A Plague Rat

A sewer rat. Done with paints. Though I might have done some sketching with a pencil first. Also, this is done on an extremely crappy paper. But hey, I just wanna fill that sketchbook and it's one where I don't care if I mess up. So that's great about it. 
In the background, my former keyboard is visible. It was great but it stopped working. I now have an even better one that was actually cheaper too! So great.
Hope you like it and see you next week.

~AnnElfwind

I hate Spongebob

 

Why did I draw Spongebob when I hate him? Rough sketch done in pencil, outline in a variety of brush and fine liners. Spongebob is done with oil pastels, the rest is acrylic paint. I mean, I love how it looks, I just hate the subject. But the random generator decided for me so I had no power over it.

Trees! In Acrylics!

Acrylics. On mixed media paper. And I'm damn proud of this one. I was watching a Yong Chen video while painting it. The same thing as he was drawing. He did it in soft pastels, I went for acrylics. I liked the subject but wanted to paint. So I did it. I painted it. And I love the result. So tell me what you think okay?

~AnnElfwind

Written on the 16th of May, 2021

 

A Cat, A Hand, And A Forest

Hello everybody, I got three new pictures for you. I also have to write this on my notebook's inbuild keyboard and it's a pain in my neck. I prefer an external keyboard but I didn't want to bring that monster of a thing with me. So I have to make do with this one. Oh well. So, the first picture is a painting of a Cat that Got the Canary. She's looking way too smug for anything else. It is done with acrylic paints on a canvas board. I first painted the background with a pastel shade of green and let it dry. Then I got out my brown, white, and yellow paints. Yes, yellow. And I'm glad I added it. It brightens the cat considerably. Oh, and she almost didn't have front paws. I forgot about them. But then I remembered and added them. More of an afterthought but at least I didn't forget altogether. Like I did when drawing this dragon picture. I forgot the back wing. And then I had to add it. And re-photograph it and re-upload it and it was a pain. So I'm glad I didn't forget this time. Really good thing that, as this painting was a gift for my aunt. So you can't call dibs! 

The second picture is just a practice sketch of a hand. I did this while watching a Yong Chen video on YouTube. He has really good tutorials. Though most of them are with charcoal. I got nothing against charcoal it's just that I prefer a pencil or other media. Even paints are preferable to charcoal. But I'm learning nonetheless. So I did this practice hand and while it's definitely not perfect, I also think it's one of my better ones. I do struggle with hands quite a lot. Not always, sometimes, it turns out exactly as I want but more often than not, the fingers just look way too weird. This was a part of a bigger picture originally. But the topic of the video was just the hand so he eliminated all the other elements and said to focus just on that. So I did. And then, just to make it pop a little, I added a highlighter outline. Because why not. And because I got a set of four brand new highlighters from my mother who got them at work but had no use for them. So I confiscated them. 

And now the last one. This one had inspiration from Pinterest. I even saved said inspiration on my inspiration blog. On Pinterest, it had the name of Forest of No Return and I really liked the name so I kept it. My version of the picture is decidedly less realistic and I think it strays into impressionism. still, I like how it turned out and I think that's the important thing. 

It is done with water... Nope. It's done with alcohol-based markers. Because I had several Tombow markers and I even pulled out my Tiger markers to add deeper black and add the blue tones to make it look more winter-y. It may be a little weird, but I still like it. Also, the white on top of everything, that's my acrylic paint marker. Basically, something like a Posca Pen, but it only exists in white, gold, and silver as far as I know. And I only own the white one. I had two thicknesses, but the thin one died on me. So I'm stuck with the medium one, but so far, it's working when I need it to. It's not like I use it that much. Most of the time, I add highlights with white acrylic paint anyway. So it can die on me too if it wants to. But it is a little more convenient for when I don't want to pull out all the stuff I need for the actual paint...

So that's it for now. Hope you like them and if you do, let me know in the comments below. And even if you don't, let me know what I should work on to improve. Okay?

~AnnElfwind

Winter warrior and the Samurai

Got two new pictures. This first one is a winter sol... Nope. Not Barnes. A winter warrior/demon. Yes, something like that. I'm insanely proud of this pic. I made it with mostly water-based markers. And I abused the hell out of that paper. It definitely isn't meant for such heavy blending and layering of something water-based. The hardest part was mixing a lip color that wouldn't be too feminine. I don't think I had the best colors for that. But! I managed. I managed to not make a female out of it. So yeah, super happy about it. Kekekeke! Apart from water-based markers I also used some acrylic paint. Mostly white for highlights and then blues and some white for the background and after, I used white again to make the snow? effect. I'm still not sure it's snow. It wasn't supposed to be snow. But meh. Let it be snow if it wants to be snow. Who am I to tell it what it can or cannot be, right?
So yeah, insanely proud of it and I hope you like it too. I found inspiration for it on Pinterest. I think I also had an art-related youtube video playing while I was drawing it. So, yeah. Inspiration galore. Tell me what you think.

This next pic is a Samurai. Again, inspired by Pinterest. But a lot more loosely. Originally, his left (from his perspective) hand was supposed to be visible, but I, stupidly, drew in permanent medium and did the hakama/kimono/whatever you call it first and well, you can't do it on top of it. I would have had to glue a piece of paper over it or something and well, I didn't have a paper with the same slightly yellow tint to it, so I decided to alter the anatomy and simply move the hand out of the frame, so to speak. His other hand has a single finger visible on the hilt of the katana. Simply because it was supposed to be there but it simply wouldn't fit. I misjudged the size I was drawing at. So yeah. Total miscalculation on my part.
The pic is done in water-based markers again with colored pencils having been used on the skin. I did this with my 'other' water-based markers and those don't have many skin tones. Also, I used and abused the hell out of my pale-blue Tombow alcohol-based marker. But only because I forgot I actually have a pale-blue water-based marker... Silly me. And now I have two as I bought a second one today, thinking I didn't have one. And, apparently, Czech Republic now has POSCA pens. I saw 'em in the local art supply store and had to buy the white one. I'm gonna use it for highlights instead of always busting out my acrylic white. It's a 0,7 tip and I think it will be perfect for the highlights. Can't wait to use it!

~AnnElfwind

Written on the 11th of August, 2020

Bluenette

Meep. Just finished this. Done in my "trashy" sketchbook. Like most pages here, the basics were already there from several years back. Well, maybe not several, but at least a year. Possibly two. And now I finished it. At first, I was gonna use my IKEA markers. But then I realized that there was some residual glue on the page and I decided that I would rather not ruin my markers. So I switched to colored pencils as I was too lazy to bust out the paints. Maybe next time.

So, it is a blue-haired female that can possibly be an elf. We don't know. Her ears are covered. As most of the time, I used reference for the hairstyle. I also used white acrylic paint for highlights. And let me tell you, I just love how it turned out. Heck, even the shirt looks good! Don't know how I did that, but I'm happy with it. 

So what do you think? If you like to draw, do you also have something that you can't draw without reference in fear of it always looking the same? Share in the comments? 

~AnnElfwind

Written on the 6th of August, 2020

Various

So, I have several new pictures. This first one is of a white trillium. At least that is what they said. I'm still not sure I believe them. Them being Pinterest. But I'm willing to not care. It's a white flower and that's all anyone needs to know. Anything else is irrelevant. It was done with oil pastels and giocondas. I love mixing those two together. It always give s me such interesting results! The background is just some colors spliced together because at that point I was too lazy to draw more leaves. So I left it like that. Considering it's done on a rather small-sized paper, I don't think it matters all that much. Though looking at it now, I think I should have gone way darker on those leaves. Like, black level darker. Or... No. No or. Definitely should have mixed black in that. This way it's way too light where it shouldn't be. But alas, I don't think I'm gonna fix it now. Too late for it. I sprayed it with a fixative and therefore I won't be able to do anything more with it. However, at least I know what to do next time I draw something like this. Right? Tell me what you think. I would very much like to read your comments. 

The Prince and the Woodelf

Two new pictures. The first one is done in blue. Don't know why. But I felt like doing something that would not be in pencil but didn't want it to be in full color. I did consider giving him the red eyes the inspiration had but decided against it. I think I made the right call. I love how it turned out.  Even the mouth and that' something I've been struggling with lately. Just a little, but if the mouth is wrong, it can change the whole pic and I don't like that. So I'm glad that this time, it turned out the exact way I wanted it. And I just love how it's blue. Do you like it? Tell me. :D

And this here is my little wood-elf. Yes, it's a female and I don't usually draw those unless a male decides they want to be a female, but hey, why not. So I just spliced some colors together. I mean, there's purple in the skin. Even some green. And the initial sketch was done in light green. That neon kind that I don't usually like much, but it worked here. It's done in colored pencils on a smooth paper and the white highlights are done with white acrylic paint. I contemplated adding some color to the background, but in the end, I'm glad I didn't. I think it looks better this way. And if I ever decide otherwise, it's easy to add some color to it later. So tell me, do you like it? Or does it suck? Oh, and the inspiration for both comes from Pinterest. Yeah, I got inspired. Heavily. So what. I like drawing elves and I needed inspiration.

~AnnElfwind

Written on the 17th of May, 2020