Hello! I am still alive.

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

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

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

 

 

 

This little lady is called "Bewitched". She was for an October auction on Facebook last year. I am happy to say that she found a lovely new home. One of my first successful sales in a long, long time.  She was done with pencils and white ink on Deleter Art paper. She actually took nearly three months to finish! But, that was probably due to a hectic work schedule at the time.  When you work in florals, you come to dread the holidays. *laughs*

 

 

So again, so happy to be back! I hope all of you have been well? Cannot wait to catch up on lost time. See you all very soon! Cheers!

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!

The Dreaming Elf

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

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

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

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

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

Wishing you all a very wonderful week ahead! Cheers!

The White Lady: Drawing Up For Auction

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

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

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


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

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

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 Birthday Gift Basket and a WIP drawing

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

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

Here's what I came back with:

Far Left to Right:

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

I started off with wiring the roses into the basket:

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

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

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

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

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

Finally I added the cellophane and the fancy ribbons:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

Cinderella paper doll

Hello my lovely friends! Oh my gosh, so happy to have my Internet connection back again!  It's been touch and go for awhile now, but finally settled into my new apartment...which I'll show you my new view in a minuet.  First, I want to talk about this lovely Mucha Baby here, as I'm  still working on part two of The Prince and The Sea maid, while making changes to the first half of the fairy tale.  Thank you guys for reading it and giving me your honest opinions too, you guys are all the sweetest!  Plus I got such and awesome story change suggestion from a great friend about the nature of the prince and I loved her suggestion so much that I've made those changes to the prince to boost his character and hopefully add some more excitement to the story over all. The story will update soon.

So, this little doll here is sort of my take on Cinderella.  I actually did this back in February after I saw a challenge call over at the Somerset Studio website . The theme was to create your favorite fairy tale character and I just couldn't resist giving it a try.  I first took a look at some English and French noble fashions of the 15 and 1600's and added some of my own twists and designs to the final outfit.  Deciding the colour was the hard part, I couldn't decide weather to go dark or a lighter pastel colours.  I found that I had to do some rough tests to see what would go good with her blonde hair...and blue with hints of gold turned out to work well and show up well on the scanner.  Her little detached shoe is sewn onto her hand.  My mum was nice enough to let me use one of her doll needles to do that.  I went a little crazy with the glitter pen for the dots on her outer skirt, but hey, it's fun to sit there and dot away. For the background, I have a huge book on old English castles and flipped through it in hopes of finding something that would complement her.  She only took about two days to complete and stands at about 19 cm tall.

Well, as for my new apartment...it's quite nice and extremely quiet.  Which is so nice, which means I can focus more when I get inspired for either writing or drawing.  My view is like this now, I face the back and on a clear sunny day can see all the way into Richmond and see the mountain line of Vancouver Island.

Wishing you all a wonderful and creative week ahead. 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!

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!

Illustration Friday: Wings

Yay!  Laptop is working and the little bug on my blog that was not allowing me to upload pictures has been fixed. Woot...good Sunday!  I hope you all are having a good weekend, my lovelies. 

So! I have finally managed to join in on an Illustration Friday topic, taken me months to get on the ball with that again as it takes me a long time to finish a drawing sometimes, so, I tend to miss the topics most weeks.  I decided to go with a bit of fan artwork for the current topic of Wings.  I picked the character Stocking from the anime show "Pantie and Stocking with Garter belt".  Which is about two angels that come to earth to kick all sorts of evil bum. *laughs*  It's not for kids as it full of nasty humor and situations, but, thoroughly enjoyable in the hip animation style and it's well written.  I like Stocking best as she fights with these two Katana swords that are actually stockings she wears on her legs, plus she has gorgeous dark purple, almost like a deep blue, and pink long flowing hair.  I also chose to go with her transformation sequence look, as she's really pretty in it.  Which is a bit jarring when you see it for the first time.  It goes from super hip chibi style animation to something you'd see from Satoshi Kon (The Director of "Tokyo Godfathers" and "Paprika").

I used my trusty watercolour pencils, which I use dry, sepia ink and gold jelly roll pens just for some highlights.  This took me about a week to do and was done at the beginning of this month.  I know it's nothing recently new, as I'm so engrossed on working on my book and the illustrations for it that I couldn't find enough time to fit a new drawing in, but, I really wanted to participate in Illustration Friday this week.

On a side note,  I wrote a short story in November and actually sent it off to an anthology press to see what would happen and I just got a reply back last week. The story didn't make it into the book, but, it was the best rejection letter I have ever gotten in a long time!  I haven't done a submission, a writing submission, to anywhere since 2006.  So it's encouraged me much to keep plowing on with writing and try again and get stronger with telling a story.  I think I'm finally on the right track this year. Yay!

Well, my mum's needs the laptop while it's working, I'll catch up with all of your lovely posts and creative awesomeness tonight.  Love you all and have a super brilliant, creative week my wonderful blog friends. 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!!

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!

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!

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!

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!