Still having fun doodling these two characters… Here’s today’s sketch. And here’s a link to Charles De Lint’s website:
Category Archives: mixede media
A dab here and a dab there….
I’ve been working on this one on and off for two years or more… here’s how it looks right now. I originally started it in oils but (due to time constraints) have been working on it digitally- I hope to finish it before the world ends….
model- the wonderful:
elandria.deviantart.com
Old Dwarf Portrait…
Regular Rembrandt aren’t I (laughs)… I wanted to have a bit of a play with lighting on this one. I’ve been looking over my work and although (maybe) some of it has a certain amount of mood and atmosphere, I’ve come to the realisation that much of it is lacking in different lighting effects… I’ll be rectifying that in future works.
Old Stuff….
A couple of sketches from a year or two ago…
this drawing (above) is based on characters by the brilliant:
http://pallanoph.deviantart.com
model:
Horned Horsey On A Hilltop…
Just found this on one of my hard drives, I’ve a feeling I posted the line art for this a year or two ago, but I haven’t posted this version, it’s been coloured in photoshop, an early effort to make my digital art look more traditional, I’m not a huge fan of that overly ‘digital’ look…
Howling Moon- new book, new illustrations….
I recently completed cover art and interior silhouettes for a publisher in the UK called Wyvern Publications, the story’s about a ytoung boy who finds out he’s got werewolf blood (shudder). It’s a lovely little book and I was very happy to receive my copies in the mail today, here’s a link to the publisher’s site:
cover art:
here’re a couple of interior illustrations….
Mermaid…
Haven’t had much time for sketching around all the commissions I have on the go at the moment, but I did manage to find the time to sketch this up for an old school pal….
Tooth fairy-Updated…
This is a very old drawing, I’ve posted it here before but I’ve always found it lacked a little something, I’ve tidied it up a little and am happier with it (for now…). Here it is along with the line art….]
Cackle…..
here’s some colour added to the old witch sketch from the other day.
Scribbling Til’ Something Appears….
Funny little sketch this one… I’d liked the background for a little while. I painted it in watercolour but it didn’t really have a purpose, it was one of those ‘just because’ sketches….. I threw it into my scanner, worked on it a little in photoshop and decided it still didn’t have a purpose and the it hit me, it needed a figure. I pilfered an elf from another pointless image and threw him over the top, worked on the image a little more and now have a pointless image with a figure in it (hehe).
leaves and polar bears…
I’ve been working on this painting on and off for a fair while now (see earlier posts), I can only sit and look at it in short busts, progress IS being made, albeit very slow progress…
below is a quick watercolour sketch I did for a book proposal, this one was rejected, but I still rather like it…
Hand painted print…
I’ve been toying with the idea of adding splashes of watercolour to prints of my line art… here’s what I came up with, I’m very happy with the result and I can see myself doing more of these….
Another interior illustration….
This is one of the interior illustrations for a little book I’ve written and have on the go in between other jobs. Merging both watercolour and digital mediums here, see earlier posts for more art from this story….
Dragon- pencils to colour….
Still not much else I can post up at the moment and I’m not the type to blog all about the ins and outs of my life, soooo, here’s a recent illustration outlining how I get from pencils to coloured illustration. I must admit however, in this particular instance I’m rather more fond of the inked piece than I am of the finished article…..
*click for a larger view*
Waterfall sketch…
I can’t post what I’m working on right now so I thought I’d post a recent sketch. Part of an old drawing I cropped and coloured in photoshop…
Step-by-step ‘Wizard’.
I’m enjoying documenting my working process lately, it somehow helps me to cement the way I work and makes the creation of each image easier and easier. This one was a quickie I worked on over the weekend, I’ve been wanting to get back into using traditional media as much as possible so I took out the watercolours and painted away…..
Materials used: Arches 300gsm hot press watercolour paper, art spectrum, Daler Rowney, Winsor & Newton and Schminke artists quality watercolours, Art Spectrum white gouache for highlights and my wife’s hairdryer to dry between coats (speeds up the whole process)
Here’s my studio space setup for this painting:
step one
this is the sketch I’ve decided upon. it’s not drawn too tightly but there’s enough info to carry an ink line over the top, (I like to draw with the ink pens a little for a slightly ‘looser’, more spontaneous look.
step two
inking over the lines with generic drawing pens (using a .1 and a .3mm tip) paying particular attention to the main elements of the drawing, remembering at all times we’re painting over the top, so not becoming too bogged down with unnecessary cross-hatching etc. this is a very important step in the process.
step three
Using artists quality watercolours (I’ve chosen tubes rather than pans for this) we begin to lay down flat colours and a little texture for the cave wall. (the texture effect is achieved by dropping clean water into the wet paint, the water causes the paint to disperse).
step four
Moving throughout the whole image, never settling on any one particular area, we’re playing with the ‘form’ of each element within the image. We also lay in some colour inside the cave to give the illustration of depth.
step five
Still working on strengthening form, laying in colour washes and generally keeping a balance of warm and cool colours for harmony.
step six
Here we get down to makindarkening and strengthening the illustration. this is achieved by building up wash after wash of colour washes, all the while building them up and paying particular attention to tonal balance. We’d like our figure to stand out but not dominate the illustration.
step seven
This is my favourite part- getting into the details. More work is done tonally to achieve the look of the cracks and craters in the cave wall, a wash is laid over the entire wall to bring everything into balance, this in turn enables the eye to settle upon the main element of the painting- our wizard. For the details, I’ve mixed a little local colour with white gouache to add touches to the rocks and ground floor and pure white gouache was used on areas such as the hair on the wizard’s face and the trim of his cloak.
Winter Queen….
A preliminary watercolour for a piece I’m working on right now…..
Owl….
I LOVE painting birds, and I think the owl is just about my favourite of them all. Here’s one I sketched up last night in watercolour, finished off digitally…..
Step by Step….
I’m often asked how I produce my images and whether or not I follow a set of procedures. I guess the answer is yes, I do work similarly every time I create an image, although each image has it’s own set of problems and triumphs….here’re a few I managed to capture as I moved through the image. All were painted digitally and follow along the same lines as far as ‘rules’ are concerned.
1) thumbnail sketch 2) finished drawing 3)laying down local colours 4)working through the details…
for those interested….Videos of me working can be found on my youtube channel here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/thatspaceinbetween?feature=mhum#p/u
Young Queen…
Today’s sketch. I’m going to take this one further and use it for the book I’m currently working on…
Treant
New art for my personal project….
Works On The Go….
As usual, plenty of things on the drawing board (and scattered around the studio), here’re a couple of things I’m currently working on, the top one’s an acrylic/oil version of an earlier digital painting and teh bottom one’s an image for a personal project…
The Queen…
I found a half hour gap in my busy work schedule today… Thought I’d just scratch some tonal stuff into last week’s sketch.
Elf- Coloured…
Just laid some colour down over this drawing from the other night….
and here’s some cover art I painted for a Young Adult book recently entitled ‘Ele mental’ written by Steven O’Connor, for Murdoch Books first YA title.
and here’s an older watercolour sketch…..
WIP…….
something I’m tinkering with in quiet moments….
The Old Ones…..
I played around with the oil painting I posted yesterday digitally, someone mentioned they saw faces in the rocks, I picked up on this and ran with it….
I’ve also been tinkering away with this:
and here’s a new one I finished a few days ago….
Tender moments….
A quick sketch I drew up after finishing the cover this afternoon….
Here’s the drawing before I added the colour. I rather like this image, I may just tinker with it some more when I get a spare minute….
Finished Cover Art….
This was a great job to work on after such a long break away from the drawing board… It’s a cover for a book the wonderfully talented Sally Odgers is putting together, such an honour to be asked to paint this…..As you may have noticed from the WIP posted yesterday, I reversed the image as I went and settled on the lassie facing inwards, far more intimate IMO….
Loosening Up….
I’ve got so much work to do, but I’ve just gotten back from holidaying in New Zealand and I’m not in ‘work’ mode yet. I need to loosen up and myself in gently. Here’s the first sketchy thingy I’ve done to aid me in my plight…
More Tree Maidens….
This is what I drew in front of the telly last night. I splashed a little colour over it in Photoshop. I’ll post the finished version when I get around to actually doing it.
Off to New Zealand on Friday for three weeks or so, very much looking forward to it, I’ll be getting plenty of photos of ‘real’ trees and those wonderful streams and rolling hills. It reminds me enough of the landscape in the U.K. to keep me happy. We’ve been there 5-6 times and I LOVE IT.
Last night’s sketching before bedtime…
I’ve been wanting to splash some colour over this sketch for a little while. It’s not exactly what i had in mind and I’ll probably do this properly one day, but here’s what I came up with…
Mermaid
Sketching before bedtime tonight….
Owl Mistress WIP….
Another one of the many images I currently have on the go….
The model is the beautiful:
http://elandria.deviantart.com
Gnomes…
I haven’t done any drawing or painting for days and days. I needed a fair bit of warming up time today, here’re the little sketches I managed to get in before starting work.
Sketchings….
A quickie drawn as a warmup before I begin working for the day….
New cover art
Been a little on the busy side these past months, here’s the latest finished piece for a YA book cover…
Finished art….
I’ve been working on this one for a few days now and have reached a stage where I’ll call it finished (for now). I started it off in oils and couldn’t paint anything more as I had to wait for the paint to dry, so I took a photo and carried on working on it in Photoshop and Painter. I’ll be returning to the oil painting soon as I now have a pretty solid preliminary ‘sketch’ to work from.
The model was the lovely:
Flying…WIP
Sorry for not posting anything for a little while, I’ve got a few things on the go and am also currently working on a personal piece or two. I’ve attached a WIP of one here. Enjoying this immensely- very freeing!
Into the woods-coloured.
I thought I’d posted this already, but I hadn’t… Here’s the coloured version of the drawing from a couple of weeks ago.
new sample art….
I had to produce a sample piece of work for a potential project over the last day or so, this is what I came up with. I’d love to have had a little more time to spend on it but I’m glad I got it to this level in such a short space of time.
Hmmmm…..
I’ve spent a good few hours on this painting and I just wasn’t happy with the way it turned out. I’m a lot happier with how it looks as a monotoned image though. I may just have enough of a basis here for a decent drawing somewhere down the track….
so to compensate for it, I quickly sketched this little fairy…
Uncle Tree
This was painted as a blog header for a new writer friend of mine:
http://me2watson.wordpress.com/
He writes about all things woodland, whispy and wonderful (right up my alley). I enjoyed this one immensely.
Red-coloured……
Here’s the line art from the other day with some colour added.
Peekaboo…. Coloured
I had a few hours spare and wanted to colour the line art from the other day- here’s the result. funfunfun.
Dinosaurs…
Yesterday’s drawing with colour added via photoshop….
Cinderella…
from last year. Not sure if I’ve posted this yet. Apologies to anyone who’s already seen it….”you will go to the ball…”
Another go…..
This is a sketch I worked on tonight, no references. Loosely based on a little watercolour sketch from a week or two ago (see earlier post). Photoshop CS3.
Huddled (coloured).
last night’s sketch. I added some colour in Photoshop and Painter, it was most enjoyable to scratch away at this more loosely than normal. Not sure if it’s finished, but here it is as it sits right now.
Falling Leaves Coloured….
In between my illustrative work today, I painted over yesterday’s drawing. I enjoyed this one immensely. it took approx. 2 hours to colour… Good old Photoshop.
Up And Away-colour
Here’s the drawing from earlier with a hasty splash of pixel colour.
Out on a limb….
Another recent drawing quickly coloured. I finished working on the book for the day and wanted to wind down.
Elf in colour….
I’m just about to start work on my current book for today. Decided to use the drawing I’ve been working on in my (coughs) spare time to add some colour to.
Coastline sketch….
I just finished work for the day and wanted to do something to loosen me up after drawing and painting in a rather controlled style. This is what I came up with:
Creating a new image….
‘When one door closes, another opens….’. I’ve just finished the picture book I’ve been working on, I’ve just started another one and have one more to begin roughs for very shortly. Busybusybusy…. No new art to show, I think I may have posted this before, forgive me if you’ve seen it, if not, here’s an example of how I go about making a new illustration from sketch to finished art (drawn by hand, coloured in photoshop).
Finished Cover Art…
After being up very late last night and an early start this morning, the cover for the book’s now finished. just going to go through the interior illustrations and tidy up any loose areas.
Colouring The Cover…WIP
I’ve been scribbling away at coloring the line art for the cover of the Children’s picture book I’m currently working on. I’m enjoying it immensely. After a rather time-consuming false start, this one actually seems to be flowing rather well.
Wardrobe…
This image is an old one. I’ve spent a little while tidying it up this morning as I’ve always rather liked it, not quite sure if it’s finished yet, but here it is as it stands…
Last Interior Illustration….
I’ve finally completed the interior art for the picture book I’m working on (see earlier posts for more illustrations…). I’ve cropped the page as it sits quite small in the layout so you can get a better look. just the cover to go before I can call it completed.
new sketchings….
I’ve been having a bit of a play in photoshop lately with new brushes. Fortunately, I have a whole heap of line art just waiting to be coloured. this tree has been asking for a splash of colour for a while.
I painted this speedy little watercolour last week. (just because).
Illustration #16 finished….
I’ve coloured this illustration for the picture book I’m working on this morning. It veritably flew out of me…ON A MONDAY! Onto the next one after I’ve had some well-earned lunch.
Crescent Moon-coloured
I’m just about to start work on the last couple of images for the picture book I’m working on. It’s Monday and I needed a warmup so I coloured last night’s ‘Broomstick Babe’. 45 mins photoshop. (Have I ever mentioned how much I love this program!?)
Digital preliminary-The Clearing…
I’ve enjoyed the holiday season, but I’m absolutely nowhere near ready to get down to doing any of my illustrative work. I’ve been using the narrow time slots to instead, work on this unfinished painting that I’ve been looking at every day for months. I’ve decided to have a play with it in Photoshop and iron out any kinks and play around with colour/values etc. I rather like how it’s turned out, but there’ll be a lot more work on the oil version yet.
Oil/digital.
The model is the lovely:
[link]
newest picture book illo…..
I didn’t manage to get a whole lot of art done over the yooltide break, but I did manage to finish this illustration off for the book. Just two more and the cover to go before I get onto my next project (which is vastly different in tone to this one).
Tooth fairy.
Here’s a drawing I did a while back given a quick colour job in photoshop.
I found this old watercolour I did quite a few years ago whilst I was rooting around through my old stuff. It’s good to see how much I’ve changed artistically, sometimes it feels as though somebody else did this work.
Little Red Riding Hood…
I’ve been interested in illustrating this story for a very long time. Every now and again, in my quiet moments, I like to have a bit of a play with scenes from the story. here’s tonight’s effort. For those interested, I’ve added steps I took to produce the image. Sorry I don’t have time to go into too much detail, however, should anyone have any questions I’d be happy to answer them. (Medium-digital).
Golden Oldie….
I just found this old painting underneath my pool table in amongst a whole heap of other work from the last decade or so. I still rather like it. Painted in Watercolour/Gouache and acrylic (with some coloured pencil scribbles here and there).
TitlePage Illustration….
I’ve been wanting to get that ‘traditional’ look with my illustrations on the PC for quite some time. I’ve been playing with different brushes and textures in phoshop for a little while and am slowly getting the work to look as I picture it in my head. I’m fairly pleased with the way this little drawing looks when it’s coloured. this’ll be cropped and used for the title page of the book I’m currently working on.
Hope everybody had a lovely Christmas!
Cuddles….
I’m getting close to finishing the book I’m working on. I’m having a greattime with this book, it’s a little on the ‘cute’ side, but that’s allright. Nothing wrong with ‘cute’. Here’s the latest image. I’ve enclosed the preliminary line art also:
The Gypsy….
A new drawing for a book I’ll be spending more time on next year. I’m working in silhouettes for the book, which pleases me no end, it’s always a challenge to convey emotion in an image without the usual amount of detail.
Broomstick Beauty….
Here’s yesterday’s drawing with some coloured splashed over it…funfunfun.
