Darla Two
2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics, fine liners, gel pen
On the cold side of Centauri Sixteen, forty years after landfall, an elderly astronomer called Garth discovered a creature much like this one, seemingly lost in the Stalagmite Forest. It seemed shy and kept a distance between them, but followed him home. The sad face reminded him of his daughter Darla, now a deep space navigator, so he called her Darla Two. She became a sort of pet, one who liked to eat fig beetles and look through his daughter’s old picture book replicas. At least this is the story he told. No one else ever saw her.
Winnie the Wonk
2.5″ x 3.5″ ATC, Copics, fine liners, gel pen
Leah was the daughter of a Meteor Retrieval engineer and a planetside nurse, with few playmates her own age. When she was about five, her father heard about an interplanetary astronomer called Garth who befriended a mechano-alien with wonky eyes and wonky hair. The story inspired him to build his daughter a mechanical friend with similar features. As a testament to the success of this friendship, Leah grew up to become a robotic specialist and built the first Robotic Ambassador. She named it Winnie.
Keen Art Resource 02
How to Refill Copic Markers, by BayleeCreations. I believe you can find quite a few videos on this topic, but this one is very thorough and talks about various related issues. I spilled a lot of ink before I watched this, but now I don’t. Hooray!
Thanks for stopping in! Lots of progress pics below. (I keep thinking about doing videos instead of slideshows, but it feels like it would be too time-consuming so I’m not sure yet. Do you watch many art-related videos?)
[portfolio_slideshow size=”large”]
Touching story’s, touching faces. I know they are an alien and a robot, but they look as ‘if they understand’!
Yes, quite expressive even though the details are minimal. The uneven eyes are wonderful. Darla kinda breaks my heart, she’s that expressive.
The aqua and lime combo is wonderful. Love the progression pics and the resource info. Brilliant. Still haven’t got my hands on a white gel pen. Guess I’ll have to order them online. Thanks for the link!
oooh, Darla looks so sad and so cute… and I love her big eye!
love the stories, as always!
and well, sometimes I do watch them, if they aren’t too long… but I like your progress pictures, I don’t think you should make videos
Thank you! And you may be right about the videos. People seem to like the progress scans. :)
As a follower from your first entry on IF. I would love what you choose to do. Hearing some of the reasons why and how you pick colour combinations would be great. And a few tips on shadow and shading added too. Your work have helped me to start creating again and try. Love love your eyes it’s like looking into souls.
Thank you! I think we all have certain color combinations we prefer, and sometimes it takes a lot of experiments. The more art we do, the more we come to understand what works best for us. For the eyes, I’ve been doing them a lot! And I have accidentally stumbled on certain things that work really well, like the curve of the white highlights, and adding more shadow after that, too.
Lately I like using all the browns/golds/yellows, sometimes with gray, which is not a combination I would have picked in the past. Another method is trying to limit my colors to two groups (for instance browns/grays, blues/browns, greens/grays).
(In my next post, I’ll add pictures of my marker collection. It is pretty huge, but also took over 2 years to accumulate.) Thanks so much for the comment!
You are the Queen of eyes!I love the detail of the highlight you shared with Denise.As for progress pics vs video, I also vote for the pictures. I do not often have time for videos but the progess picture allow me to see it all at once and/or pause at parts of the process.
Thank you! It’s crazy how well the eyes have come along, when I didn’t think I’d ever be able to do them well. But it’s so much less precision than I imagined, for one thing. At least the way I do it. I suppose it takes a bit of intuitiveness, which you develop the more you do something, but it’s just not as difficult as I once thought. ProkoTV at youtube (linked in my last post) has some great eye videos if folks are working on eyes.
How likeable you create an alien robot. Seems to me, I friendly group.
That’s “a” friendly group.
I watch art-related videos on YouTube. Sometimes I search videos about specific technique but I also enjoy time-lapsed videos in which artists just draw or paint. I’d love to watch your videos.
Darla is a lovely alien…..wonderful effects on her eyes and I love the color scheme…..browns with touch of violet, lime, turquoise…..and hint of orange. Might have to “borrow” those colors for one of my own works!!
I’m partial to big eyes. And having one big eye. I have a piece called Big Eyed Dog. The funny thing is I don’t know what got into me when I did it. Suddenly, I just felt like doing one eye enormous. Go figure!
Their eyes are disarming! Fun characters :)
Love the expressions!!! You can do so much with so little. Great work (as always!!!)
Am loving your new backgrounds. In a strange way Darla Two is quite beutiful! You have certainly mastered the eye. Am now catching up with all your recent posta (trying to move takes away time from the pleasures in life).
Hi! Must say I agree with all the “Friends” that appreciate your Art!! Love, Mom
these are great!