Wednesday, January 24, 2018

Star Wars: The Last Jedi - Fan Art Round 2

Wow, I got a pretty favorable response to that last fan art post! Thank you! Because I am absolute garbage, here's another mini-comic.
Whoops
It's kind of a spiritual sister to a really old (~2009) self-insert fan art I did of Labyrinth.
Gotta Love MS Paint!

Monday, January 22, 2018

Star Wars Fan Art

So, I finally watched Star Wars. And like, I really like the new ones so far. Kylo Ren is my new garbage baby. A little spoilery if you haven't seen The Last Jedi.


Friday, January 19, 2018

The Sweetest Potato - Bianyo Brush Markers

Here's a drawing I did of my darling boy, Rocky Chinchillini. The Potato-shaped Prince, the sweetest of potatoes.

Watch me color this illustration (chinchillustration?) on my youtube channel!

Tuesday, January 16, 2018

Sympathy Card - Bo

A few weeks back, we lost a particularly special patient. Bo was a true legend and had been coming to the hospital for his entire life. He was well-known for his long history of wacky hijinks, and will be sorely missed by everyone lucky enough to have met him.
After he passed, I heard a very sweet story about how he got his name from a coworker. When they first brought Bo home as a pup, he had been wearing a blue bow. The technician making his ink paw prints told me it was why she was putting blue bows on all his paw print cards.
Inspired by the blue bow story, I based the card around an embossed panel with two shades of blue ink blending. It's one of my "signature" tri-fold cards, because we needed room for everyone to write their goodbyes.

Rest in peace, friend.


Sunday, January 14, 2018

Regency Babes

So I mentioned in my Bianyo Brush Markers review post, that I'd purchased some more skin tones from Bianyo and a set from Art-n-Fly. Here I am, using my marker collection together in all its glory to draw some regency babes!
I adore both mens' and womens' regency fashions. I knew I wanted to draw a variety of ladies to test my new tones on, so this is what I came up with. Who is your favorite? Mine is the lady in the blue dress. The blonde girl closest to the bottom is flustered because everyone else is in fancy dresses, and she's in pajamas!
Also, yes that is Pride and Prejudice 2005 fan art in the corner
I got so caught up in drawing the lovely ladies that I forgot to note which markers I used for what....oops! So I'll have an upcoming post with more about the skin color sets I purchased.

Sympathy Cards - Jasmine and Pangoro

Here's a few more sympathy cards from my time working at the animal hospital
For Pangoro
 A simple, sweet card for a very nice client who tragically lost their young cat.
For Jasmine
 For this card, I did the background in watercolor. Jasmine's owner is also an artist. I am terrible with watercolors, but I was hopefully skilled enough to make an interesting background for the card. 

Saturday, January 13, 2018

Belated Christmas

With everything going on in my life, Christmas kind of snuck up and snuck past before I had a chance to register it. I barely got any pictures of my cards this year! But here are the two designs I handed out to loved ones.

Thank You Card

I mentioned before that I'd made a sympathy card for my high school art teacher. She sent a lovely Christmas Thank You card and cookie platter, so I made a thank you card in return!
 If the design for this card looks familiar, it's because I'd based it on a previous Color Throwdown entry of mine. I used a primary color palette, I thought she would get a kick out of that!

Color Throwdown # 475

Work had been very stressful for the past couple months, and I had fallen off of the Color Throwdown bandwagon. But now that I am (hopefully temporarily) unemployed, I wanted to get back to it! This week's challenge colors are Navy, Aqua and Pink. Here's my card!
I tried some new techniques this time around. I knew I wanted pink floral patterns on a darker cardstock, but I don't have any pink embossing powder. So I used clear embossing powder on pink paper and then blended over that with navy ink. The pink and navy combo gave the paper an almost purple hue, so it wasn't exactly what I wanted, but I really like the look. I still think it's navy enough to count for the challenge!
I die cut a hole in the panel so that some navy cardstock and aqua and white twine could show through around the sentiment. I raised the panel with the embossing and the sentiment's die cut up on foam tape. And I added the Nuvo drops at the last minute. The white ones picked up a little of the blue ink from the blending I had done, but am digging it! The pink ones photographed more yellow than they appear in real life, they match the flowers pretty closely.
 Overall I am very happy with the card. I went with an inspiring theme and sentiment, because I need as many positive thoughts as I can get right now.

Thursday, January 11, 2018

The Christmas Card I Never Got to Give

I made this card for my former manager, friend, and mentor. She loved wolves, and she'd been talking for weeks about wanting a nice snow globe for Christmas. I knew right away what I wanted to make her for Christmas this year, and I set to work planning it: a winter wolf snow globe shaker card.
 I'd never made a shaker card before, but I was so excited to try. I'd spent a lot of time planning this card and I was so excited to give it to her. I'd given her handmade cards the past two Christmases (her favorite holiday) and she just loved them. I wanted this one to be extra special.



I mentioned very briefly in my last post that I've been going through a bit of a rough time lately.
I was, unfortunately, unable to ever give her this card.
TRIGGER WARNING REGARDING SUICIDE
She ended her life before I was able to arrange to give it to her.

I'm completely devastated. She meant a lot to me, and I owe so much to her. I wouldn't have my horse Wrangler without her encouragement and support. She'd done so much for me over the years. Everything I know, I owe to her.

I can't handle moving past this loss and staying at my current job, it's too painful for me. So today is my last day of employment at the animal hospital. I don't have another job lined up right now, which is pretty scary for me. We'll have to see where life takes you from here.

Even if we're not close or I don't know you at all, I'm willing to talk if you ever need someone. Suicide is a terrible, horrible thing. You are all worthy of love. If you're ever struggling, feel free to get in touch with me.

I'm always willing to talk, and it's never a burden.

Wednesday, January 10, 2018

Draw/Color with Me - Chinchilla Doodle

So I've been having a really tough time of things lately (I'll have an upcoming post with a little more detail) and needed some art therapy, so I recorded me drawing and coloring a simple chinchilla doodle. Enjoy!

Monday, January 1, 2018

Bianyo Brush Marker Review - Part 1

So I mentioned in passing recently that I bought my first Copic markers. Using them taught me that my alcohol marker collection was sorely lacking in the brush nibs department.

I was planning to buy myself a big set of Copic Ciao markers. I had the set all picked out, and I shopped around looking for a good deal. I unfortunately just missed a huge sale from MarkerPOP. I was all ready to bite the bullet and make the purchase when my good friend Rachel sent me a terrific (belated) birthday/Xmas package in the mail! She included some of her unwanted markers, including some Prismacolors and Mepxy brush markers. And I was pleasantly surprised by the Mepxy markers! The brush was nice and they worked just as well as all my other, more expensive markers. I was about to drop around $250 on a set of Ciao markers, when I would probably be just as happy with some cheaper alternatives markers? Had a lost my mind?

So without  further ado, let me introduce you to my new markers.

They're Bianyo's Brush Markers, a set of 72. They're twin-type markers with a chisel and brush tip, just like the Ciao markers. And I have to say, the quality of the brush tip is virtually identical to the Copics. The size and feel is the same. No complaints there at all.
I made a little index for myself, because the printed colors and the cap colors are almost never accurate to the actual ink color, and this rings true for every single marker I've ever tried, so I don't hold that against them. Some of the colors are actually pretty close, but a few are way off. Most noticeably, the Warm Grey 0 appears to be a peachy skin tone instead of an actual grey. I actually kind of appreciate this, since greys are otherwise well accounted for in this set. And considering that this grey is included in their separate set of skin colors I think this was not a mistake. Another "off" color is the Chartreuse, which is way darker than I would have expected.

This is a large set of markers, and includes some fantastic colors. I wish there were more peach colors. Baby Skin Pink and Warm Grey 0 are so close in color that you can hardly tell them apart, and there's not really any other colors close enough to shade either color with if you'd like to use them for skin. And I wish there were some nicer pink options. There are also a lot of dark, vivid purples and violets, but not much in the way of lavender or pale shades to blend them with.

They do sell a separate set of skin colors, which would hopefully solve the lack of light pink and peach shades. But upon closer inspection, I saw that around half of the markers in that set are repeated in this one! The others don't seem to be available individually, which is terribly lame. It seems there's only a few odd markers outside of this set. It makes me wonder why they didn't just expand this set to include their entire collection. I was really bummed - but it didn't stop me from ordering that skin tone set today. We'll see how I like it in Part 2 of my Bianyo review.

Anyway, here's some doodles I made with these markers!
Jungle Foliage

Snake
Dancers from the movie Xanadu
 I did use my Copic skin tones to color the gentleman with the hat and to shade the lady on the right's skin, because none of the Bianyo suited the dancers I was drawing.
'Tangle Me Olmo' is a joke based a hilarious off-brand marionette-puppet I found online

Raya
The quality of the markers is fantastic. The ink is smooth and vibrant. The nibs are a pleasure. All of them appear nice and juicy. I cannot express enough how happy I am with them!

Pros
  • Cheap (Less than $100 for a set of 72)
  • Quality brush nib
  • Smooth, vibrant ink
  • Comes in a nice package with a magnetized top that flips into a stand
  • Decent color selection
  • Work nicely with other alcohol markers
  • Available on Amazon 
Cons
  • Cannot be refilled (at least I don't see any refills available)
  • Lacking in the pink/peach/lavender department  
  • Confusing (arbitrary?) numbering system
  • Caps do not fit into the ends of the markers while in use
Color Comparison - Prismacolor, Bianyo, Copic
I picked out the most similar colors I could find that I had in all three brands. I settled with these ones. The Prismacolor definitely lays down the smoothest, but the colors aren't as appealing. The brown is less saturated than the others. The Bianyo markers are very lovely! Nice and saturated and smooth, but not quite as smooth as Prismacolor. The Copics are beautiful colors, but the ink lays down an almost mottled appearance. This may be the paper that I use, but I've heard other people complain of similar problems with blotchy ink too.

Out of the three, the Bianyo markers are probably my favorites. The colors are very appealing, and they lay down nicely. Overall I'm very pleased with this new addition to my collection. I wish I'd found them earlier!