Miss Belfry - Sketch

Sketch I'm working on at the moment...

There are cats everywhere lately...I really need one.

Ameline

Finished the colouring. I hope it doesn't look too colourful....it's difficult to give the impression of a city at night without using a lot of colour - it was my first attempt of illustrating a city at night as well so I had difficulties anyway...:,D Her head looks really really weird, I know....strange angle, I need more practise.
Ah- and for Christmas...I want to have a fluffy kitten just like this.:3

Experimental Life Drawing

The last life drawing session was a bit different to the ones we used to have...and rather random.
We had to paint using both hands simultaneously all the time and constantly changing the materials which were quite unconventional as well..I've never painted with clay before... Also brushes were banned and we were left with just some sticks, spaghetti, real feathers and our hands. Oh well, I didn't get that messy with painting since kindergarten I guess.:,D It was totally liberating somehow...it's good to sometimes let everything go and don't even think about what your hands are producing.
The outcomes are ugly though...but good stuff for my portfolio apparently since they contain a broad range of different mark making techniques.

Ameline - Sketch

 

Sketch for a commissioned book cover. Pencil and some tints added with gimp.

It took me so many attempts to figure out the right composition...but I think I've found it now.

I love fluffy kittens.

The Snow Fairy

Finally this project is completed. Click on the image above to see the flash file of the finished book in fullsize and you can navigate through the pages with your right/left key or by clicking on the snowflakes in the corners. (Give it a minute to load since the file is quite big...)
It differs quite a lot from the actual printed books since I had a few problems with the integration of the text in this flash file...plus the images are really pixelated for some reason. The text contained in the printed versions will be outlined what makes it a lot easier to read.

The box also got completed in time. Does it not simply look wonderful? I think Becca did a brilliant job with creating the box very close to what we planned it to look like. She had to change the compartments within the last week though due to some problems we had with the musical movement, so it doesn't look exactly like the box appearing in the book what is a bit sad. It was quite important to us that the book and box really connect with and integrate each other, so that the customers in the shop can be able to look through the box and its contents, touch and experience it and take a copy of the book home as a souvenir from this experience. Therefore it would have been good if the recognition value would be as high as possible. But I think even now you still can recognize that it is this box the girl in the book is interacting with.

Enjoy.<3

Snow Fairy - W.I.P. IV

So, definitely the last w.i.p. post for this project. :) I'ts coming to an end, we just need to put together all the pieces for our assessment on monday which will apparently be 2 1/2 hours long...o_o we better prepare a decent presentation.
When I approached the end of those drawings the difficulties started to heap up. It's usually when you think you finally got used to a new technique that things go wrong the most isn't it? At least those are also the things which help you the most to get better.
I used masking fluid again which was especially effective for the gloweffects of the lantern. Btw, you should always use the same very old brush to apply the fluid since it will literally kill it within seconds. PLUS never use too much of it and give it enough time to dry otherwise you'll tear the paper like it happened to me. And honestly, it's SUCH a pain to try to apply washes on teared water colour paper...

 Also check and double check whether the pen you're using for the outlines (if you like to use some) is waterproof. And don't just use a damp finger but a thick brush fully loaded with water to avoid the lines bleeding completely into everything  leaving a complete mess like in this painting beneath...
That was even more of a pain to work with...

But eventually I finished all pictures and only have to bring them in book-form now. Adding text, printing, sewing it all together....I'm just hoping we don't want to produce too many copies.

Snow Fairy - W.I.P. III

Alright, I've been drawing all weekend long and can happily announce that I'm half way done with colouring those book pages. I've learned a lot more about working with water colour and just quickly want to show the way I've been working.

Masking is a very important part when it comes to water colour since the purest white you can get is the white of the paper and you need to keep that on some places if you want nice glow and light effects. I've used masking tape often before but for the first time I had a go with masking fluid which is absolutely great! It allows you to accurately mask the areas and details you want to keep white e.g. the house and fairies in this painting. Then you can build up the washes for the background without having to pay attention to those areas which gives the whole painting a much softer flow and you can avoid sharp edges.

Once the colour is dry you can very easily remove the film and start building up your washes in those areas you kept clean. Use a putty eraser to get rid of all bits - it's very easy to remove.

Here are a few of the finished spreads....even with the aid of masking fluid those fairies proved to be really tricky.

So that's two days left for the rest of these drawings. The music box is nearly done - needs to be stained and polished to make the wood darker. There just seem to be some problems regarding the musical movement....I had some doubts about making our own from the beginning, hopefully he'll figure  something out.

By the way, I won the third place in this halloween competition.:3 I'm really pleased.

Snow Fairy - W.I.P. II

After a few more rubbish not so good attempts I would say this is the first time I produced a fairly good result with soft water colour washes...:) still needs improvement but I'm quite pleased. Memo to myself: alsways use a hundred times more water than pigments...it's not called water colour without reason.
Anyway, this is the final design of our fairy now. Lovely thing isn't she? Becca is going to make a clay version of her for our music box, can't wait to see that.
She's probably the only fairy without any wings...well, she allegorises a snowflake, falls from the sky and dissolves again through melting - what would she need wings for?

I also sketched all the 34 pages. Need to get started with the colouring now, we have to have the printversion next Friday..:/ I'm a bit scared to be honest, still not very confident..

Snow Fairy - W.I.P.

Finally got to do the character design for little Janet who will also be part of the snow-fairy project. Somehow I'm in love with ginger children lately...they just look so innocent and lovely..:3
Very first attempt at using water colours......failed. ugh, I applied them like acrylics or something...really need to get familar with their features...:/

Plus I managed to do a proper storyboard in the end, according to which the final book will contain 32 pages and I've got just about 2 weeks to finish those...
It's pinned above my desk so it always reminds me that I'm not allowed to socialise for the next 14 days...

I will mainly use water colour with which I haven't had much experience so far..but it's one of the fastest colouring ways and suits the wintery theme very well. I experimented with salt to create those interesting cristal pattern.

Life drawing

   

Just some further life drawing practice.
I really enjoy those evening courses.

snow fairy design

My task in our group is to illustrate the poem we were supposed to integrate in our exhibition piece.

I'm going to create a little book and did some character designs for the performing snow fairy today.

These are the first ones I came up with,
inspired by those things below.

 

I liked the skirt of the third one since I thought it could look like an actual snowflake when falling from the sky. So I did some further designs inspired by those cut out paper snowflakes we all used to create in preschool I guess.

This is how I imagine them falling from the sky.
Quite lovely aren't they?

This is how our box is supposed to look like by the way. I'm absolutely not involved in constructing it - I'm so crappy with wood working... I hope the others will do a great job. The book I'm creating will be reproduced and put in the drawer, so the customer can experience the box and everything within it and then take the book home as a souvenier.

I'm going to write and sketch the storyboard next.

Business cards

We created business cards today at College. This is what I came up with within those two hours...
I guess I like the one with the cat the most. I'll spend some more time experimenting and elaborating them though to come up with a pretty final design.
My boyfriend just told me that my number is wrong on them..argh. At least I don't have to worry about some dodgy people calling me now.:,D