Jenny Dolfen

Earth and Sea and Sky - lineart mostly done

I'll be spending the next few days cleaning up and hunting down tangents, I suppose...! 

And being afraid of colouring. ;)

Working on "The Awen"

I need new glasses. Until then, a magnifying glass will do (and I wish I'd thought of that much sooner!)

Blodeuwedd - finished

Welcome the May-queen

Sing for her now

For as the year turns to Samhain

She'll return as an owl

(Damh the Bard)

Not a good day today. I wasn't quite sure what I was doing as I painted, and I'm not quite sure now. It's not what I envisioned it, and I would have liked to go i...

Gaaaah

Flowers. Killing me. Help. 

Getting owly

Last wip for tonight - especially as it's almost morning! 

I love what that paint in the inside of the owl eye does. It looks like a vibrant reflection but it's only Daniel Smith doing what Daniel Smith does. (Hey Brit - it's Lunar Blue!)

Refining the face

Again, with some lifting off and smoothing. I just love this technique. 

I'm doing a video of this again, yay :) And this time, I have a spare battery.

Blodeuwedd wip

Hey my friends! It's been a weird week for all of us, and mostly for those of you who live in the United States. I haven't felt like art all week, but I'm back at painting. There's so much ugliness in the world at the moment, and the best that I can do is to fill it with some beauty. If some gloom c...

By *very* popular request...

... new pendants. Particularly of certain redheads. XD

Now showing on Etsy!

Raffle Draw November

Hey my dears! As promised, the raffle has been expanded - and I'm throwing in a calendar as well! :) The next raffle, in January, will also encompass fridge magnets. =D

Ten (yes!) goodie bags go to: Davina, Walter Fiedler, Heather Hofshi, Gwendolyn Barr, Photine,...

Oak, Broom and Meadowsweet

Yassss. I've tried to draw this piece since 2013, and now I finally can pull it off! Rebecca had some useful pointers on this last Tuesday, and when I did the lineart just now, I actually went from "some green stuff I have no clue about - let's squiggle our way through this" to "let's clump that mea...

Earth and Sea and Sky

Okay, I owe Rebecca and SmArt School BIG TIME for how this one came together. I had all those animals all over the place in the first version of this until she gave me incredibly helpful pointers for this last Tuesday. I'll be holding on to those pieces of advice for every piece from now on - especi...

New pendants!

I survived my class trip (barely, for lack of sleep as my seventh-graders were driving each other - and themselves - up the walls with horror clown scaremongering) and managed to send out about twenty-five sketch copies of my artbook! ^___^

I also had another go at my watercolour pendants - this t...

Tutorial: Painting Plaid

I've loved painting plaid ever since I realised how it worked, back in the mid-nineties (I'm not sure, but I think I was sitting in a very boring lecture at Uni and was staring at the plaid backpack of someone sitting in front of me). Hope it's useful for the artsy people among you! :)

A radiant brow shining bright

Okay, I seriously, seriously can't believe I painted this. God! When I told people I was going to take an art class, a lot tapped their foreheads. I had a feeling that an art class might be an idea, but this - I seriously didn't think I'd produce stuff like this after five weeks. O_O

(And least of...

Taliesin - new brushes paint better

Pro tip: When your detail work starts to inexplicably get muddy - throw out those frazzled brushes and get new ones. Seriously! I must have painted with these for two years or longer. Not even the best sable brush survives that long. 

Taliesin - next wip

Having a definite Pygmalion moment there. *o* 

*pats him*

Taliesin wip

Stony background celtic knot animals! 

Taliesin - lineart

I had to put in a few hours of "proper" drawing - I've got about ten sketch copies done now, but if I don't get another piece or two done until Sunday, I will again feel cheated by the holidays! But I'm making good progress with the preorders and hope to have all preorder sketches done by the end of...

F I N A L L Y .

My artbook is finally available - but trust Oloris to make their biggest blunder yet. They managed to plant a big, fat letter G in the middle of the cover, and I managed to miss it before I had 120 copies printed. I wanted to just throw them against the wall when I saw it. 

Instead, I ...

Blodeuwedd

This is a piece I've wanted to draw for years, even started it twice and scrapped it all - and now I'm finding that locating the right ref photos and incorporating them makes for such a natural and easy process. 

"Blodeuwedd" (Blood-die-weth) is Welsh for "owl". Literally, it means "flower fa...

Frames frames frames <3

Considering that I'm totally not a framer, I think these look gorgeous! 

Both Freya and Isis are looking for new homes on Etsy. :) 

Taliesin

"A radiant brow, shining bright for all to plainly see

Taliesin is your name, the greatest Bard that this land will ever see..." 

I mistakenly ordered a bunch of too-big round cut mats, too big for my little coasters. So now I'll have to paint a bit more round pieces. Such an annoyance....

Isis needs more gold.

SmArt School class last night was exhilarating. Rebecca was happy with my progress and with how I'd implemented all she'd given me on my way. I told her I wasn't quite as happy with Isis as I was with Freya, and she encouraged me to add more gold. And - wow. Yes!

Come on, postman, I need those fra...

Freya, finished

Oh DANG, I could not be any happier with this.  ^________^ For this one, it all just came together!

Freya - wip

I'm not done yet! 

... okay, I am now. For tonight. More on Freya tomorrow!

Gold leaf

Adding gold leaf. (The gold looks really bold here in the full light - I'm going to try some photography/scan tricks on this tomorrow.)Now, she's waiting for her frame and matting! (Postman waylaying mode) 

"The Sky her Tears of Gladness" - painting timelapse

This was the first attempt that I scrapped - but it's the only one my camera was up to documenting.

It's really annoying - my new camera only lasts for about 60 minutes of filming before its batteries run out. I barely noticed the problem with Loki, as I painted him with half an hour here and half...

Isis, second go

This paper worked much better, but it was still a fight with paper and technique - and skin tone. 

I'll be adding tears in gold leaf, and then on to matting and framing this - I actually found one retailer in Germany that sells  round cut-out mats! Now, waiting for the mats to arrive... ...

Isis - second wip

I'm having such an indecent amount of fun with these.

Isis wip

And on we go - first Octoaster! Trying out smooth paper instead of my favourite rough ones, to see how the lifting works on this one.

If anyone had told me that I'd get into lifting at the age of forty-one, I wouldn't have believed them...  

Going to use loads of earth tones here -...