Ned stark finished

I've got round to finishing Ned Stark:

I'm not sure who to work on next, my plan was to have Ned & Catelyn stood together, so I'll need to add her into this drawing.

From my local library I borrowed a book: Reading through the Starting a Business in 7 Simple Steps. It seems OK, but as I just want to be a freelance artist much of it doesn't apply to me (such as employing people, I'll be on my own!). I think I have the basics understood now. I'd like to get a few paintings/drawings in my local art gallery, but I can't paint, and I'm not sure my drawings are good enough (I'm thinking of things like the Portrait of a Boy (http://kimshibbybob.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/portrait-of-boy-finished.html), and the cat (http://kimshibbybob.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/the-cat-is-done-evil-will-not-triumph.html))

Aside from that, I don't have much to report on. As I spent so much last weekend (and went clothes shopping yesterday) I'm pretty skint. I'm only at work Monday - Wednesday this week, due to my car going for an MOT on Thursday, and then we have a long weekend as it's Easter. If the weather is good I want to go to the seaside, or go for a bike ride, if it's rubbish I'll hammer some more of these Game of Thrones drawings. I was hoping to have these finished for when season 6 starts, but as that's in a month, and I've only done 6 line drawings so far I'm gonna be pretty stretched to achieve that. I'm going to colour these in with coloured pencils, and I want to experiment with recording myself. I need to get some of these line drawings onto paper to do this though.

Well, that's enough rambling for one week, I'll leave you with my Pinterest of the Week, and it's one my well-known loves :) : https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/314548355205268962/

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?

Stannis Baratheon finished, also Renly Baratheon is done too

Well, I've really got my skates on this week, I've finished two characters from my Game of Thrones epic drawing quest:

Stannis

Renly

That's all of the Baratheon brothers finished! I totally forgot to draw any poses this week though.

Hopefully some of you more eagle-eyed readers noticed I changed the theme on my blog. I've gone from the vibrant, orange, in-your-face colour scheme to something more muted and subtle.
Some of you may have noticed the theme change, but did any of you notice the new web link I added to my blog? It's in the menu on the right-hand side. I have my own website now! Granted, it's a free website, and it's very basic, but I have one, and it showcases some of my work. Go check it out: http://kimberleykirk.wix.com/illustration

Something I bookmarked a couple of weeks ago is the following web link: http://www.creativebloq.com/illustration/master-art-figure-drawing-new-artists-model-21619041 I'd love to get one of these but can't stretch financially to afford it. Especially as my wooden mannequin is rubbish. Guess I'll have to keep using my pose app on my phone for now.

Also, the amarylis has come back to life, and looks better than before! not sure why it's come back, but it's welcome in my house:

And on a final note, here is my Pinterest of the week: https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/314548355204907501/ Daffodils are my favourite flowers, and I have a bunch in bloom where I live. Also my boyfriend bought me a bunch last week, and they've all opened. You may remember a post where I sketch a daffodil on my tablet using a free app, I didn't realise how grey I made the final picture! http://kimshibbybob.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/the-lady-in-greyscale-and-daffodils.html

Robert Baratheon finished, Stannis Baratheon started

Another week, another Game of Thrones character's is complete:

Although I barely got this finished in time for the blog! I've also started on Stannis Baratheon's body:

But this has now stalled as I write my blog and chow down on steamed edamame beans :)

I forgot to mention that as well as wanting to go to a life drawing class I've also started drawing quick poses from Pixelovely, all of the below took 2 minutes each, guess which one I didn't sketch out the skeleton initially:

Well, I don't have much more to report on this week, caught up with an old friend on Thursday, won some money on the Irish lottery which means we can start our mortgage savings a month early :) I'm also going out to an awesome restaurant on Friday with my work mates, I'm really looking forward to it :) I've also downloaded some screen capture software, so I did a recording of starting on Stannis Baratheon, however I need to sort out some video editing software so I can speed it up. No one wants to watch me do a drawing in real time ;)

I'll leave you with my usual Pinterest of the Week: https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/314548355204907483/ what can I say; I love multicoloured artwork :)

Daenerys line art done, next up: Robert Baratheon

Well, the Game of Thrones characters are moving along, I've spent a bit more time on them last week and today (including managing to fit in this weekend: visiting a friend, deep cleaning my kitchen and wasting hours on Call of Duty Black Ops 3). I finished the line drawing of Daenerys (although it looks nothing like her, I'm hoping when I colour her in it will resemble her a bit more), and I've got the body sorted for Robert Baratheon: 

Daenerys Targaryen

Robert Baratheon

The idea is not to have the lines when I colour it in. I don't want this to look to cartoony, although if this looks crap coloured in with pencils then I may resort to cell-shading digitally XD

I'm still being a hermit this at the moment (saving for a house), so I haven't got much to report on. I'm gonna be seeing a few people this week I've not caught up with for a while. Hopefully I'll be able to get some more drawing in. It would be awesome if I can finish Robert Baratheon and get another character started.

Someone who I work with highly recommended going to a life drawing class. We have one that happens every Wednesday in my home town, I'm out this Wednesday but hoping to get to it next week. At the moment I use a Pose app on my phone to draw poses from (my wooden mannequin is shite), but I've been told that nothing beats drawing from real life. I can kind of relate to that; drawing still lifes at home is much better than drawing it from a 2D picture. 

Anyway, that's enough for this week. I was hoping to draw more of Robert Baratheon (maybe half an hour more), but after playing CoD it's made me pretty tired, so I think I'll have a bath as it's a cold day today, and then read in bed.

Last but not least is my Pinterest of the day: https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/314548355204907481/ If I could get my GoT characters to look half as good as this I'd be happy

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/