This character or at least her outfit came about at Halloween last year. Around the time I had seen this image by Meg Park with a similar idea of bird costumes.
Meg’s original blog post, where you can see a better quality version.
I thought the costume would make a great Halloween outfit. The idea had been floating around in my head since and when I wanted to draw something for National Doodle Day, this character popped out.
I did a few more drawings of her and this was one of them.
I recently got a Pentel Brush Pen and finally felt brave enough to do some experimenting with it. I used water washes to achieve the fading out effect and a white gel pen (also new) for the highlights. This was then cleaned up in Photoshop as some of the lines were fuzzy from the washes. I also added some curves and masks to make it a little more interesting.
Another experiment into different style.
This one is much further away from how I currently draw. There’s much more expression and a nose! It really reminds me of Disney.
Trying out a new style.
This sketch is still too similar to my current style for my liking. It was the first thing I drew in around a month that I felt happy with.
A crisis of style…
I haven’t updated my blog in a few weeks, this is because I’ve not really drawn anything over the last month. Everything I have drawn in this time I haven’t been happy with.
I think I’ve slowly been coming to the realisation that I’m not happy with the style I draw in. I feel it’s not really developed for a while and to me it feels stale. I’ve been finding it very difficult to make the type of faces I draw have a range of emotions and to look unique for each character. I’ve been struggling to draw noses, men and poses. I’ve felt really conflicted over wanting to work on my comic but deep down not being happy with the drawings I’ve been producing. It’s meant that progress on my comic hasn’t been as fast as I would like, because I’ve not wanted to draw too much incase the way I draw changes. I feel like my style is holding me back.
I’ve occasionally sat down over the last month and tried to force myself to draw and experiment with other styles. It was tough because I just didn’t feel inspired which meant anything I drew I wasn’t happy with. I felt frustrated and after chatting to my partner, realised I needed to do some research. So I’ve been looking into new artists on Tumblr, Designspiration, and DeviantArt. I read Persepolis and I’m halfway through From Hell. After a lot of thought I also joined Instagram, which has also allowed me to discover a variety of new artists. One of the artists I stumbled up on Instagram was Dan Almanzar, with his beautiful sketches of ladies. I like his style a lot, it’s like a mixture Disney and the newer style of Marvel and DC comics. It’s expressive and has bags of character.
Since finding his work and the work of others I’ve started to feel more inspired again. I decided to start a new sketch book dedicated to exploring new styles. I think the only way I’m going to be happy with my art again is to start experimenting, and get away from the style of drawing I’m so unhappy with. So I decided to try and emulate Dan’s style of drawing. I just want to be clear here I don’t intend to steal it or claim it as my own. My aim is to try this with a variety of other styles to get a feel for them. I then want to experiment with what I’ve learnt from using them, and eventually be able to come out the other end with something I can call my own and, more importantly, that I’m happy with.
I found drawing in this new style much easier than I had anticipated. It was really enjoyable too. I’ll be sharing the sketches I’ve done using different pose and facial references (real life references, not copied from Dan’s amazing drawings). I’ll probably do a few more drawings using this style before I move on to another one. I’ve not experimented with drawing anything other than female faces or busts, so I want to draw some men and some full bodied poses of both genders. I feel it’s important to learn from my previous mistake of just drawing women so that I don’t get stuck in a similar rut again.
It feels good to be inspired, and to feel like my art is developing again.
Thank you for taking the time to read my ramblings, and keep an eye out for some new art from me!
A logo design I did last year for a Healthy Baking company, which uses raw and natural ingredients to make the tastiest treats.
I was asked to explore the route of a Caveman for the logo and after doing a couple of alternative designs this one was the winner.
You can see more images from this project on my portfolio: here
Merry Christmas everyone!
Have an amazing day and a great new year x
I just drew this silly little version of myself on the box of my brothers Christmas present in a Sharpie.
Uhm yeah… I drew me “angry” mainly because I want him to read the message I wrote on the other side. I thought it would be more fun if it were a bit more interesting than a plain old “PTO”.
EU VAT rules, VAT MOSS and the UK
I’m not sure how much this is being talked about but I feel it could effect me and many other artists, musicians, sole traders and small businesses. It needs addressing and needs support.
Law is being brought in, Jan 2015, so that anyone in the EU selling digital products to other countries in the EU will have to pay VAT to the country it was purchased in. Which is fine for large companies that have people that would be able to get all the accounting and information collecting done for them.
What hasn’t been taken into account so much are the small businesses and sole traders. Potentially in the future someone like me, trying to sell art or a webcomic in PDF form, as a subscription or through a 3rd party website. We can register for something called VAT MOSS to help us pay the VAT but the amount of information that would be needed to use VAT MOSS is nearly impossible to get especially if you use PayPal or other 3rd party payment or subscription services.
If you sell anything digital online (art, MP3’s, a Kickstarter, recipe’s, books, photography, apps, etc) this could effect you too and if you aren’t compliant you could get a hefty fine.
Please sign this petition and show some support for the people this can and will be effecting like me.
If you want to know more about this and how it could effect you then go here:
http://euvataction.org/dont-miss-these/
One last thing… It is also being considered to apply these same rules to phsyical products that are purchased online in the EU, which could come into force in 2016.
I haven’t updated my blog in a little while and wanted to show one thing I’ve been working on recently.
I finished the lineart for this a little while back and had started to colour it. I just wasn’t satisfied with where it was going. I was struggling with it for a while. It was then suggested to me by my boyfriend that maybe I should take a different approach and concentrate on the shading to get a great atmosphere. So I turned off all the layers of colour I had already done and started to work on my highlights.
I think some bits of this still need to be lighter to give a better sense of depth between the dragon and Miaka. Back to work!