Jenny Dolfen

Fëanor demands gold.

And he long debated with me, demanding the 23 karat, but in the end, I convinced him that 21 karat looked better on him. 

Here's the scan with white markings for the golden emblem (so I can find it for prints). 

2017-11-13 19:19:09 +0000 UTC View Post

Fëanor in progress

This is going to be a fairly quick one. (I want to get onto the next, haha)

Before the gold. 

Erf, I just got carried away again...

No pun intended, honestly. It seems another Silmarillion spree is upon me. I haven't put Maedhros through the mill in a while, so I suppose this one was about to happen... 

I used an awesome, awesome ref photo from Posespace.com as a base. 

Fëanor lineart

I'm running out of titles for Fëanor artwork. We've already had "Spirit of Fire" and "Fell and Fey"; unless you have any idea, I'll have to name this, "Fëanor, no!"  

I love him. The epitome of the passionate artist. You never know if they'll cut off an ear or wreck an entire continent.&nbs...

Spirit of Fire

I'm staying true to my resolution to draw or paint every day! 

A new one in the works. Will involve gold leaf. ^___^

Freebies pack!

Finally, freebies again! Inktober, Newt, and the Hunt feature in wallpapers, avatars and lineart. Hope you like them!

Camera and desk setup for streaming/recording

M. C. A Hogarth asked about my camera setup for recording. Here it is in all its jury-rigged glory. ;) 

I've been trying around with all sorts of tripods (including a huge one set above my shoulder and little ones that clamp on stuff), but the new camera I got last year simply doesn't have en...

Timelapse video

It's weird to see this take just six minutes. Enjoy! :) 

Size comparison

... in case you were wondering how small the figures are. XD 

The Hunt

YesyesyesysyesyesYES. 

Watercolour on Canson Vidalon cold-pressed paper, 39x19 cm. 

This took such an eternity to paint - and I'm afraid this might be the new standard I'll have to hold myself to. Ack. The timelapses are getting longer. XD If you were wondering why there haven't be...

The Dispossessed ye shall be...

... but the prettiest horses ye shall have. 

When I was young and horsey, I actually decided what sort of horse every Feanorean rode. Maedhros always had a dapple grey or blue roan, because that's just the coolest horse colour in the world. I even gave him a name - Luinor. (I never wondered w...

I love this stage of a painting.

Everything is detailed and the figures are almost stark white. I find that watercolour has no "ugly stage", such as oil or acrylic, when you have the muddy middle grounds in place and begin to detail with darks and whites. Watercolour gets more and more beautiful as it progresses. 

Unless you...

The Hunt - colour wip

This is not the outcome of last night's livestream, but the same thing painted again on non-damaged paper. Argh. I chose a different paper while I was at it - Canson Vidalon, which allows for a lot of fuzziness. Much happier with the outcome now! 

Livestream!

OK, I couldn't get the Patreon stream to work, so I'm on Twitch. Click on the link and join me - let's hope it works! https://www.twitch.tv/jennydolfen

Livestream tonight!

There, I said it! ;)

You remember that the last livestream I announced ended up being cancelled because I couldn't just take the time off. I've learned from that, and I've come up with a solution I hope will work for you: 

I hope to be able to paint tonight, and stream it here on Patreo...

Elven hunt (lineart)

Thanks, Nic, for the riding tips! I hope it looks more believable now. 

I did this on two sheets - one (zoomed in) for the riders, one for the background - and then I changed the front right bit again - I had another heron there, and when I put it all together, it suddenly looked as if Maglor...

Lineart stage - tiny beasties

The final image will be 42x20 cm when all's said and done, but I drew the horses and riders slightly larger in format, to be scaled down later. I already needed a magnifying glass for the details. ;) 

The blue underneath is the Photoshop sketch I showed in the last post, printed out in pale b...

Figure work!

Ha! No reenactors on their chubby little Camargues can ever look this graceful. I'm glad I went for imagination vs ref photos! 

Some Eadweard Muybridge was a welcome help, though. ;) 

Quick and sketchy concept

I did a rough sketch for this piece - meant to be header-compatible - in my sketchbook last week, and today, I sat down for hours, looked for horse reference, pasted several horses together, pasted several herons in, and copied them all onto canvas using tracing paper. It took all afternoon and look...

Inktober Giveaway - draw results!

Since there were so many participating, I decided I'd draw three winners, not two. And here they are! 

Erin-Claire wins Ronja!

Sandra Sidar wins the War Doctor! 

Katy wins Remus! 

Woo-hoo! Congrats to the winners! ...

Leofric (The Last Kingdom)

A quick watercolour portrait of Leofric from The Last Kingdom for Brit. I've put him in actual Anglo-Saxon clothing, rather than the Vikings/Grimdark/Black Leather With Useless Bits Sewn On look that everyone in historical TV shows in the 21st century is required to don. XD

Watercolour an...

Patreon giveaway: Inktober original!

Here we are for the giveaway! The eligible pieces: 

Luke Skywalker
Tangaloor Firefoot
Ronja the Robber's Daughter
Tabor and Imraith-Nimphais
Richard III
The Brothers Lionheart
Remus Lupin
The War Doctor

Here's all of them again at a glance: 2017-11-02 09:34:01 +0000 UTC View Post

A Herbology Lesson (finished)

Guys, I know I've said it a couple of times, but: YASSSSS. Excuse the all-caps. ;) 

A true level up piece. It all just came together. Getting a new extra mini brush for detail work was also a good idea!

For some reason, the Herbology teacher came out eerily like Professor Peter Frisch o...

Herbology - next wip

This is one of those absolutely weird moments in which you realise that you have levelled up - without playing the game in months. 

I've encountered this a couple of times in my life. Often after long hiatuses without any (or with very little) art, because the last few pieces before the hiatu...

The workbench is back to work!

<3 

Last call for Inktober original claims - and THANKS

Anyone who wants to claim another of the Inktobers to buy before I put them on sale/raffle off a handful? 

Here's all thirty of them again at a glance: http://goldseven.wordpress.com/2017/10/22/in...

Inktober #31: Maedhros the Tall

I grew up in a house filled with books. 

A lot of them stood there for a long time, patiently waiting for me, before I finally read them. Watership Down was one of them; The Silmarillion was another. It had always stood there, on my mother's Tolkien shelf, probably the first German edition of...

A Herbology lesson (lineart)

"Now, remember the gentle wand movement we've practised for the Severing Charm; you don't want to harm your Bowtr--- Scamander, what are you doing?!"

Inktober #30: Drizzt Do'Urden

The finishing stretch! 

If you have known me since less than 2004, no, I didn't fall on my keyboard! Drizzt Do'Urden is a Drow (Dark Elf) from R. A. Salvatore's Forgotten Realms books, and among this number of my heroes of page and screen, he is definitely the one least likely to ever be revi...

A Herbology lesson - sketch

Another commission for Sandra, who requested another Newt Scamander scene. Here, he's required to use a Severing Charm to get a Bowtruckle off a branch in Herbology. Of course, Newt wouldn't be Newt if he didn't go for a less intrusive way to do the task. (I had a lot of fun with the guy in the back...