101 in 1001: Creatures, Aliens, Military Officers, and More

Monotropa In Spore Space

I completed another 101 in 1001 goal recently, whilst doing something I love.

• 032. Finish 10 digital paintings

You can view the previous paintings here. This is the last six, starting with the picture above, 'Monotropa In Spore Space'. It was inspired by the plant Monotropa uniflora, commonly known as ghost pipes. They have pure white stems, each with a single flower. The blooms themselves are sometimes white like the stems, but are often tinged with hues of another colour/other colours as well. They're also parasitic and rely completely on their hosts.

Eske

The next one I completed was a character design for someone in a story/graphic novel that I'm working on at the moment. His name is Eske and he is employed by the military in the nation in which he currently resides (he's originally from somewhere else).

Morning Ritual/Midnight Mass: Mary

Following Eske, I finished the digital painting 'Mary', which is part of a series called Morning Ritual/Midnight Mass. There are two distinct sets of images which will go together to make two larger pieces at the end.

Architeuthis

Next came 'Architeuthis', inspired by the golden Giant Squid, Architeuthis dux. Most of the character designs I do are in black and white now, but 'Architeuthis' definitely needed his colours!

Miseria And The Familiar Shape

My space princess friend Miseria was the lovely "muse" for my next drawing. Green, purple and black are colours that they often wear, so that became the colour scheme for them. And also, I just wanted to draw a magic moon jellyfish made of stars, so that happened too!

The Paracosmonaut

Lastly, 'The Paracosmonaut', a combination of "paracosm" and "cosmonaut".  I had intended to finish the next Morning Ritual/Midnight Mass digital painting, but this one played like a little film in my head, my brain took a "screenshot" of it and made it into a picture. This could have been called "Parastronaut" or something similar, but a) it doesn't work as well and b) in the little "film" there was definitely a Russian cosmonaut. 

Fun facts: A cosmonaut is different to other astronauts because they are trained by and part of Roscosmos (Roscosmos State Corporation for Space Activities) in Russia, as opposed to the space organisations of other countries. The space agencies of other countries have different requirements for the amount of flight experience time acquired and, for example, the age/height restrictions differ from  those of other nations as well.

A with that, the goal is complete!

101 in 1001 - Monochrome Memories

Monochrome Memories

From the old stage plays to films to dolls and everything in between, Pierrot is a character for whom I have a fondness. Of course, I like some interpretations much more than others, but I have an attachment to and sympathy for the character in general. With that in mind, I decided to draw a version of him for my 101 in 1001 goal:

• 032. Finish 10 digital paintings

Drawing clothing is not my strong suit, but his face came out quite well, so I don't mind this one so much.

Details:

Face close-up

Harlequin mask detail

Columbine / aquilegia flower detail

Four down, six to go!

101 in 1001 - Agaric, The Mushroom Man

Agaric, The Mushroom Man

This is Agaric, a mushroom man of many eyes and tiny frame. I drew him as a character design at the end of last month, but I'm including him in the goal:

• 032. Finish 10 digital paintings

Originally, I wasn't going to give him clothing (since he's a mushroom!) and he looked like this:

Natural Agaric

But I decided he looked a bit plain without some form of covering, so he evolved into the finished design instead.

Three done, seven to go!

101 in 1001 - Serious Curls

Serious Curls

This is a digital painting I did in January, but somehow forgot to post until now! It's for the goal:

032. Finish 10 digital paintings. 

There's a lot wrong with it - e.g. her ears are very messy because I forgot to blend them - but it's not so bad.

So that's two down and eight to go!

365 Days of Art: Fish

207. Fish

For various reasons, I've had another long break from this blog - my apologies. I have still been drawing (and taking photographs), though the resulting pictures haven't all been for this challenge or just haven't been anything that I want to share here. However, I'll try to update more often from now on, especially as I'm starting 2 new drawing projects soon.

Anyway, the above digital drawing is a quick sketch of a telescope eye goldfish, for number '207: Fish' of my 365 Days of Art challenge.

365 Days of Art: A dream you had

63. A dream you had

The above picture is for challenge number 63 on my 365 Days of Art list; that's "A dream you had".

This was the most recent dream I had before I started this drawing, but I had to decide between this one and another I had last year, in which I was travelling through space inside a mechanical swan and then went to a fair in it and met some Victorian people or the space opera type dream I had. I did also consider some of my recurring dreams, but those always seem to be rather unpleasant and would be difficult to draw, as I usually experience them from more than one person's perspective at once (it's difficult to describe). 

Anyway, this dream was pretty tame compared to the ones I normally have, but the sound was unusual for me, and the way I woke up was different as well. I will say here too that it was all from my point of view, which is also very unusual for me. I've drawn one image for this so far, but I might add another at some point. If I do, I'll add a link back here in a future entry.

So, on with the dream...

365 Days of Art: Incubus

99. Incubus: 'After the Honey'

This is another picture for my 365 Days of Art challenge. It's another one I did a while ago but forgot to post. this time, it's for number 99 - Incubus. The incubus' victim isn't asleep, but regional versions of incubi mythology varies quite considerably. I'm sorry that this isn't a very "nice" picture, but incubi are supposed to be demons, after all (by the way, the person with blonde hair is not a child, I just made the incubus very tall for no reason).

Anyway, I sketched out the lines for this one in a sketchbook first and then coloured it in Photoshop. I like the way the colour scheme turned out, so I might end up using it again some time.

365 Days of Art: Ice

356. Ice

This is a digital painting for my 365 Days of Art challenge; number 356: "Ice". This particular picture does have a specific meaning behind it (to me), but I don't feel like explaining it. So I'll just say: there are only two people in the image, both of whom are alive, and one of them is is only visible as a gloved hand.

365 Days of Art: Hallucinations

362. Hallucinations.

This is a picture I did yesterday, to count towards my list of themes, for my self-imposed 365 Days of Art challenge. The above pen drawing is for number 362: "Hallucinations". 

365 Days of Art: Something sticky and something sweet

363. Something sticky and something sweet.

Another pen drawing for my 365 Days of Art challenge; this time it's for number 363: "Something sticky and something sweet". Again, this was one I did a while ago and forgot to post and it was done mostly in felt tip pens that were lying around.

365 Days of Art: Spring

170. Spring

This is another picture for the 365 Days of Art challenge that I set myself and, also, with number 170: 'Spring', it also means I've finished the last of the 'Seasons' set (finally!). Spring is often associated with being the season of fresh, beautiful and young things, but I thought the personification of Spring themself might look a little worn out and somewhat "imperfect", after "giving birth" to all the new life of the year. Their slightly wonky nose and dark-circled eyes were on purpose. and I actually prefer them to be honest!

365 Days of Art: Something Wild

27. Something wild.

This is a digital painting I did as a present for my mother, as her some of her favourite animals are elephants. The elephants featured are Indian elephants, so the flowers featured are all based on flowers of India, though the colours have been varied slightly. After I was done with the picture, I had the piece printed onto a canvas and gave it my mother  - she seemed please with it and it's on her wall now. 

Luckily enough, it also counts towards my 365 Days of Art challenge for number 27: "something wild", so that's another one of those I can cross of a well!

365 Days of Art: A door to somewhere else...

301. A door to somewhere else.

As I haven't written here for a while, I thought I'd resume posting with another drawing towards the 365 Days of Art challenge. This is for theme number 301, "a door to somewhere else", which I drew on paper using fineliners. It probably would have looked better scanned, rather than just photographed, but that isn't what I did. So apologies if some of the details are a little blurred.

Inktober & No. 14 of 365 Days of Art - 'Mr. Cimim'

14. Design a character based on an animal/mythical creature

This year, I decided to participate in InkTober, a yearly event in which you do an ink drawing for everyday for the month of October. I don't usually draw in pen and ink, but wanted to take it as an opportunity to improve this year. 

Yesterday, was the first day and I chose to also incorporate it into the 365 Days of Art challenge that I have going on this blog. This one is for number 14, "Design a character based on an animal/mythical creature"; I chose owls and mimic birds. I used fineliners between 0.1 - 0.7mm (in black, red and blue), a black 2mm fineliner (for thick lines and the background), and a silver rollerball pen for highlights. 

This is Mr, Cimim. He's an unusual, man-like creature, with bird talons for feet, four eyes, and a beak for a nose. He lives in The Forest of Unknown Visions and disguises himself with bird feathers and the head of a giant horned owl. He also constructs wings made of mimic bird feathers and spiderwebs, as he is able to absorb some of the attributes of each of the animals he clothes himself with. 

Mr. Cimim feeds exclusively on the one-eyed laughing snakes that live within the depths of The Forest of Unknown Visions. He lures them with mimicked songs that charm them up from the darkness, before striking them with his talons and ensnaring them within his sticky web wing. 

He then closes his second set of eyes and hypnotises the other snakes with the blue pigment and cloud reflections in his top set, ensuring that he is not bitten. Then he is free to extend his 20m long, scaly  legs legs down to the forest floor and calmly stalk away.

Art & Photography - Fruits of the Flesh

Ideology: 'Fruits of the Flesh - Rapture of 15 Underground & the Heavenly Ensemble'

For week 20 of Delightful Aberrations art & photography challenge the photograph of the"art" piece above was my submission. I decided to go the "art" route this time, and used the "ideology" prompt. This also counts as number 120 on my 365 Art Projects list: Religious Artifacts. 

Bonus - Ideology: 'Miniature Sinners'

I tried to represent the 15 fruits of the flesh, which humans are said to fall prey to, according to certain Christian ideology. 15 is also the number that represents either humans or Satan (or many other things), depending on which part of the Bible/which Biblical teachings you reference. Everything in the picture has specific meaning, but you can interpret it as you like. Even if you just want to interpret it as pretentious nonsense. ;)

Painted and "named" crosses

I began with 15 wooden crosses, each approximately 5 centimetres (just under 2 inches) high. Then I painted them black with ink, and wrote a version of the fruits of the flesh on them, creating a set.

Little jewel pots

Bedazzled and...classy

After that, it was time to add the "decorative sin", via jars of jewels and some Milliput.

Then it was time for the fun part - making the little sinners!*

*Disclaimer: This blog does not condone sinning. Obviously.

Unpainted, setting

Then, I molded them into the shapes/creatures I wanted them to be and left each one to set around its designated cross, making sure that I was still able to remove them for painting once they hardened.

Un-crucified. Temporarily, at least...

Painting them didn't take as long as putting on the crosses' glittery jackets, but their size and fragility made it a somewhat fiddly task. I also decided to repaint some of those pictured above.

The finished 15

Following the completion of the "sinners", the wall was waiting for them to perform on it along with a few old friends.

Lit with house lights & a torch

The photo to the left was not the one I selected to use as the photo on Delightful Aberrations. The main difference between them is the lighting. However, looking at it now, this one seems better than the one I selected!

These little darlings are still up on my wall and probably will be for a while until I can find somewhere better for them to reside.

More photos of some of the individual crosses under the cut below:

Drawings: Fancy Rats & One Punch Birthday

'Fancy Rats' for Rina

Over the past week or so, two friends of mine have celebrated their birthdays and so I decided to draw each of them something as a present. I did the drawing above, 'Fancy Rats', for my friend Rina, who's birthday was on May 2nd. She adores rats, but can't keep them at the moment due to having cats, so it was a little consolation.

'One Punch Birthday' for Kei

The second birthday drawing I did was for my other friend, Kei. It's of two of the characters (Genos and Saitama) from the anime/manga/webcomic 'One Punch Man', as she likes the show a lot (it's good - watch/read it!). It's not the kind of style I usually draw in, but I might try it again at some point because it was fun!

365 Days of Art: Autumn

172. Autumn

Finally, another 365 Days of Art update! This is number 172, "Autumn", which goes together with the other seasons in the set ("Spring" still to come).

PS: I am particularly bad at drawing owls, but it was enjoyable to ruffle out all of his little feathers, haha.

365 Days of Art: Summer

171. Summer

This is "Summer", which is number 171 on my 365 Days of Art list. I posted "Winter" in my last entry and "Spring" & "Autumn" will be coming soon as well.

365 Days of Art: Winter

173. Winter

This is number 173 from the 365 Day of Art list I'm making my way through. I've drawn this character (Rybka) before and previously included her in this post. This time, she's taken on the guise of Winter and is staring backwards over the year that's passed.

365 Day of Art: Gas Mask

351. Gas Mask

This is another 365 Days of Art picture; this time it's theme number 351, "Gas Mask". I haven't been able to use the computer for more than around 15 minutes recently, so I've gone back to using charcoal/chalk and graphite instead of digital art. 

Originally this picture was going to be the "Doodle" image, but I got carried away, ended up spending 20 minutes on it, so it doesn't really look like a doodle anymore...maybe. Haha. Excuse the bad photo, but I didn't feel like scanning it.