Happy Halloween!

Here's a new painting just in time for Halloween!
It's the time of year for scaring, sharing, costumes, and candies!

My plans for this weekend: Watch something fun and spooky, eat things with pumpkin in them, and hand out sweets to all the cute little witches and devils of the neighborhood. I'm so looking forward to all the costumes! Happy Halloween 2010!

The Telephone Series

Looks a bit familiar, doesn't it?

It's the third and final part of the Telephone series!
I'd been meaning to make a third piece from the very beginning, while working on the first and second parts of the series, over 2 years ago. I put the project off to the side for the longest time, but now it's here and finally, the Telephone series is complete:

Secrets, Telephone, Tangle.



It's strange to think that this is really the only sequential series of paintings in my entire portfolio... Perhaps there will be more in the future, who knows.

Looking at the three together, there's a small but noticeable difference in style over the years, though the basics of my sensibilities and style have not much changed. I tried to match the third piece to the original two, but little differences in the faces in particular came up that I didn't noticed until the end. I also had to do a bit of digital color correcting after I scanned it in, as I'm apparently a lot heavier handed with my colors than I used to be. Differences and all though, I am thrilled. I feel a nice sense of accomplishment now that this series is complete.

I love it, I love it, I love it.

Lads with Long Locks

Have a look at these lads with their long luxurious locks!

This neatbook page has been coming around little by little for ages-- a botched and dirty free-style watercolor page that I adopted as a place for mindless doodling of tons of gloriously flowing hair.

So, I went the whole month of July with out updating this blog, but not for lack of art-ing. July was pretty great: There was the starting of a full time temp job, a house guest, an amusement park trip, my birthday, and various other fun distractions. Because of all that goodness, I have just plain been neglecting the internet. I am working on so many things at once right now so it may be some time before I have anything finished to post, but I will attempt to update here more often.

Up next (in a few short moments, actually), a new painting to finish an old series. Stick around.

Mimes and Rainbows + Owls and Flowers

I wanted to dabble a bit again in digital coloring, and of course this is what I come up with. Mimes Upon a Rainbow.

I love mimes and for some time I've been telling myself "Nancy, if you insist upon drawing mimes, at least have them expressively miming some sort of action." Obviously that has yet to happen. I consider mime to be a highly under-appreciated art form, and I'd like to show my appreciation appropriately, yet I always find myself drawing them as passive and wistful romantics... probably something to do with the lack of color and speech. Perhaps next time will be different, but for now I give you these calm and slightly sultry creatures to look at.

And here is another somewhat-sultry-eyed,  digital, candy-colored confection for you, Owls Among Flowers.



Birds and flowers...two more things that I can't helping drawing over and over! This is actually taken from an old sketchbook page of aimless doodles in black rollerball pen. Seemed like it might be a nice drawing to practice digital coloring on, and here we are. I actually started and nearly finished this one months ago and then forgot about it for some time.

For anyone interested in seeing a simplified version of the process behind things, I've created a new set on flickr called Process: Sketch to Final. I think it will be a fun thing to update from time to time, so please do have a look!

Here's today's Sketch to Final:




Visit the Flickr page for a larger view and description, yes?

That's all for tonight's middle-of-the-night post. Off to bed I go!

Circus Folk No.2

 More circus characters, I couldn't resist!

Sherbet Boy and Girl

A pair of youngsters in warm and sherbetty colors.

Nayana

A portrait of Nayana, painted for Helene (Biscuitbear), a member of the Enchanted Doll Forum.
Thanks Helene, it was a pleasure to paint your lovely girl!

Something Simple

Simple and sweet in red and magenta, that is all there is to it, really.

My Enchanted Doll Obsession

Enchanted Doll, by Marina Bychkova, have you heard of this? Have you seen these amazing dolls? Go on and take a look. For the last few months I've submerged myself in this world, getting to know the wonderful people on the Enchanted Forum, and feasting my eyes on those beautiful porcelain (and now also resin) ball-jointed creations. I want one so badly that it hurts, but it's such a wonderful obsession.

For her birthday this year, Marina held a contest— we sent in Enchanted Doll inspired handmade gifts, and she chose a winner to receive a free nude Enchanted Doll. Naturally, with such a fantastic prize being offered, tons of people participated with truly lovely submissions. Here's my entry:



Hooray!
An excuse to use silver gouache, and to paint elaborate hair, hands, orchids, and pretty doll-ladies!

Looking at it now, there are so many things I wish I had done differently— like I wish I had come up with a more interesting background, and that I hadn't painted in that strange looking dove. Hindsight! I do still like the way things turned out, and I am very glad I participated, even though I did not win. I like how her face turned out, and her hair, and I want to paint a million more orchids now! I love them!

And as long as we are talking about Enchanted Doll fan art, a few weeks back we had a little gift swap among a few members on the Enchanted forum, and I did a painting for that as well:



This painting now belongs to my forum friend Jayne, all the way over in the lovely land of Australia. It's her dream Enchanted Doll, Roisin. This painting was completed before the ED B-day contest painting, and the face is very different— I didn't know how to properly translate an Enchanted Doll's face into my own style, but I like the way she turned out all the same, I think she is sweet.

Anywho, I hope I haven't weirded any of you fine people out by admitting to this obsession! It's just such a strange and wonderful thing, finding something interesting to love and communicating with people all over the world with that same interest. It's a great feeling, I highly recommend it.

That's all for now!

Ink

Slowly playing catch up with all the little things that need posting, like these b&w inky bits I did a lil bit ago.

I was in a foul mood when I did this. Now it makes me laugh -


Some freehand inking -


K! See you later.

The Messbook

Sketchbooks! I love them. I have a lot of them, and I use them for a lot of different things. I assume some people wonder why all my sketchbook work is so neat and tidy, and if I ever doodle or actually sketch or anything like that. Of course I do!

I have a few different kinds of sketchbooks, and the ones I'm especially fond of and work in regularly are the ones I call my messbooks and neatbooks.

The kind of sketchbook pages that I've shown thus far have been from my neatbooks, where the goal is to get each page to a finished state, to practice working in different media, and to be spontaneous and well thought out at the same time, in varying degrees. It's an exercise/experiment/workout/practice sketchbook, and everything is pretty tidy. Hence the name, neatbook.

Now, what most people would call a sketchbook, I call a messbook, because I go wild and make a mess. In it, I plan out illustrations and compositions, draw ideas and plans for toys and puppets, write, draw from observation, and of course, doodle endlessly. If I like something in there enough, it becomes the starting point for a new neatbook page, a painting, a plush toy, etc.

So, here is a little sampling from my messbook sketchbooks, just to give you an idea of what I mean.






















So! There you have it. I've made a new collection on flickr called Sketchbooks, and in it are the sets for my Messbook and Neatbooks No.1 & No.2. Well, from here on out, I'll be posting sketchbook images both neat and messy!

Brand New Sketchbook

It's about time I posted some new things, yes?
Well, here are a few of the first pages from my new sketchbook.
Click 'em to view larger :)







It's a very different feel working on this paper, in this new sketchbook. The first few pages have all been joyously done up in watercolor. Watercolor behaves very differently here than it does on watercolor paper, but the paper is so heavy and it takes the color so nicely, so I love it.