Humans, take two

Recently I hosted a "Reading Group" swap for which I decided to draw portraits of various characters. Alas, some of my efforts were a little disappointing:
http://lemurkat.blogspot.co.nz/2012/02/humans.html
Especially when compared with the wonderful stuff the other participants came up with.

So, I decided at the last minute to draw different cards.

For "Name of the Wind" I chose to draw Auri. Now, there is no real description of her in the books, save that she is somewhat fey, has wispy hair and tattered clothes and lives in the hidden places under the university, coming out at night to have picnics on the rooftops with Kvothe. No hair or eye colour that I know of.

So, I basically followed my instincts here:

I'm sending Meran both cards (this and the Kvothe one I posted earlier)

And then I decided to draw Captain Hook again for the "Peter Pan" card:

And the other Hook goes in my "reject" pile.

And here's another I drew earlier of Jonas and Gabriel from "The Giver".
Bicycles are hard to draw!

Oryx

So, Reading Group had "Oryx and Crake" as one of the books. I've read it once, listened to it on audio book once and skimmed it several times for details and themes. It's a really good book.

I'd already illustrated Oryx a couple of years back for another Reading Group:

But I kind of liked the idea so I decided to stick with it. The first effort was okay, except that I coloured her hair with my inktense pencils first and they smudged everywhere, making her ppear rather dirty:

Plus I inked the rakunk and not not her so it kinda looks wrong.

On to attempt two:

Which I am quite pleased with, although maybe I need to add a bit more shading. I have the most difficulty with colouring humans. It's hard to get skintone at least vaguely accurate.

I have never before drawn a....

...Mechanical Hound - from Fahrenheit 451.

This has the distinction of being A, the first ATC I have drawn this year (the other pieces being 8x8s) and B, being something I have not drawn before, meaning I have already fulfilled one of my 2012 goals. Admittedly, I am also going to draw a WWII warbird, to further fulfil that goal.

Anyhow, this piece is for the Reading Group swap I'm hosting on Illustrated ATCs. It was tricky to draw - and I especially like the fact that despite the name "mechanical hound" these robotic trackers do not actually need to look anything like real dogs - they have eight legs and a needle in their "face", for a start. I've seen various interpretations, some going all dog, others tending towards the spider-ish. I chose to go with hound, however, because... well, because I wanted to, I guess!

NaNoWriMo 2011, Day 12

Wordcount: 3,266
Total Wordcount: 29,914
Percentage: 59.8%

Discovered today that the NaNo Validator and I don't agree - Open Office says I have nearly 30k, Validator loses me about 1k. So I'll have to overdo the mark. Still, that doesn't seem a problem. I'm at almost 60% and it's not even halfway through the month yet.

Today I crippled a character. Badly. I broke her back. I'm not sure why, except that I had trouble spelling her name and I kinda wanted to cut down the amount of characters I had PLUS a bit of dramatic sadness is always useful.

I also packaged up a bunch of art cards to be posted out on monday and set up a store on facebook so that people can buy my cards and stuff. Also, ordered more things through Visaprint. This time I actually had to pay for some of them.

And I finally finished this picture:

It's Niirsha from the excellent novel "Petal Storm" by Paul Kidd. According to his website, they're supposed to be tiny people with like four arms, antennae and wings, but since the descriptions kept mentioning chitin etc, they're bees to me. Anthro bees. And to all those that disagree - I'll set a giant jumping spider on you!

But I did give her hair. I think it kind of suits her.

Visit my shop/become a friend

NaNoWriMo 2011, Day 6

Wordcount: 1,400
Total Wordcount: 14,498
Percentage: 29%

Today was the first day* I did not reach the requisite 1665 words. Not a big deal since I am well ahead on the wordcount (since if I were just doing the requisite minimum/day I would have achieved only 9900 by now).

So, why did I not succeed, may you ask?

Well, the plot's a little slow moving at the moment. I'm basically just writing scene-stuff and the "journey" and I'm also pretty tired. In one story thread, Aurelia and six other lemurs (including Constance, her rival) are traipsing across the Tsingy to visit a refugee camp. In the other story thread, Rakoto is about to be shown the underbelly of Narivo by his tutor, Mephistopheles. Mephi's species as not yet been identified - I wonder if any reader would have noticed that? There's hints and vague descriptions of parts of him (his fur, his fingers, his ears, his eyes) but I have never yet said "the aiay".

Today was also the first day back at work after my week holiday. Now, sundays are always quite tiring - as there are only ever 4 staff members on sundays and although we are not a particularly busy store, sunday can be busy - usually depending on the weather. Today the weather was actually beautiful, but we still have quite a few customers.

Also, sunday is also the day the new My Little Pony episode is uploaded.
Yeh, I'm a MLP fan.

And lastly, my mother rang. I can't write and talk at the same time, but I can draw and/or colour, so I finished up this image of Snoshti:

She's a Hedge Imp from the most excellent "Dreamdark: Blackbringer" by the amazing, the awesome, the imaginative, Laini Taylor.

And here's a random picture of my book cases:

Now mostly organised after the earthquakes - and stacked two deep with the ones in back being piled flat, top to bottom of the shelf. I put the pretty ones in the front!

Anyhow, to bed! Tomorrow i must be up with the birds (5am) because now I'm back at work it's time to get back into the pattern of 1000 words before breakfast.

* except for that day when I deleted about 500 words and then had to use the today's wordcount - yesterday's wordcount to work out my total - I had also written as much I'd deleted.

Tribute to Diana Wynne Jones

Diana Wynne Jones was an excellent English author who wrote for young adults and children, particularly in the fantasy and sci-fi genres. Her novels are fast-paced and filled with twists and turns and colourful characters. She entertained many a child and probably inspired the likes of JK Rowling.

On March 26th she died, aged 76, of cancer.

So I thought we should pay tribute to her.

I hosted an Art Card swap on Atcs for all . It got off to a slow start, but eventually I had 9 participants. Then, one by one, they all dropped out, until only four of us were left. Still, four is enough for a 3-card swap!

Here are the cards I created and we received:

Enchanted Glass, Pinhoe Egg, Magic Door, Throgmorton
by Michele Merges Martens

Goddess and Bethi, Charmed Life, Chrestomanci with the griffin, Throgmorton and Christopher
by Itti

by Kavka

Magicians of Caprona, Black Maria, Klartch, Sirius
by LemurKat

“If you never did you should. These things are fun and fun is good”

Art inspired by Dr Seuss, for the Swap on ATCs for All.

DO these need any introduction? Just in case:
Cat in the Hat, Fox in Socks, The Lorax, Horton protects his Clover
And Seuss Kat!

Coloured in cheap colouring pencils and tombow markers (the former because I was away on holiday and forgot to pack my polychromos - oh no! Used the Tombows when I got home).

Le Petit Prince

The Little Prince waters the arrogant flower.

This postcard is destined for Iran!

Hairy Maclary and Friends

Beloved to the children of New Zealand is "Hairy Maclary" - a scruffy pup who has lots of misadventures involving chasing cats, stealing sausages and winning the show. He is a black Skye terrier of the scruffiest kind. This postcard features him and a few of his friends. See if you can figure out which is which:
Schnitzel von Krumm with a very low tum,
Bitzer Maloney all skinny and bony,
Muffin McLay like a bundle of hay,
Bottomly Potts covered in spots,
Hercules Morse as big as a horse ...
and Zackary Quack.

These delightful books are written by Lynley Dodd. At some point in the future I will draw the cats!

Pick-a-theme pieces

Three of the five are done!

Ex-libris Bookplate for Timeinmyhands:

For Itti, the nightingales (real and clockwork) sing a duet - or attempt to. From the fable by Hands Christian Anderson.

And another musical group, this time it's the Musicians of Bremen, although only the rooster is crowing his worth. For CIndyjob. And yes, she spells her name like that too. Even though that WAS a typo on my part!

Alas, I am now left with two to do - one quite easy (zetti birds) the other very tricksy - Goo Goo Doll lyrics. And their lyrics are all airy-fairy metaphors and love stories... I might just go with "...I wanna wake up where you are..." Probably starting Katta as she likes to cameo in my song-inspired cards. And I'm not even particularly fond of the GooGoo Dolls...

A Colourful Cast of Crazy Characters

I've been sitting on these for a while now, well, two of them anyhow, waiting until I had completed the third. Three quirky and funky characters, all for the Winter PAT.

First, the Mad Hatter attempts to awaken the dormouse:

Secondly, the Pied Piper leads the cockroaches away from his village:


And thirdly, it's John Lennon of the Beetles!

Yellow Submarine Style.

hope you enjoy this colourful cast!

A Mixed "Bag" of Art

Baby Sloth taking a roll in the leaves (for Mithrril)


Little unicorn with rainbow, for Kre.


Great Grey Owl for Kre.



Red-haired Scotsman (inspired and vaguely supposed to be Jamie Fraser) for Mithrril.

More Totems and a Demon in Disguise

It's Mr Anthony Crowley, the demon from "Good Omens" and his trusty Bentley. Look - I drew a human! And he looks pretty decent too.

THE TURTLE
You work best by thinking things over and moving with caution. You do not rush into things but this helps you to make the right decisions.















THE KOI FISH
You are capable of adapting to any situation and thriving on it. Indeed, you grow to meet your challenges and reach your goals. You are also affectionate and friendly, and others revel in your company.

A week without art

And only three pieces from today:

These two critters belong to Pannya and are called "Mousalopes". The first is named Keeta and the second is Nochi. as you can see, I've done them both in different styles - Keeta in my mostly-realistic-no-outlines style and Nochi in a more colourful and toonful manner. I hope she likes them.



The third was intended for my portfolio book and is based on the novel "Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss. The beastie is a draccus - described as a gigantic lizard-cow I decided that anything like that would be quite saurian in appearance, and thus stole traits from various dinosaurs. The two faces in the top left are Kvothe and Denna, peering out of a cave. Yeh, I know they kinda look like they're floating in mid-air. I'm annoyed at myself for messing them up.


Also, I rustled up a couple of quick-draw birds, but they haven't been scanned yet. Am feeling a bit antsy because it appears my landscape and 13-min bird cards may well be lost in the post... Still, more arrived at their new homes today and I received a lovely package of art supplies from this lovely lass I met in Hawaii by the name of Laura. She and I have been corresponding via old-fashioned post and email and today she sent me some more prismas! Which is great cos some of mine are getting awfully short...

Noah's Menagerie and Quick Draw Birds

In case you didn't guess, I've got a week off work, and thus am quite productive indeed. Anyhow, here's the completed set of Noah's Ark cards:

An awesome suggestion for a quick-fire ATC swap had me creating these five cards in short order. The theme for the swap was "Noah's Ark" and the requirements were one ark and three sets of animal pairs, prefereably - mammal, bird and reptile or insect for a bit of variety.

Noah himself I have drawn as a hostess gift. He is based on a photograph of a portrait of a young Hebrew man found via google. They do not look much alike. The ark is loosely based on the Christchurch Ark, found in the Getheseme Gardens on the Port Hills. Some people get married there.

The animals themselves I chose in two cases for their sexual dimorphism - so we have male and female Eclectus parrots (the female is the red one), and a pair of Black lemurs (once again the female is the red one). However, the snakes are just there because I didn't have a decent tortoise picture on hand at the time. And snakes are awesome. They're King Cobras, in case you're curious. No sexual dimorphism - although males are larger. However, they are somewhat monogamous, as far as snakes go.

And we sat down to watch a DVD this evening so I drew out my prismas and rustled up some more birds with the help of an awesome library book, "100 birds to see before you die":

These fellows took between 20-30 mins apiece (the dvd was "Tropic Thunder" and it was distracting!) and they are:

Cappuchin Bird, Ruff
Tufted Puffin, Harlequin Duck

All available for trade. Wrick gets first choice.

Also, last but definitely not least, prepare to SQUEE for what is, undeniably, the World's Cutest Animal:
His name is Aiden and he belongs to Sorjei. That's a durian fruit he's got there. They look terrible, smell worse and taste only marginally better. Sort of like cheesy-custard apple. They smell like old gym socks. I hear they're an acquired taste.

An eclectic array of art

Yesterday I drew a piece emulating Novasmem's style:

When observing Novasmem's style I noted her outlines were well defined, although not particularly thick, with the shading tending to be darker around those lines. Her colouring is quite soft, something I had to really watch as I tend more towards the saturated. She does quite good realistic renderings, often with a printed paper background (I think?) but I chose portions of the background from several of her pieces. Her colours are quite bright, but not saturated and her pieces fun. My poor Katta looks rather a little too serious, but I think otherwise I did an okay job.

And here are my offerings from today:

#449. Hippopotas, the Sand Hippo Pokemon

Hippopotas are a sand dwelling creature and avoid water at all costs. They live in dry deserts in small herds. Usually, they bury themselves almost entirely in sand so that only their nostrils and eyes are visible above the surface, scanning for danger. If threatening, they can both spray sand from a port on their back and also through their nostrils. If they need to bury their heads, a special membrane closes their nostrils.

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

Creepy and bleak, this dystopian future is one I can truly envisage. From the dark, post-apocalyptic days of the present, Snowman takes you on a spine-chilling journey through the history and the frightening event that changed the world as we knew it. With its not infrequent references to extinct animals, and revelations on the darker side of human nature to Oryx's almost innocent view on life. It is also scaringly, devastatingly, real. So, chickeenobs anyone? And whatever Atwood may say, this is most certainly Science Fiction.



The Cat from New Zealand thought the birds tasted grand...

Bird is the piopio, the NZ thrush, eaten to extinction by feral cats. Building is the Beehive and the beverage is L&P.

Big Bunch of Hemlock

I have been collecting artistic renditions of several of my characters, encouraging people to work off of a written description. My faovourite to request at present is Hemlock the goblin.

Here is the description I have been giving people:
"Standing no more than ten inches tall, he rather resembled an upright, naked rat with a pot-belly. His back was hunched, his legs bowed. Dull grey-green scales covered his body. A red tongue flicked across gleaming white teeth." He has spines running down his back and a three-pronged fork at the end of his tail.

And here are the ones I have collected so far:

-

Cards are by:
Kreationkween, Captnklaus, HmmNBird , Ncalkins ("adult" form)
Icekat, Silverhermit, Meow2000, Miss
Moonfairy, Al Fresco Girl, Merlinprincess, Bubblecup

And I have a couple of cards to share:

The final of my "Reading Group" cards for this round - "The Ship that Flew".

And Menanna, a Native American mermaid inspired by this tale here

Only one piece today - another bibliofiles one. This is for my Reading Group and features howl, Calcifer and the castle.

What's it from? Howl's Moving Castle, of course! The book NOT the movie.

Howl's moving castle by Diana Wynne Jones
I adore Wynne Jones for her quirky characters, curious plots and crazy twists. Some of it doesn't make a lot of sense, but that's half the charm! "Howl's..." is no exception. It's delightful, intriguing and great fun to read.

In the compiling of my Portfolio book I have an entire page entitled "the Book Group" and it was a little lean on pieces. Thus I decided to illustrate some more literary fictions that I have thoroughly enjoyed. The first is "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel:

This is a strange and interesting book and I found the Meerkat island particularly intriguing. If the story is a metaphoric one, then this could be perceived in many ways. I chose to take it at a literal sense.

This piece is available for trade.

Next Literary fiction to receive this treatment is "Oryx and Crake" by Margaret Atwood. Just have to re-obtain a copy first.

Reading Groups and Bizarre Creatures

There is a science known as Cryptozoology - the study of creatures that do not - or perhaps SHOULD not exist. It is a branch of science that I am most sceptical about but one cannot argue that there are still large tracts of the world where things have never been discovered and that maybe somewhere out there are creatures unknown to science or believed to be extinct. That is not what these pictures depict. I have sought out the more outlandish, the more bizarre of the Cryptids for the "Unknown Creatures" swap. Then I drew them based on written descriptions.

We have here:

The Dingonek of Africa, but for no real reason, I've made him blue -
"... he was a sight—fourteen or fifteen feet long, head big as that of a lioness but shaped and marked like a leopard, two long white fangs sticking down straight out of his upper jaw, back broad as a hippo, scaled like an armadillo, but colored and marked like a leopard, and a broad fin tail..."

The Sigbin of the Philippines (cousin to the chucapbra, perhaps?)
"...It resembles a hornless goat, emits a very nauseating smell and possess a pair of very large ears which are capable of clapping like a pair of hands and a very long flexible tail that can be used as a whio..."

Also the good ol' Bunyip of Australia -
"...Common features in Aboriginal descriptions include a dog-like face, dark fur, a horse-like tail, flippers and walrus-like tusks or horns or a duck like bill..."

And Caddy (Cadborosaurus Willsi) of British Columbia -
"...as some sort of a mammal, long, slender, and with a bifurcated tail. ... the head of the creature is described as a camels or a horses..."

Also, a couple of pieces for my Reading Group (complete with my reviews)

Tanglewreck by Jeanette Winterson
"Tanglewreck" is a bit of a trainwreck of a book. The plot tries very hard to be clever, with name dropping and insertation of scientific theories. This makes the plot rather confuluted and the science highly flawed. It tries to be sensible and scientific, throwing in a bit of magic and then having the "speed of love" rescue someone from a black hole. Some moments are downright creepy, others merely random and weird. It feels to me like the author has just shoved a random bunch of ideas together and tried to come up with a fairly lame plot to connect them. Not particularly recommended.

Picture depicts Elvis the Robo-dog not quite sure what to make of Bigamist, the psycho bunny spy:

Linnets and Valerians by Elizabeth Goudge (also known as The Runaways)

Enchanting, delightful, charming and quaint are all words to accurately describe this beautifully written, engrossing classic. The characters are delightfully eccentric, the children charmingly naughty and Uncle Ambrose gruff but loveable. From his one-legged manservant to the reclusive old lady next door, the mysterious artistic hermit and the wicked woman with her equally wicked cat, all of the characters are beautifully described and affectionately developed. The language is lyrical and evocative - you can smell the english country air and the delicious home baking will have you drooling into your book. Overall, exquisite and magical.

Picture depicts Abednego the monkey "manservant" with Gertrude, the lovely doll he is given by the youngest girl. Behind, a trio of bees cluster on the window. Bees played a relatively important role in the tale.