Jenny Dolfen

Inktober #1: "Gallifrey stands"

That #1 up there scares me. It says, "Do another 30!" XD

I'll do my best. I was afraid of even announcing I'd participate in Inktober, but here we are. I had a rotten week, being sick, then going to a theme park with my English course yesterday in the pouring rain, and today I spent eight hours for the Latin curriculum of my school. 

At half past nine, I thought, aw, screw Inktober. 

And then I thought, if you manage to do an ink piece now, after not drawing for...

The final two originals!

And I really mean final - apart from these two, I have almost no full-size watercolour left in this house. =O 

The funny thing is that this doesn't scare me anymore. This week, as I packed up "It Ends in Flame" to send to a lovely Polish lady who has loved my work for years and was totally over the moon to have acquired that particular piece, I looked at the painting and had exactly two thoughts: (1) Wow, you've really, really aged well. (2) You don't deserve to sit in a folder on a shelf...

The calendars are here!

And they look so gorgeous! The thirty or so preorders are going out over the next few days (I spent all morning packing parcels!) 

If you'd like to order one, don't forget your Patreon discount (valid until September 30): https://www.etsy.com/shop/JennyDolfenArt?coupon=CALPATREON

Original art sale: Oath of Feanor & Most of Me

Good morning all! I've just put "The Oath of Feanor" as well as "Most of Me" up on Etsy. Take a look!
http://www.etsy.com/listing/543708718/the-oath-of-feanor-original-painting

http://www.etsy.com/listing/557535201/most-of-me-original-painting

Remember to use your Pa...

Calendar giveaway winners

The two people winning a free calendar are Sarah K and Marie Prosser! 

Congrats, you two! Please check your addresses are still right. The calendars will go out in about two weeks. 

Stay safe, everyone - as far as I know, I don't think any of you are in Florida, but still. <3

A bit of good news!

None of you have even asked me if there would be a calendar this year - and I was dreading the question, as I was sure there wouldn't be. I hadn't done much, and the little I had was in such weird formats that, several times, I felt myself wishing that my favourite printing service would offer square calendars, which I might just make work. 

Well, last week I went on their site and they were advertising "Many new calendar templates!" And there, sure enough, were several square templates t...

Something gorgeous this way comes...

As I mentioned this morning, I plan to put several originals up for sale - and as you can probably see, they're the golden oldies. They're also some of the only ones I still own - and that's simply because they were painted before I sold originals on a regular basis! 

So watch this space for a heads up when they go online on Etsy! One of them will be in Changeling Artists auction "There and back again" on Monday, so I can't give you a head start. 

Raffle draw deluxe!

Here's the raffle winners for the new, improved and last raffle (for the time being). If you missed the reason for this, please have a look at the post I made this morning! 

The commission goes to Krista Sente! Let me know what character you'd like! 

The prompt goes to Springsss! Please shoot me a note with your idea!

This month, two originals go out as well! The one of Amrod and Amras at the top goes to Abigail Korsalke!...

Important - please read

I've been thinking about doing this for some time, and now that the new term is a week old and all my problems, all the stress and all my time constraints are back (and have doubled) I know this is the time to do it. 

I need to power down Patreon. Again. Even more than before. 

Maybe you've seen it coming. I haven't been posting much - I've tried to, but you must have seen that this past year has been very thin on the ground art-wise. I simply have nothing in the way of new ava...

Wand of Shrikes - sketch

Shrikes were such a great idea! Especially with the hung-up little critters I can put in to add to the "Unseelie" feel. 

Faerie Court - card game project!

Hey all! I'm proud to share two (messy) sketches I made for my contribution to a card game being done by Changeling Artist Collective, to hit the Crowdfunding stage next year. It's a project where each artist illustrates two cards, with the same symbol, one interpreted for the Court of the Unseelie and one for the Seelie court. My symbol is the Sceptre. 

My Faeries turned out somewhat warlike, hee hee. I'm really thrilled with this project and am already in love with that Faerie king. XD<...

Ginny finished

(I'm glad I managed to make her a little less like my daughter in the final version - being my number one model is getting to that girl's head, haha!)

Edit: Uploaded image file. I always forget to paint freckles! 

Ginny, in progress

The beginning of what I hope will be a loose watercolour painting. 

Varda - Patreon commission

Last month's commish for Taryn. I hope you like her! <3 

Patreon prompt: Ginny

Last month's prompt for Kate, after a fun photoshoot with my daughter. I love giving Harry Potter characters 90's Britpop style clothing. Hope to give this a bit of watercolour. 

Dover

Done plein-air, on the ferry back home. The White Cliffs are strangely ambiguous, I think. They either welcome you to this wonderful little/great island, and a little while later, they wish you farewell. Yesterday, I'd actually hoped to catch them in the sunlight (a rare occasion indeed), but while we were on Dover castle passing the time until our ferry, and we could see France from the battlements, a fog rolled in that hid even the city centre from view within a quarter hour. By the time we bo...

More English watercolour sketches

Stonehenge! I've been there before - twice, actually, even back in the day when you were allowed to walk right up to the stones - but it's always a staggering sight. The most staggering is when you drive past Salisbury plain, over the top of a hill, and look down on those breathtaking stones towering down in the valley, quite far away and yet so HUGE that they just leave you flabbergasted. Too flabbergasted to break out the camera, unfortunately. So this is from the walkway round the stones.&nbs...

Back from England!

Back from two fantastic weeks of holidaying in the South of England with the family. We went up Tintagel, Helman Tor and Glastonbury Tor, to the Doctor Who experience in Cardiff, walked to St Michael's Mount off the Cornwall coast even though the walkway was already flooded, found 400 million years old ammonites and other fossils in Lyme Regis, became English heritage members and saw more castles and battlefields and Roman palaces than you can shake a stick at. And had a hoot-hoot at Paultons Pa...

Sketches

A first concept idea for the "Bones and Legends" piece I was talking about earlier, plus a few doodles I did at various sessions. 

I'll be leaving for the holidays on Thursday - a trip round southern England; Canterbury, Southhampton, Dorset, Cornwall - and hope to return with my camera drive full of gorgeous locations! I also hope to do some sketching for Taryn and Kate, for your raffle pieces. 

Ref pics for my next piece

Finally, a new painting idea has entered my head - which has been so devoid of painting ideas for about six months that it hardly knew what to do with it, haha. 

My creative process usually starts with a story, often a phrase, words more than pictures. I then spend about two to six days playing with concepts in my head. Often, I play through three or four at the same time, and save all but one for later. That's why the last half year felt weird - there was so little there that wanted out....

Together Alone

Schmincke watercolour on Canson Nuageux paper, 29x39 cm. 

I spent all day yesterday going back and forth between hating this and loving it - ended up loving it, fortunately. ;) Something didn't work about the paper. It probably had to do with taking so long; I don't know. 

I really like the flowy background, and will experiment with that look for figures a bit more, I suppose. I feel I'm at a time of my life where I need to make a decision of where I'll go and comfortably spend...

Finally getting this one underway!

I spent three days with my parents and left the kids with them, so I have at least four days in a slightly more relaxed state of mind. Here's the first stage of this painting! 

Livestream cancelled

Hey guys, I'm really sorry that I have to cancel today's livestream. I told you that I was having real-life trouble that is just killing all my spare time and every ounce of peace of mind needed for being creative. I'd hoped I could steal two hours today; I'm afraid I can't. I'm so sorry. 

I'll try to grab a few minutes here and there to at least get the painting underway, but I'm afraid the livestream isn't possible. 

Livestream Sunday afternoon!

I'll be up with a livestream here on Patreon at 5 pm CEST, though their software Crowdcast! I've already set up the post and scheduled it, so from what I gather, it'll just pop up tomorrow afternoon in the normal Patreon feed here (and xou should get notification emails with a link, as with normal Patreon posts). It's set to Patrons Only, all Patrons no matter their pledge. :)

I'll be painting "Together Alone" then!

Woo-hoo! Livestreams!

Patreon has somehow managed to give us a livestream feature that just works. It took me a week to figure out Youtube live, and two days to figure out Twitch - and in Patreon, I just click two buttons and I'm live. O=  It has everything from comment boxes to view-later features.

So here's a poll for you - when's the best time of day for you to follow my livestreams? Tick all that would work for you! :)

(Check this site for time zone conversions from CEST/Central European Summer Time!...

Together Alone

I finally managed to get to Sandra's commission: Little Newt Scamander and Leta Lestrange at Hogwarts. There are only hints of Leta and her relationship to Newt thus far, but both seem to have been oddballs at Hogwarts, interested in animals more than humans, and seeking each other's company the way oddballs do, without forming too-deep attachments except out of necessity.

References: My daughter (times two) holding a rainbow llama, plus a stock photo of Durham cathedral, where the movies were...

July 2017 Raffle!

Hello my dears! It's July, and that means it's time for another raffle!

Holidays are around the corner, and I'm totally at a loss whether that means more art or not. You'll have noticed that there has been very little art at all this year, and somehow, it doesn't feel as if it's a dry spell that's about to end. I don't think I've ever been so exhausted in my life (which is also why there's no workshop this year). It's possible that there won't be a raffle in September - depending on how I...

Video for the Doctor

Here's the vid - with music, fittingly, by Doctor Turtle. XD

"Where do you want to start?"

Yay! This seems to be one of the occasions when a long drawing hiatus ends in something really cool. Now - to keep that up! 

Watercolour, white gel pen and Polychromos on Nuageux cold-pressed paper, A4 size.

Little video preview

I'm stealing single hours here and there to work on this, so I can't schedule a livestream right now - but the recording will be online :)

On a very interesting note, it seems Patreon is planning to make livestreams possible on this site - which is so logical when you think about it! Can't wait for that one.