the Pier Park in downtown New West....but for some reason blogger will only let me up load this one drawing, so, I'll try and share those pictures with you loves next time.

Until then, wishing you all a wonderful week ahead! Cheers!





Friday, August 2, 2013

The Little Birthday Girl



Hello all and happy Friday!!!  Wow, it's August already...which means the changing of leaves into those beautiful fall colours and feeling summer cool away.  I can't believe how the year is now at halfway point...it's all going by so quickly.

Anyway, remember awhile ago I was talking about working on a middle grade novel? Well, I still am.  I've been drowning in research for it for almost eight months now and it's still growing.  I'm still developing the plot and subplots, characters, backgrounds, settings and mythical creatures for the book.  I still want to do a blog about it, which I thought I would have up this past April, but as it turns out...I wasn't ready for that just yet.  I want to make sure I know the In's and outs of my story fully before posting about it.

For now, I bring you my lead character: Sandy.  She's just turned ten years old and is a sweet, rambunctious and imaginative young lass.  She's from the town of Bagshot in England, and lives during the Edwardian Period. (If you're thinking that the town of Bagshot sounds familiar....you're right!  It's my tiny salute to J.K Rowling and the Harry Potter books, which pushed me forward to try writing again.)  She loves, sweets, bedtime stories of fairy tales and myths and will spend innumerable hours making up her own fairy lands, imagining all the adventures she'll have there.

I really wanted to get the feel of old style illustrations from that time, so I did a fair amount of research on children's books of the 1900's and found that most young girls were always coloured with very pale to pastel colours, while the backgrounds would be deep and rich.  Oddly enough, that would make the central figure stand out.   I remember as a kid myself, that I would love to read books with illustrations that were insanely detailed and would stare at them for hours trying to 'see' everything hidden in the picture.  So I intend the same this for my book, which I hope will go over, at least, moderately well.

I'll keep you guys posted on the other characters as they become finished.  Wishing you a lovely and creative weekend. Cheers and love to you all!

Monday, July 22, 2013

Two Little Mucha Babies: Splash the Sea maid and Little Su the Cook


Hello luvies! Happy Monday, I hope yours went like magic.  The last two weeks here have been crazy hectic.  Got my apartment painted and some things fixed up by the manager and building owner. So there's been lots of people coming and going.  Haven't got much done in that whole while, outside of a new paper doll and lots of sketches and some drawings that are currently on the colouring table.  Including one for Summer Of Colour run by the lovely and talented Kristin of the wonderful Twinkle, Twinkle blog. (Which I highly recommend you go check out for some delightful and inspiring art awesomeness!) Which sadly I missed because I just can't seem to draw fast enough. *laughs*

So today I bring you two little paper dolls.  I'll start with Splash, the little sea maid.  She was created for Cameron of Paint Myself Pretty during her Mermaid swap last year. I'm still so in love with the piece she sent me.  I thought I had already had this little girl up on my blog, but when I did a search, I couldn't find it.  And I'm much happier now, knowing that I've corrected it. Ha ha, yeah!  Since I've been busy with my book project lately, and had no time to create something new, I was also going to submit this to the July Auction for Femme Thou Art Collective .  I missed that too darn it! My laptop hasn't been feeling well lately, so I couldn't get it posted in time.  But I have next month to make up for it.  Splash is the largest out of my dolls, probably due to her very large tail.  Her tail is sort of based on the movements of a washcloth underwater.  You know the kind you used to play with as a kid at bath time.  And she holds a small trident, ready to jab in the bottom anyone out of line. *laughs*  The background is one that I had on my USB file and can't remember where I got it from...but it suited this little maid very well.

Second little doll I have for you is Su:


Su is from the children's manga, "Shugo Chara Chan!" (English Translation: Guardian Character Chan!) There are four of these super cute characters in the book.  I chose Su because she has to be the most girl-y and sweetest one out of all of them, and well, she also happens to be green, which is one of my favourite colours.  She loves to cook, eat and clean...but I think eating comes out on top for her.  And boy, is she ever the master little chief!  She can cook anything, a skill I can only dream of.  Now, unlike Splash or any other of the little dolls, she's my smallest.  I couldn't make her as tiny as she is in the books, about 10 inches, I think, but I could bring her about as close as.  Even with that she'd still be larger than the manga character. *laughs*

I made a little wire whisk and a green bowl, to match the egg she hatched from (yes these little girls are hatched from very tiny eggs in the story), full of whipped cream.  For the background I used an opening title page from "Curly Locks" from one of my children's rhyme books.  The saying at the bottom really goes well with Su's personality and describes her to a tee.

Well, that's all for this week my dear bloggie friends.  Thank you always for coming by to visit.  Wishing you all a wonderful, creative and delicious week. Strawberry Cheers!

Sunday, July 7, 2013

A bit of flash Fiction: Moonlit Sonata

Hi all, a good Sunday afternoon! It's warm, sunny and the sounds of sweet summer are filtering through to my apartment.  I so love watching the sunrises and sunsets at this time of year....they always remind me of impressionist paintings. So lovely...I even find myself getting up a little extra early....and 7 am is early for me...*laughs*, just to watch the cool morning sun.

So, I did this little bit of short fiction writing for something I saw on another blog, Imagine, Create, Write! , which I love to visit and read.  I always leave feeling so inspired.  She was holding a "Create a female superhero" flash fiction writing contest....which was such a great idea.  Comics could use more strong female superheros.  I didn't get my entry done on time as is was on one of the hottest days and I just could not stand my apartment, which reached over 100 degrees, so, I avoided my laptop like the plague.  I still wanted to post it and share it with all of you, though. 

I used a mechanical pencil and three different sizes of burnishing tools to buff and smooth the pencil lines and to add some small details I used a white ink pen.  I didn't have quite enough time to finish the back ground, as I thought I could still make the deadline at 3 minuets left. (Nope...got too involved with the background. Heehee) So, the background is digital.  I used some stock images, from where I can no longer remember where I got from, but it suited her nicely and finished it up in CorelDRAW.  This, in all, took me about a week to do. Which is rather quick for me.




Name of Female Superhero:  Dark Star

Name of Human Alter Ego:  Amnesia December

Superhero Appearance:  Same as Human appearance.

Human Alter Ego Appearance:  A young woman of 18 who stands at six feet tall.  Her hair is long and shiny black with a slight wave to it ans she wears half of it up in two small buns with short kiddie bangs.  Her eyes are white with little pink flecks in them that turn blood red when angry.  Her skin is has pale and white as bleached bone and an icy skin temperature.

Costume:  Black lace corset, black pants and a long black hooded cape. She also has a set of black crow wings.

Personality: Aloof, strong, sarcastic, yet is soft and kind deep in her heart, honest, intelligent

A Brief description of how the super heroine gets her powers: She's a dampyre or half vampire.  She has no memory of where she has come from, who she really is or who or even how she came to be cursed as a halfling. She does suspect that she has always been this way, however. She simply awoke one evening on the floor of an abandoned hospital floor, the entire town where she lived, all mysteriously murdered.

Powers:  Can throw her blood into multiple flying razor blades.  Can fly with crow wings from her back, which disappear when not in use.  She is also telekinetic and can move things or break things simply by glaring at them.  She can summon fire with a snap of her fingers and direct it at her attackers.  She uses a long silver sword that she acquired from a sword master in Wales.  She can also sing a siren's song to hypnotize those around her.

Anything Else Important:  She fights all sorts of underworld creatures to find a cure of the illness before it consumes her, body and soul. Leaving her a full vampire.  She has a haunted past and a very haunted presence.  To solve the mysteries of her past and find those who broke her, she will have to search far and wide before looking to the clues of things beyond her own grave.


Moonlit Sonata
 
 
 
Moon. Bright, beautiful, pale, red moon. Moon...floating softly, serenely through the dark starless sky.  Enchanting moon.  Making everything drunk with rapture as her ice chilled, luminous fingers of bare light caresses every inch of the dark earth within her grasp.   Even me, as I alight upon the highest tower possible, in this country that is awash with endless neon orange artificial lights, spilling out, and stretching eternally away below my feet into the pitted black of the distant night.  Just the wind, the glorious, fat golden moon and me.  Cherry blossoms, with their blushing faces, whirl exquisitely past me, away to their dusty death in the cool spring air.  Just the wind, the moon, the blood-drunk cherry blossoms and me. Ah! How sweet is the smell of fresh, new spring!
          I stand, gazing dreamily up in reverence at this glowing, pocked marked rock that has served as my false sun for the last few hundred years.  Its soft light shines down upon me, illuminating those odd, night eyes, causing them to glow unnaturally green like a cat. The moon is as bone white and dead as I, although, it is not a monstrous, dark thing as I. If anyone dares but wonder the kind of creature that I subsist as, I am a Dampyre; or a half vampire. How I came to be this way, I do not know.  Some of my kind, who are proud to be what they are, prefer the term Lilin, Dark Prince Charming or Strix over using the term “Dampyre”.  The sound is far less vulgar, and threatening, making it a great deal more elegant, as well as exquisitely beautiful.  Nothing scares off a potential prey more than saying that you are “Dracula” when they ask what you are, before you kill them.  Akin to most of my kind, my looks are charmingly deceptive. A cunning, vicious wolf wrapped in a fine human skin.  Most human beings construct us to be genuinely ugly, repulsive, senseless devouring fiends.  Salivating, drooling and stupid just waiting to eviscerate the next human to cross our path, also, for some odd reasoning, extremely hairy. I myself, hate overly hairy things, I find body hair particularly repulsive.  Hence, my deep hate for the Werewolves, which have far too much for my liking.  This human folklore about us I find extremely funny, as do most of us. For if, we actually looked like some horrid, inhuman demon, how would we lure the leery into our pretty web?  No one human would dare trust us, let alone come even a foot near us. Who would trust a monster that truly appeared to be one? Armed and dangerous, but only to those weak enough to trust our carefully lying eyes.

  The moonlight tracing and retracing the cut of my figure, fresh evening air caresses my skin, sending my carefully coiffed, long black hair dancing madly around me.  The sudden gust caught and blew free some of the coal black feathers on my exposed, lone wing, on my right side.  I lost the other in a violent battle many years ago...but that...is an entirely different story.  I watch as they drift slowly down into the blinking lights below.  Wondering if they sent a signal to the other Lilin’s, that a foreign night walker had entered their territory.  All the little feathers I shed are singing, as are all the other night things.  I can hear them, singing to the moon of all shapely newness.

I pause atop Tokyo Tower in Japan; my ardent search has shepherded me here. I stand, unkempt waiting for some strange reaction. To what, I do not even know myself.  Gifted with wings, albeit only one, in addition to being able to travel at an inhuman speed, I arrived here in only a day from my home in Wales.  Ah! Japan!  A city of buzzing neon lights, noise, contradictions and offerings of every pleasurable temptations and delights ever imagined; all under the rising crimson sun.  All exists here.  From the most sadistic, Hellenistic acts, to the annoyingly fluffy, cute and pure.  Here on this tiny spit of land, is where tradition and the freaky, anime-fuelled pop-culture collided seamlessly together.  The smell of the mortal beings rises up to me like vapours, making me dizzy, hungry and angry.  Angry knowing that I came here not to taste, or hunt, however to end my pursuit. I have travelled this far, to this place to find my death or the cure of the illness that eats at me.  My beautiful, final death.  There comes a time in every Lilin’s life, where they become life weary.  The constant night, in and out of boredom, the loneliness that wells up and crushes what little is left of the soul, tired of the hell we achieve by our own brutal acts upon ourselves and the human lives we touch.  Weeping as the past falls away without footprints to follow back upon and our future always the same as the century before, immortal life soon feels like a cancer, eating away what little human remains in us; until life is like a hollow ledge with a little tepid pool left there by the sea, dying inward from the edge.  When we reach that point, we long for death to take us away upon its dusty wings, and feel the thrill of something different happening to our bodies.
 
Oh wow! That took a lot of writing....but very good practice.  I haven't created a female superhero in a long time. It was fun! And I hope fun to read, albeit, a little macabre.  I don't normally go for vampires as they are everywhere these days, but I couldn't resist just this once.
Thank you for reading my lovely bloggie friends! Wishing you a happy creative week! Cheers!
 
 



Monday, June 24, 2013

Life From Decay


Hello there, Happy Monday! Like promised here is the drawing I did for the auction over at Femme Thou Art June auction on facebook . The auction ends today at 7 PM.  We're already deciding on next month July auction...can't wait to see what it will be!

Oh man, this took me three weeks and four days from start to finish.  I'm a slow artist, so something this detailed takes me a super long time.  I put everything else I was working on aside to get this finished.  Next auction I'm doing only a very small, Art Trading Card size work, which will take me far less time than this one did.

I used a mix of my trusty watercolour pencils, which I always use dry on Deleter paper, because it gives this wonderful airbrushed look. I also used some gold pens to finish off her beads and then pulled the finished work onto CorelDRAW and added in the butterflies, moths, assorted flowers, rocks and ferns. The final file was huge!  I'm glad I saved along the way as my laptop kept crashing on me due to its hatred of my art programs. *laughs*

I am not sure if I handled the theme right, but, my original thought for this was a beautiful spring fairy emerging from the decay left behind by the melting of winter snows. A fairy that brings life to all she touches.

So, can anyone spot the squirrel hidden in the trees? Or the bunnies...oh, well they're pretty easy to spot. *laughs*

That's all for now my lovies.  Wishing you all a creative, brilliant week! Cheers!

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

I Will Wait For You: Coffee Sketch


Good Wednesday to you all!  Hope you are having a good week.  So far so good in keeping myself to stick to a proper schedule of blogging at least once a week, woo to the hoo! I've been so busy in getting the drawing done for the upcoming June Auction over on the Femme Thou Art Collective Face book page, that I've quite left behind my other projects for the moment.  I've never been apart of an auction before, so I'm equal parts nervous and excited.  I have until this Sunday to have it done and up, and I'll be posting it here with a little link as well.

Anyway, I feel a little sad that I've just left the last end of the short story unfinished in the editing stage, and, still have put it up for you wonderful people to read just yet.  Once the auction is over for this month, I'll get right back to it.  The poor prince has just been left to sit quietly on the sea, I am a cruel writer.

As a thanks to you all, my bloggie buds, I took some time out to quickly paint a "Thank You" picture....as, well, a thank you for waiting and always sending me honest and cheerful comments.  I truly admire all of you....you are the butter to my bread. So thank you!

I know it's not much, but, I had some extra coffee grounds laying about in the cupboard.  They were too small to even make up a small cup, so, I brewed it and set about painting with it.  This is my second venture into painting with coffee...it always smells super nice for a few days when it's done.  I added some dark brown to the coffee to help darken some areas and taking a separate tiny paint brush, started brushing in white for highlights.  The coffee removed some of the ink I had laid down earlier, so, I had to add those back in after this was totally dry. I also used heavy Arches Paper to avoid too much paper wrinkling. Later, I dragged this onto CorelDRAW to clean this up a bit more and to smooth out some stray lines.  I would love to turn this into a journal notebook cover, but I have no idea how to do that. *laughs* Something new to learn! To the Library!

Psst....I hope you enjoy the new banner.  Felt like a change was needed.

Wishing you all a creative weekend ahead. Cheers!

Saturday, June 1, 2013

A Birthday Gift Basket and a WIP drawing

Woo hoo it's June! I can't wait for the days to turn warmer and hit the beach with my sketchbook again.  I think what I like best about summer is its long days of sunlight, where at almost 10 pm the sun is still just setting. Ahhhh, I'm so excited for summer in all its green beauty.

Anyway, as I work on the final edits to the short story, I'd thought I would share what I did for my mum on her 66th birthday on May 20.  I wanted to do something really nice for her this year, as last was rather tight and I couldn't afford to give her anything in way of a present.  This year has been better, so, I took about a week to decide what to do for her, and came up with the idea for a gift basket after seeing some pretty ones in the store.  I made her write up a list for me of some small things she might like and went out for a day of shopping.

Here's what I came back with:


Far Left to Right:

A Journal from Papaya at the local book store, a gorgeous sea grass basket that I just could not pass up for making this, as you can see Reese's Pieces, Marzipan chocolates, socks( yes, socks....she liked them that much), Darjeeling black tea, a very pretty ankle bracelet that she uses as a wrist bracelet, Indian Chai scented candles, Lilly of The Valley Soap from Crab tree and Evelyn, a little treasure trunk, a awesome square class mug and a little blue bird candle in a sweet cage.  As well as some fancy paper, ribbons and yellow and pink roses to decorate the basket with.

I started off with wiring the roses into the basket:


Please forgive the mess in the background, I was later going to put up some bamboo blinds to cut out some of the hot sun my apartment gets. *laughs*  I wish I had picked up more roses, it would have looked nice to have had the entire rim covered in them.

I then wove through some white crepe paper and also wound it around the handles, then added the first layers of tissue paper.  I forgot to pick up the floral foam, so I added paper to the bottom of the basket to lift up the gifts inside.:


I placed the little marzipan chocolates inside the treasure box....which wasn't that hard and I found that since they weren't going to be travelling very far, I didn't tape them down:


I later took out the jewelry and draped it over the chocolates, to make it look like actual treasure.

I forgot to take pictures as I was going along trying to pack the basket.....which I did several times over!  Getting everything to fit nicely was harder than I thought.  But, after the fifth attempt at it, I finally got it right and it came out like this before I wrapped it up with some fancy cellophane:


Finally I added the cellophane and the fancy ribbons:


I attached the card I bought for her. I should have made one, but I didn't think of that until I had, like, no time to make her one. But, I thought this was much prettier:


I also took some time to make her a bouquet of Anemone, pink tea roses, hydrangea and ivy, with a tiny bit of bear grass:


All together, she was so very happy when she got her gifts:


Happy Birthday Mum! Here's to a great year and more to come!


We later had some very yummy chocolate cheesecake, white wine, rice pudding, went for some coffee and watched some movies in the evening.  Quite a good birthday for her, the closer she gets to 70 the more grateful each year that I become that she is still here with me.

For right now, I'll leave you wonderful people with the next drawing I'm currently rushing to finish, as it will be up for auction at a group I'm now apart of called Femme Thou Art Collective .  It's been a pleasure getting to know these other wonderful artists.  The auction in June is called "Life springing from Decay".  Here's a WIP of what I came up with, I'm still inking it:



I'm doing another gift basket for a friend who also had a birthday last week...it's so much fun to create these baskets.  Wishing you all a wonderful, creative week ahead! Cheers!