Illustration: Running

Playing about with a trial version of Sketchbook Pro – which is nice, although I miss the rotate function from Photoshop, and keep hitting the wrong shortcut keys (but that's entirely my fault =P).

This is based around two cute kids I saw through the car window in Perth. I think they must have been to some sort of function, and the brother was taking off down the street with his big sister following him in a very protective way, her knees bent to keep herself at his level. 

Sketchbook Pro Trial with Wacom Intuos 3, around 4 hours.

Illustration: A Lady Comes To An Inn

For my educational illustration portfolio – looking at poetry with a single image.

Oddly, I have seen two versions of this poem, with different last stanzas. 

It can also read:

Nobody learned the lady's name

Nor the marvellous land from which they came,

But still they tell through the countryside

the tale of those men and that beautiful bride.

I'm not sure which would be best to use....

Adobe Photoshop CS4 with Wacom Intuos 3, 4 hours. 

Portrait: Emma Watson

Here's the finished portrait of Emma Watson, started in January 2008 (*cringe*), and just dug out of the archives and finished off. The original photo is from the December 2007 edition of InStyle magazine, which I found online. I liked the vintage styling and wanted a good reference to practice reflective surfaces. 

Originally I was going to add on to the image and draw the rest of the vespa (which isn't shown in the photo) and the background – but for the purposes of getting this done I stuck to the reference to just fulfil the original objective (practicing shiny stuff), and slapped a graphic background behind her. 

A few details, so you can see that this is actually a painting. =P

And here's an animation showing part of the process – not all of it, as I didn't have any screenshots for the 2008 part of this. The first frame here is the work I'd done in Painter 9, at the stage I'd got to when this fell by the wayside for whatever reason. All the other stages are in Photoshop CS4.

Previous post: SneakPeek: Emma Watson

Sneak Peek: Emma Watson

Rescuing a recently uncovered portrait from the depths of my computer. I've got a terrible cold, and portraiture is a nice way of being productive without actually having to think too much. 

I started this way back in January 2008, and just remembered it's existence the other day, and thought I'd finish it off.

The original photo is from the December 2007 issue of InStyle magazine. I found it on the web somewhere, but after all this time I don't remember exactly what site it was. The photoshoot comes up with a google search, however, so it's still out there. This is just a small portion of the image – I'll post the whole thing when I'm done. 

Started in Painter 9 as en exercise in shiny surfaces, and then taken into Photoshop CS4, with a Wacom Intuous 3.

iPad sketch: Wistful

I borrowed my father's iPad while we were watching the news last night, and sketched this out using SketchBook Pro – about 45 minutes all up, using my finger (I don't have a stylus, worse luck). I quite like how it came out, so thought I'd post it here. =) It was started while watching a report on the plight of the poor people in Somalia, but it's not exactly anything to do with that. 

SketchBook Pro on an iPad 2, slight levels adjustment in Photoshop CS4.

Sketch: Marguerite Blakeney

A little sketch for relaxation. I spent a lot of today preparing files for print and uploading them to a printer, and most of the remainder working on a commissioned illustration.... until I realised that I'd made a glaring error and would really have to start all over again. Fortunately the necessity of cooking tea prevented me from jumping off the nearest cliff, but I didn't feel like going back to work on it once I'd finished with the print-uploading today. 

So, here we have Marguerite Blakeney, of the Scarlet Pimpernel novels. She gets on my nerves because despite being described as 'the cleverest woman in Europe' more than once, she's actually incredibly dim, especially once you get past the first novel. Said 'cleverest woman' should not be continually walking into traps... unless the entire female population of Europe at the time was infinitely less clever, which I find hard to believe!* =P 

So here I am taking out my frustration on this extremely frustrating character. Also, I needed to redraw her from the last sketch, as I discovered that she's blonde. Too many screen adaptations, that's what it is! She's always a brunette in those. 

Oh, and if French is not your thing, the thought bubble reads 'empty'.

About 45 minutes, grey marker (and a hint of pencil) in a Jasart 'My Memoirs' A5 sketchbook. 

*Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the books – a little over-the-top melodrama never hurt anyone. I just wish that Marguerite would stay unconscious for longer when she fainted/got knocked out/fell asleep of fatigue/etc. =P

Quotes: The Elusive Pimpernel

I read two Scarlet Pimpernel novels back in highschool, thwarted in my attempt to read the series not only by the fact that I couldn't get my hands on any more, but also because Marguerite was really getting on my nerves. Now that I have an ereader, I've found the books on Project Gutenberg, thus reducing my obstacles by one – Marguerite is still a problem, though. =P

I'm currently working my way through The Elusive Pimpernel, and here is a sketch from that; one of those sketches that got away from me. I was sketching in a desultory fashion waiting for clients to get back to me with some vital info, and since so far they haven't.... I just kept sketching. Originally this didn't start out as a Pimpernel picture, but I let it go where it wanted. 

[Marguerite] had at the last moment the supreme courage and pride to turn her head once more toward her husband, in order to reassure him finally that his secret was safe with her in this hour of danger, as it had been in the time of triumph. 

0.5 mechanical pencil with #B lead in a Jasart 'My Memoirs' sketchbook. Unhappily there was a fault in the paper right where the gentlemen are standing, so I couldn't rub out much. As a result they look stiffer than I had planned.