30 Day Monster Girl Challenge: "Day" 5 - Mermaid

Sooo. This isn't my original mermaid. The first one I made, a few weeks ago, is cute but boring. I've been stuck! It's strange, because I love mermaids and used to draw them all the time. I guess I wanted more of a concept, though, rather than just a cute merlady. My boyfriend is in the Everglades for an internship, counting invasive fish and plants and things, and visiting gave me visions of muddy swamp mermaids. This girl is based on the invasive walking catfish... certainly she could not have been found naturally here! She is originally from Thailand but was left in the swamp by a sailor who was afraid of commitment. Eh.

"Day" 5... it's been so long! But I have sketches ready to go for the next few. Look for them. I promise!

30 Day Monster Girl Challenge: Day 4 - Naga

Finally back to these! I have sketches for four of five more ready to be finished, but I just haven't had the time. Here's my Naga, modeled after an Indian Viper. She's much sweeter than an actual viper. Maybe because she doesn't have the fangs. 

30 Day Monster Girl Challenge: Day 3 - Slime

It's hard to pet cats when you're a slime :(

30 Day Monster Girl Challenge: Day 2 - Centaur

My Little Centaur ♥ Inspired a bit by Zambicandy's stylish ponies.

30 Day Monster Girl Challenge: Day 1 - Harpy

In the spirit of Halloween this year, I've started on the 30 Day Monster Girl Challenge! (careful, NSFW at times...) Here's my day 1, a skateboarding harpy. She kind of cheats by grasping the board with her claws and pulling higher jumps with her wings, but I won't tell if you won't. 

I'm sure I won't be able to do these every day, but I'm at least going to work my way through the list no matter how long it takes. Excited to make cute monster girls! 

Monday Mix: Inspiration: Lisbeth Zwerger

Today's Monday Mix is dedicated to one of my favorite children's book illustrators, Lisbeth Zwerger. Zwerger's is a name I heard often in my illustration classes because of her distinctive style. Her simple but lively characters are usually set in some ambiguous space, often just a loose watercolor wash, with a muted color palette. She uses a lot of favorites of mine like ochrey browns and grayish blues and bright red highlights. I also love her line quality - so loose and free, yet so descriptive. She is a modern master reminiscent of Rackham, Dulac, Anderson. I truly love her work!

Monday Mix: Inspiring Installations

Hi all! It's been a while - between starting a new job and just being generally busy, I've been forgetting to blog! And to draw. It's bad, I know. But things have started to calm down, and what better way to start back up than to share some things that have been inspiring me lately? I've always admired three-dimensional art; it's something I feel I don't have the mind power to do, to think that way, so it's both inspiring and extra impressive in my mind. Installation art takes the three-dimensional concept to a completely different level. Though we're missing out on the personal, physical aspect of these works, here are some that are just as amazing through photo/video.

♥ Magic Carpet by Daniel Wurtzel. Simple, but beautifully mesmerizing. This reminds me of doing fabric studies back in school. I love painting fabric... I want to pause this video and paint the shapes in midair.



♥  Spread and Return Point by Bartek Swiatecki  The sense of movement in these images is incredible. Like stills from a sci-fi film.

♥ Plexus no. 3 from the Density of Light by Gabriel Dawe. Made with thread. I'm dying to see these in person, to see how each thread and each color overlaps the other. The combination of hard geometric shapes and soft, blurred edges is unreal.