Juniper Sketch Trade

Sketch trade with my good friend Mossy - her character Juniper! Only a quick sketch but very fun. I miss photoshop! *sob*

Geoff WIPs

So I only took pictures of my portrait of Geoff on my phone. Go figure its taken me about 4 months to upload them, but better late than never! Sorry for the small and not particularly quality shots, but, enjoy and I hope it gives you an insight into how I work!

Final piece can be found here.

Click the image below for the fullsize version :-)

Doodles

Huur, so I had college today lol. Go figure the doodles began as, again, I forgot my sketchbook. D'oh!

The main reason I started sketching is becausemy friend was going through ideas for her wedding gown the other day and I just couldnt stop thinking about it! I'm not sure if this is quite the right design for her (but it combines elements she likes), but I'ma show it to her anyway and see what she thinks :) The arms and shoulders are made with lace, there is also a lace band around the waist, and...... the rest is just made from opaque fabric. I think the skirt might actually look really nice in silk. I'm quite randomly tempted to paint up this concept!

The one I definitely want to draw up though, is top left! Its supposed to be expressing pure joy - I suppose, think "Stardust", if you've ever seen that movie. She's literally glowing. I want to give her a subtle radiance, but also to appear as if theres light pouring out of her heart. I hope I can pull that off. I hope also that I even have time to draw this idea, because I havent had a proper chance to draw in weeks which is totally peeving me off!

As for the rest, they're just my hand-spazzes. I rather like the random genki-girl though haha, retarded leg/foot and all lol.

Enjoy!

Doodles

So I had college yesterday, and forgot to take any form of entertainment with me, so go figure my notepad got abused, bwaha :-P

I really cant draw horses! :D But perhaps its an impressive effort by someone who cant draw horses haha :D

Click the pic for the larger image if you want to read my photoshop scrawlings lol~

Naisa Portrait WIP 1, 2 & 3

This is a portrait of Naisa! A realistic one and all! :D I'm really happy with how its turning out so far, its a joy to work on! I have used a pose reference (from Lockstock on DA), but am using no reference for the face. So .. its turning out really well I think to say I'm using no facial reference!

Taken a couple hours on this so far... now its bedtime but I cant wait to do more on this tomorrow! :D

Wip 1 - sketch and background pallette.
Wip 2 - base colours.
Wip 3 - basic block shading but of course, got carried away on the face! REALLY need help on the hands lol.

Elvynne WIP 6

This will probably be the last WIP before I finish this - as you can see all I really have left to do on Elvynne herself is the hair/fur from the head down to the tail. On the background, I may do some refining, may leave it as it is as I like it quite a bit! :)

Elvynne WIP 5

I havent had the chance to work on this for two and a half weeks now, which has been really frustrating! I have only spent about 20 minutes on this since the last WIP, technically to get to this stage, but it was really theraputic to draw, even for such a short while. This is starting to turn out nicely, methinks. Just shading to go and some more refining etc. :)

Happy Mother's Day (final piece)

This is my gift to my mum for Mothers Day (which is today, in the UK).

The bird featured is : Aegithalos caudatus (Long Tailed Tit)

This nearly, so very nearly, didnt make it to fruition. I had just finished this last night, and was really happy with it, when I knocked a full glass of juice over it. I frantically tried to dry it, only to succeed in, instead, smudging a large stripe of colour right across the picture. I thought it was ruined. I was really upset :( But, I did what I could to dry it, and left it over night swatched in paper towels and weighted down with a cast iron pan stand, in the hope that the paper would warp too badly. This morning, I worked some restorative magic on it, and luckily it seems ok *faints* The paper is a little warped, and if you know where to look you can faintly see the smudge of colour streaked across the picture but its ok. Thank god!!

I would have been really upset to lose this piece!

I obviously wanted to draw something personal to mum, and, we have a massive amount of birds frequenting our garden - maybe a dozen upwards different species daily - due to the fact we put out a lot of food for them. Over winter we have had the wonderful and beautiful spectacle of our birds to wonder at during the days. It was a toss up between drawing for her, our most elusive spotted woodpecker (who is a stunning specimen), or, the long tailed tit, because in the last month, a family of 7 of them have taken up residence nearby and frequently mob our feeder. Its so lovely to see, they are absolutely tiny things, with these wonderful long tails, dark in colour but streaked distinctively with white on the edge... :3

I obviously used references for the bird - several for the anatomy, and to find a nice marking pattern - and for the rest of it, I simply tried to make it bright and appealing. Its obviously not too realistic, I didnt really see the point of trying too hard on this (which would have spoilt it I think) since I'm not so good drawing nature realistically, so this loose sort of realism works better I think. I like it, anyway. I hope my mum does too!

I drew this with a base of markers, and then shaded and textured it with my pencil crayons :D

Anyway! Sorry for the ramble! I wanted to explain my reasoning behind drawing this, and also tell of the almost calamnity!

Chloe (Final Piece) + Coronation WIP 4

I know I didnt really show any WIPS of this piece - sorry! I did try take some photos but they came out shockingly awful so I didnt post them :) I am so happy with this piece - it was the funnest portrait I've ever done, and it was so different to draw. For the first time I have used a mix of colour with graphite in a portrait, and I have also done much more than just a head portrait. I really cant wait to try out a piece like this again! You can find this posted on my Deviantart here.

Model is the lovely Chloe Pridham, in a shoot for the Sunday Times Style Magazine.

Here is the next WIP for my coronation piece featuring Naisa (right) and Rasir (left). I really LOVE how her dress is coming out, so I had to share it! Also pretty happy with the sword. Can you see how I have embedded her lovely golden bodice with pearls? Pretty :D I wish this dreass was real

Coronation WIP 3

Third WIP for "Coronation" - showing, obviously, a coronation lol. Queen Naisa and her consort Rasir :)

I have started to colour in the skin areas, and have completed the hair here. Blocked in the golden areas (bar Rasir's crown/circlet).

Unsure what colours to do the royal shield in as yet (possibly gold and blue), and am struggling with the colours of their outfits (her - red and him - blue are current ideas), but this has been fun to work on so far. I've really tried to work well with Rasir's face. Did I do ok? I really need so much more practice with drawing men, thats for sure!

Enjoy~

Demara - Character Concept Art

This actually only took like an hour tops which is pretty cool! However, oh my gosh. DRAWING FAIL RIGHT HERE LAWLZ :-|

Wow I hate this haha.

This is a character concept for a book I'm writing. I have this beautiful sketchbook that I'm trying to fill with all my visual concepts, ideas, and illustrations - this is one such illustration. Princess Demara, who in my story marries/is married to Price/King Zaki (who usurps the throne from Naisa by murdering her, kidnapping her daughter Irumae as a hostage, and declaring her son Aung outlaw - what a nice brother). I just felt like drawing her. As you can see, complete anatomy fail, and whilst the costume came out ok in design (loving the crinkly dress actually :D), the colours are just SO off. I like her hair though. Yay hair :D

I really hope I can pin down her design better in the future.......

Organicity (Final Piece)

This is a jewellery set specially made for an anniversary meal I had last night. I have received some lovely compliments on this set, and, this being coupled with my own pleasure and satisfaction with this set, makes me reeeeally happy and proud to share it!

Its my best jewellery to date of that I'm sure, and I spent a lot of hours doing this (necklace made from scratch, earrings/bracelet premade, but I have set them with the stones - blue abalone), however I know I can do better and I can't wait to have the time to sit down and try a similar inspired piece! :D

I hope you like.. :D

(and PS, yes that is me modelling them haha)

Elvynne WIP 2, 3 & 4

WIP 2 - roughly sketched Elvynne in.

WIP 3 - drawn in the neatened lineart

WIP 4 - layer of basic colour laid down, lots of work left yo do but enjoying this piece a lot so far its a nice break from everything I've been drawing! :)

Elvynne WIP 1

So I started an art trade with Elvynne a while ago and I'm just totally uninspired to finish it. I've honestly been working at it for AGES, and its been on every weekends to do list for at least the last 3 months! But, just cant sit down and do it, really have lost the motivation :/ So, I decided that at the very least I should draw her something. Enter, her amazing fursona. Wow is she georgeous! So I started a drawing of her, and the first thing that popped into my head was this massive cloudscape. I'm really happy with it :O Yay clouds haha! This is obviously on a really rough throwing the colours down sketch so far. But, I will now start drawing Elvynne in. Wish me luck!

Anne Hathaway (Final piece) + Chloe WIP 1

So I am really inspired to start this new piece, but in the back of my mind I was thinking "You still havent finished that portrait of Anne Hathaway yet.. tut tut...."... so I decided that my reward for finishing THIS picture would be to start the one I am so inspired to draw haha!

The picture I'm really inspired on is a graphite & colour pencil portrait of a model who I believe is Kaya Scodelaria (it looks to be her spitting image if not!)** You can see the first pencil sketch below :P Its fully cleaned up and mostly erased out so I can colour over it without the lines showing up, which is why it scanned faintly, and why, as you can see I had to max out the contrast!

** I looked up the name of the model in this sketch... sad to find its not Kaya at all, its actually a model called Chloe Pridham. Oh well. Shes beautiful to draw all the same...

Winter Romance - Final piece!

Its finished.. yaaaaay!

For my general comments on the piece, please read the artists comments on my DeviantART post... and you can also view all of the WIPS together on a walkthrough. :-)

Coronation - WIP 1 & 2

So I received a beautiful journal style sketchbook from my parents this Christmas, and I want to fill it with lovely pictures. As I would also really love to advance my novel I thought that I would combine the two, and so I am aiming to fill it with concept and character art from the story. This event takes place some years before the novel even starts - before the main characters are even born in most cases. But, I am still so drawn to drawing Naisa, even though she is dead by the time the novel comes around. This is her coronation, whilst her consort Rasir stands proudly at the foot of her throne dais :) I'd really like to colour this one!

As you can see I had a hard time getting a decent view of the sketch. It was too faint for my scanner to pic up so sorry for the grainy camera image. As you can see from the ink I've inked it very minimally (for me anyway! Usually I go for every single detail!). I am hoping that this will give a much less cartoony feel to the final piece :)

Winter Romance WIP 9 & WIP 10

Well I have spent about another hour and a half on this at the very least today, so probably up to about 8 hours by now? Its hard to keep track!

This is really coming along. I'm fairly happy with this - I realise there are a lot of things wrong but this really is my first major digital piece since probably Secret World in 2008, and I'm definitely happier with this piece than I was with that one. Its all a case of practice, everyone has got to start somewhere and I guess I'm still pretty close to that starting point! So, though there are things wrong I'm not being too harsh on myself. Its all practice. I just wish I could have portrayed Luke a bit more like how he is in my head! Perhaps the next time.. ^^;

Winter Romance WIP 8 - Please Crit!

God I need help. Luke is just not turning out how he is in my head, on account of the fact I really cannot draw guys! I totally need to practice male realism more, boo. Hope this one ends up turning out ok, he could really be the thing that spoils it, because of my inexperience... Please crit on Luke specifically if you can!

Winter Romance WIP 7

WIP 7 for you.. I have worked a little more on her dress/cloak, his top and visible arm, and painted in his hand.... Getting there slowly but surely! Up to 5 and a half hours on this, and I have to finish this this weekend otherwise I will miss the deadline. Pressue's on!

Winter Romance WIP 6

Painted in the collar and added her other arm.. only 15 minutes working on this though I had hoped to be able to have a longer session :(

Winter Romance WIP 5

I think I've spent about 4 and a half hours on this so far. I am really running out of time on this one, deadline is the 14th Feb so gonna have to hurry it along! I get the feeling I havent gotten enough contract in the face but I will come back to it later. I definitely had fun painting this stage :-)

Winter Romance WIP 4

Here I have added the basic shading to the characters. Now I can start to refine them :-)

Winter Romance WIP 3 + Anne Hathaway WIPS 2 & 3

Ok, two WIPS firstly here for the Anne Hathaway portrait I am doing :) Probably spent about 2 hours on this by now which isnt bad - its a pretty small piece by the way, only 16 cm x 12 cm!

Firstly I coloured in the skin basically, and started on the hair. In the second picture you can see how I have worked more on the skin to give it more depth, and also lend it a more rosy tint (before it was a bit too yellow... although on my screen the second picture looks more yellow than the first..... whoops lol. Thats just the photo of it I promise!). I have also added more to the hair.

In terms of the Winter Romance piece, this is a massive transition from the last stage, a bare sketch, and about an hour more work (which considering, isnt too bad! Up to about 2 and a half hours on this now, maybe 3) - I have fixed her face for starters, but also flipped the sketch horizantally, shrunk it and placed it slightly differently. However, as you may notice I have not painted in her left arm (the right arm as we look at it). I just cant get the anatomy right. This I think will probably be one of the last things I end up painting!

I have put in a background - which hopefully I can refine a little more (this is not a definite, backgroudns arent my forte, and it might look better being left as this). But, I'm pretty happy with this so far. I like the mood it gives the picture so far!

I also laid down basic colour blocks. This is in preparation for basic shading, after which I will merge the sketch layer with the colour layer and begin the refining process. Wish me luck with that!

Winter Romance WIP2 & Anne Hathaway WIP 1

Well here is where I reached with the restart of Winter Romance last night! I got most of the anatomy hashed out, and time is probably up to 1 and a half hours by this point.

I need some help though please! Particular points I'm struggling with are:
1. Her face (she just... doesnt look very nice lol... she has a much kinder, innocent face in my head, here she just seems too worldly wise, for lack of another way to put it..)
2. Her arm (the left one as we look at it, down by her side). I cant get this to look natural!

I humbly request red-lines!

I am also starting a new colour pencil portrait because I direly need the practice. It is Anne Hathaway, a very beautiful actress whose looks I have always admired. I like how wide her smile is and how large her eyes are - and when she smiles it looks so sincere and her eyes really light up.. I dont think I've ever really got that feeling of sincerity and pure radiating joy from many other actors / actresses when I've seen them on the big screen. So, I was going to do one with her trademark smile... but then I found an amazing reference picture (clickie here to see!) where the contrast was just a whole new way of photography that I had never seen before. It definitely made me wow, more than any of the other photos I googled of her, so I had to pick this one!

Just a sketch so far though:

Winter Romance Restart *TWO*! WIP 1!

So.. Um.. I restarted the Winter Romance piece.. Again....! This is the last restart I promise haha! The other one just wasnt working out. I loved the background I created, dont get me wrong but I spent so long on it that.. I just couldnt see past it anymore. Suddenly the character sdidnt fit in anymore. Hopefully I can still use the pic for something though.

This time I am sketching the characters with a definite romantic pose in mind. Whereas the other image was going to focus on the period just before they fall in love, where the feelings are just beginning to emerge, this one is all about Luke and Evelyn being all ~*~lovey dovey~*~ How sweet =P

Anyway, only a figure sketch here, probably half an hour to this point. I am finding poses and anatomy ridiculously challenging at the moment. Bleh.

Enjoy :) Crits VERY welcome, befor eI start painting this up!!

Winter Romance - WIP 5

Another WIP for my Winter Romance piece. Up to about 6 hours on this now I think.

Winter Romance - WIPs 3 & 4

Two more WIPs from the Winter Romance picture.. Have spent a lot of time working on this today, I feel really stiff from being sat at my desak hunched over my tablet!

I think current time on this is in the region of 4 and a half hours so far. Ish. Lol.

I had aimed to have the background done by the end of today but its bedtime (aka I'm switching off the PC and going to draw something traditional in bed... busy busy!) and as you can see I'm nowhere near done! ...Time is ticking away on this one!

Enjoy :)

Winter Romance - WIP 2

As you can see, I have added a basic level of colour to the background at this point :)

Time at this point is around 1 and a half hours I believe.

Moment - Touchup

You may have seen the following piece on DeviantART, however I was very unhappy with the uploaded picture. After rephotographing it and playing around with the colours to make it more true to its real life values I am much happier with the result! For comparison, here are the before and after shots, in that order :)

The colurs come through much better in the second version, you can actually see the greens and a bit of blue in her eyes now! Yay! :)

Winter Romance Restart

Well, you may have seen my WIP on Deviantart for a contest entry with the theme "Winter Romance". (see below)


I decided today that, rather than re-working the sketch I'd start completely from scratch with a whole new tack. Now, I intend to do this piece digitally :) I hope that will give me greater control and manipulation of the anatomy which I found so challenging in the pencil sketch, and also hopefully it will allow me to be much more adventorous with my background, knowing I can always paint over it if needs be!

So, the top picture is the new first WIP of the piece - fear my rough stick figures! Haha :) This is a sketch of the background. Mmmm I love those windows <333 The stance of the character will remain the same though but I will redraw them :)

I used perspective I learnt way back in Graphic design class at school (wow. School did come in handy in a real life situation! Whaddaya know lol), I forget what its called but it works on 30 degree angles. I dont have a protractor, so I'm guessing but I'm trying to use the principle. I have made sure that all of the lines line up the same. I.e. the floor lines up with the top of the fireplace etc. Some of it looks wierd but I have actually checked it and it all matches up. Kooky! :O

Anyway. Enough rambling :D Enjoy! Crits as always appreciated :)

Autumnal Queen [WIP]

Another WIP of Autumnal Queen, my current piece! I'm terrified of colouring the water (experience = nil!) and still dont know what colour to do her dress though!

Sneak Peek at Autumnal Queen

Two already posted WIPs of a piece I'm working on, and a sneak preview of how its looking... :) I'm having lots of fun on this piece, but I'm trying so many new things its really challenging!

Commission Finished! :)

I've finished that commission I showed you! Really enjoyed working on this one! :)