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!

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!

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!

A Fairytale Splash

Hello dear friends, my...how has a whole month and a half gone by so quickly?!  Well, sadly I haven't gotten much done lately due to working the Mother's Day rush at work and then getting the flu, so my short fairy tale story is yet unfinished.  Good news though, I did get the drawing for it done and this long weekend I'll be working on the fairy tale again.  And I'm sad that I haven't had the chance to start the blog for my book yet, so that's really delayed.

I am now Open For Commissions!  My laptop is just about toast and before it dies on me completely, I want to replace it. But I need to save up a little bit more to get another one that I have my little eye on. Just email me if any are interested and I'll send you my price list, then we can talk further from there.

So this drawing here was a little tricky in deciding which colours would look best.  I wanted something with a vintage look and feel to it, sort of like one of those watercolour illustrations from the 1900's you'd see in old fairy tale books.  The Mermaid's hair was so hard to colour *laughs* as I had put in way too many strands of hair in the ink drawing.  I wanted to look a little more blonde, but I added in a little too much brown highlights.  At least with the water added she doesn't look like she's floating in space anymore.  The prince looks rather crow like with all his black plumage on his helmet and his big black cape.  The gold accents didn't come out so well in the scanner, and they almost completely disappear on his cape.  I wonder if taking a picture of this, those would have shown up better. But I love this nonetheless.

Anyway, I look forward to getting part two of the story up to share with all of you. I'll become a much better blogger, I swear.  I wish you all a happy, creative week. Cheers!

The Gilded Lady

Hello my munchkins!  How have you all been?  Man, I really hate having a laptop that's half dead.  I'll be opening up commission slots here soon to help up my funds for replacing this old one of mine.

But, in the mean time, I have been steadily working on what now has become a middle grade book, these past months.  I had to up the age of my two main characters given what they are now faced with in the world created for them. I will be sharing all that I can with you lovely people...I'm working on a blog for it that will feature maps, characters designs and profiles, city profiles, the language of the world, short fairytale stories and so much more.  All that is still a work in progress, but I have the banner for the front sketched out and ready to colour.  I'm aiming for the end of March or April to have it up...so I'll just cross my fingers in hopes that I'll meet that deadline....if my laptop holds out.

Anyway, this is one of the characters from the story.  I'm not going to reveal her name though, as it gives away too soon what the story is all about, but, for now she'll be known as the Gilded Lady.  She's a very essential part of the book and she won't actually been seen until the end.  Her gold bonnet there, (those aren't horns on her head. *winks*) though holds a clue to what she is though, and she's not exactly human.  Okay, my lips are sealed for the rest of it though. *Evil laugh*

She's done in my usual way, watercolour pencils, used dry, sepia coloured inks and a little clean up editing done in Coral DRAW.  She took a fair amount of time to complete though, as I was doing the Christmas rush where I work, which took all my energy and left me super lazy after. *laughs*

On a side note, I've moved my giveaway to next month, seeing that I missed The Our World Our Art blog even because of my failing laptop. *sigh* Ah well, there will be other events to attend right? Yay!

So, that's all for now my luvies.  I was wondering though, I have part of a short story written out and I would love to share part of it with all of you, so I can have a feeling for how my writing practice is coming along.  Would you guys like if I posted it here for you all to read?

Wishing you all a happy, wonderful and creative week! Cheers!

Small Facebook Button Drawing

Wow...I had trouble with thinking up a post title for this. It's not what I wanted to blog about, but, for some reason blogger wont let me up load anything from my picture file....which is really frustrating.
Anyway, I did this a little while ago, hmmm...maybe October, I wanted a fun, pretty button to put on my blog that would link to my facebook page instead of just having a plain link instead.  This took me only two days to finish as it's very small.  I guess you could say it kinda of represents myself as I do have really long hair, (down to my waist) and have to wear glasses when I do my art, and, I absolutely love rams horns. *laughs*  Though I am glad not to have any in real life....that would be strange. Oh! Let's not forget the lovely roses, another one of those things I can't resist drawing.

Oh man, it's so nice to be on my blog today!  How was every one's holiday?  Have a good New Year's as well?  My New Year's was very quiet, had one very delicious chocolate beer and that was enough to knock me out all evening. *laughs*  My neighbours across the street on the other hand, sounded like they were having a total blast!  I wonder if any of them remember it at all.  I'm hoping for a good New Year for 2013.  A year of new starts, of actually getting the chance to do what I long to do in this little life of mine...which is to write some young adult novels and to get the opportunity to do some illustrations for children's books.  I want this to be a year of wish and dream fulfillment's, so I'm going to get my rear in gear to make it happen...this year I will do it! Yes!!

For starters, a new laptop is in order to get going.  Mid-December my current laptop started dying and I've been having major problems in keeping it running, as it will only stay on for no more than 2 or four hours at a time and even when does work, other major problems crop up.  I've been working hard at trying to pinpoint and fix it, but I've found out that it's a hardware issue.  So, all I've been able to do it pull everything off of it for now and hope it lasts just a bit longer.  I've missed being able to get online and do my blog though.  I never knew just how much I've come to rely on the Internet until now. *laughs*   I've been shopping around these last few weeks for a new laptop and from what I've seen, I'm super excited to get an upgrade to something new and get blogger to work better. Woo hoo! 

Whoa, I better dash before I ramble on too much and bore you all. *laugh*  I hope I can upload a drawing I have waiting soon, can't wait to get it on my blog!  I'll be having another giveaway in February, so keep you eyes peeled for it.

Well, my dear wonderful friends, I am wishing you all a great, wonderful and art filled New Year of 2013!! Cheers!

A Little Bird Once Told Me...

Hello, my dear friends!  Wow...it's almost the middle of December already?!  The malls are getting pretty crazy now, so, as good measure I'm trying my best to shop early in the mornings while people head off to work...which makes for a little better experience as I tend to shop like a man. *laughs*  I made the mistake two weeks ago of going to Wal-Mart on a Saturday (that was not smart!), and I left quite surprised that I was still alive! Yay!  Tonight is the first night of Chanukah.  Aaaannnddd, that means lots of Latkes, doughnuts, chocolate gelt coins, fancy coffees, songs and lighting candles. Yummmm! I love this time of year.  Walking around the neighbourhood to see all the twinkling, festive lights and smelling all the wonderful spicy smells of Christmas. *sigh*  Hmm, and I've just realized that I have not done any holiday art work...uhhh-no...

Okay, so on to some art.  In my last post I posted up some sketches.  I have two of them done, but I have to still scan one in.  This is the Dryad with the small bird.

As you can see, my scanner doesn't like my gold pen too much. (laughs)  After completing this, it gave me another spark for doing another Dryad for my story, so, I've been working on a couple of really rough sketches to flesh out some ideas.  I really wanted her hair to look like bark, but I think I overused the burnt red a bit.  Does anyone have any tips for creating bark?  I'd love to get a bit more of a  realistic feel.  I'm still so happy with this all the same though.

And I wanted to thank all of you for such sweet comments that you all made!  I really wish I could fully express my gratitude and awe for getting to know such wonderful artisans yourself....you have no idea the smile you all gave to my heart!  You make me fly!

Wishing you a wonderful, happy, creative and festive week!  Eggnog Cheers!!

Harry Potter Doll Giveaway Winners!

Hello muggles!  I am happy to announce to winners to my paper doll giveaway!  Woo! *Does geeky dance*  Drum roll please:

Tammie Lee

Lucy Chen

 Congrats ladies!! 

(Okay very old drawing from five years ago here...but the only one I could find that said "Congratulations" on it. *laughs*)

I hope you two will enjoy Harry very much.  Please email me at  eri(dot)chan68(at)yahoo(dot)ca  with an address to which I can mail you your paper doll.  Thank you so very, very much everyone for entering.  This was so fun to do and I'll think I'll hold another one sometime soon!  I look forward to mailing these out. Whoop whoop!


Okay, short post today.  I was thinking though, I've seen a lot of other artist share their sketchbooks, which I love to see myself as it shows beautifully where their ideas bloom from; I'd like to share some drawings from my messy sketchbook next post.  I've never shown anyone those drawings before as I'm an utter perfectionist and hide my messy drawings with glares. *laughs*

Anyway, hope you all have a very spooky Halloween.  Anyone ready for Christmas?  Though I bet none of you want to hear that yet do you? *Heehee*  Have a very happy and creative week my friends. Cheers!

A Moet And Chandon Themed Wine Label

Yayy! Got my laptop working smoothly again.  I was having problems keeping it running for longer than four hours at a time, so I went digging and I seemed to have found the root problem and fixed it.  So good to have it going again.

Anyhow, my wine label theme continues!  I've kept this lady hidden for almost a year in my files, as I had a wonderful friend in France try to pitch this to Moet and Chandon.  I decided to post this now as we never heard back from them and were obviously not all that interested...so up on my blog this goes! *laughs*  

When I first did the rough sketches for this I already had an idea in mind for the colours.  I wanted something that would match the colour of champagne or at least pink champagne. (one of my personal favourite spirits to drink, as red wine makes me sick.)  I put a little bit of myself in this, as I tend to get the giggles after just two glasses of wine.

The image of the bottle one from a bunch of images that were googled by my friend and sent to me.  I could have painted it, but as time was running short in getting this sent off, I pasted the image in.  I have got to work on my laziness factor...or at least learn how to speed up my drawing process.

She is coloured in watercolour pencils (used dry), with white and sepia inks and with some touch ups made in CorelDRAW.  In all she took about two weeks to finish off.  Her hair was the most tricky to colour in as there's just soooooo much of it.  It's like mine, I have hair just past my waist. *laugh*  And I tell you, my bloggie friends, I use at LOT of shampoo and conditioner!

Oh! I was also part of Cameron's "Mermaid Swap" recently.  I'll have mine up here just as soon as I finish adding a good background for her.  But, I got Cameron's mermaid in the mail just yesterday....and I'm in love with it!

Isn't it beautiful?!  It always brings me joy to be able to really touch someones art...to get lost in their colouring techniques and line work. I also felt like a little kid again opening up the wonderful packaging...just like Christmas!  Thank you so much again, Cameron...you so totally rock, girl.  I;m going to be making a special frame for this beauty.

That's it for today my lovely and creative bloggers.  Have a wonderful weekend. Cheers!

Two Little WIPs came out to play

Woo...hello my dear friends!!  I haven't done too much arting this week, as I'm getting things set up for a shop on Etsy and Luulla.  So I've been looking at other store owners to see how they price their things, how much they charge for shipping and so on. I was supposed to do this last year, but didn't have the confidence enough to think I could actually sell anything. *laughs*  But this year...with being out of work again...I thought..."Well, heck...what could I lose anyway?? Sometimes you gotta spend money to make money." So, I'm going for it!  I'll also be offering special commissions in my shops too...you can do that right??  Because if someone doesn't see what they want...well, I could easily make it.  I'll post a link here when everything is all set up...there's just a few last touches I want to make first.

I have several art pieces on the go right now...and a children's book I've begun work on.  Let's start with the WIP for the children's book first:

Meet little Sandy...she's the lead character in "The Birthday Wish" that I'm currently in the works in writing.  I originally wrote this back when I was in grade 4, but I was cleaning out my closet recently and I came across it.  Though it does need a bit of a major re-write...I couldn't resist giving a fresh hand at it again...the story line is just too cute.  She's learns a valuable lesson in being very careful about what you wish for, as you just may get it.  That's all I'll say about it so far. *wink*  Doing a children's book is something I've always wanted to give a try at...as they are such works of wonders to look at and charming to read in their sweet innocence.  I've been studying on how to draw children, so I hope this little lady looks like she's 8 or at the very most 10 years old.

She was much larger than my scanner could handle, as you can see.  I'll have to get a high res scan at the print shop to get the entire image in.

WIP number two!  It's a little mermaid paper doll!

I still have as yet to ink and colour her...but that will only take about two days to do.  She's for my lovely friend Cameron who is hosting a fabulous mermaid giveaway.  How could I resist that?! Nope...I just can't.  This little mermaid will be about 20 cm when cut out...which I'm probably going to have to get my tiny scissors out for cutting around those tiny beads I drew.  Ahhh, I think I love to torture my hands. *laugh*  I also gave her a little trident to hold...and just to make it seems a little less scary, I capped off the pointy spears with pearls.

Oh! And just to answer a question, I one of the pens I use in doing some illustration work is made by Sakura.  They're called  Gelly Roll and the particular line I'm in love with right now is the Gold series.  I have two:

They come in Pink gold, Black gold, Green gold, Purple gold, Red Gold and so on.  They are really super awesome in that they don't clog, are smooth and quick flowing once the ink starts on the paper and dry fast.  And it's neat to watch the colour change as they dry...they go from a bright basic colour to a gold finish when dry, with a colour outline of what they originally were.  When I get more funds in, I'm going to get the whole lot of them!

I think the Sakura Gelly Rolls also come in white, neon and desaturated colours...I'll have to check though...it's been awhile since I was last at De Serres art store.

Okay, that's all for tonight. I'm going to tuck myself in bed with a good book.  Have a wonderful creative weekend my dear friends! Cheers!

A fresh Start, some blog changes...oh, and a wine lable too

Hellllooo my lovely fellows!  Sorry to have gone on a rather impromptu hiatus since last month without letting any of you know.  Shame on me or what?! *laughs* A lot of heavy things have been going on in my life lately, and I needed some time away from the Internet world to sort of get my head together, get my emotions back in check, and think about the direction of my life and where I really want to go and how to get there in the first place. *laughs*  I've been working on a small business plan, which has required an insane amount of reading at the library. Wow...so much to learn!

But first, I want to talk about this lovely little lady you see here first.  I've been working on some wine label designs lately....thanks to a very special man in my life right now who thought it was something I could try and from a another nice woman on face book who thought the same thing...plus my mum.  So, I couldn't ignore all that commotion.  Here's one of my first attempts at it.  I took some figuring out first by heading down to the liquor stores in my area to have a long look at what professional labels look like, then pulling out some books on Mucha...I had a look at what he created.  I've had on old sketching sitting around for ages, that has gone unused, and I've been looking for a reason to use the sketch for something.  I gave her a more updated look though and browsed through some manga books for some ideas on how to do up her hair.  After doing another rough, I inked her in with my trusty sepia fine liner pen and added colour with some coloured pencils, and I must say....I LOVE the new gelly roll gold pens I bought!  They add such an awesome effect.  She took a bit long to finish, about a week and a half.  I usually love to add a lot of little details, but I really wanted to have a de-cluttered illustration for a very clean and hopefully professional looking finish.  I'd love to hear any suggestions on what I could do to make any other improvements to this and I'm more than open for a critique.

Okay, I know, I know...this is a monster of a post already, *laughs*, but I'm making some more changes to my blog here and I want to know what you lovely people want to see in a blog.  What makes you want to return to certain blogs again and again.  I want to make my blog an easy and fun read for you lovely readers.  So talk to me, do you like seeing updates once a day, once a week, do you like seeing works-in-progress shots, having a look behind the scenes at studios,  everyday life stuff, tutorials, give-aways....or anything at all that you can think of that'll make this a wonderful and inspiring space to visit.  My ears are open to any suggestions, and you have my sincerest thanks in sharing what ideas you have with me. *big virtual hug*

Oh man, if you've read this far...you deserve a giant cake! Have a great and creative week dear friends...cheers!

Illustration Friday: Lost

Wow! I didn't think I would make it for this week's Illustration Friday theme. But, Phew, made it just in the nick of time.  It's amazing that I could get this done in a matter of three days, given the fact that I'm in the middle of moving chaos.  I was really inspired by this weeks theme and the moment I saw the word "Lost" on IF...the image of a little lost enchanted doll in a dark forest popped into my mind.  I didn't even do much of a rough sketch first either, I just sat down with the image in my head and drew it out in full.  Which I never do, as I'm trying to improve my composition skills, so I like to play with sketches before I go to a final drawing.

I used watercolour pencils, sepia inks, jelly ink in pink gold and a little bit of CorelDRAW for the background.  Which is a watercolour wash with digital salt.  She only took three days which is awesome!  But then again, there's not too much detail. Ha ha!

Speaking of lost...I'm quite in that state now.  I'm moving to a new province at the end of this month...and just about everything is in utter box mess!  So, all my art things are now packed up.  Ha ha, oh my, I shall get cranky if I'm left without my supplies too long.  But, I shall leave all this for another blog post before I hit the road to my new province. *wink*  Enjoy the drawing and have a wonderful and creative week my dear friends, cheers!

Tanpopo

Hello dear friends!  I hope you are all having a wonderful June.  Though I don't know what happened to May...it seemed to have zoomed by so quickly.  But here in Vancouver, you wouldn't tell it was June at all, it's been very chilly and rainy and more like March weather.  We are all doing our sun dance here.

I didn't mean to wander away from my blog for a whole month!  My day job has been a bit crazy as of late and all I do when I get home is just crash out on my bed.  I've got my mum giving me some good kicks in the behind to get me moving on getting my projects done, which is helping.  I'm about to dust off an old graphic novel I was working on two years ago, so I'm really excited about revamping the main characters in it. Yay!

But first things first, one of my favourite artists, Camilla d'Errico, is holding a fan art contest and it was something I just could not pass up.  All entries will go to a gallery showing, so even if you don't win, you still do in a way...by having more people become exposed to your art.  Which I thought was freaking awesome.  Part of the rules were that you had to draw her two main characters from her manga "Tanpopo" and give it a poster treatment.  I went through a lot of rough sketches trying to figure out what would look best.  I wished I had scanned them in so I could show all of you.  I had the biggest trouble with Kuro, the fellow in the black cape, I just wasn't certain where to put him in the drawing and how close he should be to Tanpopo.  But I thought that having him sort of emerge from out of the drapes like black smoke would look pretty cool.  Although, I feel like I could have done a little better.  But overall, I'm quite happy with this.  This was my first time colouring in cut jewels!  I had about two books open as I did the colouring to get the light just right and to make them look like real cut pink diamonds.  I was also listening to the last Harry Potter book when I was colouring this, and I didn't realize until I was done, that a bit of Hogwarts had included itself in the drawing as well. *laughs*  I mean, how can you draw something and not be aware that you're drawing it?  I'm still stumped at that question.

So, this little lady will now be put in a mat frame and shipped off this weekend.  I have butterflies just thinking about it. *crosses fingers*


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

Lukash: The Spring Lamb

Oh man, hello dear blogger friends!  I'm so very happy that the scent of spring is finally in the air....and the trees are beginning to bloom.  I can't wait for the cherry trees and the magnolia's to be out in full and filling the air with their sweet scents.  It's also becoming better walking weather, so when things get warmer I plan on going to the local park and have a nice lazy walk. Maybe even bring my sketch book too.

This here is a  little drawing I made for my good friend Sasha , as a gift. I met with her and another friend for coffee on Valentine's Day, they both gave me wonderful little gifts as well.  I'm now the very lucky owner of a pair of Sasha's handmade ear rings....which are gorgeous!  She loves Bishie boys (Bishie is short for Bishonen, which means beautiful boy in Japanese), and adores faeries, so I decided that I would draw her a Fe or a faerie prince.  I played around with quite a few rough sketches before I came to one that I actually liked.  I am so in love with how this turned out!  The eyes are what I'm particularly proud of, as I have been wanting to improve and make them a little less lash-y.  I don't know why, but, I seem to always have to put pointy ears and horns on almost every character I draw.

I used dry watercolour pencils, sepia ink and white ink for some sparkly effects, since I can't resist not sprinkling white on every drawing that I do. Sometimes I use a little too much force when spattering, as I broke one of my brushes while doing so last month. *laughs*  But I didn't throw it out...I think if it's top end is still useful, it can still do work yet.  This took about two weeks from start to finish as I'm also busily working on a drawing for another friend and two short comic stories.

Sasha was so nice to spend almost all day with me yesterday, even though she and I were so very tired from being up all night previously.  She being a night owl was being such a creative girl making art cards, I was up for a different reason.  I've been having such a difficult few weeks, and her taking time out to come and see me was such a blessing.  I am much calmer today thanks to her and things are looking like they just might turn out alright again.   It's been a scary ride and I hope to get to that light at the end of the tunnel soon...and I'll be so happy when that happens.  I won't depress you anymore with the specifics....so why don't I cheer things up a bit now yes?

I had a lovely day out at Starbucks this week, thanks to a little gift card a friend got for me. Yay!  It's been awhile since I had a Starbucks coffee and I was jittering like washing machine for a bit afterwards.

My mum loved the lettering by the entrance.

And I loved that I got one of their left over Valentine's Day cups!  When my mum took this I didn't think she got my face as well. *laughs*  I have on way too much eyeshadow. 

So I decided to play around with the cup after we got home, and I decided to do this with it:

My mum has a box full of little quail's eggs and dried roses. I dug out some fancy scarves from a suitcase, draped them inside a jewelry box and nestled everything inside.  I then dragged the photo's into Coral DRAW and just had some fun with playing around with different layers and effects...this was the one I liked best of all.  Which surprisingly has about 7 layers in all.

Sorry to run late with a blog update again, my dear friends.  I hope you all have been doing well and I can't wait to read about what you've been up to.  Hope you all are having a fun and creative week!

New Mucha Baby: Yuko

A little lady I did as a commission for a good friend on Deviant Art .  She requested Yuko, the Time Witch, from XXXHolic by CLAMP.  My gosh, she was so wonderfully patient with me, she's been waiting for this since Christmas,  I've been so caught up in comic making that I've fallen badly behind in other projects.  I'm a little unhappy about the colouring though, my printer ran out of ink!  So, I had to do some touch ups on the hair and also did some other work digitally on this, so it will look nice on the screen.  I'm just happy that when she does get the original doll, that it will be the proper colour. I'm such a perfectionist that I hate any little detail to be off...even if it is only slightly.

I used watercolour pencils, white and brown ink to colour her in and I added a background from one of my Mucha calenders.  She took me only three days to do.  I hope, Allyson likes the doll she ordered.  There's nothing I love more than to make someone happy with art!

Oh man, only a few weeks ago we had a huge dump of snow here...which in Vancouver, no one is used to driving in or walking in for that matter.  But it was beautiful to watch it fall.



The snow was here for about a week or so, then the rain started and it was all gone in a matter of hours.  As much as I love snow, I'm glad it's gone.  I don't have proper shoes to go out in snow with.*giggles*  I just stayed in and drank warm cocoa and drew.

Now, back to work on my two other short comics.  Hope you are all having a wonderful and creative week my dear friends. Love to you all!



Good Coffee, Fine Coffee

Hello dear friends!  I hope you all had a great New Year's start last weekend.  Mine was pretty quiet, watched movies until midnight, with some wonderful, yummy snacks.  It was really fun to open my window and see all the people dancing, kissing and setting fireworks off in the street after the countdown.  Me and my mum even waved to a few strangers walking down the street.  I always find it amazing what happens to peoples spirits this time of year.

So the above illustration was a bit of fun I had before I started on my new one shot comic.  I wanted to try painting with something really different, after some thinking of what I could use, I decided on coffee.  I'm a huge coffee addict!  I simply can't tell you on how much coffee I can drink in just one day alone, but I will tell you that it's a lot.  I also miss being able to go to Starbucks, which is one of the places I always enjoy to sit, people watch and sketch some art at.  I wanted to express the mood that the mere smell of fresh brewed coffee brings to mind.  I hope I've managed to do that fairly well.  I used fresh coffee, coffee grounds(which I found out rub off the paper easily when they dry), and just to enhance some of the brown effects and to add darker highlights I used some(a very little bit) of my watercolours, as well as some white ink because I just can't seem to not put shiny white dots in my work.  I also avoided using a thick, dark out line around the woman and fancy borders.  I felt that anything like that would ruin the feel and look of the final painting.  This has to be one of the best smelling paintings I've ever done. *giggles*

Great, now I've given myself a coffee craving.  Now, I'll have to go brew some. 

Wishing you all a happy, creative week!

Commission: Flowers for My Lady

A commission I did for someone on Deviant Art.  This is Rufus and Elizabeth from "Kindom Hearts".  I am so grateful to the commissioner who requested a couple, as I love a good challange and it's been a very long while since I drew a happy couple like them.  It was also a challange as I am a little unfamilar with the Video game and manga of "Kindom Hearts", so with all the research I did for these characters, I find that I have a new favorite game to try out!  I still feel that I somehow got the outfits wrong, so it's my hope that the commissoner will love what I did for her.

Done in watercolour pencils, copic ciao markers and ink.  I also added somecolour to the background with CorelDRAW as I hate a really garish white backdrop. ^^

Oh! and also, I thank all of you how came by to leave comments.  I always find that encouraging and love you all for saying such sweet things...have a great week!!