the blaze lasted a few hours.

ART: two Doctor Who, one Havemercy, one Batman

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 02:30:55 GMT

The last of this summer's art, finally.

Title: Mummy
Rating: G
Medium: Ink
Notes: The boy from episodes 9 & 10 (series 1) of Doctor Who, The Empty Child and The Doctor Dances.

Title: Fjords
Rating: G
Medium: Crayon
Notes: Points to anyone who spots why this counts as Doctor Who art!

Character: Ace from Havemercy
Rating: G
Medium: Ink, watercolour
Notes: This started out as Rook, but rereading bits of the book I realised I'd got his hair entirely wrong, so Ace it is.

Character: Batman
Rating: G
Medium: Crayon
Notes: A teeny rainbow Batman.

ART: Curiosity Killed the Cat (But the Grimm Girls Keep Coming Back)

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 01:53:22 GMT

Title: Curiosity Killed the Cat (But the Grimm Girls Keep Coming Back)
Characters: Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty, the princess that kissed the frog, Snow White, the girl from Bluebeard
Rating: G
Medium: Ink, watercolour
Notes: My final assignment for my VIS205 Drawing course: "a series of five or more drawings that are visually and/or conceptually linked in order to convey a sense of the narrative". I chose five fairy tale girls, right at the point where their curiosity seriously endangers them but also drastically changes their personal narratives (because they all live happily ever after, after all). The visual links between them - the hair, the wood, the arch etc - are supposed to maybe suggest that they could all be facets of the same girl/woman.

These are all vaguely postcard-sized.

Leeann leeann_marie & Una choco_tuna had a lot of helpful things to say about this project, so thank you, loves ♥

ART: Early Birds

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 01:09:56 GMT

Title: Early Birds
Characters: Oliver, Fred, George, Harry, Katie
Rating: G
Medium: Ink, watercolour
Notes: My art for the Harry Potter Art Project. I was assigned book 2, chapter 7, so I picked the scene where Oliver gets the Gryffindor team up at the crack of dawn only to rave at them (with moving charts) for hours. I have a time-lapse video of the entire watercolouring bit, but unfortunately I lost iMovie in a harddrive crash so I can't export it at the moment. Maybe it's just as well, I'm probably the only one fascinated by watching myself paint 8)

The first board took nearly twenty minutes to explain, but there was another board under that, and a third under that one. Harry sank into a stupor as Wood droned on and on.

- J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

ART: Robots!

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 09:59:11 GMT

Rating: G
Medium: Marker
Notes: After two weeks of drawing princesses and animals, I randomly decided to draw a robot. Up until this point, the boys at the daycare were completely uninterested in what I was doing. One happened to pass by as I was finishing the first one, and got really excited -- "HAY GUYS COME LOOK AT THIS NEET ROBOT" -- and then ran around with it to all the kids, demanding they look at how cool it was. XD I love kids sometimes.

Me trying to prove a robot can still look cool without resembling a human.

Being slightly more successful at that here (although hello Toclafane ripoff!).

ART: sketches - faces

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 21:50:05 GMT

Rating: G
Medium: Crayons, ballpoint pen
Notes: Practicing profiles, shading & facial expressions, all of which I'm kind of atrocious at. Also, inane commentary. :D I especially have trouble with expressions -- when I do try, which is seldom, they somehow never reach the eyes. :/ I need to get a mirror to have by my desk and make faces at myself in.

June 27 - See what I mean about it not reaching the eyes?

June 30 - Boooring.

June 30 - Another three-quarter profile, brought to you by my colleague's shiny markers & my need to use them immediately, with boring results.

July 2 - Profiles! The top one is the only normal one.

July 2 - An attempt at using red and blue in shading, though the brown is so dark you can't tell. (I really am being self-deprecating here, sorry! I usually like my art!)

July 2 - Female Joker?

July 3 - I like the angry one, aside from the weird upper lip.

July 4 - Woo, a profile that doesn't look malformed!

July 4 - This looks a bit like Bright Eyes.

July 4 - This was supposed to be Medusa but kind of morphed into a seaweed-thing instead. No expression whatsoever, I know.

ART: two Chthonic sketches

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 20:23:50 GMT

Just finished a second week of work at the daycare, with even more beautiful weather and not a lot to do. There's so much art I'll be posting it in batches.

Title: Hades
Characters: Hades from Chthonic
Rating: G
Medium: Ink
Notes: It's been quite a while since I drew our favourite lord of the underworld, and he looks a bit different. I suspect that if I ever get around to doing more pages of Chthonic it'll fit really badly with the earlier stuff.

Title: Brothers
Characters: Thanatos & Hypnos from Chthonic
Rating: G
Medium: Ballpoint pen, some sort of paint marker
Notes: The god of death (the depressed one) & the god of sleep (the happy one). The second version is the reverse side of the page; I borrowed these shiny markers from a guy I work with and they bled through and looked creepy but neat. Nevermind the wonky proportions.

ART: four original, two mythology and one fanart

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 22:00:09 GMT

Title: Traveller
Characters: Lily from epistolatory (belongs to Julie riddled)
Rating: G
Medium: Ink, watercolour
Notes: I started this at the beginning of the month when Julie was over, but then dawdled about finishing it since I'm still harbouring delusions about being able to colour stuff digitally. I need a tablet! This is my feeble attempt at steampunk, btw.

Title: Valerie & Jack
Rating: G
Medium: Pencil, photoshop
Notes: Valerie & Jack are two trapeze artists, from my brainchild Tricks. I've just started re-reading it for the first time since the insanity of NaNoWriMo, and am seriously considering editing this one -- I just have to obsessively create actual backstories for all of the characters first.

Title: Mimi
Rating: G
Medium: Coloured pencil
Notes: Also from Tricks; Mimi runs the circus. The anatomy is crazy off here, this is just me trying to amuse myself while working at a daycare. I've drawn more in the last five days than for the past few months now, not all of it great, but it's something!

Title: Yggdrasil
Rating: G
Medium: Crayons
Notes: Working at a Steiner daycare has brought back all of my grade five Norse mythology classes. This is the world tree, or at least the bits of it that my hazy memory could recall. I can spoil the fourth-graders for what they'll learn next year and insert a bunch of made-up facts at the same time, all while distracting them from the fact that they've been watching somebody draw for the last two hours!

Title: Odin
Rating: G
Medium: Ballpoint pen
Notes: Same as above, except this is the "god boss" as I eloquently put it to the kids.

Title: Batman & Joker
Rating: G
Medium: Crayons, ballpoint pen for contour (or whatever it's called)
Notes: Pretty self-explanatory. Yes, I just read Arkham Asylum and have fallen even more deeply in love with Dave McKean than before, which shouldn't really be possible. These are actually pretty teeny, and more an exercise in technique than actual art.

ART: White Russian

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 18:52:31 GMT

Title: White Russian
Rating: G
Medium: Ballpoint pen, marker
Notes: Total rip-off of chimbleysweep's style & ratherlemony's ink washes + corny title + three-quarter profile view of a girl with big eyes = classic Linn art. :D Russian because she's partly inspired by Anastasia, partly by the Moscow bit of Ghostwritten. Misconceptions of historical clothing style ftw!

ART: Procrastination

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 00:16:47 GMT

Title: Procrastination
Rating: G
Medium: Ink & nib pen, photoshop
Notes: True story. It's happening right now, in fact! (What do you mean I have no consistent drawing style today?)

ART: two fanart, one original and my sketchbook cover

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 20:51:37 GMT

Title: Doorway
Characters: Death (The Sandman)
Rating: G
Medium: Ballpoint pen, pencil
Notes: Ugh anatomy.

Title: Sweet Transvestite
Rating: G
Medium: Ink & nib pen, watercolour
Notes: I lovelovelove my new nib pen, even though it makes crazy squeaky noises like it's being tortured sometimes. I might be doin it rong. But the varying line weight, oh, it is pretty. Strictly speaking this is fanart for a really obscure Norwegian novel, but I'll let it slide as original for now.

Title: Pansy Drew
Characters: Pansy (Harry Potter)
Prompt: 04. Found It
Rating: G
Medium: Ink & nib pen, photoshop
Notes: My sincerest apologies for the corny title, I couldn't help it. This is for tbranch, who recently walked through a plate glass window. D:

And finally, not really art, but here's the cover of my current sketchbook:

ART: Owls in the Moss

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 16:45:53 GMT

Title: Owls in the Moss
Rating: G
Medium: Ink, photoshop, textures from here
Notes: Whenever someone asks what the strangest Norwegian expression is, I tell them about this one: "there are owls in the moss", which loosely translates to "there's something not quite right here". This is the mental image I always get, and as always around exam time, I felt like making some art.

ART: Self-portrait 2008

Sat, 12 Apr 2008 02:03:07 GMT

Title: Self-portrait 2008
Rating: G
Medium: Photography, permanent marker on transparency
Notes: My final piece for my art class this year, "an expression of you as a person now at the beginning of the year 2008" in any medium. I wrote random facts about myself on the transparency sheet and photographed myself through it, and then displayed the photo and the sheet next to each other on the wall.

ART: Una with shower cap

Mon, 28 Jan 2008 01:52:54 GMT

Title: Una with shower cap
Rating: G
Medium: Ink, coloured pencils
Notes: This is what happens when I only pretend to listen to my roommate: I think she's intending to use a sock as a shower cap when she actually intends to use it to plug the tub. Just before she went into the bath she said "draw it!" and I did.

ART: old(ish) sketch portraits

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 18:58:58 GMT

Title: Mamma
Rating: G
Medium: Pencil
Notes: Breaking in my new sketchbook, last year: Mum working in Copenhagen.

Title: Tobs (Gardermoen-Stansted)
Rating: G
Medium: Pencil
Notes: On the plane from Norway to England last spring. Tobias treskonebb and the various things on his tray table.

ART: Dr Sketchy's #19

Wed, 12 Dec 2007 18:33:33 GMT

Rating: PG for partial nudity
Medium: Pencil, sharpies
Comments/criticism: Sure, though I'm pretty aware of most of the mistakes!
Notes: Pretty much everything I drew at the three hour burlesque life drawing that is Dr Sketchy's on Monday.

This one was for the first contest of the evening, "best incorporation of baby Jesus". This made me wish I'd brought other markers than just sharpies.

This is my favourite one.

ART: Lyra's Oxford

Tue, 10 Jul 2007 16:54:09 GMT

Title: Lyra's Oxford
Rating: G
Medium: Ink, watercolour
Notes: I've had this paragraph written down for years, since I first read it and wanted to draw it but, uh, couldn't draw. Not sure I managed it now, either.

The evening sky was awash with peach, apricot, cream: tender little ice-cream clouds in a wide orange sky. The spires and towers of Oxford stood around them, level but no higher; the green woods of Château-Vert and White Ham rose on either side to the east and the west. Rooks were cawing somewhere, and bells were ringing, and from the oxpens the steady beat of a gas engine announced the ascent of the evening Royal Mail zeppelin for London. Lyra watched it climb away beyond the spire of St. Michael's chapel, as big at first as the tip of her little finger when she held it at arm's length and then steadily smaller until it was a dot in the pearly sky.

- Philip Pullman, The Golden Compass

ART: Binky's Tragic Demise

Tue, 10 Jul 2007 16:52:36 GMT

Title: Binky's Tragic Demise
Rating: PG for implied brutality :O
Medium: Ink
Notes: With Bertha still sticking to her story that she hadn't seen a thing, Binky was nowhere to be found.

ART: Send Help

Tue, 10 Jul 2007 16:51:49 GMT

Title: Send Help
Rating: G
Medium: Ink, watercolour
Notes: A few days before my final exams started. This is one instance where a picture does say more than a thousand words (which is about how many revision notes I was writing every few hours). The bags under my eyes were worse than this.

ART: Mad Maudlin

Mon, 09 Jul 2007 13:52:13 GMT

Title: Mad Maudlin
Rating: G
Medium: Pencil, ink, markers, watercolour
Notes: I think this was supposed to be a daily drawing, but I've pretty much given that up until I've settled in at university. For now I'll be posting a couple previously unposted drawings a day, hopefully. This one's inspired by Jolie Holland's version of the poem, and intended to help me practice using more... well, everything, really. Shadows, colours, etc.

For to see Mad Tom of Bedlam
Ten thousand miles I traveled
Mad Maudlin goes on dirty toes
To save her shoes from gravel

- Anonymous, c. 1600, Tom o' Bedlam

ART: Lucy in the Sky

Sat, 26 May 2007 18:59:33 GMT

I've barely had time to draw stuff for myself the past two years, but now that high school is over that'll hopefully change. To start off I'm going to try drawing something every day (see the FAQ for more info). This is the only one I'll post on its own; the others I'll group in weekly posts to spare your f-lists.

ART: Zach's scarf

Fri, 19 Jan 2007 15:30:28 GMT

Title: Zach's scarf
Rating: G
Medium: Pencil, watercolour
Notes: This was Zachary Alexander edaindirith's Christmas present; an IOU for a massive fluffy white scarf, with ♥ ZACH ♥ written on it (like Ren's in NANA -- I can only find a picture from the anime, unfortunately).

ART: sketch dump

Fri, 20 Oct 2006 22:46:27 GMT

I haven't been drawing anything proper lately, other than paintings for art class, so these are from my sketchbook. Vaguely actual-size & in chronological order. Con-crit is welcome, as always, though these are really a mess.

Hermione? Pencil, 30 minutes.

This was supposed to be Sirius and Remus, but Remus looked like a girl, so it was James and Lily, but glasses didn't want to happen. I don't know who this is, but they sure don't like to look each other in the eye. Red gel pen, 7 minutes.

Coraline. Purple highlighter marker, ink, 11 minutes.

Coraline's Other Mother. Ink, 25 minutes (between taking history notes). Crazy Art Teacher was thrilled with this one, so it'll be a big piece in inks and marker in a few weeks.

Unfinished fire spirit. Or something. With a screwy hand. Pencil, 15 minutes.

For Una choco_tuna: A boy we traumatised by being very enthusiastic about doughnuts. (He looked like he thought we were going to take his.) Pencil, 15 minutes.

Conclusion:
1. I need to learn how to draw faster.
2. I need to learn how to draw actual expressions.

ART: The Girl That Flew

Mon, 18 Sep 2006 19:47:27 GMT

Title: The Girl That Flew
Rating: G
Medium: Red ink
Comments/criticism: Is welcome.
Notes: Done for a yet-to-be-announced project with two people I totally fangirl. Also, I need to learn how to draw birds.

ART: Sleepyhead

Sat, 16 Sep 2006 11:34:07 GMT

Title: Sleepyhead
Characters: Remus, Tonks
Rating: G
Medium: Ink, coloured pencils
Comments/criticism: Yes, please.
Notes: For bangcollision through the hp_art_xchange (one of her requested pairings was Remus/Tonks). I couldn't resist adding tea and early-morning hair. Much ♥ to glockgal at artbeta!

CHTHONIC: prologue

Mon, 21 Aug 2006 22:00:00 GMT

Title: Chthonic
Rating: G
Notes: A graphic novel collaboration between Julie riddled and I: she writes, I draw. Expect it to be a bit rough around the edges until I get the hang of this sequential art thing.

( prologue; page one )