It drew! And something that is not pixel dragons either.

Started in March 2009 - should tell you something about where I am artistically, that it took me so long to finish this.

NSFW (though nothing much more explicit than a kiss - unless you have imagination :D)
Coloured pencil on pastel paper, 24 x 32 cm

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We recently got a delicious recipe for a cherry cake and it would be criminal not to share it.

You need

For the dough:
1 cup flour (1 cup = 200ml)
5 table spoons powdered sugar
100 g soft butter

For the filling:
2 eggs
2/3 cup sugar (or 3/4c)
1/4 cup flour
1/4 tea spoon baking powder
2 tea spoons vanilla essence (Vanillinzucker/ or just take real vanilla)
ca 350g pitted sour cherries (ours are sugared)
3/4 cup chopped walnuts

Heat oven to 180° Celcius.
Mix dough ingredients in a bowl - use a fork or your hands, not a mixer.
Press the dough into a baking dish, we use a 26cm (=10 1/4'') metal springform pan. It should cover the floor of the pan with a thin layer.
Bake for ca 15 minutes until gold-brown.

While it's baking, you can make the filling:
Beat eggs (not separated) with sugar until soft and creamy. Add flour, baking powder and vanilla, mix well.
Once the pastry is done baking, pour half of the eggs over it, lay out with cherries, pour the rest over the cherries. Then top everything with a layer of the chopped walnuts. Make sure no big chunks stick out or they'll burn.
Bake at 180°C for at least 30 minutes. The topping should be baked through, but be careful not to burn the nuts.

Let it cool, then serve with hot drink of choice ;)

Unfortunately I can't take a picture as the camera is on its way to France right now, but believe me it's scrumptious.

I haven't really posted my finished sprites here, but just to have some actual content, here they are:

Clay Dragon (red=male, blue=female)
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Wallowing Dragon (left=female, right=male)
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Quilltail (left= male, right=female)
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Nocturne (tan: day, blue: night); Concept and prelim. sketches by Hypnotic
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Loch Ness; Collab with one Floari




And here are some WIPs: ( Read more...Collapse )

All said, I'm not sure if I should consider this serious work or a magnificent waste of time, but it's fun. And will ruin my eyes.

I just remembered about a salad that's currently a great favourite in our family and I wanted to share for a while. It's absolutely delicious.

You need:

- 500g of green beans, boiled (unless you get them ready-to-eat or something)
- several potatoes, boiled in skin - depends on how much salad you want and how much of it you want to be the beans.
- 500 g canned tuna in brine or olive oil.
- one fresh onion
- pesto to taste (we're cheap and use the stuff from the bottle, but fresh is probably miles better)
- capers (to taste, we use at least one tablespoon)*
- salt, pepper, olive oil, lemon juice (or vinegar) for seasoning


Cut the onion and marinate in oil & lemon juice until you're done with the rest. Peel and cut the potatoes in cubes, cut the beans in slices, dump potatoes, beans, tuna and onion into a bowl , mix well, add capers and pesto, mix, taste, try not to eat it all up, season to taste. Put into fridge and let it cool down a bit. I like it best when it's somewhat below room temperature, but not freezing.

This serves as a main meal for 3-4 people, depending on how much potato you use. Very tasty indeed. I usually eat much more of it than is good for me ;)


* in a pinch you could substitute capers with very sour pickled cucumber, but it won't be the same.

I made a lovely orange cake today, from this recipe. It's delicious, even though I didn't use enough flour and butter (who the hell measures something that comes in chunks in a volume measuring unit?) because I had problems translating the measurements, and I would probably use more lemon and less orange juice next time since it's a bit too sweet for my taste, but others in the house like it. What's more important, it's not as dry as orange or lemon cakes usually are...yum.

This time it's from a lovely edition of Pushkin's Ruslan_and_Lyudmila - check Wikipedia for the story, as I'm too lazy to tell it, not that I remember it entirely myself.

The paintings are done in the Palekh style by the artists B. Parilov and V. Dudorov, book published in 1964.

I never much liked this style myself, though the colours are very pretty! (A bit over contrasted on my monitor, however, you might have to turn the contrast down on yours so as not to be blinded.)



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What I like best, apart from the colours on some of these, are the illuminations (in the style of the title page, though with less colours) of the first pages of each chapter. If there's interest, I'll scan those, too.

And in case you liked these, here are some more, from a different artist (A. Kurkin) illustrating different fairy tales by the same author: here and here and here.

Scanned in parts of a book with some more art that had such a huge impact on me as a child, I'll probably never forget it.

It's from a book of tales and myths by Ghazaros Aghayan, an Armenian writer, the illustrations are by V. Mandakuni (sp?), the book is from 1989.

They are more.. I don't know, maybe not quite illustrations for children. Some badly scared me, though I suppose that might have had more to do with the stories.


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I'm trying to find out where these pictures here came from - I always thought they were from a book, but the only place I found them online says it's a film. I've no idea myself, but you know how there are images that burn yourself into your mind and you remember them, even after you've long forgotten what they were about or where they originally came from? It was the case for me with these pictures here. I was reminded of them today and decided to finally find out what book they came from and who the artist was, but only found them on one website that says they're from a film. The film is apparently pretty old (40s) and in b&w - the images however, are exactly as I remember them (okay, maybe a bit less spectacular...) and in colour. I hope I find out where they really came from.


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Source

First of all, I finally got my nerve up to go to a wholesale artist supplies store - generally meant for commercial buyers or professional artists or art students with the appropriate licenses, I heard many times that you need to get a customer card and hope they accept your claim of being a free-lance artist without much questioning. Well... the store in Cologne doesn't require such a customer card and you can basically come in and shop like in a normal store. At wholesale prices, which while not being a huge saving (after the tax is added) are still better than shopping at retail stores, so yay! Unfortunately there's not as much choice in brands of CP as one could wish (too many watercolour pencils instead :P), but the range of papers is decent.

I also received my Koh-I-Noor Polycolor and Bruynzeel Design pencils and while Bruynzeel is definitely not what I'm looking for in pencils (hard, pale colours - student level at best) I'm very happy with Koh-I-Noor Hardtmuth Polycolor.
They are about the same hardness as Pablos, but lay down colour slightly more smoothly and feel a bit more waxy (depends a bit on the colours however - some are a bit dryer than others) and at €40 for 72 pencils they are a great deal! I wish they came in a wider range, say 120 - I'd get the whole lot immediately, but as it is the colours that are there a bright and rich in pigment.[Edit, about colours: on closer inspection I'm a bit disappointed with the range: some of the colours, especially the reds and oranges - of which there are a bit too many - are almost identical, which is rather a pity.]

Um... Basically I'm happy with them and would recommend them if you're looking for something above chidrens' cp in quality, but can't afford the more expensive brands (though of course I can't say if they are as inexpensive elsewhere as they are here.)

I got a large pad of smooth watercolour paper (I think it's called cold press in English) that is great for CP and makes the dryness of Derwent less of an issue than smooth drawing paper.

When you see me drawing a lot, it's a sure sign that I'm procrastinating and avoiding doing things that need to be done (like writing term papers...).

This is an illustration for a poem book that the amazing cluegirl is putting together - there will be original poems and songs by Cluegirl and art by several artists and I'm honoured to be able to contribute a little. Keep an eye out, it promises to be a lovely book! This drawing is based on Jack in Irons.

Ink pens, 10x14 inches. I haven't touched my ink pens since... um... it's been a long time. I'm glad I haven't forgotten everything - yet. Hope you like it, I sure enjoyed drawing it!

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Recently I started comparing more different brands of coloured pencils, partly because I just want to have tried them all and partly because I need to find a replacement for the prismacolors that currently form my largest stock of different colours. I figured I should better write down what I thought of them, to see if my opinion changes. Will add to the list and individual pencils as I learn more about them later on.

The pencils I tried so far:

Polychromos by Faber-Castell (German) - the lead is pretty much indestructible, I don't know how often some of them have fallen down, but not even the oldest stubs have any breakage inside. No crumbling to speak of and they can hold a needle-fine point. The colours are vibrant and are supposedly some of the best in terms of light-fastness, though I can't attest to that. I They lay down colour very smoothly - too smoothly in fact. I found that they easily fill up the grain of the paper if pressed only slightly too hard, which makes layering a bit difficult. They are more suitable for 'drawing' rather than painting techniques, and they are great for details. Their biggest drawback is their price.

Pablo by Caran d'Ache (Swiss) - only slightly more prone to breaking and crumbling than Polychromos, they can hold a fine point almost as well. I'd say they are about as hard as Faber's, but I find it easier to layer them, because they don't fill up the paper so easily, which makes them suitable for both, drawing and painting with cp. They have a gorgeous range of greens and browns and some very lovely muted colours. They also come a bit cheaper than Polychromos here in Germany, though I heard this is not the case everywhere. Personally, I refer them to Polychromos, in handling

Prismacolor by Sanford (USAmerican)- best known cp in the USA, I think. They are very soft and creamy, which is their biggest advantage and also their greatest drawback. They are really prone to breaking and crumble easily. I heard that some people have less issues with that - I suppose it depends a bit on where you get them (by the time they arrive in Europe, chances are they'll be already partly broken inside) and just simple luck. Also, the leads are sometimes not quite centred, making sharpening a nuisance. Being so soft and crumbly, they can't really hold a point at all and I find them completely unsuitable for detail work. For layering and mixing colours they are perfect, though. And they do have a stunning range of strong, vibrant colours. I heard lightfastness is an issue with some, definitely more than with Faber and Caran D'ache. They are hard to come by here in Germany and they end up being extremely expensive.

Derwent Artists (English) - somewhat softer than Pablo, though not by much. They seem to sharpen well and don't crumble in big chunks like Prismacolors, but raise a fine dust. I haven't had them long enough to know about lead strength. What bothers me most is that they feel very dry on paper and make that awful sound of charcoal. The lightfastness chart, which is rather abysmal in parts, is also worrying. I'm probably not going to buy the big box, but stock up on some lovely shades (colour range is 120) that seem to be unique to this brand when I'm in Scotland.

Derwent Studio (English) - apparently the same lead as Artists, only a bit thinner. The colour range is smaller. I only have one single pencil, but I found it to be slightly less dry and creamier. Might be the colour itself, though.

Derwent Coloursoft (English) - The colours are somewhat richer than Artists. They are also a bit softer than Artists, but the hair-raising dry feeling is almost worse. Very dusty, too, though no crumbling so far. There are some interesting bright shades in the range of 72 colours, but nothing outstanding.

Derwent Graphitint (English) - okay, admittedly, these aren't coloured pencils, but I love them anyway. I just got them today and I'm already regretting having bought the box with 12 colours and not the one with all 24. They are graphite pencils (I'd say around 3B-4B, though rougher than normal pencils) with a hint of colour. Very muted and dark, but the red and green tinted ones are amazing. I heard of the method of doing a graphite underpainting for coloured pencils, to establish light values more easily, but I never used it because I couldn't get the colours I wanted on top of the grey graphite. I think with these I might just get the effect I want. Also, I imagine that normal pencils drawings will seem just that bit more awesome, with the slight colouring. And they are also water-soluble, the colours becoming brighter and richer when treated with water. Not sure I'll use this aspect of them by itself, but I imagine it would work wonders for underpaintings. I'd be almost in love... if they didn't share the problem of the other Derwent pencils and were also rather dry and dusty.

Rembrandt Polycolor by Lyra (German) - thinner than artists grade pencils normally are, but they are also rather cheaper (€1,20, compared to 1,45 for Pablo and 1,65 for Polychromos.) Unfortunately they are rarely found in open stock in Germany, I imagine they are almost non-existent everywhere else. They are on the harder side, but very sleek and smooth on paper, similar to Polychromos (both are oil-based, most if not all other brands are wax-based). In fact they do seem to be almost oily in application. Sharpening doesn't seem to be an issue, though the finest points do crumble a little bit. No idea about lead strength, yet. Unfortunately the range of colours is a bit limited - only 72 + greys (I suppose to non cp people 72 sounds a lot, but if you consider that among those 72 are many of the standard bright garish primaries that are hardly ever used... the bigger the range, the easier it is to find more varied shades that suit your own taste.) I had hoped they would be creamy, but no such luck. Will see how they layer and mix with the others and if they do well, I'll probably get the full range.


~~~

And that's all I have so far.

I've also ordered a full set of Koh-i-Noor (Czech, I think, and the least expensive of all - only about €40 for the whole set of 72 colours! I just hope the price is because of their origin and not their quality) and some by Bruynzeel-Sakura (Dutch, apparently they have discontinued the artist grade pencils and the currently available are more student grade, but that information is some years old, so I figured I'd try them anyway.)


So far I failed to find anything that compares to Prismacolor is softness, which is a bummer, because I really dislike their quality of construction and lead stability. Coloursoft were supposed to fill that spot, and soft they might be, but not creamy and thick in application. If you know of any other artist-grade coloured pencils I haven't listed here, let me know - I'd love to try them!

*gasp* No really, it is!

Originally started as a drawing for a friend, I'm relatively sure this isn't going to be to her taste after all. Ah well.
I really like the original, despite the kitsch and the heavy-handed symbolism.

The scan of course, doesn't translate at all, especially because the paper is very grainy. I'm most of all disappointed with how the faces came out - the guy's face is not so dirty and there's very subtle shading (and a fully defined right eye) on the girl's face, but they aren't visible. Ah well.

Hope you enjoy it anyway!



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Sounds more impressive than it is :P All I've read so far this year are three short novels (if you want to call it that) and a few short stories. ( Read more...Collapse )

This does bring me to the actual purpose of this posts, and that is to beg book recs of you once again. We've had fantasy and we've had historical fiction, all of which were goldmines. Now, I'm looking for two things (not connected, though they can be) and those are: crime fiction for one, maybe mystery. Anything that goes in that direction. Present-day real world is the obvious choice, but if you know any good history or fantasy novels with that theme, I'd be interested, too.

And the other one... well, I've found that I'm missing my slash. I've absolutely no interest in any fandom writings atm, though I think I might make an exception for rexluscus's new PotC story. This means I have to find some (good, I'm pampered by fandom) original homoerotic fiction. I'd prefer something that is printed, even if self-published, because reading on the computer gives me a headache these days, but if online is the only place your favourite is available, point me to it anyway. kennahijja's recent search already has some interesting books, but I want more ;)

I'm never going to draw HP again. Like ever. I should have done this one two years ago, back when it was started. I've fought to finish it, even though I wanted to push it in a corner and just forget about it, because HP... bores me out of my mind and I hate drawing things that bore me. It's an illu for HBP, chapter 6, Draco's Detour. I'm too lazy to do the whole header thing, if you've read the book, you'll know what's in there.

Coloured pencils, on A2 paper (what was I thinking...) scan doesn't do the colours justice, as always.



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A few things, I was too brain muddled to add yesterday (it was half past 4 in the morning!): drawn for hp_art_project, I was ridiculously late as I always am, but, as I said, this was looming over me for the last two years and I simply couldn't draw a line under HP Fandom, without finishing it. I'm strange, I know.

One reason I didn't work on it for so long? I was really afraid of messing up the invisibility cloak and having to start all over again. Clever me had placed the most difficult part in the right-hand lower corner, because this is always the part I do last. So you know... mess this one up, and do it all over. I'm glad I finally figured out how to draw this invisibility thing to my satisfaction :D

Also, a WIP shot of somewhere near the end: ( Read more...Collapse )

Of course I didn't make 50. I sooo fail, especially compared to the reading prowess of, oh say scowling_hermit ;) Let's see how I do in 2009

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Additions:

29. C. Brontë: Jane Eyre - I rather liked it, though it was a bit slow in places. In retrospect I liked it better than Wuthering Heights, even though while I read them, I liked it less. Go figure.

30. A. Brontë: Tenant of Wildfell Hall - liked it least of the three Brontë novels I've read so far, and I needed ages to get through it. The characters were not really engaging and even though the social criticism was rather strong and explicit in places, it felt less intense. Now I have to write a term paper for this Brontë class, and I have *no* idea what to write about. Like.. none at all. Maybe I'll write the paper in the course about Old English after all.

31. Pratchett - Equal Rites (it's Pratchett, what am I supposed to say about it?)
32. Pratchett - Mort (I simply love this one. I think it was the first Discworld book I ever read and it's just special. I mean... how can you not love Death?)
33. Pratchett - Wyrd Sisters (I love Granny)
34. Pratchett - Sourcery - reminded me why I don't like Rincewind and the wizards. At least the witches are distinct characters - the wizards are all interchangeable and Rincewind is simply annoying. Also, reading four Discworld novels in a row, especially when they are mostly about the magic part is not advisable - you actually notice the repetition of jokes and Sourcery has many of the same jokes as Equal rites and, to a lesser Degree Wyrd Sisters.

Still in the middle of Vanity Fair.. I gave it up for a while and I think maybe I'll pick it up again. It does drag a bit, though.
I'm now re-listening the Outlander novels while knitting (I can do it, I can do it!) and drawing - somehow I often listen to them or reread them about this time of year :D I did try the audiobook of Game of Thrones, but... uh... the reader's voice is awfully annoying. Did do nothing for me, unfortunately.

I think I never posted these... some strange old stuff from around the time when I moved from Freiburg to Bonn. I was just looking for a different picture that I need to rescan and found these instead and figured I'd scan them. I need to have some example of... well, let's call it still life for lack of a better term, in my virtual portfolio.

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Now the question clearly is... what the heck was I thinking? Well, we shall never know. *vanishes under rock again*

Um... hi. I've been kinda absent, in fact I haven't looked at my flist in weeks, never mind posted anything myself in ages. Will try to be better, but RL is busy - I just finished a five week practical experience in a secondary school - it was mad. Never thought I'd end up liking the 11-12 year olds better than the older teens, but there you go. The kids can be really cute, though quite annoying too. And now I've got to write a term paper for a history seminar and also a report about the practical. Blergh.

What with this and other stuff, I spent all my online time chilling while playing browser games - lately I've been hooked on Dragoncave - do give my eggs and hatchies some loving, if you have time to spare: Scroll. And I'm trying to do some dragon pixel art for it. will post it here, if anything comes out of it. For now have the sketch. (my scanner is working again! Yeah, it's been broken for months, or rather I couldn't reinstall the driver, but now it's good again. I guess I have no excuse now to delay working on the hp_art_project ;) )

What else... I've read a bit! Not as much as I would have liked, what with the school and dragoncave, but a bit.

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What else...

I noticed that there are a few people who have friended me lately - Hi everybody! I've no idea who you are or where you come from since I haven't been active anywhere lately, feel free to introduce yourselves!

I haven't updated my list of books2008 for a while, so here goes.

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This one is actually ancient... started it last November or so. I don't remember if I posted a WIP here, I did in some other places, but maybe not here? I don't know.

Anyway, I have a love/hate relationship with this drawing.
First of all, I started it before I knew much of anything about 18th century period clothing(not to mention furniture), and I cringe every time I see these shirts. Secondly, it was mostly drawn in a dark lecture hall, which is why there's so little contrast and I used too hard pencils. On the other hand, I really like the blanket and some of the wood structures.
If it weren't the follow up to the Discovery drawing I posted recently, I probably wouldn't have finished it. But anyway, here it is:



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