Jenny Dolfen

Zoom, Discord, workshop and demo - poll!

Here's where you weigh in! I've put in a lot of options of things I can think of for the future. I would love your input before I decide on the exact specifics, but I've already included the price ranges I'm thinking about, so you can better decide whether these things would be for you. I'm thinking about using Jitsi as an alternative for Zoom (it's easier and doesn't need a login).

Here's some details about the possibilities I've thought up (the poll options don't allow much text).&nbs...

Zoom fun - Maedhros and Baby Smaug

(And naturally, I now have "Baby Smaug, doo doo-doo doo-doo-doo" stuck in my head, to the tune of Baby Shark. Now you do too. You're welcome. XD)

So, this was fun - for those who couldn't join us, what we did was a session of me making quick sketches at people's requests (I maaaay have pushed just a little for Maedhros), and we did a sketchbook tour. I'm pretty sure I wasn't the only one enjoying myself. :) So good to see so many people from all over the world! 

Polls for fur...

Zoom test tomorrow - details and ideas

I've set up everything we need to a full Zoom test tomorrow at 6 pm CEST! I have my webcam aligned to film my desk, and I have my laptop cam aligned with the spec-ta-cu-lar pimple that sprouted on my chin last week. I apologise in advance. You'll see it. I think we'll make liberal use of the deskcam to spare you the sight. XD

You need to click the link https://us02web.zoom.us/s/3085898298 to join. Joining can b...

US shipping is back! Whoo-hooooo!

I just saw that the US is open for shipping from the EU again - by ship, so expect runtimes of at least three weeks, possibly more. But - whew. It's been six months. I honestly didn't think this was going to happen this year anymore.

So, what's next? First, I'll carry my huge "CORONA BOX" to the post office - the stuff that's been packed and labelled since March! A few of you have stuff in there (and know you do because we talked about it in messages). Those will go out on Mond...

Zoom tryout!

New Patrons welcome time! Welcome to Michael, Joanna, Tanja, Maxwell, Erin and Lisa this month! =D So happy to have you.

Hangouts! So, I have no idea whatsoever how to do Discord or Zoom meetings. Let's find out together. ;) 

I've set up Zoom and have scheduled a meeting for Monday evening, 6 pm CET. The ID is  308 589 8298 , the password is sFzL5r. Did I do this right? We'll just hang out, and I'll see if my camera/webcam setup would p...

Dormouse adventurer (finally finished)

I'm finally back among the living! That stupid surgery cost me three weeks of my life, but I'm finally working again (mostly for school) but I hope to get myself sorted enough for art before long. 2020 has been a taxing affair, to say the least. 

Shipping to the US (and Australia) is still not possible, which has been desastrous for my business, so I will soon put up original art for sale (and do another horse, the Nazgul one). The originals will be shipped worldwide (UPS is still ...

Quick sign of life...

... I told you I had to go in for some surgery two weeks ago; well, it seems that I was incredibly unlucky with it. It went well; it's healing well; it's just that, for some reason nobody has been able to fathom, that it was so dratted painful it took me ten days to feel halfway human again. I'm still off work for the next week, but it's getting better on a daily basis now. Looking forward to some doodling as soon as I can sit for longer periods of time again! 

Take care of yoursel...

Finished little Bill!

I'm really happy with the colour scheme here! So cheerful. I actually do picture Bill darker, but the next one's going to be dark enough, haha. 

Prints are up in my Etsy shop! Your coupon codes apply. I've also updated the places I can ship to (no US and Australia still, unfortunately). Let me know if you're missing a country, and I'll check if I ca...

Tricking myself into painting...

...by making Bill even brighter and more cheerful than intended. ;) 

The cheer is probably needed, as my usually morbid self has found a most depressing (and compelling) audiobook to accompany the work: "The Radium Girls" by Kate Moore (Asfaloth was accompanied by a podcast on the Golden State Killer. I don't know what's wrong with me). 

It's an incredible story about young girls, painting clocks and watches with radium paint during World War One, most of them dying grue...

Mad world, pretty horse

My current state of mind, I suppose. ;)

I'd really hoped that I would get some stuff done during the holidays, but it seems my battery was a lot emptier than I thought. I then spent the last week cancelling Etsy orders that had been pending since March - rising infection rates in the US probably mean it will be another few (or more) months before I can ship anything there, and simultanously, there have been those kind, considerate people who, in the midst of a pandemic, tell Etsy that I...

Dormouse adventurer

Drew a little dormouse on the train yesterday. Dormice, it turns out, are perfect doodle material, as they're practically impossible to mess up.

Flowery horses #3: Bill and apple blossoms

Next horse underway! Cute little Bill looking out from under the apple blossoms. 

It's taken me a lot longer than I thought to get into any sort of art mood again. With the weird school term winding down (half my students were ignoring the last three remote schooling tasks I sent them anyway, so I had far less to mark than the weeks before), I had thought it would take me less time than usual to put a term behind, but as you can imagine, being ignored by students isn't quite as rel...

Mathos Tyrsgard, human Paladin

Not mice, but men this time. ;) I've played Mathos in a Pathfinder campaign for years now, and started drawing him just before the onset of my eye condition, but since we finished an epic campaign last weekend, I felt he needed a proper bit of art.

He slightly recalls a German actor I was madly in love with when I was eleven. =D

One week of term left. I'll be glad to close the book on this weird, stressful term, I can tell you. Right now, Germany is hoping to let school start norm...

Flowery Rochallor

Finally finished this! 23x23cm, watercolour and white gel pen on Fabriano 5 cold-pressed paper.

Gosh, I can't wait for the holidays. Four more weeks. And with practically no travel, there's a reasonable hope for some art.

I've decided - again - that I want to do more plein-air and location painting, and I got myself a - - collapsible camping stool. Maybe that'll make me go out more and seek some beautiful spots!

I'm also going to get my first haircut since February tomorrow....

Rochallor, lineart

Be still my beating heart, haha! 

Thanks to all who gave your ideas for future Tolkien horses! I will definitely do Shadowfax, Bill, and very probably a Black Rider's horse. (Yay for at least two non-white horses!) Bill will be fun. 

Fun trivia: In the German translation, Bill was weirdly named "Lutz". My brother had a friend named Lutz, and it felt totally incongruous. 

Rochallor - sketch

While "Asfaloth" has always had a ring of beauty and slender grace for me, "Rochallor" is like the Elven equivalent of all-caps. The name alone conveys pure strength and fierceness.  No headstall. Absolutely no bells.  <3 

He'll be surrounded by blue asters. 

Patreon is changing its tax policy, but this mostly goes, as far as I know, for physical rewards, so I think you won't be affected. If you notice any changes in taxation, particularly changes that affec...

Flowery Asfaloth

It's funny how Camargue-y he looks with that yellow tint! I really only did it to differentiate him from the flowers. :P

Okay, and he *is* based on a Camargue horse I photographed at a reenactment show. But normally my horses don't show it that much!

Watercolour and gel pen on Fabriano 5 cold-pressed paper, 23x23 cm

Asfaloth wip

Now, THIS is making me happy. :)

It was really yesterday that I told myself, I need to stop filling my sketchbook with more or less useless things "until the pandemic is over". I'd somehow been reluctant to do any actual work again, but I can't doodle cacti and dormice until there's a vaccine. So there. ;) 

Flowery Asfaloth (wip)

So it seems I needed to get a few cacti out of my system. Who knew?

I went for a comfort zone idea again, but more satisfying than cacti - horses, and flowers, and pretty colours. I won't rule out more flowery horses. =) 

Cactus page

Well, that was quite fun. ;) 

inprnt shop (plus code!) - Etsy closed for now...

The Good News (tl;dr:) I've now got a shop with inprnt, where you can get prints in different sizes, shipped from the US. I've set up a coupon code for use of all Patreon supporters!  AJTSE3H4  If you're missing any prints, please let me know, and I may add them. :) (The dormice are still on hold - I want to do something else with them.) 

The shipping cost to Europe is pretty high, so those of you who are in Europe might want to wait for my Etsy shop to open again.

...

The Vitruvian Mouse, and Valar pins in the shop!

Okay, so this thing happened today at school. XD

School was weird today, I can tell you. Germany is slowly opening up from our lockdown. Parents working in healthcare or other essential jobs can send their children to school to be supervised; I spent three hours today supervising one (very friendly) student. I kept my mask on pretty much non-stop, as the student was so enthralled by my sketching that she kept sidling over, a little too close. I wonder what several dozen or a hundred stu...

Of Mice and Valar

The pins arrived yesterday!! I still haven't been able to look at them all; I spent all day at my desk yesterday, putting together the school work for next week, and giving feedback on what the students sent me last week. I just managed to rip open the box and grab two of each, just to convince myself that they'd turned out wonderfully. 

It's weird - since the first pins I ever made (you remember the zombie smurfs), the feeling of opening a box of new pins has gradually shifted fro...

Valar pins arriving soon!

If they arrive tomorrow, I'll have a huge problem. I have three video conferences between 9 am and 1 pm - two with my students and one with the staff. I can already see it happening: 

 Me: "So, let's repeat! What suffixes do we have for adverbs in Latin?"
Student: "It's either an e, or an iter, or an er, depending on--"
*doorbell rings*
Me: "I'M OFF OHMYGOD TEACH YOURSELF SOME LATIN WILLYA" 

I'm not sure yet whether they will even appear in ...