Marble Tie-Dye Mermaid

(Right click and select "View Image" to zoom in)

For the mermaid image above, I was experimenting with brushes, different layer modes, gradients, and textures. Good fun!

Learning how to ink digitally

Continuing in my progress of learning Photoshop, I've finally busted through whatever barrier was holding me back and risked using the pen tool. And it's a wonderful tool! I think my trepidation was from reading that it's a tool that takes time to master, but indeed, I enjoy the organic looking lines that I achieved :)

Here's the before, with pencil lines:

 Here's the after, fully inked in photoshop:

The drawing was a quick sketch of a gown that I saw at the MN Opera production of "Anna Bolena" (Italianized version of the name Anne Boleyn). For those not familiar with who Anne Boleyn was, she was the second wife of the British king Henry VIII, mother of Queen Elizabeth I, and beheaded on trumped up charges but really because she couldn't produce a male heir. Very beautiful opera, and seeing as how her story was so sad in real life, you can believe that the opera was a tear jerker. Haha the man sitting next to me (who I think had come with his wife) kept nodding off, and distracting me - but this was a good thing for me, because it prevented me from releasing the full water works ^_^

This particular dress was worn by the woman playing Jane Seymour (third wife of Henry VIII). While all the dresses were beautiful, this one was particularly striking to me: she had red hair, with a green hair piece, a lavender dress, and fur sleeves.

Also, it's Thanksgiving week here in the United States! I'm very thankful for the opportunity I got this year to expand my artistic skills and pursue a new path in my life :) I hope everyone has a nice holiday!

Organizing and Regency

Starting in late August, I began to teach myself how to use Photoshop (PS5) using books, blogs, and experimenting. It has been a challenging, but fun, journey so far. I've skimmed only one-third of the two textbooks that I bought, so in no way am I through learning all I can from them... but creating will always be dynamic!

I'm spending this week organizing. I've been trying to come up with cheap, effective ways to keep my canvases and sketchbooks organized. The additional challenge is to come up with a way that also deters the cats...

In the meantime, I got a chance to draw the above girl in an empire/regency era dress. I was pretty pleased with the speed I was able to render it (1.5 hours)! Just a month ago, my speed was slower because it took a lot of time to apply the brand new techniques I'd just read about, on top of the time it took to repeatedly look things up to make sure I was getting it right. That being said, I can't wait to learn more new stuff :D

Hello, November

I hope everyone had a fun Halloween! I was the only one of my roommates at home to greet the trick-or-treaters, and for the first time in the six years that I've lived here, I ran out of candy D:

On the theme of Halloween, I did another illustration of a scene from a Terry Pratchett book, featuring two witches. From Carpe Jugulum: Agnes says, "I didn't know buoys had glass balls," but Nanny Ogg is too worried to even grin at this word bomb. The lighting was the absolute funnest to do. I realized from making it that I want to improve on my line art technique, and will see what I can do to achieve that goal. Learn, learn, learn :)

Also since my last post, one of the paintings I've done is a lounging green-haired mermaid. I can't seem to pull myself away from the subject matter of mermaids: they've taken over my brain! They're beautiful, sinuous, and colorful.... a winning trio. 

Portfolio: we have lift off!

Big news! (prepare, have a seat, take a breath, then click the link)

Portfolio is done!

http://andreaurei.daportfolio.com/

That's it, right there, just above this sentence, in case you missed it ^_^ Or click the word "portfolio".

It's exciting for me bc it took a while to get one up. I'd been determined to have my own domain name and something fancy and glorious, but instead I found a nice free portfolio that DeviantArt provides :)

In other news: I'm helping at the merchandise tent this upcoming weekend at the BareBones 19th Annual Halloween production, "Chicka-Boom". I donated three paintings, with 10% of profit towards the theater. Good show!

Got a few drawings here to get into the Halloween spirit/ghost:

Again, right click and select "open in new tab" to be able to zoom in (I think I said left click in my last post..)

The second picture is from a Terry Pratchett book, Carpe Jugulum:   "Agnes met the gaze of a thin girl in a white dress, with very long black hair and far too much eye makeup. There is such a thing as hate at first sight."   They turned out as rather stiff poses, so I gave Agnes the broom to hold to try and liven it up. And it's hard to see in my uploads, but both of the women in the 1880s gowns are vampires. Note: larger fangs needed :)

das doodlen

((If left click edit:right click and open in new tab, then the images can be zoomed in.))

Doodles = things I drew with no purpose and just for the heck of it, usually at 4 in the morning.

The first compilation ranges from late August to October. The red dress and the blue-and-green dress are both loosely based on the 1940s. Then there's the Edwardian lady in the lower right: wow, Edwardian corsets made for weird posture! Doing the see-through cloth on both her hat and on the running 1940s woman's stockings was quite fun and easy, and I think something a bit more extravagant with see-through fabric is called for in a future doodle :D  The upper right is a girl who's come to lecture hungover and has had the luck to sit next to the class hermione, which never happened to me, I swear...

Second compilation is all from August, and I posted it to my Deviant Art  a while ago. Mostly random pretties, some mermaid bust ideas, characters, and obligatory period fashion drawings. The character with the orange braided hair (who I've named Imogene) I like and would like to do something with, but her lover looks strangely like mine... so much potential psychology in why I drew him with another girl! XD Or maybe it's more that I'd like to look like here, which yes, I would!

Peace and doodles!

self-portrait

 

Self-portrait! Same process: pencil, then color in photoshop. And I kinda fixed the top of the hat, and moved my ID. And this she-creature you see is from when I had long hair, and was trying on a hat at the Renaissance Fair.