Jenny Dolfen

Orym of the Air Ashari

Critical Role again. Yes, Liam always gets me with his characters, this time his halfling fighter Orym from campaign three. He's basically a three-foot tragic snugglefest, and I love him. 

Sketch in Procreate. 

Teeeeentatively opening commissions =O (all gone)

*deep breath* Yep, it's true. 

Here's the deal: 

Three slots for starters, Patrons only. Portrait of a character I know, bust only, A5 size, in coloured pencil. Fuzzy watercolour background or toned paper. Fixed price 250 Euros. Prompt style - you give me a character and let me run with it. 

ALL GONE! Thank you so much! <3 

To claim a slot, please send me an email to jenny (at) goldseven.de! Firs...

"Come here, Stubby" - finished

First attempt at a full scene with coloured pencil (and some watercolour wash for the background). This is about the extent of detail and small-ness I can do, but hey, it's a lot better than I thought I could do in traditional media! Now my eyes need a holiday, ha. 

Welcome to all the new crowd! So glad to see you here. =) 

"Come here, Stubby, you're all messed up."

In the stream (didn't make it into the animated series, unfortunately), Vax often braids his sister's hair. Usually, when she's pissed off. Usually, at him. =D 

Vex and Vax from Critical Role. Sorry for not including a link to the stream; couldn't find a timestamp this time! 

Procreate sketch, to be coloured hopefully! 

"Do not go far from me"

Little end-of-April sibling heartbreak. If you've ever lost someone close, here's heartfelt hugs. If you haven’t, tell them you love them every once in a while, just in case there’s no chance for parting words in the last episode. Or spread some chicken sorbet on their beds on occasion. That definitely works too.

I love the way this turned out! Ironically, it's a look I've sometimes managed with watercolour, but only if the paint was settling in exactly the right way. Now I can jus...

"Do not go far from me"

Gods, I'm loving these two. Images, characters, and voice actors. 

Twins sketches (Critical Role)

Almost four years to the day since I last saw my brother alive. Doing Vex&Vax heartbreak sketches. Yes, it's brilliant therapy. <3 

Sketched from screenshots of actors Liam O'Brien and Laura Bailey. 

Jax in Polychromos (finished)

I love this guy so much. Last session (which finally happened after being postponed for two months) he found out who his mother is, so there will probably be more art to come. He's relieved to find both his parents were actually decent people (not a given when you have demonic blood) and that his mother is still alive and on the run from a whole bunch of other demons (quite a few of whom Jax managed to pi** off rather mightily). 

He's now got a set of really cool Shadow Armour and ...

Jax - coloured pencil in progress

I felt like redoing the Jax portrait I did in Procreate just before discovering Polychromos. 

I find it utterly weird how detailed I can go with coloured pencils without half-trying, and how loose I keep ending up with digital (usually after working everything to death and then getting rid of it all!) Different media have such different paths they take me down. But dark tones are SUCH FUN to do with coloured pencil and I never got the hang of them in watercolour. 

This i...

Finnan, aquatic half-elf monk

... I explain it all in his backstory, honest. =D

The character I currently play in a little D&D campaign with my daughter, run by my husband. Finnan holds the title of fastest death EVER. He died two hours into his first session and the DM allowed a little miracle. 

I've also decided, after thirty years of playing handsome characters and ALWAYS apologising for their handsomeness, that I am fully entitled to play handsome characters without any need to apologise. <...

"I don't want to be alone tonight"

Critical Role, Episode 42: "Dangerous Dealings" 

LIAM (Vax): As the sun goes down? It's been down and everyone's going to their rooms? I go to Keyleth's door and knock on it.

MARISHA (Keyleth): I open the door. - Hi.

LIAM: Hi...  I don't want to be alone tonight. Do you?

MARISHA: I haven't been wanting to be alone most nights. - And I let him in.

(Sam and Taliesin are cracking up)

MATT (Dungeon Master): Okay. So, we–

LAURA (as herself): Bo...

Properly scanned Vax and tutorial

I'm so frigging happy with this. And with how well it scanned! It was just a breeze to scan and post-work, much easier than watercolour, even with all the practice I have. The background is the "Shire blue" watercolour I told you about earlier! 

Here's the rest of the tutorial. I feel so 2005 for doing a tutorial like this, haha. ;) 

9: Adding blue streaks to the hair (and some ...

I'm having a "Where have you been all my life?!" moment here.

Coloured pencils, you guys, coloured pencils. 

I'll be back tomorrow with a proper scan and answering your questions on the last post, BUT. COLOURED PENCILS, YOU GUYS.

Critical Role has doomed elf bois, too... and a coloured pencil tutorial

It was time for a portrait of Vax I was actually happy with! I immediately went to the "doomed elf boi" look I seem to use for Finrod a lot. It suits him, particularly in later episodes. And well, I know he's a half-elf, but D&D half-elves seem to have even larger and more pointy ears than any Tolkien elf ever would, so there. ;) 

I'm taking a lot of in-progress pictures, so if you're interested in the coloured pencil process, here I talk a bit more about it! <3 

...

Coloured pencil Maedhros finished

Yes, I'd forgotten how easy it is in coloured pencil to do subtle stuff! Like lines around the eyes and such. When doing larger portraits in watercolour, I always put them in there but then faded them out again afterwards, heh - I never quite managed that level of subtle.

First time working on white paper instead of toned. Not quite sure yet which I prefer. 

I photographed wuite a few stages on the way, mainly because I wasn't sure myself whether this would work or ...

It was clear he was up next, right?

After leaving guinea pig status to Yavanna (watercolour pencils) and Caduceus (quasi-Prismacolor), Maedhros is, of course, up next. Interestingly, coloured pencil was the first medium I ever did a coloured Maedhros in! It was right after I'd read the Shaping of Middle-earth for the first time (though I should have been studying for my A-levels) and found out he was red-haired, and priorities are priorities. 

(Damn, I'd forgotten that didn't age well.) 

2022-04-01 15:06:34 +0000 UTC View Post

More coloured pencils, more Critical Role (sorry ;))

Easing further into coloured pencils! I bought a nice set of Prismacolor-like ones (from Castle Art) that are really fine, and I've discovered that I own a coloured pencil blender, so that's where the smoooooth texture comes from. ;) 

The character, for those who don't know Critical Role, is of course Caduceus Clay, a Firbolg Cleric who makes tea from dead people and is generally adorable. And who was an excuse to use colours and things I have NEVER used in art before (pink, mohawk...

Yavanna / Spring in coloured pencils

I gosh, it's been twenty-five years since I last seriously used coloured pencils! How do you even mix colour?? I think I managed fine.

Spring, coloured pencils on toned paper, A3 size. (It doesn't fit on my desk!) 

The original of this will go up tonight in my Etsy shop at 9.00 pm CET. (Copy the time into your browser to have it calculated into your time zone!) =) 

Yavanna drawing

Drew this in Procreate today, should be big enough to print it on laaaarge paper and colour it traditionally! <3 I was gifted a few watercolour tubes last week, which are so pretty... it's another new granulating colour line from Schmincke, incredibly named "Shire Green", "Shire Blue" and "Shire Yellow". I waaaaaant... Maybe this'll end up a complete mixed media exercise, who knows! 

Farryn Boontwiddle, Gnomish Fighter

A very quick piece of my new D&D character, Gnome Fighter Farryn Boontwiddle. I play him in the campaign I'm running as the DM. It's been customary in our rounds since forever that the DM has a character tagging along, often because we've only played with two or three people and/or we were taking turns as DM. I created Farryn to try out the gaming website DnDBeyond, and he got stuck in my campaign. I love this guy. He goes adventuring with a stuck-up Elven Druid (my daughter), a Dragonbor...

Inprnt sale and Tolkien Reading Day

Since a lot of people have been asking me recently, I've put up a promo code for Inprnt! I'm sorry I can't do permanent codes for Patrons, but here's one that's valid until the 29th of March! 

DGHCRFJ

AND I COMPLETELY FORGOT to tell you (that's how scatterbrained I am right now). I'll be on a panel with other Tolkien artists (Donato Giancola, Ted Nasmith, Emily Austin, Anke Eissmann) on Tolkien Reading Day. You can read up about it here: 

2022-03-22 14:08:42 +0000 UTC View Post

That HUGE bit of news

... I did say it was HUGE, right?!!! 

Yes, that is the one. The official Tolkien Calendar 2023.

I. Am. So. Chuffed. Pretty much a life's dream come true. 

Dreaming of magical artefacts

When the Sorcerer pisses off the Bard, hilarity ensues. Gnome Bard Scanlan has turned Sorcerer Tiberius into a rat, and Vax'ildan, as usual, is unable to pass by a furry animal without scritching it. 

SAM (Scanlan): I turn him into a rat. (...) 

ORION (Tiberius): Oh. I still go to bed.

(laughter)

ORION: So yeah.

TRAVIS (Grog the Barbarian): Hoo baby.

LAURA (Vax' twin sister Vex): That's adorable.

MATT (the DM): You go under your covers, go t...

Mollymauk in colour (lots of it)

It’s been a while since I used so many different colours in one piece! I honestly didn’t plan for him to look like Jax, it just sort of happened. 😅

Mollymauk (Critical Role) - lineart

Edited version: Now plus lineart (I love it SO MUCH!), and a closeup of the lines. I have a new "inking" tool in Procreate that I really love. I don't like inking with smooth tools, this one lends a nice spontaneity (is that a word?) to the lineart. 

The last one is the hi-res file for download and colouring! =) 

Probably to be done in Procreate, because he won't work as just a portrait - there's so much going on with Mollymauk to restrict him to portait!

For those...

Pastel attempt, because **** it ;)

My eyesight took another blow last week, and I'm close to getting a diagnosis which is not encouraging, so I went in a different direction - I ordered a bunch of pastels, oil pastels, and coloured pencils, and went BIG. 

This is my first I-have-no-idea-what-the-****-I'm-doing attempt at pastel/oil pastel/coloured pencil (since 1998), just putting down some pigments and seeing what would happen (what happened is apparently a Tiefling of some sort). Yes, I did mix them all a...

Jax again

My Tiefling character (now level 5 Rogue/level 2 Ranger/level 1 Sorcerer. The Sorcerer serves absolutely no purpose other than being able to cast really pitiful illusions). I just love this guy. Playing again on Sunday. Might meet his mother. Who's in all likelihood a Succubus. That's some family time he's not looking forward to. XD 

Playing around with the Procreate style I tried for the "Spirit of Fire" piece and remembering why I liked it so much! 

"Forever and always"

The Raven Queen comes to claim Vax'ildan. 

Here's the transcript from the RPG session* in which this happens:

LIAM (who plays Vax): I look to the Raven Queen and as I walk closer, since I leveled up, I use the druid cantrip Druidcraft and grow snowdrops out from
where I stand, out to all of my family. Out to where they stand. S.H.I.T.s, thank you. How lucky I have been to have had all of you. How lucky, indeed. Thank you.

MATT (the Dungeon Master): And ...

Vax and the Raven Queen - lineart

I think my muse was waiting for Critical Role to happen. =) 

Now I need to rest my eyes a bit! ... and there's a lot of school work this week too, unfortunately. 

"Forever and always."

Yes, I know - a month of radio silence and then art on two days! Let's all not get too used to it. =D

The incredible finale of the first campaign of Critical Role. The Raven Queen comes to take Vax. I bawled my eyes out during that episode (in other words, bawled my eyes out watching eight people around a table bawling their eyes out). Role-playing life goals. 

Also had a great game night today introducing our neighbour to D&D! He‘d asked for an introduction after watch...