Panda-Duck

This cute wee guy was suggested by a friend and will be my "thank you" gift to her.

The Return of the Giraffe/Zebra/Elephant thingy

You may remember, I was commissioned back in July to create a hybrid beastie for the girlfriend of a fellow called Andy. Indeed, my husband found the listing on Metafilter, and pointed the chap in my direction - and he chose me. Anyhow, he thought he would like another critter as a Christmas present. However, he has left it a wee bit fine... I got the email on wednesday, started with the lineart that evening (whilst watching "Rio" which was such an awesome movie that not a great deal of sketching got done) and finished it up this morning, friday, in time to make the 5pm post pick-up. Whew - now all it has to do is get to Canada in two weeks or less...

Anyhow, this is a combination of Elephant/Giraffe and Zebra. Which is fine - but the challenge was that I had to make it different from the previous one. This was actually harder than you might think. The zebra stripes had to stay, obiovusly, as did the giraffe spots, and the only way to really do the elephant was with its trunk... Anyhow, this is the result:

I think I like it better than the first one, actually. I hope he doesn't ask me for a third one, I'm not sure what else I can do with it! It'd have to be a zebra head, I guess...

NaNoWriMo 2011, Day 19

Wordcount: 2.007
Total Wordcount: 42,786
Percentage: 85%

I have actually composed more like 3000+ words today, but I deleted that extra 1000 that I had hanging on the end and getting in the way. They were starting to annoy me. I am still going steadily, but the plot is crawling and I have a feeling some heavy editting shall be involved in the next few months. Instead of publishing this one to use with my coupon (should I get it), I shall instead concentrate on completing "Midsummer Knight's Quest" and purchase that with my 5x free copies. But first... I have to achieve 50k.

I'm running much on par as I was with NaNo's past. Last year, at this point, I was *almost* finished. With SocNoc, I was struggling - I ended up deleting around 5000 words from that story. Still, the ones I put in instead were better.

I don't have any interesting quotes for today. So have some art instead:

Seal/Penguin hybrid


Gryphon composed of Waxwing and Genet.

NaNoWriMo 2011, Day 2

Wordcount: 2, 822
Total Wordcount:6,709
Percentage: 13.4%

Further character development - Aurelia learns a little more about her heritage and we get a glimpse into what it is the Karazana (the Sisters) actually do. Then we skip across to the rather pompous Rakoto and his not-sister, Isabella, how has somewhere along the way decided to be hyperactive with a short attention span. Go Isa! Initially, Aurelia had been called Isabelle, but I changed that because of "Twilight". Then I thought - why not have her as a minor character, a stuck-up little snob who gets her not-brother into trouble.

And here's a picture I coloured today too - it's inspired by "Daughter of Smoke and Bone" and is a glimpse of some of Brimstone's creations in his workshop.









And as an additional note - I have tons of $1 Art Card Auctions and a Chimera Commission up on Trademe.

And I'm back...

Not that I've been anywhere - I just realised it's been two weeks since I posted to my so-called "daily" art blog. Oh noes! Looks like someone's been getting slack with the arts...

Well, I am, but I've also been working on a tutorial on "how to draw birds" which turns out to be rather more epic than I had originally envisaged.

Anyhow, I've also been drawing some bird-chimeras for Shewolf's "Mutated Birds" swap. So I might as well share them here. There's another in the works, but I appear to be too easily distracted at the moment.

I have only drawn one image this month. Isn't that terrible? These were all done at the end of August.

The top two are inspired by "Daughter of Smoke and Bone" and the bottom by my pet Duck-frog in the online text-based MUD game "The Forest's Edge." Which I played over 10 years ago...

Final Chimera for Summer

Whilst Summer is off in the hospital, bringing her little leorabbit into the world, I thought I'd work on her older daughter's chimerical creature. Now, this lass was a trickier one - she was born in the Year of the Ox, but her star sign is Libra. Libra is symbolised by a set of scales. Now, scales do not hybridise well. So I suggested maybe something WITH scales, but Summer decided to let the girl decide instead. And she likes monkeys.

Oxymonkey was a bit trickier than the other two. The first effort was an abysmal failure, but on the second go, this handsome fellow stepped from the page. He's more monkey than ox, and that monkey is a squirrel monkey.

I hope they all like it. And now, I guess, my commisisons for that family shall end.

Unless Summer and her husband would like one each?

And since Summer mentioned me in her blog, I feel I shall mention her blog. As you can see from looking through it, Summer is a wonderful supporter of local artists and I am sure her children's bedrooms must be truly delightful (I rather want to buy this felt cuckoo clock. If I had a child, I most certainly would, it would look awesome in a nursery).

Another for Summer

And here is my second Chimera of the Day:



Lion/rat for Summer

Metafilter Mutant

My husband found this on metafilter:

Where can I find someone that I can pay to do a custom drawing of an imaginary animal for me?

It's a little silly - my girlfriend has some favourite animals (3) and I wanted to find someone who'd sort of... draw an imaginary animal that's a combination of all 3, just for s***s and giggles.

And since it's such an unusual request, any idea how much it would cost? Thanks.

Since this is exactly the sort of thing that I regularly do, he put my name forth and I received the commission. The combination turned out to be giraffe/zebra/elephant.

So, here is the results:

Interesting enough, there is a real mammal that looked a bit like this - macrauchenia

And I have another commission to work on too - for Summer, the lass I drew the lion/rabbit for. Now I'm making her a lion/rat for one of her other children.

Chimera Commisison - Leorabbit - coloured

.

Now with colour, but no background yet. Or whiskers.

Chimera Commisison - Leorabbit

Purchased via Felt, a commission for a Lion/Rabbit for a child being born in the Year of the Rabbit under the starsign of Leo.

This'll be fun - here's the lineart:

Isn't he cuddly?

Chimerical Critters for the Wylie family

As part of my Art For Christchurch fund-raising project, I offered up commissions of chimeras. And I got a lovely request from Daryl to draw cards for each member of his family.

And here they are:

1. Dragon/Seahorse

One of my characters, Rhapsody Wavedancer is a dragon based on the sea dragon fish species, but I did not want to draw her here, so this fellow is perhaps her younger brother.

2 .Cat/Owl

This one is a bit of a classic hybrid - what would happen if the owl and the pussycat happened to have a child? This is the third I've drawn, and easily the one I'm happiest with.

3. 2 New Zealand animals of your choice hybridized together

Always a tricky one this one, because most of our truly unique animals are birds, and hybridizing two birds is a challenge in itself. So I decided to evade that issue by taking two of our most unique creatures - the kiwi and the tuatara. I've done it before, but this one worked out much, much better.

4. Canada Lynx/ Bird of Prey

Lynx and bald eagle - the good old bob-tailed gryphon!

If you wish to commission your own hybrid creature, I am selling a commission on Felt at the moment:
I will draw your hybrid mutant creature

Chimerical Critters

What do you get if you cross a kingfisher with an otter?

A Kingfotter!

Or a Tiger with a Peacock?

A Peacotig!

Chimerical Madness

For those of you that might be in Auckland next weekend - I will be attending Battlecry.

This is a roleplaying/wargaming/boardgaming/artist and all things good convention run annually.

Where? ASB Stadium, Kohimarama
When? Sat 19th - Sunday 20th February
More? http://battlecry.battlecry.co.nz/

I shall be taking a workshop on the Saturday afternoon, commencing at 2pm on how to go about creating your own mutant monsters. If you wish to come along, bring your imagination and a gold coin donation. It also helps if you have some artistic talents and a basic knowledge of anatomy and colour. Also, if you have any postcards with animals on them, particularly tigers, horses or fish.
I'm not sure how many people the workshop will take, but if you wish to secure a booking, email: info@battlecry.co.nz

Here's my latest three mutations:

Hermit Crab + Swan + cool spiky shell =

Leafy Seadragon + Peacock =

Goat + Seahorse + Seadragon =

What's with all the seahorse/seadragon chimera requests recently? I guess fish are cool. Especially weird, spiky ones. Personally, I prefer lionfish. Although only from a distance, and aesthitically, because they are quite poisonous.

Mutants R Us

As you may be aware, I LOVE making Mutants. I even have a t-shirt to prove it. I will be presenting a tutorial/class on "How to draw Mutants" at Battlecry this year, over the weekend of the 19-20th February. Not sure of time and day slot however. I also enjoy hosting chimerical critter swaps over on Illustrated ATCs.

So, having recently finished hosting one, I thought I should share the results:

Cockatoo/cat ; horse/raptor

Goat/seahorse/seadragon


Marlin/bear


Ocelot/peacock/rocket frog ; Gnu/dodo/seadragon

Swan/Cardinal fish/Tiger


ethiopian wolf/egyptian vulture

If the games do not lure me in at the Con, I may even be sitting in the Inkforge room wherein I may well be taking Chimera Challenges. We shall see. I shall most certainly have along my pencils and a bunch of blank trading cards.

The real Sea Wasp

So... we was out yesterday at a friend's place playing boardgames and well... I don't really get into the boardgames so much (although RoboRally rocks) and I took my sketchbook along and I twas posted this challenge - to combine a Portugese Man'o'War and a Wasp.

And this is the result.

Postcrossing Madness and an Armageddon Update

Well, Armageddon went okay. I didn't make a fortune, but in the time I was there I made back the money I had invested in it and a wee bit of profit. I sold only four original artcards - much of the rest was sketches and a few of my prints. And most of it went to one couple, but that's okay ^^

Consequently, I still have a bunch of Chimera to trade. The ones that sold were the flea/elephant/crab, the gecko/tiger/monarch and the venus flytrap/mantis/squid. So if you are interested in any of the other ones, note me for a trade.

I am also addictively trading postcards on Postcrossing and recently received a lass in Estonia to send to. She collects communication related postcards, and although her profile lists that she prefers not handmade, I went and made one anyway.

She may well hate it, but... I have hunted high and low for any actual postcards in that theme but to no avail.

It is called "Kereru Post"

I also now have contacts in: Costa Rica, Belarus and Romania to write to.

And I have received these ones:

From Germany

From Ukraine

From Taiwan

From Finland

From Finland

Last Lot for Armageddon

Due to a bit of confusion, my art did not make it to me for Armageddon on saturday :( Or at least not for sale! Therefore, I have to sell a certain amount of it today to even start recouping costs... Anyhow, I have made another half dozen Chimeras:

Fairy Wren/Chincilla, Snail/Rabbit, Frog/Moon Moth
Elephant/Flea/Rainbow Crab, Monkey/Brine Shrimp

So please, come along and visit me and maybe infest in some miniature art! I also have prints for sale too, ranging from $1 - $5 depending on size/quality. Or you can commission me.

More for Armageddon

Giraffe/Toucan/Palm Tree
Seahorse/Dragonfly/Snake
Tiger/Gecko/Monarch
Condor/Elephant Seal
Sparrow/Cat/Daisy
Man-O-War/Fox/Praying Mantis

I wonder if $15 per card would be too much to ask of people?

BIG thanks to Amii for the huge pile of ATC blanks. I've a sketchbook for Armageddon (and several pens of various thicknesses). But I do so love my ATCs pre-cut as I just don't have the knack to do it correctly with my little guillotene.

Armageddon

For those of you who have ever harboured a desire to meet me or whom happen to be a geek living in Christchurch city, New Zealand, than I have some good news for you. I will be attending the Armagaddeon convention this year not for my regular workplace but for me. Look for me on Sunday morning when I shall be wearing a "I like Making Mutants" t-shirt. I will have limited numbers of prints and original Art Cards for sale.

Here is a sample of what I will have on offer ($10 each):

There will also be a few Pokemon Art Cards for sale, some Chimera Colouring books and I will be undertaking small commissions/challenges.

Armagaddeon takes place at the Christchurch Town Hall on Kilmore Street for the weekend of the 27th and 28th of March. I will be there as a DeviantArtist.

And then two weeks later - I'm getting married!

Chimeras for Armageddon

Every year I attend the Armageddon convention for my mundane job. And every year I gaze longingly at the DeviantArt table. For they have a selection of artists, doodling away and increasing both their awareness and their fanbase - if not their wallets.

Well, this year will be different. I'll still probably be sitting at the table for my mundane job, selling consumer products at very reasonable prices, but at the Deviantart table, some of my work will be up for sale.

I'll be selling original Chimera Art Cards at $10 apiece. Here's the first three that will be up for sale - all suggested and doodled as part of my "chimerathon""

Giraffe + Peacock

Turkey + Pig + Cranberries

Sunflower + Bulldog + Rockhopper Penguin

And should you be interested in these, what does not sell (Which will be all of them, for sure) will be available for trade in late April/Early May (after my Honeymoon).

And I shall end this note with a moment of silence for lovely Fiona Casey, who passed away on thursday night, aged only 32. You will be greatly missed, my dear, for your strength, your enthusiasm and your love of life. May you rest in peace.