Some WIP's

A couple, actually.

First one is a watercolour that I had started for Illustration Friday, the topic being "shiny", but I didn't finish it in time. It's in a bit of a state of limbo at the moment, but it will get finished. I have the reference picture on my computer (I snapped it myself :D ). I just hope I don't get too carried away and overpaint it (I do that sometimes).

If you can't tell what it is - and I wouldn't blame you, that photo is atrocious! - it is supposed to be a door knocker shaped like a lion's head. The original has a mixture of dull and shiny metal parts, hence my idea to submit it for "shiny", but now that's over I don't really have to force myself to follow that topic.

The next WIP is a lot more hands-on, but super time-consuming.

If you've ever researched the Black Death then you may have heard about the plague doctors who, in an attempt to protect themselves from the plague wore (among other things) masks with beak-like protrusions on them. This beak would be filled with aromatic substances like flowers, herbs, spices to protect the doctor from bad smells which, in those days was thought to be the main cause of infection. Think of it like an early respirator or gas mask.

[source]

It didn't work.

I, on the other hand have never really researched the plague, except one time for a project in high school, and that was focused mainly on the effect it had in England rather than Europe as a whole. As far as I know they never had plague doctors like this in England. This costume was prominent on the mainland, particularly in Italy (where the plague doctor/beak doctor mask is now a common sight in Venetian carnivals).

[source]

No, I was first introduced to this character by way of the Assassin's Creed series of video games :)

The ones set in Renaissance Italy feature plague doctors who are used to heal dwindling health, as well as to purchase medicine and poison. They don't actually help cure any kind of plague in the game.

Hah, game physics.

Anyway, enough of the history lesson. I decided to start the mask in papier mache. I was going to use a balloon to create the basic face, but that would have required me buying one balloon and they come in packs of 10 or more and I don't need that many for this project, blahblahblah. So I ended up grabbing my "V" mask off the wall and using that as a base template for the main face.

I covered the mask in cling film, glued on a whole bunch of newspaper strips, old leaflets, tissue paper etc...

I've ended up with this. I've intentionally built up and (tried to) smooth the areas of the mask which have prominent lines, particularly the cheekbones and brow. Not so much the mouth as the beak will cover that.

And because I have to wait a day or so for each new layer of paper to dry, the process take AGES.

It looks a little like the Greendale Human Being mascot from Community, without the generic facial features.

I didn't plan out how I was going to make the mask, I'm really just doing it on the fly. Next I'll probably look for a big piece of cardboard, cut out a rudimentary beak shape and fit it around the mask. I'm pretty sure there will be some trimming of the mask involved, as well as yet more papier mache goodness.


I'm also thinking about making another blog, this time for photography, or at least posting photos on this blog. I mentioned in my last post that it's something that I'm sort of interested in, despite being a complete noob at it. I'm the kind of person who takes a whole bunch of photos then bins most of them. I pixel peep (bad habit, trying to break that), I don't know all the technical jargon, I probably know about a tenth of what my camera can really do, I'm not the greatest at composition (I get lucky most times). Having said that, it's fun. I like having a camera with me, even if I don't take a picture. And like I said, it appeals to my desire to create true-to-life images (something I don't always want to do in a drawing/painting, but often end up doing anyway).

Now where should that go?...


=====
update: WIP part 2 here!
update update: WIP part 3 here!
update update update: Final(?) part 4 here! (a.k.a. whoops, I totally forgot about that watercolour in part 1!)

Flyin' rats

A couple of pigeons. The first was done in watercolour:

 I spent an hour, maybe 2 (on and off) total on this one.

The second pigeon was a really quick pen sketch and coloured with grey pencil as I don't seem to have a grey pen handy... Oh wait, just as I finished typing that I realised I have a grey Alpha marker but that's alcohol-based and I used water-based ink and hey look, I'm going off on a tangent:

I spent maybe 5 minutes on this one. I didn't outline in pencil beforehand and I'm pointing this out because it's something I rarely do. It's scruffy as hell and I didn't finish colouring in the green-purple feathers because I didn't want to over colour it, even if I undercoloured it. But for some reason I prefer this scruffy, unfinished pidge over the planned out and full colour pidge.

Funny how that happens...

Duck and cover

(watercolour, gouache and pen, A4)

Here's a Mandarin Duck. I was going to draw a Mallard but the vibrant colours of this duck are too good to pass up.

I haven't done a pencil drawing in a long time so this was going to be a pencil drawing. I started off with Inktense watercolour pencils, but because I only have 12 different pencils my colour pallette is really limited. I changed my mind part-way through so now it's mostly watercolour paint and a little gouache.

Watercolour is quick, which is probably why it's my go-to medium (I do get impatient sometimes). I will do a drawing soon. It's been a while, I might have forgotten how to use pencils.

Mariposa

(watercolour, gouache and pen, A4)

More gouache, although you can't really tell.

Fishfish

(gouache, watercolour and pen, A4)

My first try at using gouache, a totally alien medium to me up until yesterday. It was actually really fun to use, it certainly made my fish look good. I can see why illustrators like it so much.

Illustration Friday: ferocious

RAWR!:

 (watercolour, A5)

I really wanted to follow the topic and draw something mean, dark, ferocious even, but for some reason I just couldn't think of anything. I must be having a creative block in terms of dark subject matter. Hmm, worrying...

At least her hair looks fierce.

It felt good to do another watercolour, I've been trying my hand at oil paints and it's been hit and miss (mostly miss). I think I miss the speed at which I need to paint with water-based media. Oil paint is great for blending and reworking but you need patience. Oh, and cleaning up afterwards is tedious.

(BTW I suck at creating characters)

As you can see I was going to try and draw a cartoony cat. That didn't pan out, but cute kid in a cat costume did. The ball of yarn was an afterthought, as the kid looked odd bearing her claws at nothing.

As usual my initial sketches are weird-looking. While others go into great detail and produce reams and reams of ideas, revisions, revisions of ideas, I usually doodle a few things in pen on a tiny scrap of paper (those are A6 sheets up there!) then transfer it onto the final paper. Thankfully my paper is very forgiving as this is when I end up working and reworking the pencil lines. I know I should do proper sketches beforehand but hey, it's not easy to change, especially when it works for me.

Illustration Friday: remedy

I got the poison, I got the remedy:

(watercolour, watercolour pens, ink, A4)

Take 2 happy pills and call me in the morning.


I just realised this is the second watercolour I've done in this kind of style, the first one was for a previous Illustration Friday topic. It's definitely not the first time I've used broken white lines. I like it. I think I might adopt it as my go-to style. Wait, have I finally found my style?

I doubt it...

Illustration Friday: asleep

Sleepy cat, sleepy cat, why won't you go to sleep?

(watercolour, 23x31cm)

The sleeping kitten is Kara. I named them Kara and Mel, like caramel, because they're both orangey-brown coloured and siblings. In the original photo they are about 3 months old. They both lived in my family home in the Philippines. When they were older we gave Mel, who ended up being called Kulit (annoying) to my aunt. She did indeed live up to her new name.


Only later on did I realise that Kara was actually a tom, but the name stuck. He's still known as Kara but I call him Karabao, like carabao. I think it's better for him to be named after a docile beast rather than a cutesy sweet treat.

This is Kara in December last year. He's about 1 year and 4 months here.

Still sleepy as usual. Of the 2 Kara is much friendlier. You can easily pick him up and he doesn't mind. He often climbs up onto my lap to take a quick nap. Kulit on the other hand was always wary of being handled, even approached. Good thing we gave her away.

When he's awake and fully alert he is a beast:

We used to have mice living in a pile of wood in the garden. I think he caught them all.

Illustration Friday: soaked, part 2

Another one, this time with colour. What a day to forget your umbrella:

(watercolour, 23 x 31cm)

At least her feet are dry...

Illustration Friday: duet

Two to tango:

(watercolour, A4)

:)

Obligatory WIP's...

NOW!

Yup, I got extra with the stretching and used masking tape on top of butcher's tape. The paper still buckled, though not as much as with previous stretching attempts. Something must have went right this time.

Illustration Friday: prehistoric

Probably my last post for this year, just a quick painting for IF:

(watercolour, A4)

I haven't used watercolour in a while, nor have I made anything non-cartoony/"realistic" in some time either. So here's my attempt at merging those two things. It's a bit odd though because my first thought was to draw this cartoony, hence the mammoth's generally clean shape as opposed to the scratchy sketches of the foreground and background scenery.

I dunno how realistic it is, none of the photos taken during the ice age survived the freezing temperatures...

o.O wat!?