Fuzzydragons

Duthie Park in Aberdeen is a nice place to spend an afternoon, well maybe not on a day like today tho. Anyone have a boat we can borrow? Lots of pretty plants and flowers to see and lots of green space to have a picnic if you want, but again not on a rainy day like today unless you want your tea to float away... I have no idea what most of these plants are, just know they are pretty. Start with the cacti, some in flower, some not but I do remember they had all kinds of different ones to look at. I should know what these are, did plant some a few years ago but can't remember what they are called. (John says they are Zinnias)   More pretty flowers, love the patterns on them. (petunias?) And Koi! big ones too. We need some nice weather so we can go back there an take some new photos and see what is flowering now.

Finished Moby Dick finally lol, so not much else finished the last week lol Moby-Dick; or, The Whale by Herman Melville My rating: 5 of 5 stars Yes this is very wordy and took a little longer than I would have liked to read, but I never found it boring. Its full of a lot of info about whaling in the 1850's, which while a horrible thing, interesting to read about the process and the thoughts people had on whales. The ending is very fitting character wise but I can't say why without giving the ending away :p Probably not a book for everyone since it is very wordy and has a very slow build up, but enjoyed every word myself :) Soulless by Gail Carriger My rating: 4 of 5 stars Quick entertaining read :) TBR (To be Read) for the next few weeks Reading this next but only 3 pages in, so too early to say what I think. And since my jaw surgery was moved up to the 6th, I've got a few more to read in the hospital since last time I was there for 4 days and fin...

Finished the tiger today, and pretty happy with how it turned out. Spraying it with fixative darkened the colours slightly, but for the better I think. Sometimes spraying with fixative can be risky, the colours can change to the oddest shades sometimes, but since I had no plan really for this piece I wasn't too worried if the colours changed. And a close up scan of the eye area. This paper is rough and I think you can tell that here with the pencil texture being so rough in the scan. Now, back to etching :)

Another dragon from 2003. I should draw more dragons with patterns like this one has, I really like the way it looks :)

So much fur....:p

Finished yay! I did think about darkening some areas more, but I decided I like this the way it is now. Could always darken it later a few months down the line if I see it again and think it does need to be darker. Close up of a floofy light feather. It can be hard sometimes to etch these types of feathers if they are surrounded by dark areas but thankfully only one side of this area is dark. Getting closer to being able to film tutorials on making one of these plates. Just need to clear some more space for the tripod and then I can start filming. Just going to be a small plate since it would probably take way too long to make a video for one this size.

Back to life drawing practice. I need a lot of practice with drawing the male form. In the 2 years of life drawing at Dundee college we did not have one male model and I am sure people thought I was crazy asking all the time if we would ever have a male model to draw, but drawing the male form is so much different than drawing the female form. We did have a male model in Arboath, but that was 3 years ago, so out of practice. This was also a case of using the wrong type of paper for ink pens, so I was really fighting the paper to get flowing scratchy lines. Too much tooth, need to remember to use smoother paper, ate the pen nib as well, but thats ok since I am not a huge fan of the pens I used for this lol 5 minute pose that did not go that well. Might use charcoal next time to see if that helps me or even use coloured pencils.

Slowly getting the bridge of the nose done and then onto the fur on the cheeks. I really want to start another art work, but should finish something before I do lol There are about 4 unfinished pieces to my left on every surface available :p

More of the inlaws lilies, they have a lot of them of different types. Another grey week, what happened to the hot weather we were supposed to have? :p I want to go to the beach at least once before I have to go back to Uni lol I don't know what kind of flower this is, but it is pretty. And another Livingstone daisy. I can't get enough of the colours they come in. One of my lilies in the backyard, I only have a few but they are getting bigger. Close up showing a lot of detail. I need to gets some more photos of this with my other lens and see how much detail I can get with it. It is a closer lens this the one that was used to take these photos, so should get more detail.

A rare photo of my parents together, and trying really hard not to kill each other :p According to the sign in another picture, this was 1992, so I would have been 11 and graduating middle school. My hair is so short here and I have never liked having to get up in front of people to graduate. The 3 times I've had to do it, it was begrudgingly done. If I manage to finish the next 3 years, I will have to do it again and dress more "posh" that time yay....:p

Art from when I was 15 lol Odd looking horse, with a net for a fence?? Kudu! I love Kudu, such pretty looking antelope. Its very handy that I use to date everything I drew, makes dating these a lot easier. Now I hardly ever date anything since I usually make a blog post with the art in it which helps date things.

I really need to practice life drawing. We got very few classes this year, and I am so out of practice.So when Jeanette posted some life drawing drawings on her Facebook page I asked her where she was getting the practice videos from. She told me she was using videos on Youtube, Croquis Cafe . Went to have a look and they are very useful You have at least a couple 1 minute poses, 2 minute poses, and then 5 minute poses. I need more practice, but I have lots of time left in the summer to improve :) All 1 minute poses, I can see a bit of comic book influence in these, but that might just be me. And a 5 minute pose, with odd foreshortening which messed me up.

No, really this is 4 hours of work :p Which is why it takes me a few weeks to get en etching this size done. I probably  should stick to the small pieces so I produce more work, but I like working big, means I can put in as much detail as I want. Does make my hand go numb after 4 hours tho :p

On to the next work, but not sure if I am going to do another practice dragon or use a different animal to practice with. The advantage of using a dragon for practice is that if something doesn't look right I could use the magical creature excuse for a reason it looks the way it does :p

Almost done with the wing feathers and then I can start shading the wing. Def. need to darken the different layers of feathers because right now, they look like one solid mass and they need to look like different feather layers. This scan sort of shows what I was trying to explain yesterday. I have to do the feathers that are underneath the top layer first and then go upwards from there.

My red dragon is looking a lot more pink at the moment lol Been working on this all afternoon, still needs a lot of work, getting there tho. This is pretty much brand new territory to me. I'm use to using Photoshop and to a lesser extent Illustrator, but never really used Painter before. So many options,  I have no idea what even half of them do lol. To prove I have made some progress :p

Finally finished my Barn Owl for The Summer of Colour . This weeks colours were 2 oranges and a blue. Yes my oranges used would be considered very brown oranges, but they are still orange :p This is the last week for this, kind of want to continue working with just 3 colours, so might put a bunch of colours in a hat and pull 3 out. Or just ask here or on twitter/facebook/instagram etc what people would like to see :)

Still reading Moby Dick,  enjoying it but it is a monster of a book, so often switch between reading lighter books lol Fables, Vol. 6: Homelands by Bill Willingham My rating: 4 of 5 stars Was great seeing the homeland and the characters that are there, and the story was very fast paced and well drawn :) Fables, Vol. 7: Arabian Nights (and Days) by Bill Willingham My rating: 3 of 5 stars Predictable but entertaining by introducing new characters and lands Fables, Vol. 8: Wolves by Bill Willingham My rating: 2 of 5 stars um great idea, but fell very flat for me. liked the art but the story felt very weak :/ Fables, Vol. 9: Sons of Empire by Bill Willingham My rating: 3 of 5 stars Much better than the last volume. You got character development and a few surprises thrown in :) Fables, Vol. 10: The Good Prince by Bill Willingham My rating: 4 of 5 stars I really liked this story line :) nice art, interesting story and good character development :)...