Jenny Dolfen

Giveaway results are in!

Sorry, I totally forgot to do the draw last night, I was so swept up in snowy Noldor! =O Why didn't you remind me? ;)

We had eighty-one people participating - wow. Here are the winners of the proof print giveaway: 

Ellen McMicking won a copy of "The Hunt"!

And one each of "Fingon rescues Maedhros" goes to Photine and Vasiliki! 

Congrats, you three! Please make sure your addresses are correct! If you're unsure, just ...

Winter hunt

It snowed today!! I managed to be outside during the one hour while every single thing was white. It'll be gone by evening, but this piece is even more of a must now, though I'd been planning it for a while. 

Maedhros and Fingon hunting in the snow. We went to a falconry show this autumn, which is where I took the ref pic for Fingon. It was actually an eagle they had there. 

(Much of the rest of the show was just incredibly bad. The narrator transplanted Frederick I from the 12...

"And the Orcs fled" prints are here, and Patreon changes

www.etsy.com/listing/564222884/and-the-orcs-fled-before-his-face

Supporters with 3$+, don't forget your coupon code when you order from my shop! :)

The Patreon changes mentioned above are not my doing this time. I don't know if Patreon has notified you already, but creators have been told that Patreon is remodelling their fees system - until now, for every $ you pledge, we creators pay a certain amount to Patreon as fees. Which is totally fine and has been for creators and sup...

Little winter gryphon ACEO

A little gryphon watercolour I did for a Secret Santa exchange of a Fantasy illustrator group I'm in. 

Not really ACEO size - it's slightly larger. 

A little giveaway!

I've been toying with this idea for a while, and here goes: 

Before I make a piece available as a print, I usually do several print proofs on matte paper to see whether the colours come out the way I want them to. A few of you already know this, as I kept you waiting for original art to be shipped because I still needed the original to match it with the prints! (A Herbology Lesson, in particular, refused to cooperate. ;)) 

As a little Christmas giveaway, I'm going to r...

Like a white fire within / And the Orcs fled before his face

"Maedhros did deeds of surpassing valour, and the Orcs fled before his face; for since his torment upon Thangorodrim his spirit burned like a white fire within, and he was as one that returns from the dead." 

Watercolour on Canson Vidalon paper, 28x38 cm. 

I'll have to choose a title at some point... I love both!

I think this Vidalon paper may have totally spoilt me. The next time I work on a paper that is not as crazy, no doubt I'll try all these things like rubbing off ...

Close...!

I'm slowly getting used to the idea that every painting now takes about twice to three times as long as they used to. I have the whole day off work today and thought I'd finish this piece before cooking lunch. Ha-ha! 

I love those trolls. Somehow they remind me of Waldorf and Statler. "Doesn't look good for those orcs at all, does it?" - "Which reminds me, I think I left the kettle on..." 

I don't think I'd run... *swoon*

Okay, apart from my choice of subject matter, I put you through very little actual fangirling, but a healthy dose of fangirling is in order for this one. 

Oh, Maedhros. <3 <3 <3 

Sorry, I'm ready to paint on now. XD

At snail's pace...

It's weird that something that has so much momentum takes so long! 

At least I'm through my A-level exams now. Only 8b left to mark, and then one more Latin test before the holidays, but that goes quickly. 

(Marking at German schools is a lot of work. Our students sit between two and four exams each term, in every main subject (German, Maths, English, Latin), and guess which idiot chose to teach two main subjects. >_< My dad warned me. Teach Art, he said. You'll ...

Riding out of the ugly stage

The last stage I posted actually frustrated me - and I knew I had to take some measures to keep me going. Normally, horses' heads the the biggest fun part of any drawing, which is why I usually do them late. Here, I needed to see whether detailing would fix the ugliness. And yay, it did! 

I love how the horse has agency now. Before, he didn't really look feral to me because I'm just very poor at reading horse expressions, but now, he looks totally in charge. I really like that. I...

Colours blocked in

Okay, I was wrong - watercolour sometimes has an ugly stage. ;) 

Ugly-ish. I needed to block in whole areas or this whole thing would have become unreadable. 

Painting "Deeds"

I love that moment when my desk just says "readiness" and everything's laid out for the fun part! 

The lower half of my palette still shows the colours used in "Maedhros returns" - I rarely clean my palette. I can usually reuse whatever is on it. 

Painting the fiery swirls in the background, leaving something like a halo around Maedhros ("His spirit burned like a white fire within" - a...

"Deeds of surpassing valour" - lineart!

YASSSSSS.

This one has really kicked my behind! But yay, was it worth it. I had to work hour-wise in the evenings as I still have thirty out of fifty exams that need marking, but I have managed, probably for the first time in my life, to find a really healthy school/art balance. Heck, I've added any art at all into the school balance during marking season. ;)

Detail level: insane

I seem to up my detail with every new piece I do. And I'll probably end up lightening some of these after scanning, to aid readability. 

And I thought "The Hunt" took long! O_o 

The Nights of Silly Grimaces continue...

I think I may have sprained a face muscle or two tonight. 

And: 59 days drawing and counting! Yesssss! 

Deeds of surpassing valour I - lineart in progress

You know that artists always make faces like the people they're drawing?

I was trying to look like the horse for the last half hour. 

(Daughter has run off with my camera, so it's just a crappy tablet photo for now...)

Edit: Daughter has returned camera; new upload. ;) 

Run, little Orcses, run.

Refined sketch. YAY. 

Deeds of surpassing valour (I)

I had the idea for this one at the worst of times: When I was going to bed. That resulted in my lying awake and planning the composition until about 1 AM. If I'd just sat down and scribbled it, I probably would have been asleep an hour sooner. But at least that way, scibbling it this morning took no time at all. 

I actually want to do two scenes about this quote. This of course is the classic - I wanted to have "the Orcs fled before his face" in there. Another one will be Maedhros defendi...

Maedhros returns to his brothers

Whew! =D

Watercolour on Canson Vidalon paper, 28x38 cm. 

I like those soft washed-out effects - need to do more with those!

To solve the who's who riddle: Amrod, Caranthir, Curufin, Maedhros, Amras, Celegorm, Maglor. 

Fëanorean hair is fun to paint

There's just so many shades! It should be guessable now who is who. :)

I love this soft look here. Now, to keep away from killing that...

Fëanoreans - wip

"So, Jenny, what did you get done today, art-wise?"

"Oh, I sloshed some paint across a painting and now I have to wait two hours for it to dry 'on foot' because the hair-dryer would mess up my arty sloshes."

Fëanoreans - lineart

Ah, my dear, dear boys. <3

I just loved playing with their expressions. Everybody looks happy - then you see Maedhros' face, his hand still on Celegorm's shoulder in a sort of weary celebration, and Maglor's, his hand afraid to go anywhere near Maedhros' maimed arm, his face in a plea for forgiveness... which Maedhros has long given, but which Maglor will never feel he deserves. </3 

Sorry, I don't think I can ever make a Fëanorean scene not about those two. ;) ...

Seven sons in progress

Good grief, another one of those where you think "This is a quick one" and then it takes ages... ;)

On a very proud note, it's Day 50 of drawing every single day! Yesss! 

Maedhros returns (aka Fëanorean group hug)

I've been wrestling with several pieces - did rough sketches of Maedhros sitting with the crown in his hand and making up his mind; a very quick and quickly abandoned sketch of him being brought before Morgoth; but in the end, I returned to this one, which I actually sketched years ago, and really liked the setup. The problem was that I'd stopped at four sons, and getting seven into any picture always ends up horribly crowded. XD

I can never make up my mind whether Amrod is there or not. ...

Etsy shop explosion and coupon code!

Mats and frames are here, and prints of the new paintings are now in my shop!

There's a photo missing for the matted print of "The Hunt", there was simply not enough daylight today to take a decent photo. I'll do some nice and holiday-themed photos tomorrow, but I wanted you to get first dibs before that! 

Your 15% coupon code is AUTUMN2017, and it's valid from today until 25 November!  Click on the link below to apply it directly to any purchase.

2017-11-17 18:28:02 +0000 UTC View Post

A fitting Throwback Thursday (and suggestions?)

Some of you may remember this? It's almost fourteen years old and has aged pretty well (I've certainly drawn worse chests recently). Back in the day, it was definitely a level-up piece, too, and set off a whole Silmarillion spree of pics posted to Elfwood and DeviantArt that marked my early days in the online fandom. (Including flame wars over Fingolfin's hair colour!) 

Has anyone got a suggestion for me what to draw next? I have a deal with Maedhros - every time I put him through the mil...

Maedhros' rescue (finished)

I managed to keep off the indiscriminate detailing! I only have one strip of detail, as it were - from the bow and Thorondor's wing across both their faces and down Maedhros' arm. I have often planned to do something like this, but I just always ended up adding darks here and there and here and oh there and oooo shiny!, but now it worked. <3 

Watercolour on Canson Vidalon cold-pressed paper, app. 22x31 cm. 

If it hurts when you paint it, it's right...

I get this with this scene every time. Poor love. 

Two things on a lighter note: 

1. I now don headphones whenever I paint (with music from Focus@Will - that really has conditioned me to go into instant arting mode) and I have a little magnifying glass you can stick on your own glasses. When I paint, I look like a nutty alien professor. 

2. My daughter saw this lying on my desk and asked, "Who is this?"
I can now speak with confidence when I say that you can narra...

Maedhros' rescue - keeping it airy

The idea is to only detail bit of this in paint. Let's see how that goes... 

Maedhros' rescue - lineart

Ouch. *_*

I can't believe how good this came out. After I'd just declared that I couldn't work with reference and would stick to my freehand guns. Now I even changed the ref considerably and it still works. And the flow and detail is all mine. 

It's as if all that stuff I learned in Rebecca's class last year has been ticking away inside my head. Back then, it was just too much for me to incorporate, so I shut down - and now it pours onto the paper, looks at me and says, ind...