They're scheduled to arrive tomorrow... I'm slightly scared, but they simply can't look horrible again. So, if all goes well, I know what I'll be doing this weekend!
2019-05-16 16:46:32 +0000 UTC View Post
Your thoughts on what the artbook should look like have been so helpful! For weeks, I stood before the task of choosing artwork for the book and thinking about how to bring it all together, and was completely stumped - now it's just falling onto place beautifully. I had no problems at all to find 50+ images to fill the book with.
The main click came when I realised this would not be another book arranged by general theme, but chronologically. I feel that my own artist's j...
2019-05-15 18:10:15 +0000 UTC View Post
Two new Patrons - welcome, Erik and Marie!
I finally managed to do the sketch for Nichole's commission! >3 Really looking forward to painting this one.
I nudged the pin company who should have delivered the Maedhros pins by yesterday, and they finally answered that the pins would arrive next week. Sigh. Keep your fingers crossed that they're a lovely as they deserve this time! I had hoped to have them this week, to have an actual comparis...
2019-05-15 14:23:30 +0000 UTC View Post
I've been trying around with this since yesterday, and finally found a pose and meaning that worked... until I realised that this pose just screams "smartphone!", especially since I had a simpler, squarer-looking crown first, at a much steeper angle. I couldn't unsee that. So I made it pointier and changed the angle, and now I'm happy. ;) I'm going to use the recessed metal look on the crown again, so hopefully its sparkliness will dissuade any further smartphone notions.
2019-05-08 16:57:29 +0000 UTC
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Welcome new Patrons, Laura and Drummerboy! ^__^
I've been less productive than I've wanted - I was going to start the Galadriel commission as well, but life and my eyes aren't being very cooperative at the moment. :( I want to get the next pin designs on the way by next Wednesday, so I can be sure to have them for Tolkien Days in mid-June.
I lovelovelove the Glorpindel. I went for him instead of Éomer/Gandalf because Glorfindel is so wonder...
2019-05-08 11:05:04 +0000 UTC View Post
That's really, really cool! Just so you know what the calendar will look like, here's the 2016 one I had made four years ago. :)
There's so much great new art since the last calendar - what was it, for 2017? I don't think I even had one made for 2018, right? It's going to be hard to choose which ...
2019-05-03 20:13:19 +0000 UTC View PostIn between packing up Etsy orders (all of yours will go out before the weekend!) I'm planning the next batch of pins, as well as thinking about what we'll do for a new Celebration tier reward in late summer!
I've cleaned up the Maglor, Fingon, and Professor designs, so those will go in production soon. I also want to add some more designs that don't require you to be an absolute Silmarillion nerd in order to appreciate them. I've spent so much time with you lovely guys that ...
2019-05-01 20:03:42 +0000 UTC View Post
First things first! A couple of people have written to me asking whether I had sent out the Patreon pins yet. I obviously hid my updates too well. ;) So - the pins have been in production (again) for two weeks, and they should be here in mid-May! I'll post photos and updates as soon as I have them, and will let you know when I've shipped all of them. :)
Last weekend was the first con of the year. It didn't go all that well for me - MagicCon used to be RingCon and HobbitCon, respectively...
2019-04-29 10:16:16 +0000 UTC View Post
I figured I'd put them on Etsy before leaving for the con - In the unlikely event that I am cleared out, I can make sure you get yours before that happens. ;) I won't be able to do any shipping before the middle of next week though! (I've already enlisted the kids to help me packing.)
2019-04-25 09:52:18 +0000 UTC
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A new camera!
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OK, that too. =D But today, 1450 new pins arrived! The failure rate was a little higher than with the last batch, but still acceptable, and the A-grades (about 92 percent) are spectacular. I haven't shot proper photos yet, but will do that tomorrow!
MagicCon in Bonn starts on Friday, so I won't have time to put these on Etsy before Monday, in all likelihood. At the very least. I won't be able to start sending these out before Monday. S...
2019-04-24 20:39:46 +0000 UTC View Post
Colours aren't final, but I really like this one. It's designed to be huge - 50 mm at least (the last ones were 28). We'll see which manufacturer I'll go with - and if they can do cutouts!
Maybe, one day, I will draw a dragon that is not cuddly, or smug-cuddly. We're all still waiting. XD
I'm thinking of doing something like this for a new Celebration Tier reward around September. Another limited edition pin, larger than the others. It looks as if the huge majority of people...
2019-04-20 20:41:35 +0000 UTC View Post
"She was chosen because she had not feared the heats of Laurelin, and was unhurt by them, being from the beginning a spirit of fire, whom Melkor had not deceived nor drawn to his service."
She's up in my shop now! I'm waiting desperately for new papers and envelopes to arrive; so please allow a week or so until I can ship (also because everything's closed until Easter until Tuesday).
Literally, too! It's such a gorgeous day today. I'll get in a bit of sunshine later for my biweekly trip to the post office, hee. XD
Welcome to new Patron, Pam!
2019-04-18 11:45:54 +0000 UTC View Post
Super facepalm moment while working on the rigging of the ship:
Trying to find out how medieval rigging would have worked close up, and anywhere, really anywhere I search, after two sentences someone will say "go to the Schifffahrtsmuseum Bremerhaven and look at the medieval cog there."
The town I grew up in, which I literally visited three days ago. >_<
I'm ashamed to say that the last time I went to the Schifffahrtsmuseum was... in the eighties, whe...
2019-04-16 16:01:18 +0000 UTC View Post
First sketch of an Arien watercolour! My daughter and I jointly posed for this. The pose is (mostly) mine, the head is hers, as is her hair. =O
2019-04-15 20:33:17 +0000 UTC View Post
I spent the end of last week with my dad in Northern Germany, so there was a lot to do and I didn't have my desk or mind free for the Arien portrait for Paul. I am still constantly thinking about pins, especially now that I know that (a) it is possible to get perfect ones and that (b) they sell incredibly well! I do make a little less money with them than with prints, but they somehow make me far happier, if that makes any sense. ^____^ I can't wait to bring them to all the cons this year! Ma...
2019-04-15 12:46:10 +0000 UTC View Post
Today was absolutely surreal - the supplier of the two recent pins said that, if we could get the next designs all approved by this evening, I could have them in time for MagicCon. Which is on 26 April. O_o
What followed was an absolute frenzy of emails, design templates, corrections, more corrections, and even more corrections. And we actually made it!
A lot about the frenzied correction process had to do with my being too confident with my lines. I'd gone overboard with li...
2019-04-10 15:52:23 +0000 UTC View Post
I was so scared when I got the package today, holding it, closed, in my hand and telling it "please don't suck!"
And what can I say. These are just AMAZING. I can't believe how perfect and beautiful they are. These are from the other manufacturer now, and gosh, I can't stop staring that them. No faults, no flaws, so scratches, just utter perfection. 💕💕💕💕
They're in my shop already! Remember that if you're in the Celebration tier, you get the other Maedhros pin anyway. ...
2019-04-09 13:05:00 +0000 UTC View Post
Here's the tutorial I promised to do. Have fun! And enjoy the Celesnark. XD
2019-04-06 11:49:35 +0000 UTC View Post
I just got shipping confirmation for these two beauties! I'm slightly scared, but these come from a different company (which is extremely fast!) and were done in gold, not in bronze, which caused the problems the last time around. Plus, the skin tone the company gave me for Maedhros is the go-to light skin tone this time around, not the greyish-beige of the previous attempt.
In other weirdly good news, the Ebay ripoff wasn't one after all - it was just sluggish shipping and zero c...
2019-04-05 06:32:27 +0000 UTC View Post
It's nice to use my own art as reference. ;)
I'll probably do Finrod as well before I order the next batch... although I'm slightly scared to order so many new pins. On the other hand, I absolutely feel I'm in for a karma payback.
2019-04-03 18:32:26 +0000 UTC View Post
You'll remember this was originally planned as Finrod's pose, but since Maglor was also high on the list, I ended up having no idea how I'd do Maglor if Finrod got the harp, so he got it.
My idea was to do Finrod with a stylised ring of Barahir/maybe just the crown of golden flowers, as a symbol of sacrifice. Fingon - I'm not sure. Something with Thorondor? Or with his bow? Though that opens a lot of composition issues; the harp here is about as much "white background" as I want t...
2019-04-03 15:04:22 +0000 UTC View Post
I thought about your feedback about the last Fëanor update, and did a third version - I think he combines the vision and determination from the two previous ones!
Also, wow - forty likes on the Beren and Lúthien designs? That's a huge first! <3 You remember that I had the kingfisher and "open edition" Maedhros done with a different company; they should be here at the end of next week. I hope to get a pantone book this week, so I can order the colours much more precisely. and ...
2019-04-02 14:08:54 +0000 UTC View Post
When I first read the Silmarillion at age seventeen, I couldn't really connect with Beren. Here was this gorgeous Elven princess who could have had any handsome Elf she wanted - and she chose a scruffy human?
Four years later, I met a guy with whom I had the nerdiest first date in history - a friend of ours had hooked us up because he had borrowed my Silmarillion comic (through the friend) and now gave it back to me in person. We talked at the Uni cafeteria for hours until it closed, t...
They say you should get straight back into a car after an accident. I'll extend the metaphor to designing your next pin straight after a train wreck of a production line. ;)
The good thing is that, with his horrible zombie smurf pin, I learned LOADS of useful things. One, my lines can be way, way thinner than I thought and still look fantastic. Two, I need a pantone book. I hope I'll be able to somehow manage light Elven skin.
Talking about light Elven skin, over twent...
2019-03-30 18:53:11 +0000 UTC View Post
"Again after a hundred years Glaurung, the first of the Urulóki, the fire-drakes of the North, issued from Angband's gates by night. He was yet young and scarce half-grown, for long and slow is the life of the dragons, but the Elves fled before him to Ered Wethrin and Dorthonion in dismay; and he defiled the fields of Ard-galen. Then Fingon prince of Hithlum rode against him with archers on horseback, and hemmed him round with a ring of swift riders; and Glaurung could not endure their darts...
2019-03-30 12:42:38 +0000 UTC View Post
So... I almost didn't sleep tonight, and when I got a notification at school that the pins were there, I raced home during a free period. I had my hubby do an unboxing video... but I can't share that, as the exact moment when my heart was shattered isn't really good video material. There were three or four halfway acceptable pins (right). The rest all look like the one on the left.
Look at the horror... it seems the bronze plating was rubbed into the enamel on nearly every single ...
2019-03-29 15:05:50 +0000 UTC View Post
Gosh, I can't believe these three took me the better part of the afternoon!
Can it have been the compulsive refreshing of the shipping status page in between painting... naaaaah. ;)
2019-03-28 18:34:11 +0000 UTC View Post
I'll let the wonderful Foil Arms and Hog sum up what I'll be doing today and tomorrow.
2019-03-28 12:05:57 +0000 UTC View Post