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!

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!

From My Messy Desk: Part Two: More Sketches On the Drafting Table

Hello you wonderful people! How are you this week? Halloween is coming ever closer, which leads to the best thing about this scary day....horror movies and chocolate! I'm partial to "The Shinning", but if you want cute scary I'd suggest "Paranorman", which is insanely cute and has one of the best heartfelt endings ever.

Which leads me to this drawing you see up there. This month's auction over on Femme Thou Art Collective is "Grimm's Fairy tales" and Halloween just a few weeks away made me think of Little Red Riding hood.  Which is a nice combination of sweetness and darkness.  I like the original French Folk Tale, which in that case the wolf is really a werewolf and there is no wood cutter in that story, but for this illustration, I wanted to put in Grimm's version as well.  I made it really detailed, so I hope I can finish in time.  The auction starts on the 21st of this month.  Doing this made me realize that I really have to improve my skills on drawing animals.  I found trying to draw the two wolves really difficult, to make them look right. So it's to the library! Tally-ho!

Here's the other sketch I'm also working on getting finished:

I call this "Tangled", as I was going for the idea of a summer nymph caught up in her own growing spell.  Weird thing about this one was it was already there is my head, and it just wouldn't let me get anything else done until I sketched her out.  It was the strongest impulse I had, and I haven't felt such a pull like that in a year. Which is awesome.  I think I might make thins into some fancy writing paper when it's done.

I wish I had more to show you guys, but I've been in a bit of a depression for the last two weeks due to some situations and I haven't been motivated to do much of anything else, other than just sketch.  I won't go into it, cause I'm not out to make anyone as depressed as I am. *laughs*

So my dear friends...

I wish you a very happy week ahead and the coming weekend. Love you all! Cheers!

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!

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!

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!

The Prince and The Seamaid: Part One: A Fairy Tale

Hello my dear friends! Like I promised from an earlier post, here is the first part of the short Fairy Tale story I've been working on. Now, I've re-read this over I don't know how may times and have done some revisions, but I think it may need some more tweaking here and there, so, I would love to hear any comments or critiques you fine readers have. I have a fairly thick skin when it comes to critiques, so be as open as you like.  I'm working on part two, and this drawing...which I couldn't resist doing for this short tale.  It's going rather slow though, as I'm moving out of my current apartment at the end of this month. And things are in a bit of chaos.  I'll have part two up soon.

Here is part one:

Once upon a time, in a land very far from here, there was once a little prince and his name was David.  Now David was just as any good prince should be.  He was noble, courageous, and very kind.

    The little prince loved to listen to the fairy tale stories his mother would tell to him as he lay in his bed at night.  He would lie back on the many soft pillows imagining the all the beautiful sea-maidens as they combed their long, long hair, and sang their enchanting songs.  The more he dreamed of these mermaids, the more the longing to have one for his bride grew inside his heart.  This longing grew so large that it began to keep him from getting any sleep at all, and, he grew ever more restless.  The little prince thought if he could just grow up faster, he could go out into the world, where, it would not be so long before he met with some wonderful adventures and meet his very own mermaid.
     As days and years rolled by, the little prince became more man than boy and he grew more and more handsome.  Many eligible women in the town pursued him to be their husband, but he turned them all down.  None was good enough for the young prince, for all he wanted was a mermaid for his bride.  Soon, the quiet of his father’s castle and his mother’s sea tales did not please him at all anymore.  So, he took his leave and started on his journey across the strange seas, and kept wandering on further and further, for it mattered not to David, which way the seas lead him.
     He went on till at last he came to an island where he spied four sea-maids sunning themselves on a large rock.  After looking at them for some minutes, the deep longing he felt since his childhood came over him and he dove into the waters after them.  The ship’s crew, astonished, exclaimed after him: “Your highness! Oh, he actually jumped! But, he cannot swim!”
     The prince plunged down ever deeper into the clear waters, panic never coming to him as he searched desperately for the mermaids he had seen on the island above.  Now, the sunning mermaids spied the handsome young prince and fell in love with his beauty.  They watched with cold bemusement as he leapt into their waters after them, failed to come up to the surface again for air.
    “Oh!” Cried one of the sea-maids, “A human has fallen in here! And what a lovely looking child of man he is too.”
     “He is mine!” Laughed another.  Then, they all dove in after the young drowning prince to rescue him.  David had reached the sandy bottom, not knowing how to kick back up to the surface, he lay there, despairing, for his last remaining breath was about to escape him.  He began to wonder if he had been chasing illusions all these years and if the stories of the sea-maidens that his mother had told to him were true at all.  With these many thoughts and doubts, the young prince’s lungs began to fail him and the underwater world in which he found himself surrounded, began to grow dark and fade away.
    As he was about to let go of his final life giving breath, the most beautiful of women filled his eyes.  Her golden spun hair floated about her like an aura and her strange colourless eyes were warm and so very kind.  All manner of weird and wonderful jewels and gems lay artfully in her hair making the water sparkle and dance about her.  She smiled shyly at him as she pulled him towards the surface, to air, to life.  Taking in big gulps of air, all the pain in his lungs was relieved and he felt quite well and strong once more.  When at last he opened his eyes, he saw the young sea-maid near him, taking him towards his ship.  On the surface of the waters, her skin was as white as snow and as bright and lovely as the sun, so much, so that he found himself dazzled and rubbed his eyes to try to clear them of this strange vision.  No sooner had she brought him back, then, she made to turn back and leave him there with his own people.  The prince reached out taking hold of her slender arm, he said with urgency: “Wait!  Do not go away yet!”  The mermaid stared at him perplexed and the prince went on: “I have searched for you my entire life, I have dreamed of nothing else than finding a mermaid to be my bride.”
    The mermaid at first just looked silently upon David, her eyes wide with wonder and then sadness darkened her face.  Very gently, she shook her head, causing pearls of water to spray like diamonds from her hair.
     “I am afraid I cannot be your bride.”  She whispered, “Your world is not mine to live in.  I have brought you back to your people, now go.”
    The prince tightened his already firm grip and pleaded with her: “I am a prince from a wealthy and powerful kingdom in the north, if you become my bride, you shall become the adored queen of millions!”
     Full of joy at hearing where the young prince hailed from, the maiden agreed to go with him and become his wife.  Upon her word, she spoke a song of magic and traded her lovely fins for a pair of dainty human legs.  Greatly amazed at the prince’s good fortune and blessing in such a rare find, the ship's crew helped the maid board the ship where she was clothed in rich and luxurious fabrics. When they arrived back in the prince’s kingdom, they were greeted with great ceremony and celebration, and a magnificent banquet had been prepared in honour of their new princess.  So the kingdom in the North was bequeathed with a new queen and their marriage was to take place in the evening under the nighttime blanket of stars.  On the hour of the wedding, a splendid carriage drawn by ten white horses drove up to the palace doors.  They had white feathers on their heads and elegant golden harnesses trimmed with lace and red velvet; their hooves shone softly in the moonlight as they trotted off with the prince and his bride.

To Be Continued!

 

That finishes part one.  I hope it reads well.  It was actually fun writing in this kind of prose, you can be descriptive with very few words. I want to try a lot of different writing styles in order to find my own voice. So this was a lot of fun to sit down and write.  It's a bit of a twist on the Hans Christian Anderson's tale of "The Little Mermaid".  I'm hoping the ending is going to take readers by surprise. *insert evil laugh here* 

 

That's all for today my friends.  Have a merry, creative week! Cheers!