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!)

Birdladybird

I didn't forget that this blog exists :)

(gouache/watercolour)

I've been a little engrossed in "taking photographs" (or photography, if you will), and trying to get out of the whole "point and click" mindset. That's not to say that I've stopped drawing and painting entirely, but photography definitely appeals to my desire to create true-to-life images.

On the flip-side of that coin I'd nearly forgotten how much fun it is to paint with watercolour and gouache.

Next I'll be applying paint onto my camera*. "Best of both worlds" and all that...


*of course not, don't be silly.

Earth Hour

I didn't even know it was Earth Hour tomorrow (or in about 30 minutes from now), I only found out because there was a light switch widget on YouTube.

(soft pastel on black paper, A4)

I've now learnt that Earth Hour is held on the last Saturday of March, and what better way to celebrate the event than to draw a lightbulb?* It's not the first time a light bulb has featured in my drawings. I drew an old-school round filament bulb for an old IF topic. This time I went the other way and drew one of those "controversial" energy-saving twisty bulbs. Quite fitting for the theme, methinks. It kind of looks airbrushed/spraypainted too, which is a nice effect.


*Well, I guess also turning off lights and other electrical appliances that you're not using.

Which way?

Just a quick doodle, inspired by a thought/dream I had the previous night.

I haven't drawn much, I've been a bit more experimental with photography recently. That doesn't mean I'm snapping pics with my phone and then passing them through a crummy filter (because you know, apparently everyone's a "photographer" when they have a camera and an out-of-focus subject). But I'm not a photographer either, I just like pictures.

Also, having a bunch of photos means (or should mean) more source material to draw inspiration from.

I think I've said that before.

Squawk Squawk

Here's a macaw.

(felt pen on paper, A4)

I had a macaw as my desktop wallpaper and it was really colourful, hence my reason for drawing it. It's 100% pen, no pencil sketches or outlines, which in a way accounts for the rather rough nature of the drawing (which I like). Once I was done, the bird and its bright colours reminded me of a tattoo... a tattoo that I would advise nobody to get, but a tattoo nonetheless*.

My scanner was also set at 600dpi and the initial full-sized scan was over 7000 pixels wide (!) so when I zoomed in to the wing the preview had this really abstract look:

Sometimes, drawing and looking at things the way they aren't is fun too.

My desktop isn't a macaw anymore. Today its a blurry leaf macro photo. In a few days it'll be something else. Ahhh, the customisation never ends...

*Apologies to all the people looking for a macaw tat and stumbling on this page instead. Google's keywords makes the rules, not me :)

Illustrated envelope fun time

So, when the theme is a glamorous Pre-Oscars party, and you have a birthday card with an unbelieveably boring envelope and a box of felt tip pens, you obviously customise the envelope. Obviously!

(felt pen on... an envelope!)

From cruddy ball-point sketch, to pencil outline, to fill in.

I should have stopped there, but the back was as dull as the front was before I got my grubby mitts on it, so I did a little Googlin' and found some images of the official Oscar envelope design, for a little inspiration.

The back of the official envelope...

...and my humble little homage/rip :D

Any excuse to customise something :)

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...