Hiya everyone.
I know its been forever since last blog. But i was that behind with work and getting things together and attending meetings for the new term at work i just decided to utilize my spare time and just nail my drawing and get it all finished. Good news, ive finished my back log! Yay!
I have posted them up on Instagram last night and my facebook page but ill show you guys here tooas a couple of them have give me ideas that i want to share
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| Weird Al Yankovic. I treated this one as more of gesture practise. Not happy with how the face went but thats fine. its ok to say you dont like things in your work as long as you learn from it and dont take it negatively. I used to do that all time and it made me hate drawing. What i really wanted from this one was to test out a pose i know i havent drawn before |
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| Shaggy from Scooby Doo. Also prob a good gesture practice bt ive never drawn this style before, so i that way i did something different. When i get this into Illustrator im going to mess around with line thicknesses |
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| Mummy being unraveled by a Pharoah hound. This one was more of a playful one. Plus i havent drawn a dog in a while ;) |
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| Witch. Now this one is a favourite from the past week or so. Rather than do a generic "broomstick" witch, i drew her as more of a wise woman. Ive toyed with the idea that she is walking, possibly out on a pilgrimage. Going to do more of her definitely and develop her character a bit :D |
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| Headless Horsemen. I wanted to put a spin on this and show a more gentle side to him. Him stroking his horse i thought would show this. It was surprisingly hard to get the head proportion right when it wasnt in its conventional place. |
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| Frau Holda. This is the germanic form of Thors mum. As you can see she is a weaver and often portrayed as a hag. Ive had a second idea for her recently involving spiders >:D ill do that ASAP and share with you guys before i digitally paint her |
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| Tengu. Weirdest thing ive ever done. Its based of japaense mythology (powerphrasing here) about demons that protect some forest. I kinda took that and combined it with the guild wars tengu. Getting the bird and human parts to look proportionate together was very awkard. think i managed here. I was going to give it traditional clothing that is associated with the tengu. By this point i had got that frustrated with the proportion i had lost interest in the drawing. I may go back to it in the future however. We'll see.... |
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| The Black Knight. Bit of a fun one. I decided that after he has his arms and legs detached by king arthur and the original Bridge keeper had been catapulted into the abyss to give him a new job lol. Just a bit off fun. Monty python nuts chill |
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| Goblin. Really pleased with this. Just made a list of generic goblin traits, went for it and come up this guy. I think he looks pretty awesome. I havent had any character ideas yet but i deffo want to use him for something :D |
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| Grim Reaper. Not to happy with myself on this one. I wanted to do him composed entirely of smoke and lighting but i think the idea is beyond my current skill as i couldnt get it to work. At all :( eve cartoon-style. its just sucked. So here he is checking whose soul he has t reap next. I will be revisiting this later down the line when i feel i can do my original plan |
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| Kraken. Yeah i know i was in a silly mood. This is actually a baby octopus. When i paint it i want to do it like those little bio-luminescent one in the deep oceans. He will look awesome i have a god feeling :) |
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| Viking. I know not how you'd envisage a viking but this is the guy i have a story in my head for. Im going to paint him up maybe do a story board for him or something. il not sharing my story yet, got some things to iron out :D |
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| Iron Giant I never watched it but thought itd be a good chance to practice dong mechanical stuff. I really suck at drawing hard surfaces as you can see so used it to practice this :) |
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| Hansel. Never drawn a fat kid. Defiantly think another thing i need to concentrate on is different body types so here you go lol |
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| Skeletor! Like with Shaggy i never drawn a comic-y style before. Not a big superhero person (shock horror) but He-man is so cheesy i couldnt resist :D |
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| Athena. Always preferred Scandnavian and Slavic mythology to greek but se has an owl so she cant be that bad :P Tried to make her look more normal instead of all "perfectiony" | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
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Did do one of Cruella as well but the files vanished off my PC. Here is a link to the one on my Instagram
http://instagram.com/p/rIbmMIsefY/?modal=true
She was my most hated disney character as a child lol. Drew the live action one as i think Glen Close played her really well so kudos to her
So, thats what ive been up to.
Ones im going to develop:
Witch
Viking
Goblin
Ones im going to revisit:
Frau Holda
Tengu
Grim Reaper
They were all Sketch dailies challenged but i used them as a way to force myself to draw things i usually wouldnt. They will all by digitally painted as there is different things about each individual image for me to practice something new when digitally painting.
So digitally painting these images from this post and my other posts previous to this is my next step aswel as using Ctrl+paints website and drawing-tutorials-online.com to keep practising my traditional skills. Ill regularly post these stuff on my Instagram and facebook
Another thing i wanted to mention is how important it is to make art friends. After joining Chris Oatley's academy, i finally picked up the courage to post on the forum and i have never felt so welcome or known so many people who want to help you and give you amazing tips that you may not have otherwise known. Ive even got a new pen friend who is just like me. Can really relate to her and i think we can help each other. I strongly recommend making friends with another arty person and give each other positive feedback. Dont be a lonely artist :)
You can always chat to me im always happy to talk to other arty folk ^_^
Ive had a couple people asking me what the "Menja" bit to my name is about. Well Im a bit of a northern/eastern European mythology nerd. And there is a norse story about 2 sister jotuns (giants) who were chained to a grinding stone. This grinding stone was magic and could grant the wisher whatever he/she wanted. The 2 sisters, Menja and Fenja were bought as slaves by the king. The jotun sisters were the only ones who were strong enough to turn the grinding stone. The sisters used to be warriors before they were slaves. The king did not allow them to rest enraging them and resulting in the destruction of the mill and the grindstone.
Not only is it one of my favourite stories but i also used "Menja" (as i liked the sound of its more, phonetically then Fenja) to name my main character on World of Warcraft, a female Troll. Yeah i know its sad, but it relates to me in that regard.
Also my full name is very boring and generic and there are hundreds of jennyhallart or drawing by jenny, so menja helps me stand out :)
While on the note os mythology, i also really love symbology in art work. I absolutly find it fascinating, so im going to be reading into it so i can sneak some in to my work. Hardly anyone seems to use it anymore. Just want to do a head nod towards some of the old maters who used it :D
If anyone knows any good sources for this let me know. Still got some textbooks from uni ill going to re-read to start with :)
Also, just reminding folk about ym charity fundraiser. Im selling shirts and bags etc over at my spreadshirt store to raise money for orangutan conservation. Money raised will go towards educating the local people and future generations to help protect them. Also towards camera traps to monitor the groups of orangutan in the wild. They are available at
http://jhmenjaart.spreadshirt.co.uk/
Heres a preview of the tshirts, but i also have bags, cups, badges, pillows and vests. You can choose colors :)
Peace
Menja X
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Prints for charity:
https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/TalonsCreations?ref=l2-shopheader-name
Support me helping to raise money for orangutan conservation by buying clothing and accessories for charity:
http://jhmenjaart.spreadshirt.co.uk/customize/noCache/1
Charities
Act for Wildlife
http://www.actforwildlife.org.uk/go-orange-for-orangutans/go-orange-2014
Resources:
Chris Oatley's Academy http://chrisoatley.com/
Drawing Tutorials http://www.drawing-tutorials-online.com/index.cfm?affID=Oatley
Ctrl+Paint http://www.ctrlpaint.com/library/
