Fancy Dress Animals, Their Time Has Come (Again)

Lady Mrowr, three stages
2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics, fine liners, white gel pen

Lady Mrowr is my latest and favorite fancy-dress art card. She is a cat similar to a Peterbald type (with somewhat narrower ears). And now I think I will do a whole bunch of animals in fancy clothes ATCs*. (She was done a couple weeks ago but hadn’t made it to the blog yet!)

I included some earlier dressed animals below.

Four Animals in Fancy Dress (click to enlarge)
Each 2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics, fine liners, white gel pen

Here we have Harrington with Ascot, The Theurgist Tarabelle, Fox Maiden and Vincent Mundy. You probably know by now that I really like to name things. The two dogs above are probably my favorite dogs. (And they still live at my house!)

Thanks for stopping in!

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*ATCs – Artist Trading Cards, size 2.5″ x 3.5″. Lots of folks sell and trade em!

A Last Batch of Mermaids. Probably.

Submitting to Paint Party Friday even though it’s pen and ink. Because I hope to be inspired by PPF people and get back to painting for next week. :)

Android Mermaid
2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics, fine liners, white gel pen

Yes, it’s totally more themed mermaids. Whether this is the end of them remains to be seen!

Nola, a Pirate Mermaid, and Mermaid Marie
Each 2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics, fine liners, white gel pen

These last three are probably my favorites. Also the 1970s Vampire Mermaid. Here’s the whole bunch. (Including that albino mermaid. I can’t decide about it.)

Nine Mermaids (click to enlarge)
March 2014, The Slumbering Herd

Thanks for stopping in!

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Cyborg of the Demon Witch Sisters

Submitted to “Red” at Illustration Friday.

Cyborg of the Demon Sea Witches (click to enlarge)
Two 2.5″ x 3.5″ art cards in Copics and fine liners

Mrs. Thurston’s fourth-grade class was reading about Hobbits. It was nothing by Tolkien of course, whose salacious and perverse vision was not appropriate for grown people, let alone children. Such was the lack of wisdom embodied in Mrs. Thurston, whose hippie parents would have been appalled by what their daughter Sunflower had become.

Unfortunately for Mrs. Thurston (or fortunately, if you believe the loss of ignorance is always a positive, even if painfully gained), she had a student named Maybelle Llewellyn whose mother had finally reached a breaking point in hearing about this narrow-minded teacher every day her child returned home from school.

On this particular day, Mrs. Thurston had assigned several pages to be read aloud by the students as she daydreamed about Father Knows Best, her favorite tv show. Unbeknownst to Mrs. Thurston, Mrs. Llewellyn had swapped the second half of all the childish folklore texts with an adventurous tale of two demon sea witch sisters, Djalla and Djegga, who built a cyborg mermaid to take over their ocean planet.

The sentence that snapped Mrs. Thurston out of her Jim Anderson fog began, “Djegga decided to use the lower orifice as a weapon repository,” and only because little Jenny Hernandez – despite being the best reader in the room – stumbled over both “orifice” and “repository”.

What happened next the whole town has promised never to reveal. Such was the agreement with Mrs. Thurston, who agreed to leave quietly with her small pension.

In the end Mrs. Llewellyn was given 25 hours of community service (and the enduring thanks of many local parents) and Mrs. Thurston retired to rural Wales with her blind husband. Maybelle Llewellyn eventually became a successful fantasy author, specializing in creatures of the ocean.

Many thanks to AnnD, who requested a story to go with my Demon Mermaid (now one of the Demon Witch Sisters). Thanks to everyone for stopping in!

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A Debutante Vampire and Other Strange Mermaids

Three Themed Mermaids (click to enlarge)
Each 2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics, fine liners, white gel pen

I would like to present what may be a new preoccupation, and that is the “themed mermaid”. Inspired by a “Themed Mermaids” swap at illustratedatcs.com, here we have a Vampire Debutante Mermaid, a 1970s Vampire Mermaid and a Harlequin Mermaid.

My only regret in this bunch is the unbroken highlight lines on the Harlequin. The Sakura Gellyroll pen does not scratch off with a fingernail like Signo Uniball. (But it is a much thinner and equally bright line. I think.)

These three creatures are numbers 176 – 178 of the 200 Maidens. Meanwhile, the Spirit Masks are now collected in their own set. (And I have two more to post, for next time.)

Thanks for dropping in! I seem to be having trouble with a consistent schedule now that the January and February challenge months are done. Also, work is busier. Blargh.

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Copic Markers Post #267 (or so)

Forest Grace and Afghan Hound
Each 2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics, ink

On the left is another spirit mask. And at the risk of tiring all my kind visitors, below are the three spirit masks with the animal faces and botanical crowns which I am now calling the Forest Graces.

The afghan hound was created for a “Dogs” swap. Bit of a new style, with less black and mostly brown fine liner. From this reference photo. I like him! I am going to try to incorporate more hatching. Perhaps I’ll go find some hatching instructional videos. :)

Three Forest Graces
Each 2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics, fine liners, white gel pen

I like to look at at these particular spirit masks all together. Maybe a couple more and I’ll do a set of some sort. Or a print. Or cards. Hmm. Thanks for dropping in! Lots of progress pics.

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Exotic and Botanical Masks, Ink ATCs

The Herbalist, and Shaman of the Vale
Each 2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics, fine liners, white gel pen

Holy cow more spirit masks. Well, if there’s one thing I’ve learned doing tiny art these last couple years, it’s that I get carried away with certain themes. I’m not sure I’m ready to do a “100 Spirit Masks Project” quite yet. But it sounds fun! Imagine number sixty-four!

SO PLEASED with the lips on this shaman. Thanks for dropping in! And all your nice comments! Visit my swaps gallery! (I’m gonna add lots more, too.)

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Further Adventures in Spirit Masks, Inked

Fire Beetle Clan and Spirit of the Forest
Each 2.5″ x 3.5″ Copic markers, ink, gel pen

I am having a lot of fun with these shaman-type masks, made for a “Spirit Masks” swap at illustratedatcs.com. Also, I felt bad about skimping on the progress pics last time, so these have more than average. Hooray!

I stepped away from ink for a while to do some painting (and hope to do more soon), but tiny pens are still my favorite. Here’s the whole group of the Spirit Masks so far (as previously posted). I suspect there will be more!

Six Spirit Masks
Each 2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics, fine liners, gel pen

Finally, I’ve been trying to decide on some kind of portfolio page, and one idea was to put my swap sets together, so I started a Portfolio of Swap Sets.  So far I’ve got about a dozen swaps up.

Thanks for dropping in!

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A Collection of Curious Cousins

Technically the last of my 29 Faces posts (but also including 30-32!), these art cards were made for a “My Weird Family” swap at illustratedatcs.com.

Cheryl the Ocularist and Billie Blue
Each 2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics, fine liners, white gel pen

Strangers never believe cute cousin Cheryl when she tells them she makes artificial eyeballs for a living (mostly for medical use but sometimes for special effects in movies). The rest of us are well-aware of her lifelong fascination with eyeballs. One year when she was in high school we all got fish eyeballs for Valentine’s Day, sculpted out of Fimo.

Billie Blue is a mortuary makeup artist. She tried doing makeup for tv but she didn’t like to talk to people very much, so this was the perfect solution. However, after working in the mortuary for several years she stopped talking completely. One family rumor is that she speaks telepathically with her dead clients.

The Strange Twins, Kimmie and Carla Strange
Each 2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics, fine liners, white gel pen

Most people did not  believe Kimmie and Carla were twins. At least not with the same father. Many comments were made regarding the postman, the milkman, and the local mechanic. All those theories charitably(?) assumed the husband was responsible for half of the set.

The truth, as their mother confessed later in a haze of Patrón, is that the UPS man was Kimmie’s father (indicated by the nose, the glasses, and the deadpan wit), and their much older child’s biology tutor was Carla’s father ( as evidenced by the lips, the skin tone, and her fascination with insects).

Not too many process pics – but a few! Thanks for dropping in!

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Two Forest Pixies and a Sweet Tree Sprite

I took a day or so off! But now I am back and with only a few more days of the 29 Faces to go.

Two Pixies
Each 2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics, fine liners, gel pen

Ella the forest pixie with her little bird Warrick, was Face #4 in just an ink outline. Beside her is Dame Edwina, her aunt, who is Face #28. They are members of the Springdale Thistlewaite clan of pixies. These pixies are also Maidens number 169 and 170. (Since 2011, as previously mentioned.)

Dame Edwina is the first work I’ve done in ages without stopping for progress scan. People ask how I remember to do progress scans, and though I forgot a lot at first, I just kept at it and now it’s part of the process. But today I purposely chose not to stop for scans. I’m not sure whether it affects the final result, for good or ill. Further tests are needed.

Moll the Tree Sprite
2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics, fine liners, white gel pen

This little tree sprite was just an ink outline when she appeared as Face #12. Ugh, I wish I’d left well enough alone. The eyes were much cuter before I messed with them way too much. I thought about using paint over them but she prefers to be left alone now.

Thanks for dropping in!

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Animal Spirit Masks, Alpaca and Raptor Clans

Two Animal Spirit masks to go with the Bear and Cat clans, previously posted. I am counting these masks as faces (though I suppose one could argue about it).  Numbers 26 and 27 of the 29 Faces Challenge.

Alpaca Clan, Raptor Clan
Each 2.5″ x 3.5″ Copic markers, fine liners, white gel pen

I think the alpaca details got a little overworked. And the raptor clan details are not as well-defined as they could be. But I dig em.

Thanks for dropping in!

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