Yarn Fairy

Today I went to WEBs yarn store in East Hampton, MA and came home around 2, so after spending an hour updating my yarn stash information on ravelry and searching for patterns I had to make an image and I just couldn't get yarn off the brain, lol.  Also posted here.

A Day in the Shire...

I'm not quite pleased with this photomanipulation, I wanted Bill the Pony and Samwise Gamgee but failed to get the right stock, so here is a random hobbit with a random pony and a silly filter on top to try to hide the fact I couldn't blend correctly because my dodge and burn tools decided they no longer want to work the way they always have worked...sigh.  Considering I've been sneezing most the day I think the outcome is okay, I'll take it for now, tomorrow will be more wonderful I hope. The Deviantart submission with image references is here.

Expecto Patronum...

Oh dear, another HP related bit of art, what a shock.  I was just thinking about what my patronum would be if my dreams came true and I could be in the magical world and it would totally be a monkey.  Not only did monkey become my nickname (long story, started with a videogame) but it's also my Chinese Astrological sign.  So, here it is my patronus monkey.  Expecto Patronum!

Fantasia Demons...

For todays image I used the demons in a scene of Disney's Fantasia as inspiration.  Also, there has been a new trend of drawing on photographs and combine a very cartoon look with very photo realistic backgrounds as contrast.  I guess it's not that new a concept, it reminds me of the method used in the animated Lord of the Rings.  I'm posting the image with references on Deviantart.

A Fantastic Snowflake..

Hello everyone! My name is Teresa and this is technically my 21st day of my fantasy image a day project.  The previous 20 images can be found here.  I'm switching from wordpress to blogger because it seemed difficult for people to comment there and the only comments I received were spam. So, here I am blogger, get ready for fantastic images! ;)

Decisions, Decisions

And on the 20th day of my project I post my third piece of Harry Potter fanart, seeing as how obsessive I’ve been since I saw Deathly Hallows I think it’s impressive I’ve held back this much.  Here is one of my favorite moments from the first book, I’ve always loved the idea that even as children they had some say in their destiny and deciding who they will become.  Seriously, I don’t know anyone who sees that Sorting Hat and doesn’t fall into awe over him, he’s just too cool, fascinating with a touch of creepy.

Young Mermaid in Pastels...

Finishing up aquatic week I could think of nothing but another mermaid, today I used my new pastels I received for Christmas and my imagination for the image...the idea was she's swimming downwards, not sure how clear that is, but shading with the pastels was fun.  Merry Christmas everyone!  Oh and I loved having a theme this week, if anyone has a suggestion for a fantasy theme please feel free to give it. ;)

Grindylow, Goblet of Fire style

Continuing the aquatic theme I decided to do another watercolor with spirulina powder (which by the way is a bit difficult working with the powder) because I like that it smells like the sea and the color is perfect. If my poor brushes could talk they’d probably say “Painting with seaweed AGAIN? Can’t we switch to coffee or something?”  So I did some research on mythical sea creatures and found the Grindylow.  The Grindylow is originally an Old English bogeyman sort of creature who was reported to live in the bottom of lakes and pounds and snatch children from the shore. This fellow has become very popular after his appearance in “The Goblet of Fire”  the fourth movie in the Harry Potter series.  My version is based on that because I liked the look of him.

The Leviathan

Going with the apparent theme of the week I went for another marine image.  This time I did a watercolor of the sea serpent/dragon beast from Hebrew Mythology, those Hebrews had some serious beasties.

“Once we went in a ship and saw a fish which put
his head out of the water. He had horns upon which was written: ‘I am one of the meanest creatures that inhabit the sea. I am three hundred miles in length, and enter this day into the jaws of the Leviathan’” (B. B. l.c.)

So, the Leviathan can make the water boil with heat from his mouth, eats a whale a day (in fact almost ate Jonah’s wale with Jonah in it), his eyes light up and illuminate the space around him and he stinks so bad no living creature can stand his odor.  Not to worry though, the female was killed so they can’t reproduce (oh and her body was salted and reserved for the righteous to feed on at the end of days, yummy) only the male was left; not sure why he was left to roam around but it could have to do with him being the “demon of jealousy” and according to the Hebrews God like to leave none to subtle reminders to keep us in line.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leviathan

Enough of the history lesson, I painted my Leviathan in watercolor using Spriulina powder:

Today is not so fantastic…

I was going to try and improve on my mermaid image I did yesterday, and I tried, however I had many interruptions and things just didn’t go very well.  I’m not in a great mental space right now, if anyone is actually reading these and has something nice or encouraging to say, please do, I really need it today, I had one of those days that many creative types must have…where they feel like the world just doesn’t want or need them to be creative and like they have to fight and defend who they are…I’m struggling to become an artist because really it’s all I’m good at and I’m tired of working jobs I’m not passionate about or good at, but when I stay home and try to build my portfolio I’m viewed as lazy.  Anyway this is what my lazy ass managed to do today, it isn’t much and if anyone is actually reading this I apologize for that and for my blubbering I probably shouldn’t complain, but I feel ready to explode today, I needed to vent.

Art Deco Mermaid...

Today I decided to draw a mermaid in what I interpreted as the Art  Deco style:

Clone a Cthulhu: Adventures in Stamping Evil

Sometimes inspiration hits from odd places.  I saw a friend on facebook share a funny video called "Hey there Chthulu":

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxScTbIUvoA&fs=1&hl=en_US&color1=0x006699&color2=0x54abd6]

I got to thinking way too deeply about it, which I tend to do.  The octopus like monsters have terrified humanity for a long time.  What I find interesting is they are definitively NOT serpentine like many of the old monsters but the tentacles have a very serpentine quality and perhaps that mixed with the fear of the deep unknown which a creature from the sea would certainly represent.  The oceans depths is nearly as unfathomable as the vastness of space (not quite but nearly).  So, I think I will be covering some of those fantasy and mythological monsters like chthulu, medusa and others a bit more.  For now I'll start off with the little eraser stamp I made...not bad I think for my first time carving in 12 years.

Another Try at Spells...

I wasn’t quite happy with the quality of the Firespell image I did so I tried again with the same stock and did a shield spell this time, I think it looks much better:

Playing With Corel Painter 11

I decided to have a little fun with Corel today and experiment with watercolor brushes on dot paper, it was fun. So here’s my fierce looking dragon and remember folks if you find yourself in the company of a hungry dragon and a halfling, remember you don’t have to outrun the dragon…you just have to outrun the halfling.

Another Day another coffee fairy…

This one started off as a photomanipulation in photoshop and ended up altered into a bit of a painting in core painter. I was going to do more fine tuning with this image, but too late I discovered my main bit of stock was only 72 resolution at 8 inches…so this whole image is way too small…grr…I just took for granted that all people who offer stock made their images at a pretty decent resolution…because every other time when I’ve check it was like 200….but not this one, sigh.  So, sorry that this image is so painfully small…I just can’t get this coffee fairy thing right.  Maybe it’s because I’m never actually drinking coffee when I work on it, lol.

Apollonian Unicornis

Todays image was inspired by a youtuber I was introduced to yesterday named Vihart, in many of her videos she shows doodle games she played while bored in class.  One I really like explored the idea of infinity and Apollonian Gaskets. So, I decided to apply this fractal making tool to a unicorn:

This was way more labor intensive than I thought it would be, but it was great fun and a good way to practice drawing circles.
If you'd like to watch the video explaining this doodle game/theory here it is:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DK5Z709J2eo&fs=1&hl=en_US&color1=0x006699&color2=0x54abd6]
Oh and for Bonus points I used photoshop to copy and paste my unicorn into what I call "Unicornis ad Infinitum"

The Coffee Fairy:

I thought I would have to rename her the fail fairy for awhile there.  I’ve been having computer issues, starting with it not wanting to read my cf card yesterday.  Today it didn’t want to scan and then finally about an hour ago it ate my drawing right after I finished it, photoshop crashed.  Luckily I did a save, unluckily it was before I gave my fairy hair.  So I pulled out my own and gave it to her….no, I cried in a corner, came back and after another hour of work finally finished the thing.  So, this isn’t my best but it’s done….this whole do an image a day thing is easier said than done.  Now, you’ll have to excuse me I think I need to go visit my personal coffee fairy.

My First Wand...

As a Harry Potter fan I've been wanting to make a wand for awhile.  I'm also a knitter and about a year ago my guy bought me a set of gorgeous rosewood dpns.  All was blissfull and good but there was an incident, where I won't name names....or butts for that matter and one of them was sat on.  Luckily the person who did the sitting was fine, but the needle didn't make it:

However this was easily turned into a positive considering this is the perfect color for a Ginny Weasley wand replica and at 8" it is just a half inch shorter than her wand!  Also, I have polymer clay and reasonable abilities with it, so tada, here is the wand.

So, it isn't perfect and I can think of some things I'll do different next time, but not bad.

Firespell

For today I've done another photomanipulation after a failed attempt at a self portrait in photoshop.  I'm not sure if this image is exactly what I wanted, I think I need to research fireballs a bit more, but it is fun and somewhat interesting.  Please look at the DA post for credits to the images used:http://fav.me/d34t27v  

Getting into the Season...

I was just doodling in my sketch pad and this cute little elf came out of my head.  I don't often draw spontaneously like this with no references, but I think he's cute and it was good to practice shading with coloring pencils (which I NEVER do) and using good old ink for outline.  I rely so much on photoshop and computer technology sometimes it's good to take a step backward and use more traditional methods, I have a wacky theory that doing so may make me better at the newer methods.  Alright, now I"m gonna shut up and post the drawing:

Fun withWire

The idea was to make a wire fairie....it may look a bit like an angel, I suppose it depends on your point of view.  In the past I've made wire jewelery...working in 3 dimensions was a bit more challenging than I expected.  I just went for it thinking, "I've worked with wire, this will be easy"...not!  This is my 5th day straight 360 more to go...ugh...this may be more challenging than I thought.

A Golem

Not the most creative title I know.  Today I was inspired by Jewish folklore to create a Golem. According to wikipedia: " The word golem is used in the Bible to refer to an embryonic or incomplete substance. Psalm 139:16 uses the word גלמי, meaning my unshaped form, which then passed into Yiddish as goylem"

Here is the one I made using photoshop and my wacom tablet:

 

Magic in the Reading

It has been a long time since I've made a photo manipulation.  For those not in the know a photo manipulation is when an artist uses other artists stock photos, brushes and other tools to create a new image.  For me it's a great way to get creative juices flowing and I love that it feels like I'm collaborating with artists and turning their work into something they didn't think of but will hopefully like, I can't thank them enough it's huge that they trust complete strangers with their images and don't ask for anything but a link back. DeviantArt is an amazing community that makes these things possible and here is my post on DeviantArt with links to all the wonderful people who had a hand in this image:



This is a detail shot of the photo manipulation I have entitle "Magic in the Reading", to see the full version please click on the above link to view on my DA page.  Yes this is Harry Potter fanart, I was trying to capture that magical and fantastic feeling many fans feel when they first read the series and become immersed in that world.

A hatchling in the hand is worth two in the bush...

I tried some more complicated images today but wound up going back to the suggestion for day 1.  On day 1 I accidentally did day 40, so today I did day 1's suggestion to make "something that fits in the palm of your hand using materials found in your immediate environment.  So I drew on my hand with the red, green and black pens I had on my desk and photographed it next to the map on the wall next to my desk.

So there's this book...

A little about me, I turned 30 this year. I've been married for one year since October to a man I've known for 7 years total, his name is Allan and he's my biggest supporter and motivator when it comes to being creative and artistic...and so he bought me this book, a book called :365, A Daily Creativity Journal; Make Something Everyday and Change Your Life: by Noah Scalin.  Noah Scalin famously embarked on a year of a Skull a Day and made some amazingly creative things.  http://skulladay.blogspot.com/

For my project I decided to build on something I love and that is fantasy, I love to read it, play fantasy games and draw mythological animals.  I love gnomes, fairies, dragons, griffins, etc.   So each day I will make something fantastical.  I draw, paint with watercolors, paint in photoshop, do photo manipulations, have worked with clay....so the possibilities are near endless here.  I'm very excited and hope I can pass some of that excitement onto others, I welcome opinions and suggestions and I hope to have people hold me accountable, because I would love to do this for one whole year, this will be a great adventure.

For my first day I looked around me and used a material I have an awful lot of, namely yarn.  I am a knitter and my yarn stash is omnipresent in my space.