Recent Sketchbook - Faeries

Okay, some recent sketchbook. Since everything I'm doing these days is still NDA protected there is very little that I can share, but my sketchbook is still mine and there isn't anything anyone can do about it - so here goes.

These first couple are variations on a pose that I came up with for one of the projects I've recently been working on that I can't actually talk about. I have changed them of course and they no longer resemble their original incarnation but there is a vague similarity which you will see if I am able to obtain permission from the publisher to share a bit of said project with you.

These next ones are just for fun and come straight out of the old sketchbook. The way faeries appear in my mind they are misty and indistinct and it is not easy trying to pin them down in a drawing, when describing them seems to take away their magic. Thus the paradox of drawing the Unseelie.

That's it for now. I hope to get back here much sooner with another post. Thanks so much for stopping by. More soon.

Cheers

Recent Graphite

A few more Faeries that will be added to the final version of the Lavender Blue cover. Thomas Haller Buchanan, our intrepid designer and art director will be putting it all together with his golden age inspired expertise. The final composition will be in his hands. I'm sending the work over to him and he is assembling it. We've decided that we want the cover to have a sketchy, pencilly hand drawn kind of look to it. Now that I've sent everything over to Thom I'll be sitting on the edge of my seat, waiting to see how he puts it all together.

November is really closing in now. The wind is out of the north and the trees are naked silhouettes against the grey evening sky. You better throw another log on the fire and fish that old, woolly sweater out of the cedar chest, it's going to be a cold one.

Cheers and peace be with you.

More Graphite

A bit more pencil work concerning directly or indirectly the Lavender book. Lavender of course being the Irish Faerie Tale Project I have been working on for the last eighteen months. Lavender Blue and the Faeries of Galtee Wood to be precise.

Cheers everyone and peace be with you.

Pencil Faeries - Lavender

Some recent pencil work for the Irish Faerie Tale I am presently illustrating entitled Lavender Blue and the Faeries of Galtee wood.

Leaf and Wing

This watercolour is a couple of years old. It was done as most of my pieces are - an experiment to try out a new approach. In this case I was painting directly on to a watercolour block, which is unusual for me. I most often work by tracing from a light box. I was also trying out these wing shapes - kind of leaf like and spindly. I still like them and use this wing style when I can.

I've just added her to my Etsy store which you can check out here - http://www.etsy.com/shop/LarryMacDougallArt?ref=pr_shop

More soon.

Peace be with you.

Dreaming of Spring - Sketchbook 2

I believe I've spoken before about how much I love to draw with a simple old bic pen. The bic  glides smoothly over the cheap printer paper I often use and leaves a nice clean blue. There's no erasing with a ball point pen so you can't get too careful or fussy. You have to think on your feet when working this way and a little coffee will help to keep you alert and fresh. I often like to start these doodle sessions by drawing the frames on the page first and then challenge myself to put something, anything into each one. This of course leads to a certain amount of repetition but it can also yield happy accidents and pleasant surprises. You have to be willing to take whatever you get when working this way but it's often worth it because there's nothing better than a new idea.

Peace be with you.

More soon.

Back in the Weeds

Here I've decided to take a couple of pieces from a few years ago and tweak them up a little so that I could pop them up on to my new Etsy page. These paintings were pretty monochromatic before, and I suppose they still are to some degree but I have added some more colour and made some minor adjustments to the drawing and design. These 2 pictures are small - 5 x 7 inches and are watercolour, gouache and pencil crayon on cold pressed paper. I like to think of these little characters sitting on the edge of a field, meditating over the sheep or cows that are just out of sight.

Lavender Sketchbook - A few More Faeries

A bit more drawing for the Lavender Blue book cover. My usual practice when working out a design for a cover is to draw many of the elements separately on loose paper and then trace them into place on a piece of translucent layout paper or with a light box. I do this because it allows me to draw freely and assemble without tightening up in order to make everything fit properly. Also, assembling in this way brings a slightly random aspect into your composition as items drawn separately are combined and made to work together. I first started doing this many years ago in animation school where all your drawing is done on a light table. It was such a great way to compose a layout that I never really found a better way to put a picture together. This process will not work for everyone but I find it quite helpful.

Lavender Sketchbook 2

Here we have a few more faeries and the rough for the cover of the Lavender book. In the cover rough we see Lavender alone in the woods with a whirlwind of faeries swirling up around her and down below on the right hand side a couple of goblins are lurking.

Lavender Sketchbook - Faeries

Some recent pencil work concerning the Faerie Tale I've been working on entitled Lavender Blue and the Faeries of Galtee Wood.  We originally considered using one of the interior illustrations to serve also as the cover, but we have since rethought that idea and have changed our minds. I'm glad we did because this gives me a chance to make a picture that will work exclusively as a cover and be a much stronger image and will be much more successful at conveying the mood and spirit of the book. At the moment I'm simply drawing characters and searching for the figures I want to be in the picture. There will of course be Lavender and there will also be faeries and quite naturally, goblins.

Another Faerie Doodle

Another quick faerie doodle to begin the year. I hope you don't mind.  Soon we'll be on to more serious work :)

Faerie Doodles

A couple of quick Faerie doodles to end the year. I hope everyone has a fabulous New Year and a great weekend.


Peace

Pixie

This is an old one - really old actually - but I still like it quite a bit. It has that misty, murky atmosphere that I'm usually trying to get .  I sold it years ago at a convention. This is one of the few I'd like to get back if I could. I have no idea where this piece is now but I hope she's happy.

Lavender Faeries Re-post

Pardon me folks. I've decided to re-post the Lavender Faeries because I noticed that the first scans I put up yesterday were looking rather washed out. So here they are again, looking hopefully, a little better. I also did a couple of very sly tweaks that I'm sure no one but me will notice.

These are the first finished watercolours for the Lavender Blue - Irish Faerie Tale project I'm working on.  Thanks go to Thom for posting some very generous comments yesterday.

More soon.    

Cheers

Doodles

Some recent sketchbook activity - scroodles.

My apologies for the lack of activity in the past while. I will be attending Illuxcon ( Illustration Exchange Conference ) next week and what little spare time I have these days has been dedicated to preparing for the show. There are prints to print, portfolios to organize and original art to prep - not fun but necessary work. I hope to get back on to some kind of semi regular posting schedule again shortly.

More soon  :)

Dandelion 3

This is also an 8 x 10 acrylic study but this one is on a fresh canvas board rather than the old Masonite panels used on the other ones. I also wanted to change the palette a little on this one in order to keep it fresh. I decided to keep the subject matter simple and similar on these because my intention was to work the paint and not get hung up on the content of the pictures. I also thought it might be fun to create a little series.

Dandelion 2

Another small acrylic study. These were done fairly quickly - 3 or 4 hours tops. I'm planning some larger paintings for later on this summer and so this one and the others are just warm ups. This one is also 8 x 10 on Masonite panel.

Dandelion

Over this past weekend I had a chance to do a couple of small studies. These are 8 x 10 acrylic on Masonite panel. The panels are well used and have been painted on and gessoed over several times, giving them a lot of texture to paint on.

Garden Pixie

 

I was able to find the time to paint the wee sketch I posted last week. That little doodle was very small and simple and there wasn't really a lot there to paint but I managed to fill in some details and add some grass and twigs and leaves - my usual solution to finishing a piece like this. The paper I used this time was 300 pound hot press which I have not used before, mainly because 140 pound hot press, my usual paper, is cheaper. But let me tell you, the 300 pound paper is a dream to work on.
Expensive yes, but it can take anything you can throw at it. No stretching or taping to a board. It will now be my paper of choice when the situation allows.

Garden Pixie

At the moment I find myself with a few days while I allow several projects to follow their natural course through the development process. And so I have this small personal piece in the works. At the top in brown pencil is the initial sketch that came during a doodle session and below is the tracing I made in order to clean up the image and make it easier to trace on to a piece of watercolour paper. With any luck I will have a chance to paint this before everything kicks back into gear.