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!!

From My Messy Desk:Sketchbook Sketches

Hellooo! Yay, I'm having no connection problems today!  The RAM on my poor laptop is quite low, so I've been having all sorts of issues in getting my computer running.....and I've been dying to blog for the past two weeks. So this has resulted in a lot of yelling at an inanimate object, which really does no good, but, does make one feel much better after. *laughs* I've done some major cleaning up file wise, which has help enormously in getting a better performance.  I cannot wait to replace my old laptop!  Still saving my pennies for it.

Anywhoooo, I thought I'd share of quick drawings from my sketch book, which really isn't a sketch book but rather a book of tracing paper.  I like working on tracing paper best, as if I really like the look of a particular drawing...I can then just use my light box to make an inked drawing later.  Plus it saves me from ruining perfectly good art paper if things go wrong. And I use my eraser....a lot!

So I'll start with this one, which is already finished and coloured(you'll see the finished piece in a later post.):

As I haven't thought of a name for her yet, I've just been calling her "Tree Woman". *laughs*  As you can see I love using quick rough lines to flesh out an idea I usually scribble down on another small idea book I keep.  This was originally meant for Illustration Friday's topic "Tree" last week. But totally missed the deadline. *sigh*  Maybe the little bird is giving her a message from another tree or telling her how much he appreciates having a place to rest his tired wings.  I really played with hand gestures here, trying figure out what would look nice.  I always pick my lines as I'm inking, so a sketch always ends up looking slightly different in the final drawing.

Then there's this one, which is a fan art of Stocking, from the anime "Panty and Stocking with Garter belt".  She is at this time, halfway coloured:

I'm using this piece to sort of focus my mind on the book I'm currently working on to generate some ideas...so it's been very meditative and relaxing to colour this one. I don't normally do this kind of brightly coloured hair, so it's been nice to do something different...and I kinda like it.  Panty and Stocking are two angels that have fallen to earth and kick all kinds of demon butt on earth.  The animation is so very stylish and full of raunchy humor.

And I'd like you all to meet one of my character's from the book I'm working on; his name is Nemo:

He's around ten years old, but I wanted him to look just slightly older than his years due to the kind of situation he has been in.  He's the companion to my main character, Sandy.  I plan on making him the guide for the readers and for Sandy in the world which I'm spinning as there is some very wacky things that are going to be happening. So, he's very wise, strong, but I've stuck in a few faults that he'll have to overcome by books end, changes that will surprise even himself.  Oh! And that is a sword that he's holding, *laughs*, with talons on it just to up the coolness factor.

As you can see I also avoid any sort of ruler use too, so I always have wobbly lines.  Well, currently that's all the sketches I have scanned in for now.  It's not a whole lot, a peek at best.  I'll share more when I get more scanned in.

I'm looking forward to seeing "Lincoln" on Tuesday!(Tuesday is cheap day at the theaters)  I haven't been to a movie in ages, it's going to be a real treat from what I've seen from the trailers.  And! I'm super excited about "The Hobbit" that's coming out next month. Woo hoo! I love that book.

Anyway, my dear friends, it's always so nice to share things with you.  I wish you all a very happy, creative week ahead. 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 Not So Spooky Giveaway!

Happy (early) Halloween my fellow muggles!  The big spooky day is on Thursday and I thought I'd have my first giveaway as a little Halloween treat.   And since Harry Potter has kinda taken over my life right now, I thought I'd create my first boy paper doll to show how much I love this little wizard.

I'll be drawing 2 names at a random from my cauldron with the prize being this little Harry Potter paper doll you see on this post today.  Harry comes with his wand, book of spells, the golden snitch and Hedwig.  He'll arrive un-assembled, with supplied mini-brads, all you will need is a pair of scissors or an exacto knife.  He looks lovely in a little shadow box, which my mum is doing for the one I gave her.  Who's as much of a Potter fan as I am. *laughs*

I'll be drawing the names and posting them here on Sunday, November 4th.  All you have to do is mention in a comment that you would like to be included in the draw and leave an email where I can get in touch with you in case your name is drawn.

Thank you so much my friends and good luck to you!

I think if I can squeeze in the time I would love to make the whole set of the characters, Ron and Hermione...maybe even Ginny too, along with Fred and George. (Just because those twins are my favourite!)

And since I'm such a lazy pants at creating proper backgrounds for my dolls, I used something I found in an art magazine that I have for children.  Called 4Cats Arts Studio .  If I did have kids, I would definitely take them to one of these places...they look like so much fun.

Thank you for reading my wonderful bloggers.  Wishing you a very happy Halloween! Cheers!

Wondervixen: The Kitsune Superhero

Hello blogger munchkins!  So fall is in full swing now, it's been raining almost non-stop here in Vancouver...which has made for perfect excuses to stay snuggled at home with movies, good books and art! 

I was asked recently by a good friend, who runs a comic in the UK called Reynard City , who is hosting a calendar contest and asked if I'd like to make an entry.  How could I say no?  I love his characters!  I've been following their adventures for just over two years now and what a joy it's been to watch the growth of his brain baby.  It's about three crime fighting hero's that transform into foxes.  I chose Wonder vixen for this contest since she's strong of will, mind and body...plus she has a wonderful showgirl like figure that I always like drawing in my ladies and gorgeous flowing hair.  ( I just cannot go on enough about how much I love to draw lots of hair. *squees*)  I originally intended to go with a summer like background...but changed my mind once I saw how nice the fall colours complemented Wonder vixen's fox fur and tail.  She took a little longer to complete...about three weeks as I've been distracted with job searching and pounding my brain over what to name my Etsy shop.  Which I've been stumped with for the last few months. *laughs* I'm so slow to start anything. Ha!

Oh! And before I dash, I wanted to share an awesome pinterest find I stumbled across.  This little cup of heaven is perfect for a cold night and will warm you from head to toes.  When I first made it I thought I died and went to heaven! 

This originally came from a Tumblr post (the art for the recipe is theirs too) and I thank them deeply for posting this...for it is gold!  It's very easy to make.  Make sure though, that you do not use whipped butter...but just plain regular butter.  I stood in my kitchen on my first taste of this...unsure if was a good butter beer recipe...but ended up yelling out, "Yum!" at least 10 times. *laughs*  Try it...if you love sweet things, you'll love this.

Now, off to watch some Harry Potter movies and finish my current paper doll.  Have a wonderful, creative weekend, dear friends.  Thank you for reading.  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!

A 1940's inspired Catwoman

Helllloooo out there!  I never did thank my lovely readers and fellow bloggers out there from my last post for all the helpful advice and hints you all gave me to make this an awesome blog to come to. I give you a great big internet hug...you guys are awesome, awesome people.  My next step is to be a more active blogger and see if I can join in on some blog groups, so I plan on doing some searches to see what I can find. Yay!

So anywho, I know I have a lot more projects to be finishing up on, I just finished a mermaid paper doll for my lovely friend Cameron.  Which I have to print off and assemble, she'll be up a little bit later.  But, I had this burning desire to create some Batman fan art.  Catwoman has always been one of my favourite villans.  She's a strong, no non-sense kind of girl, nobel, but not so self-confidant all the time...she tries to be on good's side, but the darkness that's in her heart sometimes takes control of her.  I love her character for her complexity. 

I borrowed from the library a huge...I mean huge book on all the characters of DC Comics throughout the years...from the 1930's throught 2012.  When I came to the section of Catwoman, my muse decided to tickle me until I couldn't ignore it.  I loved Catwoman's out fit during the 1940's, where it was a long black dress with a deep plunging neckline and she sported one terrific mask.  Though the one I created here, is more along the lines of what Batwoman wore in the '40's.  I liked it and wanted to see how catwoman looked in it.

I used a plethora of different multi-liner pens and inda ink.  Sadly two of my pens died in this drawings creation. *laughs*  I also had to apply ample ammounts of white ink to clean up very messy lines in the after math.  It also gave me good practice on my inking skills...and inking smoke.  In all, took me about two weeks to finish her off, as my hand kept cramping up.  I think I need to get a stress ball for that problem, to exercise my fingers.

It's also Rosh Hashanna this week!  So to all my lovely blogger friends and creatives...I wish you a very happy Shana Tova Umetuka!!!  May you all have a prosperous and sweet new year!

Have a wonderful and creative week!! 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!

Illustration Friday: Suspend

Woo...blogging again after last night. *laughs*  Blogger is working much better today...which is awesome.

Anyway, this is for this week's Illustration Friday's topic, "Suspend".  I love looking through what other artists have contributed.  I decided to take a character from one of my mangas I'm working...this fellow is Dorian...and I hung him upside-down.  Looks like he likes that with the little wink on his face.  I don't know how well this goes with this weeks theme, but it was fun to create and I haven't submitted to an IF topic for a long time now.  So, I really wanted to do this weeks theme no matter what.

I haven't done screen tone work for about a month or two now, and I can't wait to get back to this comic so I can do more.  It's so great to work with them and being covered in little tone bits and dust.  I highly recommend every artist to at least experiment with it once.

Have a great, 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!

Pencil Sketch: A little Glance

Hello my lovely blogger friends!  How are all of you this fine spring week?

I've been away busy with lots of different art projects on the go, and my current job has been keeping me on my toes.  I'm almost finished on an illustration for a book, which I hope the other end will like enough to include, and two comics.  I've also caught a very bad fever....Harry Potter fever ( I now totally understand what all the fuss over the books was about!  It's amazing to read...I find I just can't put it down.  After two months, I've eaten my way through 6 books! Just the 7th and last is left, I'm so excited.), so expect some fan art to show up soon. *laughs* Never have I needed to count on my trusty day planner so much as now.  I have to fight the urge to flop down after work and nap, but once I see my work sitting there staring at me like this little lady here, well...I seem to find renewed energy to get to my art with gusto.  There's never enough hours to do everything I would like.

Anyway, even with lots of things on the go it seems like that's when I get inspired by idea's most.  Which often puts me off track for an evening or two.  Like this little lady here.  She originally started as a warm up rough sketch, and oddly enough I like her so much I simply couldn't resist bringing  her into a more finished pencil sketch.  I don't know if I can get around to colouring her, but I think she looks delightful just as she is now.  I didn't know what kind of outfit to put her in, so, I just draped a nice sheer shawl around her.

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

A Water Sprite

Hello my dear blogger friends!  A very happy Easter and Passover to you all, I hope that you're having a fun time off on this holiday.   I know that this drawing isn't very Easter or Passover-like at all...*laughs*...but I managed to squeeze this in-between a couple of projects I'm working on currently, just for fun and for no particular reason.  I found an old drawing I did about two years ago, which was a mermaid and I suddenly felt this urge to update the drawing.  But this time I wanted to do a mermaid that wasn't your typical "pretty" mermaid, I wanted one that was a little more shark like in her manner and in her fish style.  The little fish that are swimming around her, well, I don't know what to call them. They are this weird kind of cross in between a Carp and a Goldfish...or something like that. *laughs*

I had originally intended to do this only as a black and white ink drawing, somehow though, gold colouring work itself in there and I kind of like how the final result came out...personally I think it makes it "pop" rather nicely.  I used my watercolour pencils dry, which gives such a lovely airbrush look to the colours!  I also used black and white ink for finishing up...and I managed to avoid splattering white ink everywhere on the drawing, that's a hard urge to fight off!  Anyway, this took only about four days to complete, a record for me, as I love to take my time on drawings and relish every bit of time I have on it, so normally it takes me a week to complete a final drawing.  I've been trying to decide what kind of frame she would look good in.  Any suggestions?

 It's been a crazy few weeks for me...I'm very happy to get to blogging today.  I have a new job that I've been at for three weeks now.  It's doing flower arranging again, not something I wanted to do again, but after a year with no work, it's better than nothing.  I'm still looking for other work in the meantime, because I would really like to do something else...something more art inclined.  This pays the bills, rent and gets me my art supplies, so I am happy about that.

It was also my birthday on Friday the 6th, which was also passover...so that was a crazy day!  My mum bought me an awesome cheesecake and a lovely bottle of  Alfred Sung "Forever" perfume.  I did a little happy dance in the store over that.  Also at Starbucks, the barrista wrote "Happy B-Day" in caramel sauce on top of the foamed milk in my coffee!  He had very lovely handwriting. *laughs*  I never had a vente sized coffee before...I don't think again though(until next year that is), that was more coffee than I could drink.  It was such a good day...best birthday that I've had in ages.  Can't wait to see what happens for next year.

As a parting shot, the cherry blossoms are in full bloom everywhere I look now!  They are so gorgeous and always bring a smile to the heart.  I love looking at them, they are one of my favourite flowers.  I took this shot in a local park just a few blocks away from where I live.

I wish you all a very happy and creative week, everyone!  Hope you all are enjoying spring and I'm looking forward to reading about what you've been up to.  Cheers!

Sneak Peek at new short comic: "Fool's Gold"

So these are just of small taste of the new one shot comic I've been working on since last month.  The inking is taking me a long time as I'm trying very hard not to rely on the use of screen tones too much, which is proving to be a very hard challenge for me as I love to use screen tones to excess.

It's actually been quite fun discovering how to use inks and all the different effects that you can render with a pen.  I took out a huge book from the library on pen and ink effects, I love it so much that I wish I didn't have to return it. *laughs*  I will though.   I feel like it's helped me with improving my lines so much so, that I've become more confidant when I set out to ink a drawing.

This little tale is of a more scary twist on an old fairy tale from the brother's Grimm and a more urban Japanese myth of the slit mouthed woman.  I'm not going to say anymore than that...does this have a happy ending or a sad one? I'll keep you guys updated once it's done.  While drawing this though, I kept in mind the simple question, will the fairy tale monster be vanquished or will it feed?  Gruesome, yes, but it helped keep the dark mood of the story.

That's all for right now, my dear friends.  Are you all looking forward to Easter celebrations?  Ah, another holiday full of chocolate...did I mention how I love this time of year? *laughs*  Have a creative week everyone!

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!

The Versatile Blogger Award

Hello my dear blogger friends! I'm finally over a two week depresson, thanks to some wonderful people in my life...huzzah!  Feels good to be out of that kind of darkness and feel like myself again.  I'm going to try now to be a more regular blogger.

Anyway my dear friend and fellow artist Sasha has nominated me for a Versatile Blogger Award!  I was so shocked when she suprised me on Facebook.  Thank you sweetie, for the nomination!  I'm so touched that you find my blog interesting to read.  Go check Sasha out, she versitile in her many projects.  She can do enchanting faeries to beautiful wire jewlery! (Which I am honoured to have a pair of! Hehehe)



The Versatile blogger award rules are: that you should pass it on to 15 blogs you thoroughly like to read, and let the bloggers know they have been nominated.

Then you have to share seven things about yourself.

Finally you have to thank the award giver and link back to them.

 

So the nominess. (Which was hard to pick...I love all the blogs I read!  They all have such great and gorgeous things about them) Hope you don't mind if I share some of your works.

 

Diana Evans - A truely versatile artist.  This talented lady can do just about everything from wonderful artwork, to sweet and delecate jewlery and some very delectable looking sweet baking treats!  She is definately fun to read and I enjoy getting her updates on what she's doing next to get my socks knocked off my feet everytime.

 

Image owned and copyrighted to Diana Evans

 

 

Amalia -  A fellow dreamer and artist.  Amalia does gorgeous, poetic art work that expresses deep emotions and heart.  I find her work so inspiring, moving and a visual feast for the eyes everytime I see it, I couldn't imagine being on blogger without her on my reading list.  She also does some of the cutest little paper dolls. 

 

Image owned and copyrighted to Amalia K

 

 

Jennifer Noel Bower - A very talented and awesome artist that I've ever come across.  Her work has a sweet charm that verges on a nice '50's/'60's retro style, but expresses all her soul in her own unique way.  It's a treat to get to see her art and read about what she's up to with her projects.  I'm always glad that I bumped into her here in blogger land.  This lady will continue to go far in her career!

 

Image owned and copyrighted to Jennifer Noel Bower

 

Gingermelon - A very creative doll artist who also happens to live in the same area as I do!  I may have passed her on the street and not even have know it. *giggles* She can do a range of different cute little dolls, from felt to her sweet paper dolls.  I always find it amazing that she can do these on such a tiny scale. She offers kits on her Etsy shop to sew these wonderful creations yourself.

 

Image owned and copyrighted to Gingermelon

 

 

P.C.E - I love this girl's art so much!  Her doodles that she sometimes posts up never look like doodles, they are beautiful and full of life, dark whimsy and fantasy.  She also turns her little creations into pendants, prints and much more.  I always look forward to reading her blog and getting a peek at what she's working on next.  I wish her all the best on her read to her dreams.

 

Image owned and copyrighted to P.C.E

 

 

Cameron - Another artist I adore very much!  This lady has to much creativity oozing from her fingers.  She does a whole range of art that I find so enthralling and inspiring.  I mean, she can create amazing jewlery pieces, cards, adorable sewing projects and lost of gorgeously painted artwork and a busy mother to boot too...she must be an expert on time managment as well. *giggle*  Keep up the awesome work!

 

Image owned and copyrighted to Cameron

 

Sara Lynn - A wonderfully talented artist!  I enjoy seeing her work so much.  Her lines have such a delecate and detailed nature that really makes them come alive, gives them such an elegant charm.  I just could never miss one of her posts.  I hope to buy one of her prints one day!

 

Image owned and copyrighted to Sara Lynn

 

 

Victoria Stitch -  Now I got so excited when I bumped into Victoria  in blogger land!  She does these amazing, cute, elegantly gothic art cut-outs.  I'm always blown away at all the tiny details she manages to cram into her work and they are all so charming!  She's a definate worth to see and read and I can see her going to far places with the work she does. An artist to watch!

 

Image owned and copyrighted to Victoria Stitch

 

 

Okay, so lastly I have to write seven things about myself. *gulp*  I hope they won't be boring. *laughs*

 

1.  I studied ballet at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet for about six years(from age 4 to 9).  I love nothing more than to dance and let my body go to music.  If I could have been anything else besides an artist I would have been a dancer.  I had to stop going to classes once the company moved to a new location and to cover the costs, they raised to prices of their classes.  I still hope to return to ballet classes one day, just for fun.

 

2.  I also write.  Another ambition of mine when I was a teen was to be a novelest.  I wrote my first 400 page vampire epic when I was 17.  Which sadly has been lost to the winds after all these years, but the main characters still sometimes chatter to me.  I was really encouraged to write, I had a grade 7 teacher that would enroll me into writing competions.  I still write a little bit here and there, but they mostly turn out to be comic scipts.

 

3. I was once offerd a position at Tokyo Pop as a professonal freelance screentoner.  I ended up turning them down, which was a good thing since they went bust in 2008.  I turned them down because I just really wanted to draw my own work, which I guess was selfish of me.

 

4. I am a coffee addict to the extreme!  I can have at least five or more cups of coffee in a day and I can still fall asleep after that.  So the caffine effect has lost it's power on me. Mwahahaha.  I do like tea as well, as long as it's caffinated.

 

5. I can speak some Japanese, and am currently trying to learn Hebrew as well.  Japanese is way easier to pronounce than Hebrew...but that probably because I've been learning Japanese for more than five years.  What I find most interesting about Hebrew is that their numbers are the same as their letters...which is also very confusing. *giggles*

 

6. I also used to do figure skating as a child, I studied for about three years.  I loved doing the sipns!  Though I didn't enjoy it as much as ballet though.  The skates scared me, as I knew that if you had a bad fall, you could get seriously cut up and hurt.

 

7. I'm an old movie buff.  I adore old movies from the silent era on upwards...but my particular favorites are from the '40's to the mid '70's.  But my range of tastes is rather large...so as long as it's good I'll love it.  Though I do like some of the old horror movies from the '80's...which are great for a real laugh!  My top picks are "To Kill A Mockingbird", "The Seven Year Itch", "An Affair To Remember",  "Rope", "The 39 Steps", "The Bad Seed" and "The Picture Of Dorian Grey".  Ther are more, but I can't remember all of them right now. *laughs*

 

Well, that's it for this blog post for today...I'll end it with this little doodle  I rather quickly did as thanks to Sasha for the nomination and all of you who read my little rambling and look at my doodles. Thank You and have a terrific, 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!