sigune: (Default)


In this house, we try not to let Professor’s Snape’s birthday pass without some new artwork, even if the artwork is often quicker and less accomplished than we would like.

Happy 61st birthday, Severus Snape!

(”Are you a bit obsessed with Snape’s flying skills, Sigune?” “What, why? Whatever gave you that idea?” *blushes*)

Oh! Important news: [livejournal.com profile] snapecase has just started!

I also need to post my Hoggywarty recs but nothing goes according to plan at the moment and I am behind on Practically Everything :/.

Catching-up post

Sunday, 20 November 2016 11:09 am
sigune: (Dungeon King)
Gosh. I completely forgot to share my last Inktobers... There was a reason - like, I have been working rather hard on my Christmas card :p. Which is done now. I'll make a separate post for it and, you know, ask who wants one. But here are my very Potter Inktobers. Harry and Dumbledore were Tumblr requests.

 photo 2016_day31_web_zpsshwzyvfg.jpg
(This is so me - I started drawing rather randomly on the page and so the broomstick didn't fit on anymore. *sigh* Some friends have been urging me to become a semi-professional artist, but I think you can see why I am not really convinced myself :p.)

 photo 2016_day22_web_zpsttrevyqr.jpg
(Dumbles deserves a better picture. But at least I gave him nice hair.)

 photo 2016_day23_web_zpszmgwsnsv.jpg
(This is actually A4 size, so it took me more time to finish than is practical for an Inktober. But I had such fun with it. Bearded Snape has become quite dear to me. You can tell how relaxed he is by the fact that you can see BITS OF SKIN. Originally there wasn't an undershirt, but I was shocked at quite how exposed he looked, so I drew it on. I mean, there are points of relaxation that he just won't cross :p...


My two fest entries aren't done yet. Because I want too much. I'm working on them.
sigune: (Default)
If you follow me on Facebook or Tumblr, you have already seen this, but if not: Gawain and Ragnell watercolour! With which I am actually happy! I hope there is more where that came from. I'm brooding on a cover for The Darkest Hour, incidentally, but I don't seem to be getting anywhere.

 photo gawain_ragnell_spring_2016_web_zpsqrh31mqk.jpg
sigune: (Default)
Christmas card 2013 photo christmas_2013_web_zpsc3260681.jpg

Nollaig chridheil agus bliadhna mhath ùr!

Gawain with Níassa

Sunday, 23 June 2013 06:23 pm
sigune: (Ygraine)
 photo gawain_niassa_1_201306_web_zpsb789846c.jpg


...Drawing this made me feel like getting an enormous, new box of colour pencils (this was drawn with various odds and ends - some of these pencils I have had since nursery school!). AND it reminded me just what a control freak I am. I suppose that may not go down well at art school ;-).

I enrolled, by the way. Classes will start in September. I'm already excited!

The Forbidden (G)

Monday, 15 April 2013 10:30 pm
sigune: (Default)
 photo forbidden_s_zps109c3238.jpg



Dare I admit it? One of my favourite couples in my comic (-yes, I am aware you haven't seen that particular part of the story yet! but it's not SO very far away now): Arthur and his half-sister Morgause.

I worked so hard on these inks and then botched the paint :(. Maybe I forgot to sign this picture because I was so distraught...
sigune: (Default)
I had to try out my new watercolours, of course. They are Blockx - an excellent Belgian brand of which up until last week I had never even heard. I bought 25 colours at a 50 % discount because, alas, the art shop in my street that used to carry them is going to stop selling Blockx :(. My guess is that they are just too expensive and in times of crisis they don't sell easily :/. They are really good though - certainly on equal footing with my beloved Winsor & Newton.

 photo elrond_sketch_zpsfed74075.jpg


So today you get Elves with Blockx :-). I am rereading Lord of the Rings (last time I read it I was 12 or 13) - all because of [livejournal.com profile] the_winterwitch. There is a possibility that I'll be painting some LotR art for her, so I thought I'd better reacquaint myself with the material. I am much enjoying the reading, I have to say, but from an art-y point of view I am experiencing a few ... well, maybe not problems, but LotR isn't working the same way for me that the Harry Potter series and A Song of Ice and Fire do.
Read more... )
sigune: (Default)
I had to try out my new watercolours, of course. They are Blockx - an excellent Belgian brand of which up until last week I had never even heard. I bought 25 colours at a 50 % discount because, alas, the art shop in my street that used to carry them is going to stop selling Blockx :(. My guess is that they are just too expensive and in times of crisis they don't sell easily :/. They are really good though - certainly on equal footing with my beloved Winsor & Newton.

 photo elrond_sketch_zpsfed74075.jpg


So today you get Elves with Blockx :-). I am rereading Lord of the Rings (last time I read it I was 12 or 13) - all because of [personal profile] ysilme. There is a possibility that I'll be painting some LotR art for her, so I thought I'd better reacquaint myself with the material. I am much enjoying the reading, I have to say, but from an art-y point of view I am experiencing a few ... well, maybe not problems, but LotR isn't working the same way for me that the Harry Potter series and A Song of Ice and Fire do.
Read more... )
sigune: (Default)
...I have such a back log of gift art that it's not funny :p. That's what I get for being bad at gift-giving: I offer pictures instead of purchases, but I have to get them all done! And I'm not always equally inspired, so sometimes it really takes time to create something I can offer without blushing.

In any case, here is one friend 'taken care of': [livejournal.com profile] bettyboop_comic. He introduced me to the manga Lone Wolf and Cub (well, to all manga really - and I distinctly remember him glowering at me when, being asked what sort of manga I wanted, I replied "one in which the characters have those large eyes!". He grudgingly steered me towards La Rose de Versailles and then nearly forced me to read Lone Wolf to make up for my faux-pas...). Here is my take on the Cub from the title: Daigoro. I just love Daigoro. Being a little boy, he is so much more human than his father! At the same time, he is a Baby Bushi. Poor thing.


Photobucket



Meanwhile, there is some great ficcing going on at [livejournal.com profile] hoggywartyxmas! I haven't read fic in a loooong time, but Hoggywarty is traditionally less ship-oriented than your average fest, which is always attractive for me. This year seems to be a particularly good one :). My personal faves so far:

The Incomplete Art of Cartography (G) by Anonymous - a wonderful, poetic, thoughtful story about three places that aren't on the Marauders' Map. Featuring Minerva McGonagall, Horace Slughorn and Remus Lupin - gen.

Humbug (PG-13) by Anonymous - Snape, hardly an expert gift-giver, has finally found the perfect gift for McGonagall. But somehow he has trouble getting it delivered. Includes Snape's close-reading of Dickens's Christmas Carol :D. Truly excellent, with a perfect Snape and delightful humour - gen.


My gift isn't up yet, but someone who wishes to stay Anonymous (though I'd recognise her art anywhere :D) has posted a lovely illustration to my (equally lovely) gift fic of last year, Reflections in Liquid by [livejournal.com profile] purplefluffycat. So I feel like I have been doubly 'gifted' :D.
sigune: (Default)
...I have such a back log of gift art that it's not funny :p. That's what I get for being bad at gift-giving: I offer pictures instead of purchases, but I have to get them all done! And I'm not always equally inspired, so sometimes it really takes time to create something I can offer without blushing.

In any case, here is one friend 'taken care of': [profile] bettyboop_comic. He introduced me to the manga Lone Wolf and Cub (well, to all manga really - and I distinctly remember him glowering at me when, being asked what sort of manga I wanted, I replied "one in which the characters have those large eyes!". He grudgingly steered me towards La Rose de Versailles and then nearly forced me to read Lone Wolf to make up for my faux-pas...). Here is my take on the Cub from the title: Daigoro. I just love Daigoro. Being a little boy, he is so much more human than his father! At the same time, he is a Baby Bushi. Poor thing.


Photobucket



Meanwhile, there is some great ficcing going on at [community profile] hoggywartyxmas! I haven't read fic in a loooong time, but Hoggywarty is traditionally less ship-oriented than your average fest, which is always attractive for me. This year seems to be a particularly good one :). My personal faves so far:

The Incomplete Art of Cartography (G) by Anonymous - a wonderful, poetic, thoughtful story about three places that aren't on the Marauders' Map. Featuring Minerva McGonagall, Horace Slughorn and Remus Lupin - gen.

Humbug (PG-13) by Anonymous - Snape, hardly an expert gift-giver, has finally found the perfect gift for McGonagall. But somehow he has trouble getting it delivered. Includes Snape's close-reading of Dickens's Christmas Carol :D. Truly excellent, with a perfect Snape and delightful humour - gen.


My gift isn't up yet, but someone who wishes to stay Anonymous (though I'd recognise her art anywhere :D) has posted a lovely illustration to my (equally lovely) gift fic of last year, Reflections in Liquid by [personal profile] purplefluffycat. So I feel like I have been doubly 'gifted' :D.

Art: Shaggy Cloak (G)

Saturday, 25 August 2012 06:42 pm
sigune: (fur collar)
Photobucket

On occasion, I feel the urge to do something a little more fanciful with my characters' costume. My imagination is really limited, I fear, so everyone in the comic walks around in the same cloak and tunic, the Britons in breeches and the Irish in, well, no breeches. But now and then I have an idea for something a little bit different. Here I gave Gawain one of those famous Irish shaggy cloaks - only, it's a bit unusual in its colouring. But it's technically possible, so why not? :P

Shaggy Cloak )
sigune: (fur collar)
I never really posted about my all-new membership of [community profile] westerosorting... I rather predictably ended up in House Tully, and now it is my duty honorably to win points for my family.

This picture was painted for the Modernisation contest. The challenge was to reimagine ASoIaF characters in a modern setting. For some reason, I started wondering what car the Starks would drive if they lived in a modern-day Winterfell, and I ended up with this. I don't particularly like cars and I don't think I've ever really drawn one, and while I was sketching this I repeatedly considered leaving the ugly thing out altogether, but that would rather have defeated the purpose of the whole picture, so I persevered :p.

Photobucket

Off To King's Landing... )

NB: Would you believe I mislaid my Sandor Clegane?! And he looked so promising D: ...

Art: Summer Child (G)

Sunday, 1 July 2012 01:05 pm
sigune: (Little Gawain bjd)
No, I'm not on a major art spree with my broken limb; I'm finding it difficult to ink properly, so in fact not so much is going on art-wise. BUT this picture was painted a while ago, on the same day as my portrait of Lord Eddard in fact, as a birthday present for my BMF [profile] bettyboop_comic.

Little Bran Stark is one of my favourite characters in ASoIaF. He's one of the few child characters in the book who is actually childlike, though I guess that he, too, is rather mature for an eight-year-old. I'm not sure I like Bran's plot points, but I like the kind of little boy he is.

Photobucket

I'm particularly pleased with the colours in this one. I am awfully bad at mixing greys (I'm only slightly better at greys than blacks - the latter I don't manage at all), but that day the greys went swimmingly. Yippee! The texture of the paper (Daler-Rowney) did the rest...

Summer Child )
sigune: (Ygraine)
I finished my portrait of the Starks. It was more difficult than I thought it would be with only one arm - after all, I need only one hand to hold a brush. Mixing paint was less easy, especially if paint has to be squeezed out of tubes, and just taping my paper to a board was simply hard :p. The worst was that I splattered paint over the top of my painting - not too much, fortunately, but enough to stain my original lightly :/. All in all it came out fine though :).

The complete image is large-ish, so I put it behind a cut. Have a detail first:

Photobucket

Lord and Lady Stark )

Clear line... ;)

Sunday, 3 June 2012 07:23 pm
sigune: (Default)
Photobucket

This weekend I have only line art for you. The idea is to colour it, but since I spent the best part of today doing the inks, I find I haven't the time to finish it before the end of the weekend... It's not that this drawing is particularly complex, but it *is* time-consuming. Probably just because I am really slow -_-.

I pencilled Lord Ned and his Lady Cat last Monday, on my day off, and transferred the drawing to watercolour paper. Today, while doing the inks, I made quite a few small corrections, so here's to hoping the paper hasn't suffered too much, or my painting is doomed before I start :/.

Ned and Cat )

This week: Gawain

Saturday, 19 May 2012 03:30 pm
sigune: (Gawain)
Photobucket


I haven't been drawing a lot - no, what am I saying? I have been drawing a lot while waiting for my ASoIaF books to come in, only I haven't any finished pictures to show for it. They're all sketches. But I did do one small painting of Gawain, on the last page of my A5 watercolour Moleskine. (I've bought a new one in the meantime; I'm an addict.)

I'm working on a few larger pictures at the moment, and because I'm not a particularly adept artist, they take some time. There's always something that doesn't quite work, and I don't want to do the definitive drawings until I've figured out how to correct (or, at worst, hide) the flaws. I'm pretty taken with the concepts though, so I'm trying to be patient with myself.

As far as ASoIaF is concerned, I have in the meantime reached page 403 of A Clash of Kings and find that my loyalties still lie firmly with House Stark. I miss Ned, partly because there are really so few decent people around. There's Sam Tarly and Jon Snow, and Catelyn, I guess, though I don't like her very much, a few more Starks, and there's Tyrion when he feels like it. Fortunately, the (unspeakably) bad guys don't turn me off the book, even though the decent people have a hard time of it. I love the chapters from Tyrion Lannister's perspective and really like him as a character, despite the fact that he's very much a Lannister, and I find Littlefinger and Varys a highly entertaining duo. I don't care much for Daenerys and I absolutely can't stand Theon Greyjoy - I hope his cool sister teaches him a lesson. I want to see more of Brienne, even if I wish she wouldn't be (seem?) so besotted with Renly. And I hope that Arya and Sansa will make it home...

*reads on*

From my sketchbook...

Saturday, 12 May 2012 04:23 pm
sigune: icon by <lj user="fairybliss"> (Arthur squee)
Lokiiiiiiiii! My first attempt at the God of Mischief ;-). I slapped some quick Photoshop colours on my sketch.

Photobucket


- I forgot to post from DW this time around X/. I'm without Internet on my own computer at the moment; my cable is fine and my computer too, but somehow, no ethernet seems to be coming out of that little hole in the wall where my cable is attached :/. And I'm so used to posting at LJ that I just ... well, kind of forgot that I normally post from DW. Ah well. That's fixed now :-).

I'm just hoping I get my 'own' interwebs fixed soon, because life is hard without my favourites and without the possibility to post my images directly from my own computer -_-.

From my sketchbook...

Friday, 11 May 2012 10:32 pm
sigune: (Default)
Lokiiiiiiiii! My first attempt at the God of Mischief ;-). I slapped some quick Photoshop colours on my sketch.

Photobucket


In other news, I no longer have a paid account here at LJ - I stopped paying because I discovered, quite accidentally while reading a friend's blog, that LJ had switched my preferences to automatic payment without warning me. Sorry, but I find that unspeakably rude (not to mention greedy), so no more money from me.

Now I do need to select my userpics :/.

Wah!

Sunday, 29 April 2012 07:07 pm
sigune: (Default)
I'm continuing my attempts to find a workable style for my definitive comic pages. Sometimes I feel I'm still a long way away -_-.

I have a colleague with a background in art/graphic design/comics who takes an interest in what I'm doing, but I can tell he's less than impressed with my colour skills :/. He has advised me to:
a) draw on coloured paper so that some of my colour values are already there;
or
b) work in monochrome.
But to be honest, I can't see myself doing either of these. Much though I like the idea of drawing on coloured paper, it's going to be a time-consuming technique (and I'm dead slow as it is) which, on top of that, doesn't scan too well. And for the second option to be successful, I'd need to know a LOT more about light and shadow. I am as hopeless with those as I am with colour, so as far as I am concerned, trying to adopt that tactic would be of no help at all.

In short, I'm no further :/.

Photobucket


This picture (in a small watercolour Moleskine) seemed really nice to me when I had just finished it, but I'm no longer sure :p. It did remind me that I'm still more comfortable inking with Staedtler pens than with any other tool... Yay, back to the start D:...
sigune: (Default)
The scanner is here! We went with Canon in the end, and the first few scans I made today are highly satisfactory :). If I use the 'photo correction' function, the colours come out nice and rich, which is what I had been hoping for. So YAY! from now on there will be updates again ;-). Here is Florie, for starters - before, I had to make do with a photo of this drawing, which came out much less bright than the original.

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I'm itching to introduce Florie in the comic, but she's so far awaaaaaaayyyyyy... Grow up already, Gawain!

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