Challenge: 29 faces (Day 8, #24)

#24 Just above the surface

Since I finally caught up with the challenge, I felt that today I could just take it easy and spend a bit more time on one piece, coloring it properly. Again, this is a post-it sized drawing of...a mermaid. Notice that I have already two of them in this series....although I cannot say that mermaids are my superfavorite mythological creatures or that I particularly like the sea, they pop up in my works over and over again, at the point that I have a mermaid in the name of my only blog. I really can't tell you why. Maybe it's that I am a terrible swimmer and I wish I could zoom happily in the ocean unafraid and free to roam?

29 Faces

Challenge: 29 Faces (Day 1 = Setember 16!)

I have never participated to art challenges, but, perusing my friend's Tammie Lee's blog, I found this one that appeals to me and seemed fun. It's called 29 faces and it's been launched by Alaya Art.

I should have started at the beginning of the month, so I am entering the game late. I wonder if I'll be able to complete the challenge by the end of the month. I'll have to do a couple of faces per day to catch up...but that's fun and good practice, too.

Here my 3 mini faces for the day:

#1 Baby's got her wish.

#2 Student learning a new lab procedure

#3 Mermaid waiting for a pray

 29 faces

The originals are about 2-3 inches...the only way I have to make something quick!
Copics and random paper.

Many thanks to Ayala for this intriguing opportunity!

Pirates! Finished!

Here is "Pirates!" finished. I hope you, as well as my dear Pit, will enjoy looking at it.

Talk to you soon!

PS: When the picture was finally almost done, I left the drawing pad on the coffee table together with a couple of pencils, as I planned to pick it up again the following evening. That was a bit of a mistake. In the morning, while I was making breakfast, little Bella got her hands on it...I always try to give her pens and pencils to see if she likes to draw something, but usually she just sticks them in her mouth and chews on them. This time, though, she must have felt inspired, because she grabbed a nicely sharpened black pencil and she "improved" the look of the beach. I didn't even realize it until I set back down to continue my work. Too bad I was in a panic, otherwise I could have taken a photo of the nice bold stripes she had made between the crocodile and the parrot...;)

Pirates! (WIP)

My nephew Pit, has developed, like many children his age, a passion for "Jack and the Neverland Pirates" cartoon, so I thought I would make him a picture with my take on the theme.
Here you can see the (slow) evolution of the piece starting from the minimalistic sketch I posted weeks ago (yes, that's how slow I am!).

I imagined the "pirates" on a beach near the seaside town of Albisola (near Savona, Italy). The landscape is not very accurate. I actually think the beach is more stony than sandy, but I took a poetic license for the occasion.

I am not so passionate about going to the beach, as I am a pretty bad swimmer and I don't like sunbathing. My family has a country house and we always went there for the summer, so I grew to enjoy hiking and running in the grass more than building sand castles. Hence my poor knowledge of the beaches near home! ;)

For sure Bella and Pit will have a blast in June, when we go to visit Italy, though. Of course they are the two pirate-wanna-bes in the picture, although I realized I made them to look a bit older than they actually are.

Can you spot the mistakes I made?

My friends caught immediately the weirdness in Bella's left leg...I was hoping it would go unnoticed, but clearly it was not so inconspicuous. I managed to fix that while coloring, luckily.

The sky had me concerned for a while. I built up layer after layer of light greyish blues because I did not want a color that was too intense, but at some point I picked by mistake a marker, I don't remember which exactly, that turned out to produce the most in-your-face aqua effect ever. I spent the rest of my time that evening just trying to tone it down. I think I saved it in the end, but just barely.

There are also issues with the prospective, which I did not pay too much attention to, since there were no buildings in sight (how smart am I?). The perspective blunder became evident to me only half way through the coloring phase, so it was too late to do something about it. We will have to live with it! :D

Not having watched cartoon, I have only a vague idea of the content, which I assume must be tame and rather sweet, given it's targeted to small children. Anyways, since I am a pacifist, abhor the use of weapons, and dislike to see children handling toy-guns or toy-swords, I omitted them from the picture. Maybe this position is too strict (actually, as a kid, I would have loved to have a toy-sword) , but what can I say...it does not feel right to see little ones pretending to shoot or spear each other. Bottom line, my pirates are more bohemians of the sea, treasure hunters, than cannon shooting ocean outlaws.^^

The crocodile was suggested by my husband, to pay homage to the Disney's Peter Pan movie. Of course it's just an inflatable to help the kids swim and I really did not want to make it too realistic, because it's not supposed to be threatening. However, the more I colored it (bright yellow and green), the more my husband complained that it looked like it was going to attack the children. Hence, the bright pink scales...the definitive deviation from natural colors appeased my husband and, hopefully, will make sure Pit will find it funny, not scary. ;)

That's all for the moment. I have been adding a few more details and I'll show them to you, as soon as the sun is out and I get to take a decent picture of the final piece.

Message in a bottle

And this is my latest mermaid...in a big trouble. Was it chance or the will of a cruel entity that put her in such a desperate situation? Who will help her? Will she grant three wishes to her savior?

Poor thing...it might take a while for somebody to find her tiny island. They might not even notice her bottle, as the treasure chest might prove a more obvious point of interest.

Mini projects WIP

These days, I am often tired when I come back from work. My only desire is to eat and go to sleep or watch a movie or read a book. I still want to draw, but I seem to lack time and energy to start a big project. So I decided to start a few smaller works.

I am preparing a new doll, which should have slightly bigger limbs than my previous ones (I always have the impression their head is a bit too big compare to the rest of their bodies). I am not showing her here because she is in very preliminary stages and I still have to make a few decisions on her....

Another mini-project is "Little Lady with dog". The idea for this came from watching the miniseries "Aristocrats", a BBC drama bout the lives of five sister great-granddaughters of Charles II in 18th century Britain.It's a very nice production with great costumes. The one for the characters as children were particularly cute...

It was also time for another mermaid....this one is in a bit of trouble...will anybody help her?

Finally, I have the floating heads project. Some time ago a bought Prismacolor markers, but I have not had a lot of practice with them. I mostly use the neutral tones and greys for large surfaces to spare my precious Copics. These days a practically ran out of the colors I rely most upon for skin tones and shading . I ordered them online, but while waiting I got bored and thought I should study which Prismacolors would work best as substitutes. This is why I drew these 3 "uncompleted" girls, The Diva, The Martyr, and the Gypsy.

Next post I'll show you my Prismacolor choices. Meanwhile, I hope the inks for my exhausted Copics will arrive soon. ;)

The new banner is up!

Hello again! So, "At the stroke of 5" is finally ready and, with my husband's kind contribution,  it now welcomes visitors at the top of the blog page. So glad this time things worked out properly. ;)

Here is the drawing without the writings on it. As always, I used Copic markers with some Prismacolor markers for the background and I worked on precious Fabriano Artistico watercolor paper, which has a lovely texture and helps a lot with color blending.

At the stroke of 5, the young Duke invited his fiance to have tea at his family's residence.  Needless to say, his parents were surprised.                          

 What do you think?
            

Still alive

Many things went on the past month: catching up with work after my vacation, visits from old friends, lots of fun, taking classes...but I am still drawing, albeit rarely. Here is a newer image of the "At the stroke of 5" mermaid.

I actually finished her yesterday, but I don't have my camera available (my husband who is traveling in Asia took it with him...so wish I could follow them!), so at the moment this is the best I can do. ;)
Tonight I will pick up a project I started in Italy and promptly abandoned when I came back. Hope to be able to show you something soon (no mermaids in this one, promise!).

Another mermaid...and Arrivederci!

Mermaid in the leaving room Banner: second take...this time I think I am closer to the right dimensions...So, while in "Tea with the Mermaid" the living room went to the sea, this time the mermaid actually did go to an actual living room in the home of a well-to-do family "At the stroke of five"...quite a surprise for the guests! I still have quite a lot of work to do on her, but i am leaving for Italy tomorrow and I am pretty sure I will not progress much (so many places to see, so many people to visit). Here is the very preliminary sketch. To be continued...
Talk to you all in October!

Tea with the mermaid-finished

It's done. Sorry, I was too lazy to make a WIP progression on this one...
Ok, I don't think this will fit, unless somehow I change the size of my banner here (or, to be precise, I ask my husband to try and do it for me) or I cut mercilessly the picture. Oh well, I think I'll have to make another attempt, paying more attention to the spatial contrains...

Meanwhile enjoy the freshness of tea under the sea with this kind and hospitable lady.

New Project: Tea with the mermaid

Somebody rightly pointed out that my blog still misses a personalized banner...so I thought to start working on it before I leave for my italian vacation. Of course I need to have a mermaid in it...this is the first design I came up with. It seems to me that it's growing too big and detailed (there are also parts that are difficult to see yet because I haven't inked them yet) for allowing the blog's title to show. I might have to make another attempt and use this for something else. ;) What do you think?

Starting up...

Dear friends and fellow explorers welcome to my blog!

As you can tell, this is still a very dusty work in progress. However I hope that in the next few days (…weeks?!?) I will be able to build a nice and cozy space for you to visit and for me to show you my drawings and little projects.

Now, let me run back to my living room for a moment. There is a mermaid sitting on my sofa and waiting for her tea and seaweed cakes…I can’t let leave her alone too long or she’ll disappear in a whirl of sea foam!