I moderate Wild-Artists, a club for wildlife & animal art
If you're interested in wildlife and animals, or you're a wildlife artist, please consider joining!
~oOo~
Update 2009-05-31: Blimey, my Werewolf just passed 300 faves! It also has 5,649 views ...which is somehow more than my pageviews figure (how does that work?!). Thanks again to everyone who's faved it and to EmmaCreations for the 300th fave!
Update 2009-05-04: Wow I went away for a long weekend and went from about 4,880 pageviews to 5,020! Thanks everyone! I think the mentions by Doctor Who podcasters (one on Twitter, one on their podcast - see the DWO Whocast Random Fandom section) probably helped!
My Tooth and Claw Werewolf now has more than 260 faves! I seem to get a new fave every other day - either this is the best thing I've ever drawn by more than a factor of 5 (my red squirrel has 50 faves now) or deviantArt has a lot of werewolf fans!
The Who at the FAB Cafe event this long weekend was fantastic fun - it was my first Doctor Who event, I've only been to general sci-fi cons in the past. Apart from a few communication problems meaning I missed Colin Baker and Frazer Hines' signing session, disappointingly, the event was excellent - loads of funny and interesting stories from the guests and lots of chances to meet the guests and ask questions. I was especially pleased to meet Sophie Aldred and Sylvester McCoy, although Mark Strickson had loads of interesting stories and stayed right into the after show party.
The main highlight would've have to be meeting up and socialising with so many other fans I follow on Twitter and podcasters from Radio Free Skaro, Tin Dog Podcast, Tachyon TV and CIA/Podshock though. If you reading, hello to everyone I met this weekend - it was great to meet you and I look forward to seeing you all again in the future!
The Nottingham Blake's 7 Meet Up was also good fun and a great way to get into the fannish spirit of the weekend (I mostly talked about Doctor Who though, obsessed, me?).
...and now I'm only about 300 messages and deviations behind on deviantArt!
Cor - I got 6 more pageviews just while I was writing this! Thanks again!
STOP PRESS 2009-05-02: I've made a last minute decision to go to Who at the FAB Cafe in Manchester on Sunday! I've booked a bargain, last minute, two for the price of one room in a 4 star hotel right next to the station and 5 minutes from the venue so I'll be able to spend the entire day with classic Doctor Who actors and lots of fans
I'm also meeting up with Blake's 7 fans on Saturday afternoon before I head off to Manchester, so it's going to be quite the long weekend!
~oOo~
DalekMercy's Art meme
Your Art style?
I've been trying a lot of different styles over the last year trying to find what works best for me. By now I think I've settled on a primary style of digital airbrush realism paintings. I also do American comics-style line art, often also coloured by digital airbrush, and occasionally chibi Daleks
Your influences?
You might have noticed that I'm quite influenced and inspired by the design and imagery of the BBC Wales Doctor Who series! Ray Cusack's Dalek design also has to be a big influence!
I'm also very inspired by some of the amazing fan art and wildlife realism art around on dA...
Self-taught?
In digital art, yes completely. In traditional art, I had art lessons up to GCSE (age 16) but they were bad enough that I got a low grade (that I worked really hard to scrape) and had my confidence in my abilities knocked hard enough that I didn't draw again for ten years!
Your artistic duties? Are you a fan of commissions?
I think I do better work if I'm inspired by the idea or imagery I'm drawing. I also don't think I'd risk opening myself to commissions when I could only scrape 5 out of 10 free sketch meme slots in my last two journal entries... That said, I really enjoy drawing gift art for people I care about and find that very motivation.
Your favourite part of an own Artwork.
The point where it comes together and the end is in sight. It's also a very nice when I've coloured a line art piece, turn off the lines layer and realise it looks even better with the lines turned off (as happened with my Judoon).
Your least favourite part of the Artistic process:
When my art package crashes on final save losing the last 30 minutes to an hour's work, as happened with BOTH my previous digital paintings! Also when I get 10 to 15 hours into a painting and I haven't even got to the detail stage yet (but I'm going to be working on that).
Your art process:
I use the package AutoDesk SketchBook Pro on a tablet PC (where I draw directly on the screen), using the airbrush tool for colour and a set of custom brushes defined to be fixed opacity, variable width of various sizes. I work from reference images, my colouring is entirely 'by eye', I don't create a palette from the original reference image.
Depending on subject I either sketch with a line art brush until I have a good likeness, then add block colour under the sketch, shade in darker areas and then lighter highlights, remove the sketch layer and then enhance. These days I generally use this method with faces (which I perceive as one of my weaknesses) and not with other subjects.
For most digital paintings I either work in areas of colour and then enhance with progressively smaller airbrushes (as I did with the werewolf) or start with a large airbrush and draw the image over and over again with progressively smaller brushes (as I did with the squirrel) - although this is turning out to be extremely time consuming for more detailed pieces.
For line art I tend to heavily use undo to ensure all my lines are as smooth and correct as I wanted them to be - this means most of my lines are drawn extremely quickly and then undone if not correct rather than slowly attempting to draw the line freehand. This means complex curves might take several tries and subjects with lots of long straight lines (like K-9 and the Dalek Emperor) take absolutely aaaaages.
Your work schedule:
If it's August: Do a full colour piece of Doctor Who fan art every day for 4 to 7 hours while working a full time job.
Other times of the year: Mostly draw on weekends when I'm not doing anything else (or when it's coming up to someone's birthday or another occasion when I'm making gift art).
Your first experience with Art:
My grandmother used to draw watercolours of local buildings suchs as churches, 16th century cottages and bridges. My earliest memory of art is drawing the local abbey with my grandmother. I also remember watching Tony Hart on Hart Beat, but I don't recall if I actually tried any of the methods (but I certainly enjoyed watching).
Describe your Art to a new comer:
Hand drawn digital art split between Doctor Who fan art and wildlife digital paintings. Mostly attempting realism or good likeness, occasionally stylised although I always aim for accurate colours. I also like to try new things and new techniques and strive to learn and improve myself.
The future of Art?
I hope that tablet PCs and tablet monitors like Cintiqs lower in price so everyone has access to the ability to draw directly on the screen. Getting my tablet PC (at a bargain price on eBay) was really the breakthrough moment for me, before that my art had always been limited by my hand-eye coordination issues. Drawing directly on the screen removes a barrier and makes digital art accessible to everyone - every non-artist who visits me wants to have a go with ArtRage or Sketchbook!
For those who oppose your art style:
I've heard that there's some people with a kind of snobbery against digital art, I'm pleased that I haven't come across this. I don't think the medium matters as long as you started from scratch and drew it by hand (and of course photography and collage are art too, but require different types of skills).
Killer war machines or adorable chibi’s?
Anyone who's looked at my gallery knows I prefer adorable chibi killer war machines
Message to beginner or other artists:
Stick with it, try new things, experiment, be willing to make mistakes. Once you find the style, medium and method that works for you, you'll never look back! Oh and get involved with a community like dA - read critiques, get feedback, give feedback to people whose art you like, look for tutorials and walk throughs - try those techniques out - and most of all, have fun!
Favourite movie:
Pleasantville - for the scene with the art book, you know the one? Makes me cry every time...
Favourite Novel:
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams, an absolute classic!
Your Music style:
My music style? I'm a filker, and I mostly write humorous science fiction songs to existing tunes.
Your catchphrase:
I don't know if I have one ...looking at my comment history apparently I say 'You're welcome ' a lot
You + desert island + 3 things:
My tablet PC, a satellite phone with broadband, a solar powered charger
Your goal for the future:
Live long and prosper!
~oOo~
And now some Doctor Who features from fantastic artists whose galleries you should visit:
Timedancer
:thumb117792246:
:thumb117763424:
IMForeman
Mazzi294
Draculasaurus
MightyOtaking
:thumb115161183: :thumb120520233: :thumb105211256:
(and check out the animations - amazing stuff!)
jennieannie
Clone-Artist
J-Redd
LauraQuiles
webbhead1978
Jasqreate
Potpourri pieces (people with only one Doctor Who piece or who I've featured before):
:thumb119607214:
:thumb120693481: :thumb119403678: :thumb71390048: :thumb116998495:
:thumb116551832:
:thumb118146805:
~oOo~
I moderate the club Wild-Artists, if you're interested in wildlife and animal art or have some wildlife art of your own, please join, make submissions and spread the word!
Clubs I'm in or am applying to join:
Check out my scraps for older pieces, work in progress and step-by-steps jinkies36.deviantart.com/galle…
ShopDreamUp AI ArtDreamUp
Rampage Westward Journey
Character Painting in Chinese Traditional Masterpiece Journey to the West
ALCST artist's original recommendation for hematemesis
中国传统名著西游记中的人物角色绘画
ALCST画师原创 吐血推荐
$10/month
Taking a break
Within days of announcing the alphabet challenge I got horribly ill with the flu, then found myself struggling with fatigue for weeks, until I had just about got my energy levels back to normal, then got ill again. Long story short, I've been really struggling with keeping on top of my job and my housework, let alone my pastimes. I've had some help getting my living space back under control and a couple of weeks off work, and I no longer feel like I'm teetering on the brink of chronic fatigue, but I also have a huge backlog of commitments I've been neglecting.
As a result of all this, a weekly art challenge where I give myself yet more commi
Doctor Who Alphabet 2: The New Batch
The Doctor was beating everyone's nominations for Doctor Who Alphabet letter 'D' by such a long way (20 votes more than Drashigs!), I felt he needed a fairer fight! So I've closed the previous poll and set up a head to head battle with no chance of a split vote! you're now voting for whether I draw The Doctor (remember, I choose which one!) and DAVROS! Cast your votes now!
Bit of a hitch on the Doctor Who Alphabet Challenge; I've been ill for the last four or five days and so I've been barely doing anything except sleeping, let alone working on art. I'm still struggling with feeling tired all the time, so I'm going to make sure I'm sensibly
I'm back and with 12,000 Pageviews!
You might have noticed that I haven't been around recently. Since my last entry I've been distracted by podcasting, Second Life and conventions - including the Gallifrey One Doctor Who convention in LA which I flew over to America to attend last week! If you want to hear more about how that went, take a listen to episode 17 of Bridging the Rift: http://bridgingtherift.wordpress.com/2010/03/05/bridging-the-rift-17-live-from-la/ (and look at the links to all the amazing costumes I saw there).
When I logged back into dA I was met by 6500 new deviations and 650 messages in my deviantWATCH! I just spent the weekend working through all of those an
10,000 Pageviews! | Bridging the Rift Podcast
Update 2009-12-13: Oh wow, 10,000 pageviews and before the end of 2009! Thanks everyone for the early xmas present :santa: and all the views, faves, watches, comments and encouragement! My Tooth and Claw werewolf also happened to reach 700 faves this week - that one deviation really seems to have a life of its own!
We've also just recorded a fun xmas special :rudolph: for the podcast with an extra long creativity section celebrating a whole bunch of fantastic Doctor Who Universe fan creativity, and discussing xmas in Doctor Who, so keep an eye out for that - I'm editing now and it should be out in the next week :)
:snowflake: Happy holidays
© 2009 - 2024 jinkies36
Comments94
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congrats on the 300th fave!