Christmas Bears

I haven't gone to any Christmas Parties this year. The one drawback of being freelance is that there isn't even a Christmas do! So because I'm feeling the distinct lack of Christmas cheer, here are a few Christmas Polar Bears (which I actually did last year - but as I haven't got time to do any Christmasy images at the moment, they'll have to do).

Monster Fur

This week on the workshop I'm doing (at the CGSociety) we're looking at texture, which includes hair/fur. So this is my first quick hairy monster (and friends).

Little Green Monster

Here's a little green chap. He's waiting for something, but don't ask me what!?

Go on... just one more monster

Well I squeezed in one more monster of the horn/tooth variety. This one was relatively quick, as I did it between midnight and 2am. Who says you don't have time for art?! ;o)

Tooth and Horns Monster

Here's my monster for the final of the Teeth and Horns week. I can never seem to do really scary monsters.... it's most frustrating. Oh well. Practice make perfect (maybe).

Gruesome Gums

Following on the teeth theme, here's a mouth for you. Lovely gubbily eh!! Really fun to paint, but hard to chew with!

Monster Teeth

Ok... so here's my go at monster teeth and drool. I looked at some ref pics first, but didn't refer to them after the initial gander. Feel the drool!

Horns - not trumpets!

This week on my online course is Teeth... but horns come under the heading too. Here was my attempt at a horn. No ref used.

Many Eyed Monster

I tried to do a many eyed jellyfish type of monster. But I don't think I quite got the jellyfishness. I had to do it on my laptop at my mothers house... that's my excuse! ;o)

Plus I had no reference material and had to rely on my peanut brain.

Eyes 2

Here are some more eyes using reference. Again done in Painter IX.5 inbetween 30-50mins each.

Eyes

I'm doing a course on CGTalk at the moment 'monster painting'. First week we looked at eye's.

Here's some practice eye's that I did using reference. They're all in Painter IX.5 and took 30 - 50 mins each to complete.

Halloween

A picture for Halloween.

Worn On The Head

Archery anyone?! Worn on the Head was another weekly/fortnightly sketch topic, set by Jonathan Cusick this time. I was trying to think of something other than a hat. I was thinking of a mask, but couldn't get rid of the apple image in my mind, so decided not to fight it.

Funny Bird

This is a pic I did for the theme 'Funny Bird'. I'd already done the sketch (just a doodle) but I thought it fitted the theme, so coloured it.

Another Old Master Copy

Well, here is another go at copying Mr Rubens using Painter IX!

Here is the original

And here is my go:


This is a reaaallly bad .gif of my working stages.... the file size is bit big...sorry. You can see it a tiny bit better if you click on it.

Silhouette Doodle

This is a quick doodle I did today... feel the breeze!

Copying old masters

I've been copying some more old masters... well bits of 'em anyway, inspired by the "Anatomy Lesson Series - Body Part 2: The Torso" thread on CGTalk.

I wanted to study skin tone as well as anatomy, because I never seem to paint in life drawing, I only use charcoal.

I've alway liked Rubens so I did a few of his. This is part of the orginal:

Here's my go:


Mr Rubens No. 2:

And My attempt:
Click on mine for a closer look. Hopefully I'll do a few more... I must admit I enjoyed doing them.

These were done in Painter IX. Previously I had trouble trying to do skin in painter, but I think I've got the hang of it (sort of)

Swordsgirl

I did this because I simply have a soft spot for Swords and... well... swords women too I s'pose! Who hasn't eh!?

Fiona Sansom Square on the AOI Digital Tapestry

I've joined in on the AOI Digital Tapestry. The theme is Love & Affection. If you want to join in you book 4 175x175 pixel squares from the AOI either horizontally, vertically or in a square. I chose a square just because I thought it would be easiest.

As you can see below the square that appears on the screen is quite small... 80x80 pixels.


This is it at the requested resolution of 350 x 350 pixels.


The below was the whole of my original idea... but I thought that there was probably too much going on for such a small image, so I cropped it.

Oh well. ;o)

Click on image to enlarge

The final Tapestry should be interesting!

Paulo the Pirate

I have just participated in a Travelling Sketchbook with the theme of 'Travel' (funnily enough) with a group of other illustrators. It's still doing the rounds.

My husband was very keen for me to do a pirate, so my entry for this project was Paulo the Pirate.

I had to do a spread, so I separated it into two pages.



Check out the Travelling Sketchbook blog for more.

Movie Icons

Rudolph Valentino


This was done for the theme of Movie Icons. I'm not a big fan of the silent movies, but Charlie Chaplin sprung to mind under the theme of 'movie icon', but the problem for me there was I can't stand Charlie Chaplin movies. So I thought I'd go with my idea of Valentino.... not that I've actually ever seen one of his movies.... he always looks rather sulky to me. heh heh!

Ghastly Great Aunt

I created this image of a Ghastly Great Aunt for Frog and his blogsite Monsterosity. It was good fun to do.. so thanks Frog for asking me!

I had some rather nasty Great Aunts (tho none, I hasten to add, were quite as bad as this one), so when I was asked to do a monster, this theme sprung quickly to mind.

Needless to say click on the image for a closer look.

Illustration Friday - Opposites

Opposites:- The Amazon and the Poet

Here's another Illustration Friday topic (late again.. ho hum!). I went for the obvious "opposites" I suppose (so sue me)... body size and occupation. Click on the image for a bigger view as it's a bit hard to see here.

Skyline - House on the Hill

I started this for Illustration Friday theme "Skyline" but never got around to finishing it in the week the topic was live. Here it is anyway.

Anatomy practice - Copying the Masters

I've been doing a few heads based on old masters paintings and sculpture (initiated by the CGTalk board anatomy thread here . Check out the thread to see more of the original images). I've only done a few so far, because they always take longer than I think.

Here's the original image:

And my interpretation. I thought I'd do it in colour... make it harder for myself, why don't I. I'm a glutton for punishment! ;o)

Original:My go:

Below, I decided to try some pencils (well, actually it's still drawn in Painter), because the colour heads were taking too long ('bout 2hrs each). And I was supposed to be doing something else.

Original:


My attempt (I actually think it may have been easier in colour!):
It's quite strange drawing from old masters. You tend to notice all sorts of discrepancies in the anatomy. For instance I found the right eye of the girl in the painting to be very low...but it looks ok in the painting. However trying to make my black and white image similar without looking like her eye had slipped down her face was tricky... yet this is an exercise in learning from copying, not in correcting what you think is wrong, and who am I to correct an old master anyway! It's a fun exercise!

More One Hour Paintings

Here's a few doddles with a one hour time limit, inspired either by a photo or a word (on the AOI website) .... to see how much I could get done in the time. All were done in Painter IX.5.


This one is for "Alien"... a bit obvious really ;o) . Needs a bit more work to be any good, but I really felt the one hour limit on this one!


This one was for the word "Sullen"


This one was inspired by a photo of a wolf. After the one time limit was up I felt the upraised paw looked a bit funny, so I gave myself an extra 5-10 mins to fix it.



And this was inspired by a photo.


I decided to give it another go but with a different feel.