Christmas Ornament - Goblins

This is the goblin snowman ornament.  It's not quite done.  I think it might need a touch-up and some varnish.  I didn't get around to painting the singing ratsies this year, they'll have to wait until next year.

Christmas Ornament - Elf Lady

The elven lady ornament, all painted up.  It was designed by me and cut out by Jean, my friend's mom, who is a wonderful woodworker.  She has several lovely intarsia pieces in her home that I would love to steal away, made with her own hands. 

I ended up choosing green because I pulled out a lovely forest green out of the Bin o' Paints.  I was very proud of how this ornament turned out, but as Jean pointed out the green is the same colour as the Christmas tree and the lady is completely camouflaged among the branches.  In future years I think she will have to hang in my bathroom.

Journal - Whyte Building

A building on Whyte, drawn from the upper floor of the Wee Book Inn.

Journal - Bus Stop Girl

Just a quick sketch of a girl at the University bus stop, drawn from the bus window.

Journal - Bus Stop Barrier

I went on a little sketchcrawl by myself since I missed the last group Sketchcrawl due to illness. This was a rather battered road barrier set up near my bus stop.

Colour Study

From a random photo on Flickr.

Sketches

A Christmas golem and an odd unicorn ray.

Christmas Card

The second Christmas card I did.  Haven't sent this off to anyone, it may end up part of next year's card stash.

Colour Study

More colour studies this week.

Journal - Passenger

I went out for coffee with a friend and on the way back I sketched a passenger on the train.

Colour Study

As usual, a colour study from a random Flickr photo.

Colour Study

Colour study from random photo on Flickr.

Colour Study

Colour study from random photo on Flickr.

Colour Study

From a random photo on Flickr.

Candycanesaurus

The candycanesaurus lives on the doughnut islands of Great Lake Cacao.

Journal - Pub Sketch

Sketched a fellow guest at a going-away party at the pub:

Forest Altar

Dug out my old Col-erase pencils.  I don't normally like working with them, but I had a hankering to do some sketching with something other than graphite.

Christmas Card 1

A little Christmas card I made for my friend.  I'm making several of them this year and this was the first one that I finished, except for the experimental one that looked just awful.

Werewolf of London - Rough

Just a rough sketch based on the Warren Zevon song.  Turns out I really like Warren Zevon.

Pumpkin Blimp

So the Fairy Godmother saw Cinders off in the Pumpkin Blimp, headed for Adventure with a capital A.

Maybe sometime I'll write the rest of the story.

Steampunk Cinderella

The last Haturday gave me an idea for a Steampunkish retelling of Cinderella.

A Magic Teapot

This was an illustration done for Spellbound Magazine, a fantasy magazine for children.

It is in the Winter 2012 issue "Rings and Magical Things" which is available for sale at this link. If you have or know children 8-12 years old who like fantasy art and stories and read e-magazines, you might want to get a copy or even buy a subscription. I was very impressed with the quality of work inside, and I'm not easy to impress!

Haturday 2

Cat Chef

Finished the cat chef sketch!

Journal - LRT Sketches

Journal - Zenaris

I had to go downtown for a dental appointment and stopped for lunch at Zenari's for the first time.  I'm not usually one for panini, since there's always one ingredient or another that I object to, but Zenari's does make a good grilled vegetable panino.

A Dream - Rough

A quick rough sketch based on a dream I had.

Haturday

Something I thought of while writing my morning pages. A ricockulous hat design a week!

I love hats. (Probably won't do this every week, some Saturdays are pretty busy.)

Meowthfield

For a friend who suddenly got into Pokemon and dragged me along for the ride.  I had to do this. :)

Christmas Ornament Designs

Every year my friend and her mother, who does woodworking, has some people over to paint Christmas ornaments. A couple years ago they suggested that I design some fantasy-based ornaments, but I didn't manage to get to it until this year.

These will be cut out of wood and painted, hopefully approximating what I've done digitally. We'll see. I'll be posting the results, if there are any, in late December.

Flower Owl Girl

Worm Attack

Sketchcrawl - City Market

After coffee and lunch I wandered over to the north side of Churchill Square. I had been planning to sketch some sheep that were in a paddock in the ice rink/wading pool area, but I had forgotten to bring a hat and gloves. It was much to chilly to hang around outside. Instead I went into City Hall to check out the City Farmer's Market.

I sketched a vegetable booth and had a very short chat with a face painter who had a little table below me. She got some customers while I was there, which was nice to see. I bought a bag of Spartan apples, dark red and covered in powdery yeast and went home to roast some pork for a party we were hosting later in the evening.

Sketchcrawl - Coffee Shop Guy

The group met partway through at a cafe to show off sketches and have lunch.  This guy was sitting behind us.

Sketchcrawl - Downtown Library

Went out with the local Urban Sketchers again. This time we met at the Stanley A. Milner Library downtown and scattered to sketch around Churchill Square.

Here are some snow-covered basketball nets on the south side of the library:

I liked how lonely they looked.

Character Sketches

International Self-Portrait Day

 

Actually managed to paint an acrylic self-portrait this year. One that looked sort of not unlike me. Last year the painting was so bad that I had to scrap it and do a speedpainting in the evening when the light had completely gone.

This is the fourth year that I've done this.  You can see other people's portraits in this thread on ConceptArt.org. This is the second year that I've done a self-portrait from life and not photos. I would like to do an ink or pencil crayon portrait sometime but it has to be done in its entirety on November 1st and I think those media are way too slow to do something with.

This year I tried to do a very stylized, flattened portrait and although I'm not sure it entirely worked out, it was something new and I actually quite like the original.  I had to assemble the scan from five different pieces, since it was too dark outside to photograph it properly.  I might play around with this style of portrait some more.

It'll be interesting to do this for six more years and see the changes both in myself and my artwork.

For reference: 2009 2010 2011

...Man I need a haircut. 

Hallowe'en Ghost WIP

Not quite done with this Hallowe'en pic, but I'll post the WIP anyway since it's blocking up later blog posts.

Flower Girl

Glib Ghost

Humanoid Warrior

Journal - Pub Night 2

Another random patron from pub night.

Journal - Pub Night

Pub night at the Sugarbowl. Drew some random people sitting behind our table.

Life Drawing

Life Drawing

Life Drawing

Brought some of my chalk pencils in to try them out.  I think I'd prefer them a bit softer, but this isn't bad considering that I never use them.

Life Drawing

Life Drawing

Another one of my less-than-awesome sessions. 

Life Drawing

The latest life-drawing session.  The model never showed up and one of the regulars kindly stepped in.

Unicorn