Jenny Dolfen

Gosh, sorry for the long silence!

I didn't even realise December is almost over. The dead giveaway is not even Christmas looming ever closer, but the fact we'll see Star Wars tonight. =P

The last two weeks were just too full. Apart from having to drive my son everywhere because of his broken arm (which is healing well - thank you for all the well wishes!), my two Year Tens at school kept me busy. Five people tried to cheat their way through a Latin exam by googling translations under their desks. Some were smart enough...

Quick heads-up

Just letting you know, if shipping and replies go more sluggishly than you're ued to, it's because, on top on festive end-of-term stress, my son has broken his arm, which somehow cuts into my time and energy far more than I could have imagined. :/ 

Have some pigment porn in the meantime. ;) 

And welcome to new Patron, Jennifer! =)

Update on calendars and Friend in Need

Hey guys! All non-EU calendars have now shipped. EU and Germany goes fastest, as I can print the post labels in bulk, instead of doing a different one for each (a major nightmare). I'm going to take care of the remaining calendars over the next few weeks, and want to have them all shipped before Christmas. 

I've also ordered a hundred Friend in Need prints from Moo - I chose the paper finish with a slight mother-of-pearl sheen as the look gorgeous on my Patreon flyers - and hope to...

A friend in need!

I think I'll just chuck all my two hundred and fifty-three other paint tubes in the bin and go with just Ultramarine, Ochre and Umber from now on.

Oh, and Burnt Sienna.

=) 

More progress on Fingon (and calendars)

Woo-hoo! On my day off school, I managed to fix all calendars to Canada and Australia, as well as finishing my Etsy backlog!

The background on this is finished. It's pretty silly that I have stocked up on the most gorgeous greys over the past year, then start doing a piece full of greys, have all the greys on my palette.... 

... and then end up just using Ultramarine, Ochre and Umber again out of habit. XD

A Friend in... progress.

I am having waaaay too much fun with horses, generally. =D 

A friend in need - lineart

So, some of you may have found out on social media that yesterday was "Thank your Patrons Day". I've always disliked bandwagons like this, so I didn't make anything of it, but felt that you'd be much rather thanked with a fresh lineart of Fingon today, particularly since it's about a friend in need! I'm faaaaaairly sure that I've also done a lot of thanking recently, but let me take this opportunity again to say how often I look at Patreon, and chat with you in notes and in comments, and can'...

Update on Fingon

Looking forward to bringing out the greys again! 

Calendars shipping update

I'm happy to let you know that all calendars to the US will go out by Monday! That means that 150 calendars will have shipped. About a hundred are left. Next up are the other non-EU countries, and then it's EU and Germany last, in time for the New Year.

I still try to put in calendars with Etsy orders, and will be doing the same for the Friends in Need print later (probably next month). Could you do me a favour? If you order something on Etsy, please let me know if you're also in for a<...

Fingon rides again!

Here's the first sketch for the Friend in Need reward! <3 

I used a Roman reenactment photo as ref, and had to blow up the horse by about a factor of two, haha. The reenactor was riding a tiny little Connemara and his feet almost trailed the grass! 

Brocadetober print sets are here!

The Inktober print sets can now be found in my Etsy shop! Moo again outdid themselves with the print quality. <3 My daughter and I folded boxes all morning yesterday, and put the Brocade stickers on them, and here they are! 

Your coupon codes apply. :) If you can't remember it, just scroll down the posts a little, or follow the coupon code hashtag below. It ought to take you to the coupon code for the tier you're in. 

I've also worked off nearly all my order backlog, ...

New colours tryout

After indulging in four new paint tubes last week, I asked for ideas what to paint with it - and the results were tooooootally unexpected. XD

So here's our favourite redhead, featuring Pompeii Red, Verona Gold Ochre, Bordeaux, and Deep Scarlet. The entire piece was painted using only these four - his hair was painted using all four. 

Sketchbook piece. This paper t...

Elves in Brocade preview

Here's a little sneak peak of the card sets that should be available from my shop in about ten days or so. The cards are A5 size (double postcard), with a brocade logo on the back. Thranduil and Fingon will not be in them, as they don't quite fit the topic and Fingon's gold paint doesn't look good when reproduced - though Thranduil will be there as a bonus item for about half the sets. And Fingon gave me the idea that the "Friend in Need" print might be the one where I finally try gold printi...

Patreon tier revamp!

Hey all! As those in the 5+ tiers already know, I've had to change my Patreon approach. I was able to offer goodie tiers while I had something like 100 Patrons; now that there's 300 of you, packing and shipping has become too much work for a one-woman business! :) I need to focus on the art again - and I'm glad to hear that everyone in the higher tiers agreed. 

Of course, the calendars and Friend in Need prints will be completely unaffected by this change - I hope to do the paintin...

A whole lot of sketches!

For the first time in three weeks, my backlog of Etsy orders is now below twenty. O_o 

I'm also making good progress sending calendars with the other things. By next week, Patreon will have the names of the "Friends in Need" tier for me. I hope to paint the image for that reward in November, and then I'll go about printing and sending out those. It's going to take me a while, so please be patient. :) 

A lot of people have asked about the large sketch options with the art...

Inktober day 24, and some sketches

Maedhros! Which is usually the crowning glory of Inktobers, and that is for a reason - I'll probably take an Inktober break now, though I'll possibly come back to the style again later. I need to take some time off to finish orders and those exams that have been looking at me since the autumn holidays started. 

Edit - Maedhros has been claimed! That must be a new record! *o* 

Somewhere along the line, I will have to rethink both Patreon and Etsy - right now, it's defini...

Inktober Day 23 - Lúthien Tinúviel

Another brocade piece for Lúthien! 

Lúthien and Fingon will go up in my Etsy shop tonight at around 6 pm CET, unless someone claims them first. Thranduil already has been. :) 

EDIT: All claimed! 

No Inktober yesterday...

... but the shipping spree is underway! I did six large sketches yesterday. Here are some of my favourites. (Thanks for so many Maedhros requests, haha!) 

Welcome to new Patron, Clara! :) 

2019-10-23 08:32:22 +0000 UTC View Post

Inktober day 21 - Fingon

Well, let's see if I can keep up with the last third of Inktober! I have to say I'm pretty happy with 15 out of 21 - definitely better than last year. Plus one commission and dozens and dozens of orders packed. O_o I'm trying not the let the backlog grow larger than 35. 

Fingon today! Like Saturday's Thranduil, he got some extras - namely, his gold threads, done in mica paint. 

Welcome to new Patron, Gema! 

Inktober 19: Thranduil

So Lee Pace will be a guest at next year's Magic Con in Bonn! While I don't care for the films, having Tolkien-themed guests will certainly mean good business for me, as opposed to this year, when people would wander over, look blankly at my art, and say, "You don't have any Lucifer, do you?" 

Also, look! A signature that looks pretty and has my whole name on it, and that I can just put on my paintings in pen instead of with a brush. It took Inktober to make me realise tha...

Faramir and Larimo - finished

I'm utterly in love with these colours. It's always a surprise to see the first finished painting after a few months without. The style is usually changed a little, and the colours turn out differently than I thought they would. And it's cool to see that all my landscape painting over the holidays paid off! 

More work on Faramir and his horse

This commission came about by accident, by the way - I was approached (on a Fantasy convention) for a horse portrait. I said I didn't do those, but I could do a Tolkien-themed piece with the horse in it. The client chose Faramir, so here we have their horse. :) 

Welcome new Patron, Anna! =)

Faramir in Ithilien - in progress

Putting first colour washes on this. 

I managed to pack up fifteen orders, also artbooks, today as well, mostly the ones without sketches. *_* I also dropped calendars into the packages for those who are getting one! Hope to finish them well before the three-week mark. I'm still waiting for small cardboard envelopes I ordered for the calendars, so I can't ship those in bulk yet. They should arrive this week, however, so I can get the calendars underway soon, too. 

I'm at...

Inktober Day 16: Finarfin revisited

I felt extremely uncomfortable with Finarfin looking gloomy while holding a FIFA world cup/joint, so here's a new one of him. As opposed to Fingolfin, he didn't demand it. He just looked at me sadly from his painting, and sort of shamed me into it. Go him. XD 

Artbooks are here! =D

They're up in my shop! I've set shipping times to two to three weeks for the add-ons, to give me some more time for sketches and simply packing. :) 

One thing - the shipping on this is quite expensive as the book weighs over 500 grams. If you want to save on shipping and use a free shipping code, feel free to use FREESHIPPING19 at checkout instead of your usual 20FORPATRONS - that saves you a little more than your 20% Patreon discount if you go for the book on its own. I wouuuuuld ...

Inktober Day 15: Glorfindel

Great news first: The artbooks arrived today, and they're gorgeous! Unfortunately, it's so dark and grey today that I haven't been able to take any photos (to brag, or for Etsy), but they should arrive in my shop at some point this week. 

I also got another Inktober done: Glorfindel looks very handsome in brocade. 

Recent Inktobers will go up in my shop tomorrow evening, around 6 pm (CET)! As usual, you can shoot me a note before that if you want to claim one. Glorfindel...

Inktober Day 14: Arwen

That was a day spent mostly at the drawing table, obviously! It actually began with my daughter asking e to teach her to draw people. =O My kids have never shown much interest in being taught by me, but apparently, Jana really wanted to know stuff and figured it would be a waste not to ask the adult in the house who had a bit of expertise. 

After the commission lineart I posted earlier, I still wanted to do today's Inktober! So out came Arwen. She reminds me slightly of Scarlet Joh...

Commission progress: Faramir in Ithilien

Listening my way through "Based on a true story podcast" (and despairing about the details of the JFK assassination) and making my way through this commission! 

Inktober Day 13: Aredhel

Can you tell me if this looks blurry, please? I ditched my old computer for my new laptop, and I don't know if it's due to the insane resolution the laptop has, but when I resize the image to 650 px width, it turns out tiny. If it's blurry, please let me know, and I'll upload it in a better res! 
Edit: Yes, it was blurry - I just realised that my insane screen resolution affects pixel sizes! I know how to do it now. Better? :)

Really happy with this one - it just flowed from beg...

Inktober Day 12: Fingolfin

So, Fingolfin again gave me quite the workout. Yesterday's attempt was almost finished when I smeared his face - and that was that. (Nothing like a long black bogey to make you dispose of three hours of work! 

I gave him another go today and am really, really happy with how he turned out. I'm also very pleased with this year's output so far - and the holidays are only just beginning! I cleared up my workspace today and am ready to take on the world. XD 

(And am still sca...