Jenny Dolfen

Heinrich the Betta

 Kate suggested a betta, and I was immediately reminded of Heinrich, the serial killer betta I had when I was thirteen. He was the star in an aquarium I got second hand, and I had no idea when I got it what fish get along with what others. I quickly read up on everything so after another week, I knew that fish need plants, and a betta should be kept alone, so at least I knew why he had killed both his mates and two platys, but that didn't stop me from taking it personal.

The name w...

Another colourful comfy critter

.… it's a bee-eater!

This is a lot more fun when you know you're not wasting sinfully expensive and environmentally problematic material, I'll be honest. ;) And the Ugly Stage (TM) is so much more bearable in Procreate… 

Malabar Giant Squirrel (Procreate oil attempt)

Thanks for all the suggestions, but this critter (suggested by Miranda) just took the (rainbow) cake! I can see all sorts of things that would have looked terrible if this had involved a human face, but as it is, I really like it for a first go. And yes, I couldn't be bothered with the stump it’s sitting on, hee.

Hope to one or two more…

Need suggestions for colourful non-humanoid things!

Hey guys, I'm sick and quarantined with My First Covid. (After three years; I almost thought I'd dodged the bullet.) I'm spending my time watching Critical Role Pub Draw videos, and holy s***, are they inspiring! There's one where Babs Tarr and Matt do an oil painting of a Tortle character, and I want to do Procreate oils now, haha. I'm smart enough not to attempt anything humanoid while I'm in bed and my sinu...

"Doing the thing"

A warm welcome to new Patrons Felagund and Jackie! =D Thanks for being on board! 

Finished piece of Fearne and Orym plotting dark things in case of even darker things. I hope we'll find out next episode whether it'll come to that... 

Doing more texture-based colouring. This process is so fluid and natural now; it's such fun! The weird thing is that I can actually keep it more reduced and watery than I was usually able to with real waterc...

Nerdanel commission finished!

I'm getting better and better with this textures thing! Now doesn't this look like very wet watercolour? And I'm finally getting faster too! 

I'm so glad these batch of commissions has gone so well and so relatively fast! I'll take a break from commissions for a bit, but I hope to hope to open a few slots after the same vein in summer or so. 

I've also finished the lineart for my latest Critical Role piece too, and really hope to finish it before the next episode airs an...

All twelve D&Dormice classes are here!

Welcome to new Patrons Kate, Jordan, and Raul! So glad you've joined us! 

Dungeons & Dormice are complete! Ranger, Cleric and Wizard are already in their second runs, and the Warlock, Fighter, and Sorcerer are here too! Yeeeees, the Fighter does have Orym vibes. =D Funnily, he had them in my original design even before Orym existed. But I'd already decided he needed a redesign to make the shape more compact, so I just took him ...

It's March! ... and Elanor is finished!

How many of you flipped to their new calendar page with a little flourish today? I know I did! =D

I finished Elanor yesterday and only find the time to post her today. I'm utterly in love with the textures again here - again, with my new-found technique! It makes me so happy. 

Boy, I do hope that this year's going to pick up from now on. I had a very weird dentist's appointment today...

Tutorial: Texture in Procreate

I managed to do a tutorial, on video, with music, AND sound!

Hope the video looks good this time. If it doesn't, I'm officially giving up Patreon vids and point you all to YouTube. ;)

Edit: Ha! 4k was enough then. That's good to know. ;) 

Glorfindel done, Elanor lineart, Nerdanel sketch, AND a full-blown tutorial

... oh my! 

First off, welcome to new Patrons Hannah, Tanwen, Joseph & Julie, and Emma! =D

This watercolour texture thing is SO GOOD. I'm so indredibly happy with the results here. Look at the stone textures! All the granulating ultramarine goodness! I've made a full tutorial video for this too, which I'll post in a sec. =) 

My daughter has been busy posing for me for Elanor... 

2023-02-25 16:20:52 +0000 UTC View Post

Glorfindel - lineart

It was Carnival weekend in Western Germany, which means: five glorious days off school while the rest of the county gets drunk; help the kids into and out of their Orc and Rogue costumes, survive an hour or two while the "Zoch" (procession) gets dangerously close enough to our house for me to hear that waggon 1 is playing "Polka Polka Polka" while waggon 3 is playing "Leev Marie" (and trust me, those two should NOT be mixed) - and apart from that, it's five days of art! 

Here's the...

Commission results! And second take on the Vax/Vex piece

First off, I thought I'd show you the final(ish) version of the "Take me instead" piece. I used my new textures and it improved a lot, but it was one of those images that just didn't go any further, so well... I'm leaving it there. :) 

Next: Three commissions! Oh my, it was SO HARD to choose! So many great ideas came in, and I didn't realise how difficult it would be to pick. So for those whose ideas did not make it, be assured that ALL of them spoke to me, but the...

Let's do this... three commission slots! =D

I'm feeling brave and want to open three commission slots. Before you get your blood pressure up (which is BAAAAD, I know!!), I'm going to pick three ideas you throw at me over the next 24 hours, so this time it's not a first come, first serve situation. Cutoff time is tomorrow at eight pm CET. I'll announce my choice shorty afterwards!

THE DEAL!

Patrons only. :) Message me here on Patreon with your commission ide...

Dorian Storm - finished! and lineart freebies

Welcome to new Patron Secret Name! =D

I finished Dorian today and I can say I've never been happier with a first attempt at anything! I definitely want to try more with this, maybe a few gradients (though those can be achieved easily by blending two different textures), but now I want to make some eight or ten "grey" textures. Grey, if mixed with complementary watercolours, is so rich; far richer than just any desaturating something! 

This also led t...

What. A. Gamechanger!

Welcome to new Patrons Amanda, Viki, Abrealia, and Denrhea! Woo-hoo! 

So, this is taking longer than expected, because this piece, and the idea to use my own textures, is about to absolutely revolutionise my workflow and digital art look! I spent the last few days creating more than twenty full-sized texture backgrounds with my favourite colours. After doing the first that I showed you, I realised that I could do t...

Dorian Storm - lineart (and watercolour textures!)

Here's the lineart for Dorian! Thank you again, Ama, for a commission that somehow pushed me to do the most elegant lineart I may have ever done. =O 

Dorian's body, lute, and sleeves were kindly modelled by... a painting by Caravaggio. 

I'm going to try something new: Today, I got out the watercolours, and painted fourteen watercolour textures in all sorts of colours that I can use as groundwork in my digital art, in the hopes that some messy natural cauliflowers will ma...

Wooden pins are here!

The wooden pins have arrived, and they are So. Good. I may actually do these from now on instead of the enamel ones. The cost is similar, but they looks fantastic and are so much more ethically produced... 

https://www.etsy.com/de-en/listing/1403973761/elvenking-wooden-pin

10OFFPAT code applies! =D 

What do you think? Enamel, wood, or both? I will definitely k...

Three new Dungeons&Dormice pins! And all designs are done

Here's the Rogue, Druid, and Monk! I'm so freaking happy with how they turned out. I used an app for colour picking this time - much faster AND much better results than when I colour pick them from the Pantone book. There's so much colour harmony here! Look at the little Druid! <3 

And especially at the little Monk ^_______^

2023-01-18 15:30:44 +0000 UTC View Post

A LOT of pins! Dungeons&Dormice round 3, and more wooden pins.

I'm finally on the finishing stretch of designing all 12 character classes of D&D (just when D&D is set to implode, oooh boy). (If you don't know what I'm talking about, google OGL 1.1 - they're revoking their Open Gaming Licence of over 20 years and leaving a lot of creators hanging and furious.) 

Never mind that - my D&Dormice have slowly advanced to one of my steadiest sellers in my shop, at times outranking the Tolkien pins! So soon, we'll have all twelve of them. B...

Inprnt has a sale week! =D

15% off anything on Inprnt through Sunday, and I added another 5 to round it off to a nice 20%. Take a look if there's anything you've been eyeing! Lots of older art on there, too. <3 

https://www.inprnt.com/gallery/jenny.dolfen.5/

Orym does Cirque du Soleil

Guy in casino: "You're a collective? What do you do?"
Laudna: "We're, uuuh, traveling performers."
*moment of incredulous silence*
Orym: "I shoot out vines from my hand and start doing Cirque du Soleil shit upside down from the ceiling."

Plus prelim sketches from the doctor's waiting room. 

Still working on getting used to medication, sigh. Taking things slow and listening t...

"Journeys" available as digital download! =) and other stuff

A couple of things this early January! I finally put my most recent artbook, "Journeys", together as a digital download for my Etsy shop. The Patreon codes don't work on digital things, but this does: YAYFOR23

I also gave the Glorfindel pic a try that several of you requested (last week, actually), but he looked so pi**ed off with the world that I decided no...

"The gods are watching!"

Last art for this year! It's fitting that it should be Orym (and yeah, I'm aware that chances of that weren't too low!), the little 3'3'' guy who in spite of hardship, loss and cynicism never lost his kind little heart. <3 It's safe to say this emotional support halfling carried me through a lot of 2022. 

For those not watching Critical Role, this scene had me alternatingly in hysterics and in a puddle of goo. Orym, just after the Wildmother blessed his sword, gifts Chetney a li...

Woo-hoo-den pins! These are so incredibly cool.

They turned out even better than I'd dare to hope, and since they are produced responsibly AND can be ordered in smaller numbers, I now want to go bonkers with them! Hit me with all your ideas, also for stuff I have to draw first, to figure out what to do next! 

 I actually like them better than enamel pins, as they can do such crazy detail!
I've put one in my pocket to see how durable they are; I've even scratched the front with a fingernail, but it seems they’re pretty...

A gift from the Wildmother

This wasn't supposed to be a "End of year, holiday season" type of painting, but time and eye constraints made it such, even though I wanted to paint this scene for two and a half weeks. Orym, who has held on to his non-magical sword until level eight because it was a gift from his late husband, receives a gift from Seraatani, the Wildmother, who imbues his sword with magical energy (and he can now shoot vines, Spider-Man style!) 

Thanks to my daughter, who posed for Orym AND for t...