My vision of the character ‘Smaug’ from J.R.R. Tolkien’s ‘The Hobbit’.
Pencil sketch, coloured digitally on IbisPaint X.
Here is a passage from The Hobbit describing Smaug’s appearance: “There he lay, a vast red-golden dragon, fast asleep; thrumming came from his jaws and nostrils, and wisps of smoke, but his fires were low in slumber. Beneath him, under all his limbs and his huge coiled tail, and about him on all sides stretching away across the unseen floors, lay countless piles of precious things, gold wrought and unwrought, gems and jewels, and silver red-stained in the ruddy light. Smaug lay, with wings folded like an immeasurable bat, turned partly on one side, so that the hobbit could see his underparts and his long pale belly crusted with gems and fragments of gold from his long lying on his costly bed.”
Fineliner scribblings on a back ground of paper... . . . ... . . . . . . ..... . ... . . . . . ...... ... . . A rabble of sozzled birds on a tightrope of joy heading towards the puppet master up above. . . .... . . ... . .... .. .... .. ... . . . . Prints are available (16 out of 20 at the time of going to press) . ..............................
Queen inspired by the nicotiana alata flower (which is called Night's Queen in Romanian) and the Greater Death Shead Hawkmoth which feeds with the flowers nectar.
Freehand sketching in ink from a photo reference I found online, to practice conveying that lots-of-stones look without drawing all the stones (photo credit: K. Mitch Hodge). Micron pens + alcohol markers.
New sketchbook time again? That it is. Credit to one of my workmates for inspiring the title here, hehehehe. It's been a busy few days here at Bleu HQ... '^^ :-)
Ball point pen over wash. Being a mild-mannered Aries (married to a mild-mannered Aries), I didn't want the usual warlike ram, rather a friendly guy with nice "shofar" horns!
Oh boy, markers (NOT a go-to), least favorite color, and a subject that isn’t on my radar. This was a hard one what with 3 negatives going for it. But, hey, it’s a challenge, right?
Choosing a subject came first….we have a house full of Indonesian masks and sculptures. (My husband studied gamelon music in Indonesia.) Garuda, the “mount” of Vishnu and popular with Balinese artists seemed a good choice, esp. since he can be green, red, yellow or orange.
I rarely choose yellow/orange for anything---artwork, décor, clothing...though I do have a soft spot for sunflowers.
First I drew a bunch of images based on one of our wooden Garuda sculptures and then made a simplified marking pen outline and colored it with markers.
A few days ago, I started a Pigma Micron pen 005 drawing of a tiger. Yesterday, I decided that it would be nice with colored pencil. I used Berol (1990's) Prismacolor, Koh-I-Noor Polycolor, Faber-Castell Polychromes colored pencils.
Pasha was a beloved German Shorthaired Pointer rescue dog. He came to us a bedraggled youngster and lived to become a "grand old man." This pencil drawing was done as a tribute after he "crossed the rainbow bridge."
