Jenny Dolfen

Wolf sketch

Using the last few warm days to tackle a few of the animals that I really love but hate to draw! I don't know what it is about wolves that just totally eludes me. They always turn out like bears when I draw them. I'd say the neck is too bulky but the dimensions were like that in the ref. Hm. I suppose I should have made him less poofy.

On a different note: Autumn holidays! Woo-hoo! Hubby and I plan to completely de-trash our joint office. Currently, it holds both our desks, a few drawers for m...

Kingfisher sketch

I have the morning off, which means the possibility of art before my eyes decide "sorry, enough for today!" I've been thinking about doing something with kingfishers for a while, so consider this a study. The top sketch is referenced from a photo by Werner Oppermann. 

Ballpoint pen, Tombow calligraphy pen and watercolour in sketchbook. 

"You just can't beat the person that never gives up." Greg Ruth. I don't feel like that very often, but it can't hurt to try it every once in a...

Catch me if you can (digital sketch)

I have doodled a bit with ink and graphite, but nothing worth showing yet; I do hope to get one or two graphite pieces done anyway. There's a Feanor on the workbench, as well as a piece of Northern German legend that i have always been fond of: The Rider on a White Horse, who'll appear on the dyke during a storm flood. 

In the meantime, here's a quick and fun movement sketch for a commission for Ian: Éowyn and Faramir. Never race your bride if she's a daughter of Rohan, and expect to win...

:(

So, this is what it looks like when I try to art when my daily quota of eyesight is used up (depending on how stressy the day is, and how much small things I have to look at before noon, that's between 1 am and 3 am). 

We'll see how much Inktober there'll be this year.

Inktober #1 - Unicorn Ex Libris

Inktober, here we go! I had the idea few days ago to make thirty-one different ex libris, and combine Inktober with Mythtober. 

Now, the big question is: Will she manage all thirty-one? Will she actually stick with ink (Kuretake Fudegokochi pen)? Let's find out! 

All of these (note the optimistic plural!) will be for sale, incidentally, so if there's one that tickles your fancy, send me a note! 

Edit: Might be a good idea to add a picture... ;)

Lil' autumny sketch (Inktober warmup)

Doodled a little self-portrait during a conference last week. And I had an idea for Inktober, actually - in a few days, you will know if it worked. Or rather, in thirty-three days, I suppose. XD

Welcome to new Patron Thomas, and welcome back, Floss! *confetti*

Tuor and Idril, lineart

In case you couldn't tell by "Tuor and the Swans", Tuor looks a bit like Jamie Bell for me. XD 

Tuor and Idril - lineart underway

Finally doing some more work on this. Let me say again how grateful I am for all the support you poured over me on my last post - that means the world to me! I need to make art-time in the mornings, it seems - after 3 pm, my eyes just aren't up to much, but before that, it's better. Which, of course, is kind of problematic for someone who usually doesn't come home until 3 pm. 

As you can see, I changed Idril's pose so that she's now looking at him (flirty, even), because I looked at the l...

Parents evening, pretty crazed critters, and an important announcement.

I've been wanted to make this announcement since last week and originally planned to do it along with a Tuor/Idril lineart; since I haven't been up to that, and spent a weird hour last night drawing ever-weirder critters into my sketchbook during a parents evening at my son's school, I won't put it off any longer. 

I'm forced to reduce my Patreon once again. My eyesight means that drawing can only happen in tiny instalments at the best of times; right now, it isn't even the best of times,...

Tuor and Idril - new draft

I felt the urge to do more with my recent Tuor and Idril sketch, and planned it in a way that puts less emphasis on faces, as those are what causes me huge amounts of trouble right now. 

(That guard looks like Sesame Street's Bert, haha.)

Celestial Pearl... chickens.

I've finally followed an almost life-long dream of mine and got an aquarium, which my daughter and I care for. Initially, I wanted to keep guppies (you remember my obsession with guppy mermaids), but then my son decreed that anything that ate its own children was not allowed in out living-room. 

So I got us some fish that I hadn't even known existed: Celestial pearl danios. In German, their name "Perlhuhnbärbling" translates to "pearl chicken barbel-like thingy", which is why I call them...

Fairy Queen's handmaiden

She just didn't look regal enough to be the queen herself. ;) 

This is... different!

Apart from the fact that this is another paper experiment that results in another "paper I won't use again", I really like the way this is going. 

Patreon reward piece in progress: Fairy Queen

And also a suggestion piece! Trying a wetter, looser approach, and remembering that a wet approach already means that a "quick" piece will be a very, very slow piece, because drying times, hee.

You certainly noticed there was relatively little art over the summer; the reason for this is that my eyes don't permit me much. My ophthalmologist has pretty much given up my right eye as a bad job; so the solution he's pushing for is that my left eye needs to take over. Which sounds easier than it is....

Look what's arrived!!

They're here, and gorgeous again! 

Seashells not included. XD

I'll be sending the preorders out over the next week - with free buttons again for every Patron! For those of you who missed the pre-order, the seafoom green and white ones will hit my shop soon. :)

Sketch suggestion: Idril and Tuor

Evelyn, Zane and Alan all asked for Gondolin/Tuor, and here's Tuor seeing Idil high on the walls of Gondolin. 

Please welcome new Patrons Srujana and Mari! 

Back from holidays - last chance for unicorn tees!

We're back from holiday - which was far less relaxing than anyone could have hoped. For a day after our return, we even feared our cat Isis had disappeared, but she finally came back home (and spent the next twenty-four hours either sleeping or eating). 

I'm about to get the unicorn tees, so if you haven't pre-ordered yours yet, this is your last chance! Here's everything you need to know. :)

Holiday sketch

I forgot that sketching on holiday is pretty much impossible, but I managed this little plein-air painting today.

Suggestion box August

To keep me busy sketching during my holidays, please drop your sketch ideas here!  ☟ 

Unicorn print winners!

 ❦ Here are the winners for the unicorn prints! ❦

Zane Libiete
Sarah Brown
Tanya

Congrats, you three! Please make sure your shipping address is up to date!

My shop will close tonight until August 16, because I'll be on holiday! Everything ordered until then will go out tomorrow. :) 

Uni-tees preorder!

Hello my friends, 

as promised, here's the preorder for the unicorn tees (Patrons only)! The shirts are 23€ again; later in the shop, they'll be closer to 28. You'll need to add 4€ for shipping. 

Here's how it works! To preorder, please send 27€ (that includes worldwide shipping ) to paypal.me/jennydolfenart. I expect the shirts to be ready to ship around the last week of August. If you buy more than one t-shirt, the postage stays the same. For three...

"Unicorn" prints now in my shop... and Uni-tees!

I don't do many self-explanatory/universally geeky paintings, do I? I think this one will do well on shirts and the like. The last shirts I made were from Spreadshirt, which make these beautifully coloured shirts above!  💙  

Would any of you like one of these? I'll get the two above for my shop; for Patrons only, I would add the dark blue melange variety in a slim fit that we had for the 99% Noldo shirts, and possibly also black melange shirts, though I think the lighter sea colou...

Where do Unicorns go?

In the sea the fish have learnt to fly
on a moonlit night
on wings of silver
as the enchanted stars sail serenely by
Do they know
Where do unicorns go
Where winged horses fly
narwhals lost at sea
and never seen again
Go, go and ask the magpie
where do unicorns go

Watercolour and white gouache on Canson Aquarelle cold-pressed paper, 20x20 cm

Original sold! ^__^

I'm giving away three small prints of this! Just comment on this post if you'd like one. Wi...

Did anyone say mottled?

This is my ever-favourite cheap Canson paper again, which lets you model and remodel and mottle and remottle endlessly 💗  

I had a picture book when I was younger (definitely not young enough for picture books, but my eleven-year-old self was an art appreciator back then already and didn't care) called "The Unicorn and the Sea." It was about a unicorn that rescues the Sea King's little daughter from harpies, and carries her back into the sea, but then is too tired to swim back to land....

Narwhals

I really need to paint more mottled sea creatures! Such fun to do! The perfect application for wet into wet specks. 

The weather is weird today. It's overcast, but somehow, things still dried immediately while I was painting outside - and then single drops started to fall, so I quickly raced back indoors with all my stuff. Naturally, no further drops fell after those first six. Sigh. 

The way to cool down on a heatwave day.

Sitting inside and using only Cerulean Blue, Turquoise Blue, Cascade Green, Horizon Blue... okay, and just a spot of Naples Yellow.

A cool (excuse the pun) welcome to Alexis, new Patron! \o/

Unicorns - first wash

I feel cooler already! 

Unicorns - lineart

It's so hot here that sitting in the shade and drawing already mades you break a sweat! Painting this later should have a nice cooling effect. 

Dialogue while drawing: "Maybe I should do one of those narwhals without a horn." - "Why?" - "Because it's not a bloody stag night!" 

Narwhals are cute. Like streamlined teddybears. 

Refined "Unicorn" sketch

I've cleared this up a bit, clumped the narwhales together in a more dynamic way, and realised that herons had nothing to do here - of course it must be magpies! (I was going for kingfishers at a time, too, but cool as they look, they have even less to do with the sea.)

Welcome to new Patron, Catherine! 

Order of the Dragon reward: Aredhel

I've been working on this over the last week - the next of the Order of the Dragon rewards! I got stuck with her at some point (and I think I managed to paint on the back of the paper, argh) but then I found that fuzzying up the entire piece with water again gave it a very satisfying softness. 

She'll be on her way to her new home tomorrow! ^^