There's one thing I owe to the Peter Jackson movies: They made me appreciate that the Hobbits could look different. I grew up with the cartoony Bakshi version, of which I mercifully managed to forget almost everything, except that Sam's nose was as big as his feet, and that the other three were comp...
2018-01-25 17:56:47 +0000 UTC View Post
As a left-hander, I always draw and paint from right to left, of course. I remember being puzzled when I read in art guidebooks that you should always work from left to right and thought it had something to do with brain-wiring or Western culture or whatever, until I realised it had to do with the b...
2018-01-25 16:34:16 +0000 UTC View Post
Sommer recently asked: "Do you lay down your idea on the toned paper with a regular drawing pencil first or do you use the red/white/charcoal pencils from the beginning?"
I thought I'd go into that a bit, and this turned into a full early-stages musing session, so here goes!
Coloured pencil ...
2018-01-24 09:11:04 +0000 UTC View Post
For those of you who asked about Caranthir! :)
Sepia and white pencil on grey-toned sketchbook paper. <3 I love this combination!
2018-01-20 15:51:10 +0000 UTC View Post
Maybe you saw on Social media that I'm going to do a "SavvySaturday", sharing artsy tips. I made a little video that I plan to post next week, and got totally carried away with silent film music. XD
So, in case you ever tried painting with dry watercolour straight from the pan, got very little pig...
2018-01-20 15:06:42 +0000 UTC View Post
Breaking in a new sketchbook (you can never have enough half-full sketchbooks... cough). I've finally found one with toned paper!
One of the few sketchbooks of mine (among the two dozen or so that litter my home, and that's just counting the ones that are full) that I still largely like is o...
2018-01-19 17:03:33 +0000 UTC View Post
Prints now in my Etsy shop! I have four of these with remarqued mat. :)
Don't forget your coupon code!
https://www.etsy.com/shop/JennyDolfenArt?coupon=FRODO21
2018-01-18 14:35:11 +0000 UTC View Post
For those of you who asked for Elros and Elrond - it turned out much more heartbreaking than any of us bargained for. =(
A metaphorical moment more than anything else, if the twins had met again before their fate separated them until the world is broken and remade.
Red and white pencil...
2018-01-17 17:24:09 +0000 UTC View Post
A quick digital scribble of Mathos Tyrsgard, my Pathfinder paladin character I talked about. Still fiddling with the layout and not quite sure what those birds are.
His face is extremely loosely modelled on British actor Idris Elba.
2018-01-11 20:48:49 +0000 UTC View Post
Suggestion box fox! :)
Thanks for suggesting it, Tanya! I actually wanted to draw these since the first trailer.
As you can see, I tried my hand at some gouache again! I'm quite happy with the outcome, though I seriously need to do this on cold-pressed paper. My little sketchbook...
2018-01-09 21:33:48 +0000 UTC View Post
Time to pat myself on the back a little after 101 consecutive days of producing at least something - either sketching or drawing or painting! \o/
Have yourself a sweet little Maedhros. :)
I forgot that my sketchbook won't fill quite *that* fast, as I have some other image ideas and pro...
2018-01-08 20:34:15 +0000 UTC View Post
Here's picking up from the last set of steps I posted!
1) I re-wet the area around the lightsabres to add some more colour to them, in a fuzzy sort of way.
2) Laying down the colours/darks for Ren's clothes.
3) Detailing Rey and Ren's clothes. I was getting darker and darke...
2018-01-06 17:29:01 +0000 UTC View Post
"I know that when the time comes, you'll be the one to turn. You'll stand with me, Rey."
Or maybe yet the other way round...
Watercolour and gouache on Saunders Waterford paper, 25x15 cm.
I've been taking photos again, I'll upload them as a little walkthrough in a minute!
2018-01-06 17:18:36 +0000 UTC
View Post
Here's how I approached the throne room colours:
1. Start with the blue glow around Rey' lightsabre, reflecting off her as well as Kylo Ren a bit.
2. Lay a flat red glow across the whole piece. It was extremely helpful that the paper, Bockingford, allows a great deal of lifting off co...
Every artist (it seems) is doing enamel pins right now - they seem to be totally the thing! I love enamel pins, I have a bag that weighs about a ton because of all those pins on it. The reason why I haven't done one yet is - I can't decide what I would do!
The most obvious thing would be a po...
I decided to cut off a lot of space top and bottom - somehow, those legs killed much of the movement!
I have such trouble capturing Rey! I have known for some time that I have some sort of face-blindness, and Rey just totally defeats me. Kylo Ren, on the other hand, is like prosopagnosia the...
2018-01-04 16:56:38 +0000 UTC View Post
A bit more work on this (so probably no sketch today), next stop: pencils! I want to do something very chaotic and wild with the background... and will probably keep the guards as red silhouettes, with Rey and Ren being the only things that will actually end up refined.
2018-01-02 14:02:59 +0000 UTC View Post
This was Paul's suggestion, but I had been planning this for two weeks (since leaving the cinema. Possibly earlier). Kylo Ren and Rey teaming up to fight Snoke's guards, those colours, those dynamics, sparks raining down in the red surroundings - that was so incredibly awesome that I screamed "Holy ...
2018-01-01 22:41:49 +0000 UTC View Post
Here's Dina's suggestion: a sketch of Finrod and Dwarven architects planning Nargothrond.
Keep the suggestions coming, over in the suggestion box - January's got thirty more days! ;)
2018-01-01 21:37:51 +0000 UTC View Post(Swiped this idea from Franziska.) I'm in need of ideas for my daily drawings (I resorted to painting a Porg last night, which looked totally indignant with me and the world), so save me from indignant drawing sujets!
2018-01-01 13:35:15 +0000 UTC
View Post
I hope you had a great start of the new year! Ours was great - one of my cherished traditions is role-playing into the New Year, and this time, we did it with the kids. They actually managed to sit through a five-hour session (interrupted by raclette and very briefly by poking our noses out of the d...
2018-01-01 13:24:07 +0000 UTC View Post
Okay, the first gouache attempt was so pitiful (Fingon is still mad at me) that I decided to do another one today - this time with photo reference. I think the idea of doing little gouache studies is a good one; I just need thicker paper - this one definitely wasn't up to it. Hm. Good thing that I h...
2017-12-30 21:27:29 +0000 UTC View Post
It's been a year that has been frustrating through much of it, and then turned very satisfying towards the end. I consider myself extremely lucky that you have all stuck me with me (or joined me!) throughout this year. Here's to 2018!
I'd like to share with you some wonderful thoughts of Nei...
2017-12-30 09:02:04 +0000 UTC View Post
Sorry for not updating - I had the feeling that the last two days it would have been "Look! Another half horse done!" and I figured I'd give you the full thing, but that, again, took longer than I thought.
Still, I've come to like this way of working. A piece takes me around ten days, but th...
2017-12-19 11:36:31 +0000 UTC View Post
(I don't dare call it any actual kind of bird, so he's just "Fingon's bird", haha.) Though he does look eaglish.
We're off to see The Last Jedi in less than a hour, hooray!
I'm loving these effects of mixing grey out of transparent Ochre and Ultramarine blue, but just by...
2017-12-16 15:56:15 +0000 UTC View Post
Not much progress - sitting is painful, since I managed to slip on our grimy (wooden) terrace today and fell squarely onto my back. Must have looked pretty Tom&Jerry. (Hubby, last week: "The terrace is really slippery. We ought to clean it sometime." Me, last week: "Yeah... sometime. After all t...
2017-12-14 20:45:57 +0000 UTC View Post
My feet get cold when I look at it - which is good! ;)
Good news from that fees thing I told you about last week! There's been massive protests from creators because the 1$ fees would have gone up disproportionally, and Patreon has 2017-12-13 18:48:52 +0000 UTC View Post
... I mean, paint.
Had another of those masking fluid moments again today that seem to occur every two years (namely, every time I want to use masking fluid), in which I find that all my masking fluid has either gone bad or dried to solid rubber. I managed to paint around the treetops up the...
2017-12-13 10:04:38 +0000 UTC View Post
Trust me to make a totally Christmas card-worthy piece that will just not make it in time for Christmas!
Well. I present my seasons greetings card for 2018!
Fingon still happy but not quite loony. Sorry for all of those on #teamgrin. ;) I just didn't feel right.
2017-12-12 13:49:47 +0000 UTC View Post
Not sure if I'll keep his grin. He looks a bit too much like a little boy with a kite. XD
2017-12-11 21:12:19 +0000 UTC View Post