Jenny Dolfen

There is always light

Okay, this is really, really unusual for me. I spent two days wrestling with Alcyone, not being totally happy with the lineart, and then completely failing at any sort of digital colouring, and decided I needed to do something quick and spontaneous and simple (no involved backgrounds etc) - and was totally blown away by Amanda Gorman's poem at the inauguration last night. I had goosebumps from the poem and saw her and just needed to paint her. I didn't really do her justice, I'm afraid, but I...

Alcyone - sketch

I've been wanting to draw something inspired by the myth of Alcyone for a long time. It has grief, the sea, and kingfishers! 

Alcyone was the daughter of the wind-god Aiolos, and was happily married to Ceyx, the son of a titan. (When anyone in Greek mythology is happily married, you know disaster is about to follow.) Ceyx's ship was wrecked in a storm on his return from an oracle (Ovid's description of the storm is some of the most powerful Latin verse I've ever read); Morpheus, go...

Victorious return - finished

Hooray! I'm really happy with my first iPad/watercolour mixed media. And I love those golden blues here! Hope you love it too, Intea! <3 

Fun with granulating colours and new palettes

There's so much new about this piece! 

• Drawn on the iPad
• Painted with all-new brushes (my old synthetic ones were four years old - from back when I made the new year's resolution of no longer using actual animal hair - and of course, while real-hair brushes last ten years or so, my synthtic ones had to be replaced and I didn't notice.)
• Using fun new stuff I indulged in over Christmas! I got the little peacock brush stand in the last post from Etsy, as well a...
  2021-01-15 16:41:21 +0000 UTC View Post

Victorious return - in progress

I'm very artistic today. I get new brushes that are wonderful to work with (not because they're the best brushes ever made, but because my old brushes were four years old and it never had occurred to me to replace them...), I'm having fun with raw Sienna and Ultramarine, and I cut my own fringe today. XD Zoom conferences and closed hairdressers are a bad combination! 

Victorious return - lineart

I HAVE THE POWERRRRRR!!!

Sorry. But I can't get over what I can do with Procreate. All the little sloppy bits in my pictures, suddenly GONE because I can zoom in to a ridiculous extent. I had to stop myself at ornaments on the background riders, haha. 

Feast your eyes! <3 

Progress: Lineart

I swear I'll stop turning this Patreon into product placement for Procreate some day, but... it is not this day. Holy s***! I will never, ever, ever do lineart in any other other way ever again. I can get as detailed and intricate as I want, yes it takes me twice and three times as long as lineart usually would, but damn, it looks ten times as good. I call that time well spent. 

I also promise I'll cut down on the swearing at some point. 

THIS IS THE BEST LINEAR...

More work on the sketch

It‘s such fun to go overboard with the fine-tuning here! And it‘s a huge relief to know that I can do the lineart right here in Procreate, on the sofa if I want, on several layers that I can move and adjust wherever I want. Art on the sofa. Who knew this was the biggest perk of drawing on the iPad! 😁

When I drew the female Elf on the right, I found myself wondering: There can‘t have been a lot of high-ranking females in Barad Eithel, right? Bert, by the way, is probably already...

Victorious return - Procreate scribble

First steps of a commission for Intea - of Fingon‘s victorious return after driving off Glaurung. I‘m constantly thinking of the Jabberwocky poem - “And hast thou slain the Jabberwock? Come to my arms, my beamish boy! O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”

Of course, we know Fingon hath not slain the Jabberwock, alas...

Once again, Procreate is such fun to work with! So easy to scribble, move stuff around, and regroup. 

Interlude: Gamora

All right, I'd better explain this. XD

On a watercolour forum I'm on, there are monthly challenges. Mostly, they don't interest me much (many of the artists there are of the flowery-landscapey persuasion), but this month's was fun: Let a family member choose three colours, a brush, and one extra thingie, add only one more thing, and make art with that. My daughter gave me Payne's Grey, Cascade Green, and perm. Alizarin Crimson, a much bigger brush than I usually use, and salt. The salt ...

Mousiarty - coloured

The Napolemouse of crime. No matter how boopable that nose is - don't. 

Docmouse Watson is up on Etsy now! If you buy Shermouse and Watson, you get Mousiarty as a free add-on. If you have already got Shermouse and are getting Watson now, just leave me a note if you want Mousiarty as well. :) 

My older pins are currently on sale, by the way, until the end of January! The s...

Mousiarty

„I‘m sooooooo changeable!“

Inks (again in Procreate) of Jim Mousiarty, the Napolemouse of Crime, again done for Is.
Is, I went for mouse skulls instead of humans; if you think they look too much like Aliens, I can change them back =D

Procreate Maedhros

I have a clear pathway getting to know a new medium: 1) I have no idea what I’m doing - better draw a beautiful woman. 2) I’m getting the hang of this - Maedhros, here I come!

I can’t tell you how much I love doing art on the iPad. I can work for hours without my eyes getting tired, and I can do it on the sofa because the light is always perfect! And these watercolour brushes are really cool. So much fun. 

Happy Better Year!

Oh my, this silly little piccie took me ten times as long as the result warrants, but first attempts with new digital media tend to have that effect on me. At least it’s safe to say that Procreate watercolours aren’t likely to make me give up the real thing soon. I still love the way the colours behave though - I’ve never had “digital” watercolours that looked so much like the genuine article.

So, this little well-bescarved mouse and I would like to wish you, and all of us, a ...

First attempt to paint in Procreate

... and again, the most intuitive art programme I‘ve ever worked with, and the easiest to use lively textures with! So much fun.

I think she’s Earwen, by the way. :)

Mousetor Watson finished

I‘m really pleased with how well this workflow went! Sketching and drawing on the iPad, printing on mixed media paper, colouring with watercolour and gouache, and photographing again on the iPad - this thing even takes better photos than any other of my devices (which, granted, are all pretty old). You know how you want to invest in something to make life easier, then wait for ages because you‘re afraid it might not work out after all, and then take the jump and find it works even better ...

Mousetor Watson (inks and timelapse video!)

Woo-hoo! Procreate is such incredible fun, and it took two days to revolutionise my workflow and motivation!
Here‘s the beginning of a Commission for Is, who asked for Watson and Mousiarty to accompany Shermouse back in October.

I notice that, on the iPad, it‘s so much easier to just sit down and draw. No pencils and erasers to be hunted for or clutter to remove before I can even start....

Happy holidays!

I wish everyone a wonderful holiday season, with as much calm and happiness as anyone can hope for under the circumstances. The final week of school was once again *far* more hectic than a lockdown ought to have been, and I seriously need to reconsider my lockdown teaching modes, it seems.

Anyway, I got the much-coveted iPad for Christmas, and oh my gosh, is Procreate a fantastic little tool. I‘ve worked with about a dozen drawing apps and programmes, starting with Painter, and I‘ve...

Nib sketchpage

These landscape large sketchbooks are great for one coloured piece per page, plus some sketches next to it. It always looks so impressive and professional. =D

Also, I realise again that with fur, less is more. Too much scribbling and too many layers here. Something to keep in mind for the next. 

Nib - sketch

Nib must have been one of those unfortunate young squirrels that fell from the nest. Fortunately for her, she was found by Corvus, a raven who, still more fortunately for her, had just eaten. When she followed him around for half a day, his annoyance gave way to curiosity and finally affection, so "Uncle Corvus" raised her, made her a sardine can bed, and even found her toys (she never goes to sleep without her cuddly bat*). 

In reference to his initial half-plan to eat her later, ...

Squirrelly homework

I decided to avoid a mistake I'd made in my Dungeons and Dormice last spring: I'd jumped straight into a series without more than a very basic idea of what dormice even looked like. So this time, I set out to understand squirrels' faces. In the process, I found again how much more expressive they are than dormice, with their more visible mouths, their white rings around the eyes and the possibility to express a lot more with ear position. 

My second 2020 sketchbook is almost full, ...

Another Lockdown...

Germany's entering another lockdown on Wednesday; our district has already been in lockdown since Saturday, after cases were rocketing. Schools are mostly closed - exams were supposed to be happening, but we had so many students calling in sick or in quarantine that the next exams are cancelled, too. 

I've been rotating all weekend. I'd be fine with those lockdowns if you had the chance to prepare. As in, Oh my, cases are rising! Once we hit 200/100.000 people per week, it...

Whoa, look, it's gouach-y!

Here's the final Squirrelpunk piece. I'm beyond happy with the look of this! You'll notice it's quite a lot softer and yet more vibrant than what I've recently done with watercolour; funnily enough, I've been wanting to achieve a look like this for years, but never really knew how (and never actually ventured to find out in earnest, truth be told). It's yet another of those things that happen all on their own once you stop thinking about them and trying too hard. 

SquirrelPunk, next wip

I always find it fascinating how my painting style changes when I've gone for a month without painting, or when I've gone for six months without painting on watercolour paper (the cosplay dormice were on toned paper, and the gouache style definitely shows here). 

I'm slowly getting to know the characters and the setting. The warrior is called Rick, and I'm pretty sure she's female. The kid, I think, is a girl too, but I don't know her name yet, or the significance of the key she's ...

Squirrelpunk in progress

Today was literally the first day in forever with a little bit of time to paint (and the necessary minndset for it). I know that there is no ideal Pandemic setup, but Pandemic with two kids squarely in the middle of puberty has to be a special level of hell. 

I also spent hours each day packing orders! =O Cyber week was absolutely insane - it almost made up for the months between March and September all on its own. Meaning that new pins will be possible next year, maybe a new run o...

SquirrelPunk - Lineart

And I'm very pleased to report that a search for "squirrelpunk" yields next to nothing! 

Steampunk attire is fun. Although the coke tins for greaves are probably too big! 

SquirrelPunk and CyberWeek

We had our chance - now Squirrels rule the world. 

Sketch with blue pencil (I turned it inky blue so you can actually see something, haha). I'm pretty sure the hero is called Rick (I had a plush squirrel called Ricky when I was little, plus I just realised again how much I love the Mummy). What is the danger they're in? Why's the kid holding a key? I have no idea, but I really want to find out. And there will definitely be an Emperor Furiosa Squirrel somewhere in the story.  2020-11-22 15:06:42 +0000 UTC View Post

Three new shirt designs!

https://teespring.com/stores/jennydolfenart

I just uploaded "Feanor, no", the Fairy Story design as well as Harry Podmouse. And then I promise there'll be a Teespring break! ;) I'll be collecting new ideas but don't want to flood the shop. 

I wore my Indy Mouse shirt to school today and was a tad miffed that nobody at all commented on it.* I'll probably get more comments on conventions. Let's ...

T-shirt idea

Many thanks to C. for his terrific t-shirt idea! I used some other paintings than the ones you suggested (Ulmo would have been terrific for "recovery", but the Vala was completely unreadable in the design.) It's the three main elements of Fantasy, as laid out by Tolkien in "On Fairy-Stories". 

I can also report that the t-shirt quality from Teespring is everything I could have hoped for! The print quality is crisp and preserves every last detail; it's handled its first washes well ...

Pencil shading trial, Discord chat and a quick heads-up to my Russian Patrons

For years and years, and years, I've been wanting to do some soft pencil shading, and I never was able to work out how the hell to do it. Using less force and harder pencils is one thing (I always put a lot of pressure on the pencil even in the very early stages of sketching), and yesterday I came across a tutorial that had the answer: circling instead of hatching. I'm really happy with this little guy. And oh, also, yes, I drew a dormouse with antlers. I suppose he's a deermouse?&nb...