Fuzzydragons

John and I in 2004, after knowing each other about 3 weeks :p This was at The Moeraki boulders , which are really neat to see. Water was a little cold still in October tho so I didn't go for a swim. I lived in that yellow hoodie almost the whole time I was in NZ, it was comfy :p

Two from 2003 if the date is right. For some reason I didn't finish this, which is odd because it doesn't look like anything is wrong with it. And a horse sketch that also didn't get finished lol

Like I don't have enough to do lol But I decided to start on a watercolour eagle because I really want to use my watercolours again. Been too long. My list of things to do before I got back on January 18th just keeps getting longer. I don't often use photos that are not mine, but this ref photo is from Gary Jones over at Paint my Photo :)

Update on the digital horse I am practicing on. Obvs. still needs work, and I need to put some reddish tones into the horse so it doesn't stand out from the background so much. Or I could just change the background colour completely and go with something really dark. Easy enough to change the background colour since it is on a different layer than the horse and can just be deleted if I wanted and leave the horse alone. Big advantage with digital work, everything can be on different layers for ease of possible change.

Well, not so shiny. Put lino ink in the lines to try to get an idea of what it might look like printed. Actually worked pretty well and its easy enough to wash off. Just end up with black ink on everything lol Looks more like a falcon than an eagle, but no one needs to know that in the end print:p

I need practice with digital painting, so thought I would practice with something I can colour not too badly with pencils. Saves having to learn how to draw something new. This is done with Painter 2015 and a Huion tablet, which I love and should make a blog post about soon. This does need a lot of work, but it so much easier than having to get all the paint out of the closet and then clean up after. What can I say? I've become lazy when it comes to art :)

I was wondering how I was going to show progress shots with the copper plate etching, but if I take a photo from the side, you can see the lines. Not sure if I like using the copper plate yet. Its very easy to make lines on, just hard to see those lines.Will be very curious what this looks like printed.

Okay, think I'm done reading for the year. 96 books read is pretty good, going to try for a 100 next year. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens My rating: 4 of 5 stars Quick little Xmas read :) Maybe a bit too fast paced, more back story would have been nice, but easy to read, most people know the basic story and has a happy ending to go with the Christmas spirit. View all my reviews Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson Very quick, entertaining read :) Just had a very abrupt ending: pirates, mysterious island, death, more pirate talk, gold, the end :p 2015 Reading Challenge Jennifer has completed her goal of reading 90 books in 2015! hide 96 of 90 (100%) view books

Finally finished this little Goat, Its A5 in size, so shouldn't have probably taken as long as it did lol. Now on to the metal plates and to finish the digital dragons.

More work on the dragons :) Should have probably pushed the left dragon over more on the screen, but live and learn. The plan is to have text on the bottom, but if it doesn't look right I will just crop the bottom off. And a close up up the detail on one of the dragons. Really shows the texture you get close up which is hard to see when the image is shrunk down for the blog.

Managed to get some work done on the Christmas dragons today. My style painting digitally is very loose, and very quick which is handy when you don't have a lot of time for art. Floating present :p Its a very odd shaped box lol I still need practice, and need to improve, but that will come with time.

I really wanted to get this finished today, but I punched a wall accidentally today (don't ask lol), so hurt a few fingers. Got a bit more done on the horn before my fingers started to go numb, so will probably not get this finished now for a few days. I have other stuff I can work on until then tho, so should get some art done.

A very quick Christmas dragon sketch that I will hopefully get time tomorrow to work on.I just wanted to get the basic idea down before I forgot. Not sure if the dragons will be blue, really depends on what colours I make the background. I'm thinking a yellow/gold background to go with Christmas but not sure yet.

Started on the goat's horn. Shading on this type of plate is a lot harder than shading on the plexi-glass. You don't get as good of a gradient in the tones but there is less chance of the plate cracking or splitting because it is more flexible. So while you lose a bit of detail, you gain on a bit more flexibility, plate longevity.

One more book to add to the reading list for the year. Not sure what number I will set the list at next year because if I get into Uni next year I will probably be pretty busy. Could set it at 100 and try to reach that number, but if I didn't, it wouldn't be a big deal. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert My rating: 4 of 5 stars Emma is an idiot, a well written idiot, but still an idiot. Not for sleeping around on her husband, but for all the other bad choices she makes during the course of the novel. Really enjoyed the writing, just rolled my eyes every time Emma did something really daft. Started reading A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens . Its short so should have it done today. I've never actually read anything by Dickens before, so should probably look into reading something else by him. 2015 Reading Challenge Jennifer has completed her goal of reading 90 books in 2015! hide 94 of 90 (100%) ...

I had no idea what to put on the long plate, its such an odd shape. Could have done a landscape, but none of the images I had really seemed to fit the shape so just ended up drawing a flamingo on it lol Very rough images so I have some lines to go from and am not just etching blindly. I don't know how I am going to show progress photos of these since the lines might not show up in the metal when etched. Might have to wait to show the final images when I print them to see if they need any more work.

I hate taking these, even if they might help. They are so bitter and keep me up the whole time I am on them, so wont sleep for 5 days. I don't talk about the MS a lot on the blog, because that would get very boring, very fast since it is something that is always there. But I am taking these because I am experiencing the MS hug , which feels like my lungs are in a vice that is always turning. Its lots of fun :p So on the bad side, feeling like crap because of the steroids, but on the plus side might get a lot of work done since I wont be sleeping a lot lol

Almost done the fur/fleece, what do you call goat fur? (wool it seems). Still needs shading, but going to get the horn finished first.

From 1996, so I was 15 when I did this. I have always liked the haida style of art and actually ended up doing a year long project on it in college one year. Learned a lot about their history and stories, was really enlightening.

After a bit of messing around in Illustrator, this is now ready to be transferred to better paper. Pretty sure I am going to stick to blue colours for the dragon and orange and yellows for the background. Might mess with the eyes a bit but certainly wont be missed in a crowd :p

The colours really changed when I wet the Graphitints, and it was very hard to keep the darker colours from bleeding into the lighter ones. I do wish there were more colours, since the colour selection is great for natural objects, but not so much for anything else. The pencils were easy to blend when dry and layered well. I am going to try another drawing with them, since I liked them enough to keep seeing the best way to use them. The only complaint about the pencils is the lack of colours.

Slow progress on the small goat etching.Need to finish the basic fur texture, shading and the horns. And then its one more thing I can cross off my ever growing list of things to do.

So, the guy in the printmaking department gave me a few pieces of metal to try etching on. Copper and zinc. I haven't etched on metal for almost 20 years so can't remember if I liked it or not lol And unlike etching on plexi-glass where you an see what you need to see to etch, not an option on metal. Going to draw a rough outline and then try to fill the image in. Just not sure what I am going to try. Probably a bird :p

Making my way through the art books I have :)   DreamScapes Myth & Magic: Create Legendary Creatures And Characters In Watercolor by Stephanie Pui-Mun Law My rating: 4 of 5 stars Gorgeous illustrations, lots of great info and easy to follow. Good read for anyone wanting to learn more about watercolour techniques. Still reading Madame Bovary , but taking my time since I am really enjoying the writing style, even if I want to shake Emma and say grow the hell up :p

Put water on the Graphitints. I like the look. Its a little washed out in places, but that is easy to fix by going over the area with more pencil. Almost had a big mess up by the bottom of the lips, the water spread too far. But managed to fix it thankfully after a bit of panicking :p

The dry part of this is finished. Now I need to add water to it and cross my fingers it looks OK. I did take a big scan of this version tho, just in case it doesn't work out :p

A creepy crawly from 1996 when I was 15. I really wanted a tarantula when I was younger, but dad is deathly allergic and most other people are too creeped out lol

Finished! I could darken the wing more but I like the way it looks here. I have more Barn Owl photos  so will probably end up etching more owls in the future :)

You can clearly see the gold implant in my eyelid here and I am not a vain person that gives a damn about that, but its frikken being really painful right now. Like I am getting poked in the eyelid with a needle, so really glad I have an appointment this week to see the people who put it in. If the only option I have is to take it out, out it comes, even if that means my vision goes back to being blurry. Too painful to leave in.

I just need to darken the wing a bit and add some shading to the body and then this will be done and I can start experimenting. Not with this plate, but with a smaller one and a lino cut to see what etching and lino will look like together. Going to keep it simple at first since I don't know if the idea will work and don't want to waster paper lol

Well, its not a new dragon. I took the #25 dragon from last months dragons and drew it bigger so that I can possibly colour it. I thought about just using graphite, but I am missing using my coloured pencils lol so will probably colour it.

Only one book this week since Uni has been so busy with trying to get everything put together, but off for over a month soon so probably read a lot :p The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë My rating: 4 of 5 stars Slow to start but hard to put down once the story really starts. Started reading Madame Bovary the other day, but I'm only 7 pages in so no idea what to think of it yet. Seem to be reading a lot of classics lately, not sure why since sometimes they are a bit too "old" for me to enjoy.

Been awhile since I have posted some flower pics, but todays is pretty stormy and grey so need some colour. I have no idea what any of these are called lo. I do remember this basket being huge, a good 2 feet around. Some kind of succulent? A cactus flower. Speaking of Cacti, mine are shockingly still alive. And more Koi fish. I'm surprised they are still alive since all of the coins are probably not doing a lot for the water quality. So busy with Uni work since assessment is on Monday and everything has to be handed in before 9 and then we don't have to go back until the next Monday.