Halloween-a-thon 2012

Halloween-a-thon art. Yay! I had so much fun making this.

Started experimenting with mixed media and some new supplies I bought. I discovered this awesome art store in the hometown of friends of ours (much to my hubby's regret, lol).

Pumpkin
Acrylics/mixed media
ATC

Mummy Dog
Copic markers and ink
ATC

A Dog's Costume
Acrylics
ATC
 

A Mouse's Halloween
Acrylics/collage
Envelope (A5)

Jack Carter

Fell in love with the TV series (A Town Called) Eureka. Awesomeness all around!


Copic markers, Prisma colored pencils

Cartoons, lips and more

Joined some more swaps on both ATC websites. Simply love doing that. The practice, the incentive, the themes, it's all wonderful to do!

Favorite cartoon swap: Captain Planet (watercolor), The Land Before Time (Platvoet en z'n vriendjes), Barbalib (Barbabientje) and, of course, Tom & Jerry (last three - acrylics)


Another bookmarker for the swap I posted about earlier. Watercolor this time.


Day of the Dead swap. Loved doing these! So fun to work on. Copic markers, gel pen and colored pencil


A lips swap. So much fun! I tried out different techniques with this swap and quite like the results, though I do need more soft pastel practice (upper right). Acrylics, soft pastel, colored pencil and Copic markers

Swapping Fun

Joined some swaps on ATCsforall.com and illustratedATCs.com. Loved doing these!

Materials: watercolor (backgrounds), acrylics, colored ink, brush pen


Materials: watercolor, ink, gel pens, gold/silver pen


Materials: ink, Copic markers, gel pens


Materials: acrylics


Materials: ink, Copic markers, gel pens

Cartoon animals II

Did some more cartoon animals, ATC size.

Hope you like them!

Ink, watercolor, Copic markers, gel pen

Cartoon Fun

Had fun with cartoony animals and ATCs :D

brush pen, copic markers, gel pen

Black, White & Gray

I dreamed a strange dream the other night. Probably had to do with a book I was reading (Kingmaker, Kingbreaker series). There was this guy and three shapes of some kind. The guy told the shapes to stop arguing and named the strongest one Black, the weakest one Gray and the one in between White. They became humanoid and Black took off, while Gray and White kept on arguing.

So I decided to draw them. Still need to work on their background stories, but they're brother and sisters (the guy was their father). The sisters don't get along... Oh, and they all have magic powers of some sort (all I know so far is that Black can fly).

Here they are!
Ink, copic markers.

NCIS again

Did some more NCIS artist trading cards. So if you think they're so-so, keep in mind they're 2.5 x 3.5 inches (like baseball cards). Abby was particularly hard, because she's so light skinned, it's hard to give her volume. Plus her hair didn't cooperate, lol.

All of them were done with Copic markers and Prisma colored pencils.

Timmy

I did Timmy as well. His full name is Timothy McGee and Dinozzo often calls him McProbie or McSomething-funny, lol.

Again NCIS and again Copics and Prismas.

Enjoy!

Ziva David

I finished Ziva!
By the way, you pronounce her last name as Dah-veed.

Copic markers and Prisma colored pencils.

Enjoy!

The finished product


The WIP

Tony Dinozzo

Just bought NCIS season 6, so, naturally, I was inspired. Teehee.

Did this with copic markers (for base color) and prisma colored pencils.
The size is a 2.5" by 3.5" sketch card.

Enjoy!




And the work in progress (WIP):

Purple Lady

Behold, my purple lady.

She's only called that, because I couldn't find a name for her that suited, so yeah, purple lady it is.

Did this one with Copic markers. I finally used them again! Yay! I found that if I start with a new medium, practice it for a while and fail pretty hard, that if I take a (long) break from that medium and start using it again a while later, I suddenly know how. Which is odd, but hey, it works.

Oh, and her ruffles at the bottom disappeared, but you'll just have to imagine them then.



Her outfit I got from a little book called Kleding en mode in kleur 1550-1760 (Clothing and Fashion in Color 1550-1760) and stems from around 1678. I did change the colors, though, and adjusted the outfit just a bit.

Children's Book Fair

That would be the Children's Book Fair in Bologna, Italy. Yes. (YES!). That's where I'll be from the 22nd to the 25th of this month. It's a fair for professionals in the whole process of children's books - writing, illustrating, publishing, translating, rights, etc. I'll be going there as illustrator and translator and see what my chances are.

Maybe nothing will happen and I'll continue this passion in my spare time.
Maybe something will happen and I'll get a tiny chance to translate a children's book.
Maybe something else will happen and I'll get a tiny chance to illustrate a children's book.
Maybe, just maybe, I'll get a tiny chance to do both.

I'm not pessimistic, I'm positively realistic. I know the chances are small and that there are many, many talented artists and translators out there, but that doesn't mean I won't go at all. I will try and do my best and I will have fun and who knows? A tiny chance is all I need...

For my portfolio to bring to Bologna I have worked/am working on a couple of pieces:

This is Lyra from Northern Lights / The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman. Currently we are researching this novel as a class project at the university, so I thought it would be fun to illustrate it as well.



This is Sniff. His life consists of nothing but adventures. Every new smell, every exciting odor is a new adventure for him. It is a work in progress, so not quite finished yet.



This one I will not put into my portfolio. It's a failed attempt at a collage technique. I hate the composition and well, I just don't like the overall image. But the separate elements are all right. There's Sniff, a boy music maker, and Bo - a supergirl I once made up.

Atlantis All the Way!

Finally! Some drawings! Though I admit they are not much, it's always better than nothing. Here we go!

Of the three, I like this one best. Though it might be wise not to say this on the Internet, I made this during college... Sorry! It was fun though.
He, like the other two, is based on Ronon Dex from Stargate Atlantis.


The first of these three that I made. I know, the order in which I put them doesn't make sense, but oh well. I like this one least, but enough to put him up here. He, too, is based on Ronon.


This one was actually drawn with help of a reference picture of Ronon. He looks best in terms of looking like the actual character, but I see too many flaws with the picture (the pose is off, his vest is all wrong! Gah! I do like the pants though..) itself...

Early in the Mornin'

Geez, never thought I could get up so early, lol. Ah well, I'm a little nervous, I suppose. You know, for 'school.' Starting a new one today. I feel like a freshman... Still, before I go I have some more drawings. Enjoy!

Tried this one on new paper. The paper isn't good for wet mediums (watercolors and such), but it works for markers and pencils. This manga figure was made with just those.


Wonder Woman with guns?! Lol, no, just someone who likes to hold pistols and dress up wei... uh, nice. Tried this one out myself, without reference, which is why it's a little off. Markers again.


A pose I stole from a fashion book. I really liked the pose, but made the girl and clothes myself. Markers again.

And the test results are...

Sorry for the stupid title, I couldn't think of a better one. But anyway, here we are, again, this time with Abby in it. It's from the same episode as the previous picture, and, like the previous ones, made with watercolors (background) and Copic markers (characters). The scanner kind of screwed with the colors, especially the lighter watercolors, but oh well. This will have to do. And that machine on the table? No clue as to what it is, but I made it a fancy microscope. I couldn't really tell the details from the printscreen I made, so I improvized. Don't shoot me, lol.

By the way, I don't have the right color markers to do Kate's hair properly, but I have the right colors for Abby's (scary, rubber) gloves... What's up with that?

[EDIT]
I made the filmstrip longer, adding my most recent pic. I didn't think it worthy of a whole new post, so I decided to edit this one.

[END EDIT]

Flying Colors

Lol, I actually colored the NCIS scene I posted earlier (here)! Yay! And I'm quite proud of the outcome, I love it! Double yay!
I know Kate's hair isn't right, but I don't have the right colors in my Copic collection yet, so yeah, I made her blond. The characters are colored with Copic markers and the background is done with watercolors.

August and Dried Rose

Finally! Some time to update some more. I see I've only updated twice in July, that's terrible! I hope August will make up for that, but I can't be sure. Still have an translation going on, of which the dead-line is August 12th, and then there's my part-time/student job. And since it's the holidays they like to plan me into the roster without consulting me much, so yeah. Hey, I'm not complaining, more work is always good, considering, but still, it's a lot of work, you know? (Wow, how many commas can one use in one sentence? Lol. If I did this in a translation I'd get my butt kicked... Seriously. But then again, this is so lovely unofficial. I love being unofficial, especially after having done so many things official lately.)

Anyhow, below here is ... well, it's supposed to be Gibbs, from NCIS. But he doesn't really look like it. I still like the character itself though, so I thought I'd post it anyway. Plus I like the line-art. I drew that gun from a photo on the cover of a encyclopedia I bought (you get it?). Yes, I bought an encyclopedia about guns... How bad is that. I like them, though. Not to kill, mind you, but they're interesting ... objects.


From left to right: Gibbs, Todd, and DiNozzo. Or, in other words, Jethro, Kate, and Tony. Drew this one from a (well-known) picture on one of the DVDs. So it's not really original, but I like how the line-art turned out. Kind of comic-y.



And last but not least; a rose! It's a dried rose, mind you, so it wasn't my fault. I drew it from a real-life dried rose I kept from a bouquet. Done with my wonderful new Prismas! Still love 'em! And they work fantastically!

NoName

Two more images! I got new copic markers this weekend, and I figured I'd try them out. I liked the result, but of course I need to improve big time. It's not near as good as I want it to be. Anyway, here they are!

This girl I tried the markers on. However, I tweaked this particular image in Photoshop, since the scan did the image no justice... She had an ear-job, since the original was way too small and too high up, and I smugded her skin. The scan showed too much grain where I colored the image with the Prismacolor pencils. Oh well. It looks okay, now, and I definitely need to practice more with those markers. They're fun, though!


Same girl. (I dubbed her NoName, since I wouldn't know her name, who knows, maybe she'll tell me some time, maybe she won't. Maybe the name NoName has a story within itself). Anyway, did this with my pens and Prisma's and greys for the background and kicked-up person, lol. I like how she's in color and the rest isn't... Maybe I'll do more of her.