Short but sweet

There's not much to report on this week, as I've done no art! I've tried to work on my digital drawing of Cersei Lannister this afternoon, and I've spent a couple of hours working on her hair, but I realised I hadn't done it long enough at all. That's and my laptop crashed, so I've thrown my toys out of the pram and not doing anymore today. My mood isn't helped by the fact I had so little sleep last night due to being in the sweat box of a spare room my nan has. So I'm pretty grumpy today, and in no mood to do art to make up for the fact I haven't done any all week.

On the upside I've bought more paper (although it's still not the same stuff, but it's got to the point where it will never be the correct paper as it's been discontinued, so I'll have to make do with what I have).

I finished the Shaw Academy Graphic Design course, and found the last 2 lessons pointless; needless to say I won't be signing up to their advanced course, nor paying to take the final exam to get my certificate of completion. I have seen a short course to do at a university, but after seeing what this online course was like that I've just done I need to go through the university course with a fine toothcomb before committing money to it.

I'm doing a school holiday art course starting on Thursday for the next 6 weeks which will be interesting, I've managed to get some of my colleagues to join me too.

I've also started following a blog: http://drawboy.blogspot.co.uk/ but I'm finding my blog isn't generating much traffic though Blogger, so I'm thinking of moving it to WordPress and see what they're about.

Anyway, I'm not one for sentimental inspirational quotes, but I'm feeling down in the dumps today, so here's one for my Pinterest of the Week: https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/494833077785572089/

Jaime Lannister colouring (mostly) finished, plus a portrait of Winston Churchill

I've really got my head down this week and finished off Jaime Lannister. There are a few bits I need to sort, but they won't be worth another video, so here are my progress videos:

Something did happen last week though after I uploaded one of my videos to YouTube. The music I add to the video comes from the Free Music Archive. I've always credited the artist, and also put the rights of the music in the description of my video. However, one artist decided they wanted to make money from their music I put in my video, despite the rights not stating this would happen. I couldn't be bothered to fight with them, so I've just replaced it with a free track on YouTube. I've since discovered that the artist puts theri music on YouTube but expects royalties. I'm a bit peeved about it, as my videos aren't intended for making money, so the fact that someone wanted to make money from my video pissed me off. YouTube don't even tell you when an artist claims copyright on the music, so it's something I'll need to keep an eye on.

I logged onto my DeviantArt account yesterday, and came across a Weekend Sketch Challenge, which I thought was interesting:

Sir Winston Churchill

Just in case you've been living under a rock we have a referendum in the UK on Thursday determining if the UK shoud leave the EU. I'll be voting, but I'm not sharing which way I'll vote as it's nobody's business but my own.

Also, I have to say my bullet journal has transformed my life! I've been using it every day, and I've noticed things are just better in my life. I'm pretty much just using it as a to-do list, but it's become my calendar too, so I can keep track of all of the courses I've signed up to.

Well, lastly, instead of a Pinterest of the Week, I'll leave you with the following video, I was listening to it yesterday as I started my Sir Winston Churchill sketch, and thought it had some good information:

The start of Jaime Lannister!

Well, my laptop is still working! I also had a fantastic holiday, I didn't want to come back, who would with pictures like this?

Porto Cristo, Mallorca

The day after I came off holiday I decided to make my back yard a usable space, it's a good suntrap for the afternoon and early evening, and it was just a dumping ground before. Now it's nice: 

Anyway, I've not done much art again since coming back (and I did zero on holiday), but I've been working on Jaime Lannister today:

I did do another Cersei Lannister test on the new paper, and I really didn't like it, so I've gone back to my original paper that I did Cersei Lannister on, and I'll be using that going forward. Plans for next week it to just carry on with this project :) There's a website coming back online, I'm not sure if I've mentioned it before, it's called Briefbox. They were hacked last year, and took the opportunity to sort out their security, and upgrade the website too. I'll have a look at it when it's back online. The owners post briefs online for you to work on (ie logo design, graphic design, illustration, etc), but they're made-up. It's quite good to use to practise. The old website is still accessible: http://briefbox.me/

I've also come across a concept I like the look of: A bullet journal, you can read more on it here:  https://www.buzzfeed.com/rachelwmiller/how-to-start-a-bullet-journal?utm_term=.do6YMLDBQb#.brOxvy6M3A

Anyway, I'm off to watch the Canadian Grand Prix (my favourite, Jenson Button has just dropped out of the race as his engine set on fire), so I'll leave you with my Pinterest of the Week: https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/314548355205688849/ For once it's not anything arty, but I feel like since just before my holiday and after my tolerance to idiots is improving!

Game of Thrones: Still working on Cersei Lannister

I've not had much time to work on my art this week; I've restarted Insanity so I've been going to bed early to give my body time to rest after the intense workouts. I did finally pick up the paper I think I'll get on with, but I only got it yesterday, and I've since been in Derby visiting family so I've had no time to do anything with the paper yet. I have done some work in Photoshop this week though while I've waited for the weekend to come around so I could buy the paper:

I can't show you the timelapse video for this; it took nearly an hour to render a video that was poor quality, so I'm not going to upload it to YouTube. I've also since broken my laptop, it still works for now, but I dropped it while it was plugged in, and I dropped it on the edge it was plugged it, so the case and ports in that area are cracked and bent out of shape. It does still charge (fortunately, but I'm now uploaded everything to the cloud incase the laptop gives up the ghost), but I'm worried when I try to fix it I may damage it more. Currently I can't shut the lid. I'll have to see how it goes.

In other news, my long-awaited holiday is next weekend! I'm away for 2 weeks, so there won't be any blog posts. I will take a sketch pad on holiday with me, but the likelihood of me drawing anything is pretty slim, as I will be sunning myself round a pool drinking beer.

So, as I don't have anything further to update, I'll leave you with my Pinterest of the Week before my laptop dies a death: https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/314548355205811079/ I just think it's a very pretty piece, I love the colours and the concept of the peacock big cat.

More of Cersei Lannister, in different mediums

I tried to paint Cersei with watercolour last week, and although I like the medium, I felt I couldn't get the detail in her face that I wanted, and from working the paper too much with colour and water the paper started to disintegrate:

So I've now had several types of paper so I can carry on with coloured pencil:

Original drawing from the previous timelapses, 150gsm acid-free drawing paper, 100gsm copier paper

So the paper on the left is the coarse paper I don't like, the middle paper is finer, and the paper on the right is copier paper, so smooth. I like the middle paper best, as I can get the right amount of colour on the paper without the texture showing through. On the copier paper, while it was smooth, I couldn't get the saturation right, and the more I worked it the paper started to disintergrate. The only trouble is, I don't have the paper I prefer in A3! So I need to wait until next weekend before I can start to draw, except I'm out next weekend, so even if I can get hold of the paper I want I won't be doing any drawing.

In other news, we had a Bank Holiday on Monday, and in the town I live in we have Charter Day, which marks when the town was founded. It's more for family and kids, so we usually give it a miss, but I had to buy groceries, so we had a wander into town. I went round a local art exhibition (same one I went to last year, although I think most of the artwork has rotated round), and also went to another place which is a local store and the Tourist Information in one (as they also had an art exhibition on). I've seen a summer course I'm going to sign up to, it's just a general art course for the school holidays (6 weeks), and it's working with oils, pastels, watercolour, tonal drawings, still life, etc. I'm not entirely sure I want to do it, but I'm hoping it will give me a purpose to my art.

I've also seen a university course I want to do, it's only a short course (10 weeks), and it's for graphic design. The guy that runs the course is a practising graphic designer, and I'm really keen to do this course, except it doesn't start until April 2017! Oh well, it'll give me plenty of time to save the money for the course.

Well, that's the most I've posted to my blog in the past few weeks, I hope you made it this far! As usual I'll leave you with my Pinterest of the Week: https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/314548355205709851/ I love the simiplicity of this watercolour, plus it's a rabbit, which I'm a sucker for.

Game of Thrones Cersei Lannister timelapse finished!

I finished up my piece on Cersei Lannister in colour, I made 2 more timelapse videos:

I managed to stop the overall colour in the video changing too drastically (I shut the blinds, as the changeable British weather means the sun is always popping in and out of clouds), and I put the video camera on a different surface to the one I was working on, so it stopped the camera shaking too much. 

I love watching the timelapses back, as I think it's magical to see my work come back to life. However, I'm not happy with the finished result at all, the paper I used is too grainy, and you can see this in the stokes of my coloured pencils:

So, it's back to the drawing board (pun absolutely intended). I've started playing around with a cheap watercolour set I bought a while ago, and I think for the finish I'm after this is closer to what I want (smooth colour, not grainy colour).

And this week's Pinterest of the week is totally relatable to my art woes, and my hope that watercolour may be the medium I use going forward: https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/ATHZu9RGmfIFMG2fkvis1Uj0Z09U-DtL2X-uq8JCCIIgCtGvwzZeX1E/ maybe I should get some of these tools into my art arsenal!

First Game of Thrones timelapse has landed!

I've had a week off from the crazy drawing, I've been pretty busy at work, so it's been nice to have a break during the week. I have started colouring Cersei Lannister in though, although I'm concerned it doesn't look like her:

I also came across these common problems posters for graphic designers, they're quite amusing: http://www.creativebloq.com/posters/posters-sum-designer-problems-111517875

Aside from that there's not really much to report on, so I'll leave you with my Pinterest of th Week, the colours are so vibrant on the first piece! https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/314548355205709830/

Game of Thrones Season 1

Well, I just about have everyone I wanted to draw finished, and I've composed them onto a banner:

Not looking too shabby! I've just got one small detail to sort, I want to double check my composition, and then I'm going to get round to colouring them in.

Aside from that, I've not done a great deal again all week. I had my brother round last night, and we played Call of Duty all night, then had the family round for a Sunday roast. Watched the Formula 1, and now I'm just chilling out. I'm so tired, and I don't know why.

Nothing planned for the rest of the week either, just counting down until holiday now, I really need a break, I'm so tightly wound at the moment that every little thing is affecting me, when really I should relax. I'll leave you with my Pinterest of the Week, I hope when I get round to trying water colours that they look this good: https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/314548355205683068/

Game of Thrones character's line drawings nearly finished!

I'm really getting my head down and trying to finish up these lines drawings now, there should be no reason why I don't finish them within the next week:

Viserys Targaryen with Daenerys Targaryen

John Snow

Myrcella Baratheon

Robb Stark

Tommen Baratheon

I still need to finish some hands though, as I've made no progress on that since last week/ So, the only characters I need to do now are Tywin Lannister (started), Jaime Lannister and Tyrion Lannister. I thought I'd leave the interesting ones until last; those of you who have watched the series will know what I mean.

Again, I've had a pretty quiet week, went to a friend's house last night and spent most of the night playing Cards Against Humanity. Oh, I won on the Grand National too, a £2,50 each-way bet yielded £161.25! Whoop!

I've been listening to loads of podcasts recently too, as I've mentioned before I listen to the Creative Pep Talk by Andy J Miller, you can find his website here: www.andy-j-miller.com, I've also listened to a few Pencil vs Pixel podcasts, and Andy J Miller has also recommended The Graphic Sound, although I've yet to listen to it. I've nearly caught up on the back catalogue of the Creative Pep Talk.

Someone else I also like watching is the Youtube channel RossDraws. Ross is fresh out of school in America and his skill is really good, though I like watching him as he's so dynamic and has so much energy! You should definitely check him out, I don't know all of the characters he draws, but he draws some pretty famous characters too. I love Color Dodge time too, I hadn't really made use of this tool in Photoshop before watching his video, and now I'm in a love with it... except I've made more of a move now to traditional art than digital art! I wish there was a color dodge pen I could use on paper.

One last thing I've become interested in is Serif Affinity, which is like a very affordable version of Photoshop. I've signed up to the beta test for Windows when it's released, as currently it's a mac-only program.

Anyway, that's enough rambling for one week, I think I did pretty good considering my week was boring! Here's my Pinterest of the Week: https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/314548355205683086/ I absolutely love bunnies, but what interested me more was the hatching of the pencil the artist has used. Aside from a few whiskery hairs the pencil stroke is all in one direction. And it's so cute!

Game of Thrones characters coming along nicely

I think I've found my flow again for drawing, and I think it's because I had 5 days off last week (including the weekend), it was really nice to have some time off work and recharge my batteries. I've managed to nearly finish 2 out of 4 drawings, the reason Bran, Rickon and Arya Stark aren't finished is because I need to practice my hands, so I need my other half to be my hand model:

Sansa Stark

Catelyn Stark, added in with Ned who was already finished

Bran & Rickon Stark

Arya Stark

I'm just about to start work on Robb Stark and John Snow. Once they're done I have Viserys Targaryen, Jaime and Tyrion Lannister, and Tommen and Mrycella Baratheon left, then I can start to colour these in! I don't have any plans for the next 7 weeks now, so there's no excuse for me to not finish these (although I find plenty of reasons to procrastinate, ha!).

In other news, we went to see Muse last night in Birmingham, and had a blast! I took a few photo's, but concert photo's never turn out well because of the low lighting:

Drones

There are hands on the screens, and it's like the hands were controlling the band members like puppets on string

The Globalist. Not my favourite song, but they played it in full

All-in-all I've had a productive weekend, considering I didn't do an awful lot yesterday except the concert and driving. No plans for this week, I'm counting down to my holiday now which is in 7 weeks' time.

So, before I go, I'll leave you with my Pinterest of the week, it's not art-related, but I made this on Monday, and it was delicious! So easy too: https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/314548355205608764/

Cersei Lannister finished, now struggling with Ned Stark's hands!

So I finished Cersei last week:

And I've made a start on Ned Stark, although I'm struggling to draw his hands, so I've left them off for now:

I went for my night out in Sheffield last night, and it was a blast, I had so much fun! I think everyone else did too. We went to a place called The Smoke for food, followed by a bit of light-hearted gambling in the casino next door (I managed to make £10 stretch for nearly an hour!). After that we had some more drinks and danced the night away. I don't feel too rough either today, especially because I mixed my drinks: rum, prosecco, wine and lager! Although I've found I have no patience for anything today, so I've kind of given up on Ned Stark.

We also went out on Friday night to our local pub, where a band called Smells Like The 90's was playing, and the music was very good, the singer changed his voice to sound like the bands they were covering, and we have everything from The Verve, Radiohead, Foo Fighters, Rage Against The Machine and Nirvana.

Our lottery numbers didn't come up for the Irish, so I'll have to keep playing and hope for that win.

Well, I have no plans for the coming week, my boss's boss is leaving on Wednesday so the whole office is going out for lunch. I'll leave you with my Pinterest of the Week, the colours and level of detail is stunning! https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/314548355204907823/

Struggling with Cersei Lannister

I've spent quite a bit of time on this, but I'm struggling with her face, and also her hand holding the wine glass:

I've spent more than an hour on this

I also know I need to sort the wrinkles out on her sleeve. I'm not sure if I'll get round to finishing her tonight, I went out for a meal and drinks with the family last night, and I'm feeling a little tired from it :)

As it turns out last weekend I managed to play 14 hours on Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, as well as do other things such as cook a Sunday roast and wash the windows! I've only managed a more respectable 5 hours this weekend.

I've seen something else I'd like to buy in the future. I have some good conversations with my boyfriend on my drawing skills, and he's always telling me I'm better on paper than I am digitally. The Wacom Bamboo Spark seems like a good investment, and I will probably buy it one day. There's a review here: http://www.creativebloq.com/hardware/review-wacom-bamboo-spark-11618921

Something else I've agreed with my boyfriend is if our 3 numbers come up on the Irish lottery again then we'll go to the British Grand Prix this year.

Well, that's it for this week. I have no plans during the week, but I'm going out with my workmates for an afternoon in Sheffield on Saturday. I don't think I'll get too drunk, but you never know!

And before I forget, here's my Pinterest of the Week: https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/314548355204907532/ I've bought a watercolour set, I wonder if I can paint something as nice as this?

April can't come quick enough!

Well, I started 2 ideas this week (I'm great at starting ideas, finishing them seems like a marathon though!), I've started a quick concept for a tigershark:

Sorry for the dark image

And I've started on the Game of Thrones characters I mentioned last week:

Daenerys WIP

Once I sat down and worked out who I wanted to draw it was actually quite difficult which families I wanted to represent, and at what stage each house is at too. I've decided to go for series one, and just the main characters. The characters I want to draw are:
Baratheon: Robert, Cersei, Joffrey, Tommen, Myrcella, Renly, Stannis.
Lannister: Tywin, Jaime, Tyrion
Stark: Eddard, Catelyn, Robb, Sansa, Arya, Bran, Rickon, John
Targaryen: Daenerys, Viserys

Think I have bitten off more than I can chew?

I've done it this way so even people married into other houses are represented (hence why Cersei is in the Baratheon house, not the Lannister house), and I also didn't want to draw things that have happened in the series in case I reveal spoilers for people who haven't seen/read it yet. Game of Thrones is one of my favourite all-time shows (I've seen all of the TV shows, but only read book 1), and I can't wait for it to return in April/ I'm hoping to have this finished by the time it returns.
The plan is to do character outlines on my computer, then transfer that to paper and finish it off with my new colouring pencils I've yet to try out. That way, if the colouring pencils don't work I can still do something with it digitally. Also, the added bonus is working digitally I have an Undo button, and I can skew things how I want. The final idea is to have all houses together on one long canvas.

I'm also slowing realising that I seem to draw people/animals/still lifes better than what I want to do, which is draw from the imagination and draw concept art, specifically landscapes for computer games.

Anyway, I think that's enough for this week, I think I'm just gonna keep hammering the line drawings of the GoT characters for now, and see how it goes. My Pinterest for the week is actually another blog! I've not read much on here yet but I've bookmarked it for a later date, hope you get something out of it: https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/314548355204806209/