fox

Art lately has had it’s ups and down. I’ve started some portraits that I love, and had some other projects not go so well. Also, I felt way less productive than normal art-wise lately. I’ll have to kick it up a notch for October!

I started a watercolor piece of my party in Bravely Default (which has since changed but that’s besides the point). It was all going swimmingly until my three year old ran in to my room after a nap and grabbed my arm causing my to drop my paintbrush full of BLACK PAINT on top of Agnes’ face (far right – that awkward looking area). After some deep breaths and a saying through gritted teeth, “PLEASE DON’T GRAB MUMMY’S ARM IF SHE’S PAINTING….” I started damage control. Luckily these are watercolors, so I dabbed as much off as I could and waited for it to dry. I’ve been lightly layering up white gesso on top and now it’s at a usable point. This is Mixed Media paper, but if you overwork the area, it really starts to disintegrate which makes blending watercolors pretty much impossible. Hopefully I can finish it up in the next two days or so.

I finished my hedgehog!!! And I think he’s just the cutest thing. I’m really excited about him, as he is my own pattern with no reference for it other than an actual hedgehog. He isn’t that dynamic of a stuffie, but he sure is adorable. Plus, I love the subtle geek tribute of Sonic and Tails when he’s with my little fox!

Unfortunately I’m not too happy with my second plush pattern. Sigh. I really want to like this guy, but his face drives me nuts. When I designed the pattern I forgot to allow for a ‘neck’ area when I stitched it together, so now the nose looks way too far down on the face and it’s all I can focus on. I may just rip the stitching on the nose out, cut a new one, and hot glue it on farther up. He is supposed to be part of the other woodland plushies above for a friends baby shower, but I may just give him to my little depending on how the fix goes.

I started this portrait of the excellent Benedict Cumberbatch. I love how it’s turning out! This piece has more to it now, but being honest I was totally too lazy to take another picture. Photographing graphite portraits drives me bonkers since I have A: No lighting equipment and B: no tripod but I do what I can! A lot of the subtler midtone shading can get lost, but it’s usually fixable with editing.

And then last night I started a portrait of Neil Gaiman just because I felt like it! I’m reading one of his books, and was flipping through Sandman again looking at the art so I guess he was just on my brain. I felt like starting a new portrait, and that’s who I picked!

Made anything lately? Let me know below!

Although I love sharing for WIP Wednesday I am heading into the season where a lot of my art is being made for Christmas presents, which means a lot of it has to be kept under wraps (WOO bad puns!). But, I’ll of course share what I can!

I finished my fox plush! I made him from my own pattern, using both a ready-made plush on Etsy and Tails from Sonic the Hedgehog for a reference. I definitely learned a lot (via trial and error) about pattern making, and for my next couple designs I’m going a bit bigger. This guy was a tad small, and some of the pieces were hard to cut. My stitching also ran into a couple problems, but I still like him! Eventually I’ll do a post dedicated just to pattern making, and probably share my patterns if they come out nicely!

This is the next pattern I’ve made – a raccoon! He actually had a lot more pieces than I was originally thinking, but he should be so cute once he’s all done!

This little guy is the one I’m most excited about – a hedgehog!! Who will of course be blue to accompany the fox (Sonic and Tails!!), and then I’ll have added in some subtle geek to this particular batch of presents.

This was a speedpaint I did last week to celebrate Winter Solider coming out on Blu-Ray. (YEEHOO!! I love this movie). Anywho, start to finish was about 25 minutes I think? I posted it on my Instagram but wanted to share here too. I’m trying to work on speedpaints to help me improve my watercolor blending skills without taking a ridiculous amount of hours to get a painting done! As you can see, it’s pretty rough, but that’s why we practice, right?!

I threw some rough color into this sketch, and now I definitely have an idea where I want to go with it. It is definitely going to get fully inked, and (hopefully) have a comic panel type to it.

And lastly, from my sketchbook, I’ve been working on some pose stuff for two reasons. 1. It’s good practice, especially when I rarely do full body stuff. 2. I have some fun illustrations planned that will need a full body pose and I’m trying to find ones I like!

I do have a couple portraits finished and started, but can’t share them. . .I’m not sure if the people they are for read my blog but I’m not risking it! Hope you enjoyed this week’s WIPs!