Totally out of order, but here is the very last time lapse from my Dumpster Diving Fairy story. This time its a magpie peeking into their dumpster and finding an unwelcome guest.
Done in Clip Studio Paint.
Music Credits: An Island Newly Awoken by MusicLFiles Link: https://filmmusic.io/song/6287-an-island-newly-awoken License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Here we go again! Time lapse of a Thell Illustration. This time she is in SERIOUS TROUBLE! What Happens Next? How will she ever make it out? LE GASP!
Done in Clip Studio Paint.
Music Credits: An Island Newly Awoken by MusicLFilesLink: https://filmmusic.io/song/6287-an-island-newly-awokenLicense: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Whoops! It’s taken me a bit longer to edit these process videos and get them out than I intended, but I am on it! Here is another Thell Illustration Time lapse.
This time she’s stepped on something truly HORRIFIC and gross. How will she ever recover from the mental scarring?
Done in Clip Studio Paint.
Music Credits: An Island Newly Awoken by MusicLFilesLink: https://filmmusic.io/song/6287-an-island-newly-awokenLicense: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Another little Emote Session in Clip studio Paint. I didn’t really have a solid idea on this one, and you can see the expression shift quite dramatically as I go.
Playing it back, I still kinda like the first idea though and will totally have to give that expression the time it deserves. 🙂
Music Credits:
Happy Ukulele Children Party by MusicLFilesLink: https://filmmusic.io/song/6302-happy-ukulele-children-partyLicense: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Do you want to know what live streaming is good for? That’s right, content! And here is some of that content, conveniently smooshed together and sped up for your viewing pleasure. 🙂
Won’t be long now and Thell the Fairy will have all her illustrations done and ready! Annnndd…. then I just need to edit her story all over again. 😉
Music Credit:
An Island Newly Awoken by MusicLFilesLink: https://filmmusic.io/song/6287-an-island-newly-awokenLicense: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
What is this? A time lapse of an Emote Painting process? A recording from a live stream?
Who is this person and what have they done with me?! Crazy abductions and mind altering madness!
Or maybe not that crazy?
Over the past week I have made a whole two emotes (go me!) and wow have I learned things. What things, do you ask? Well, apparently I belong to the Emote school of DERP. Huh, who woulda thunk?
I kinda like these giant eye-balled, overtly emotive little guys. So happy! So manic! I will totally be spending more time painting up these goofballs. And who knows, maybe I’ll be a chibi artist next. :O
Music Credit goes to:
Funny Adventures by WinnieTheMoog
Three years later, and Thell the fairy is getting her picture taken! To be fair, I did try three years ago, but it was just a crazy stressful mess. Mentally, I was not in the right place, but that’s a story for another day.
Today is for celebrating! Thell has a lovely bunch of sketches all ready for her story. One coloured, a bunch to go! I will admit that I almost gave up at the colouring stage. That was Photoshop’s fault. I don’t know why, but no matter what I seem to do, I always end up with pen pressure issues. I’ve had problems with randomly loosing pressure mid stroke and then it suddenly coming back again. I’ve had pen pressure just full on dropping and only coming back when I restart PS.
It was a mess and made the whole painting experience a nightmare. These are known issues. Other people have these issues. And I found myself wondering what I was paying a monthly sub for if stuff didn’t even work properly.
Enter Clip Studio Paint and love at first sight. Yup. It’s true. I’ve converted and couldn’t be happier. I have only scratched the surface of the program, but already the whole process feels more natural. More peaceful and more in line with how I work when I paint traditionally. I wish I had made the change sooner.
Over the next few weeks I will be cleaning up and colouring these sketches. If you keep an eye out, you may even catch some of the process live streaming on twitch. This is another new experience that I hope will grow into joyful hilarity.
If watching each and every snail paced tiny brushstroke while the artist mutters incoherent stuff is your thing, you can find me here: https://www.twitch.tv/actonart
For now, I hope you enjoy Thell’s sketches. Progress and process walk throughs to come. 🙂
And here she is! Alice in all her bright, mischievous glory!
Finally, it’s time for painting. I don’t have much to say about my process. I keep things fairly simple. No special tricks or magic tools, just a bunch of familiar steps built over years of painting practice.
Most of my paint is Windsor and Newton Professional Acrylic. I do have a couple of tubes of Galleria (Windsor and Newton’s student range) as well as some Atelier tubes, but for the way I work, the Windsor and Newton Professional range feel the best.
For brushes I use a large, square to wash in the background, but the rest of the painting is done alternating between three differently sized round brushes. As for the actual technique, I can best describe it as layering on thin washes of colour and softly (but quickly) blending lights into darks until I get the desired gradient.
In future, I would love to video the whole process, but I don’t really have the right setup for it. For now, I can offer a photographic journey.
Next up: The Final Painting
Spekboom is not only an awesome, carbon sequestering powerhouse, it also offers me a huge dose of childhood nostalgia, so when @dwarfjadebonsai over on Instagram started the Mini Spekboom Challenge I had to participate. What, you ask, is the mini spekboom challenge?
The challenge is to find or make the tiniest pot you can and then plant a tiny spekboom tree/cutting into the vessel, creating a miniature bonsai. And why are spekboom awesome?
In the words of @dwarfjadebonsai:
” Spekboom has the potential to mop up the excess CO2 responsible for #climatechange. Its immense carbon-storing capabilities and capacity to offset damaging carbon emissions are comparable to that of moist, subtropical #forests.
One hectare of Spekboom sequestering up to 4.2 tons of carbon per year!
Spekboom doesn’t burn, making it a hardy #plant to withstand veld fires and great material for firebreak hedges.
It can withstand drought too – mainly due to its succulent #nature, but also due to it’s unique ability to ‘shift gears’. While most plants require their stomata to be open during the daytime to absorb carbon dioxide, in dry conditions, the #porrulacariaafra can open its stomata at night instead, and close them again in the day to avoid loss of water. This slows down evaporation, and enables the Spekboom to #grow faster during the day. During the wetter months, the #Spekboom absorbs carbon dioxide during the day as normal, which helps reduce our #carbonfootprint.
We can eat it too! Its little #succulent leaves contain heaps of Vitamin C as well as a number of other minerals “
At first, I took an existing concrete pot (made by me) and planted one of my woodier looking cuttings. Most of my cuttings are still young and don’t yet have that hardened look. Of course, I couldn’t stop at that. So i pulled out some sculpey and had a quick bit of silly fun making the elephant and coil pot. If inspiration strikes, I may find myself doing another one… or several. 😛
This was a little bit of fun in these crazy times and I hope it brings a few smiles. 🙂
Acton Art 