Sailor Moon + markers

Made this A5-sized marker illustration today while listening to Ayumi Hamasaki's Love songs album. I ordered it a few days before Christmas, and it arrived today. Inspiration come my way! <3 The packaging, booklet and songs are all so beautiful. Must be my favourite Ayu album since (miss)understood and Secret. I've loved all her work so far, but this feels so nostalgic and familiar.

Anyway, since the album is such a prize and booklet pictures very pretty, I drew Sailor Moon in front of a mirror just like Ayu in one of the pictures. The pose went haywire but I'm happy with the colouring! I've had problems with Copics since forever but I think we've achieved some sort of mutual understanding now. Also! Roses cut from scrapbook paper. -loves-

Attention: these other two are not quite work-safe. I have been reading Sky Doll lately and wanted to draw Neo-Queen Serenity in a dress similar to Agape's. Her breasts look like balloons, it's quite freaky... I'm more a fan of small breasts if I'm completely honest. Also, the other one is obviously porn work of Seiya (Sailor Star Fighter) and Sailor Moon, a pairing I like very much. Um. It was a marker practice, honest. Kinda. Sorta. An excuse to draw as much bare skin as possible? XD Sigh, no one's going believe me anyway, so why bother? I just love Sailor Moon's blushing face, she looks so cute. I wish Naoko Takeuchi had shown her more often with her hair undone~

These were all drawn on my new marker pad. I can't stand those really thin marker papers, they always get wrinkly when I try to draw on them. This one is much better. It's Letraset Cartridge Paper (Heavyweight), 270 g/m2. Ah, how smoothly the colours blend on this paper! I think I'm in love, haha.

More supervillains

Only this time it's my original characters, Toxic and Doctor Love (yes, I gave them as cheesy villain names as possible. It's a parody, after all!). I had fun working with markers again, but my scanner unfortunately couldn't andle the outbursting pinkness of Love's hairdo. I like this one very much.

Characters done with Copic and Neopiko markers on size B5 marker paper and framed with a gold pen. Background is scrap-booking paper I scanned before in high-res and now cut-and-pasted on this work. In other words, all the materials are traditional but just brought together by Photoshop (because cutting the paper into that exact shape is quite challenging).

Shiny, shiny Christmas on ice

Working on something winterish right now. It's still waaay unfinished, but as I don't have anything special prepared for Christmas this year (well, I never do specific holiday illustrations) I wanted to share what's done so far. The paint is still all wet and if you look closely, you can see that it shimmers faintly, too. I've mixed some pearlescent watercolour with normal watercolours, so the outcome will be shiny. <33

It's completely unintentional, but thanks to the colours and all the shimmer it looks like they're wearing wedding dresses. Might go ahead and just make them wear veils too since it's already going to that direction~

Alice and Mad Hatter again, my two lovelies. First time drawing Maddie in a dress, too, but it suits her.

Happy Christmas, everyone! Eat loads of yummy stuff.

I present you a supervillain... Galaxia!

After writing in my previous post that if I am to draw supervillains, I would draw Galaxia I got so possessed by the idea that I actually went and drew her. And I think she came out just fabulously. <3

Out of all the villains in Sailormoon Galaxia is definitely my favourite. Why? She's just unbelievably cool. And closest to being a supervillain from all the other enemies the Sailor Senshi had to face. She was pretty damn close to wiping out all the Senshi in this galaxy - no other enemy ever actually killed any of the Sailor Soldiers. Galaxia was ruthless and powerful, and that's why she's my favourite. And of course she's gorgeously beautiful, too. -has a fangirl moment-

This work is such an overdose of golden watercolour, my supplies won't last long if this keeps up. T___T This opaque paint is from a Japanese brand sold in Japan only, see.

Who should I draw next? More sexy villains or maybe Sailor Senshi themselves? I was thinking about doing a plausible artwork of Uranus and Neptune for a change (all my works of them are pretty hideous if I'm honest). Or if it's villains, then probably girls from the Witches 5. Or Amazoness Quartette when they were still enemies to the Senshi? I don't know, somebody help me! -ponder ponder-

Aah... I really want to draw the Starlights and Princess Kakyuu, too...

By the way, a little tutorial of this work is up in deviantART! Check it out. ^^


Watercolour tutorial: Galaxia by =Aurasama on deviantART

Superheroines

Lately I've been getting into this superhero thing a bit more. I have friends who love superhero stuff (comics, movies, tv-series and whatever they have these days) but I've never really been into that genre. All those ludicruous muscles, silly spandex costumes and super powers and saving the world from evil supervillains just doesn't get me. I did like that old Spiderman animation as a kid, though.

Somehow I've still managed to get into this hero thing lately, maybe thanks to my friends' hyping or the fact I've stumbled upon some wonderful, wonderful artists on deviantART. Then I got inspired and drew an OC of mine whose story is more or less a goofy superhero cliché parody anyway, so the role fits her. The finished and inked lines are on the right. -->

I'll admit that she was hard to draw as she needed to have some muscles and not be that cute and round-shaped like my girls usually. It's a nice break from my usual stuff if nothing else (and I'm super hyped up about colouring this, I can't wait to get my paints and get ready to rock). I really needed a break from all those Alice-verse illustrations...

I want to do more dynamic heroines now~ Maybe some Final Fantasy heroines (I know my little brother would approve of this) and the girls from Sailormoon are more my kind of thing if we're talking about heroes. <3 I really want to try drawing some supervillains too! (Well, namely Galaxia...)

And then on the left an older Copic sketch of another heroine. She was just a random character I drew to practice this kind of pose, but my idea was to draw something like an electric fairy or elf warrior. As I said, it's an old sketch so I don't remember clearly. Still, I though the illustration was too nice to waste so I wanted to share it with you gys here.

Who knows, maybe I'll re-draw this on watercolour paper someday and make a full illustration of it now that I found my very favourite watercolour pad again (the one I drew that red Alice/Hatter picture on? I thought I had used all the paper already but then I found some more upon cleaning my room).

A new postcard design

Finished something small and cute today. <3 This one I'm hoping to turn into a Valentine's Day postcard for next year (a bit early, I know) since it turned out rather Valentine-ish. In Finland, Valentine's Day is celebrated mainly as a day for friends and friendship but since these two are only holding hands they could just as well be close friends. It's up to the viewer's interpretation, after all!

I wanted to make something with a chibi style for a change but I've always had problems drawing chibi, so I ended up looking at Tove Jansson's Moomin illustrations for help. I found this style is much easier for me than trying to draw "normal" chibi characters, so I think I'll stick with this in the future too. They did turn out rather cuddly, I think. -smiles-

I just bothers me slightly that the short-haired girl looks like me, the haircut and colour is spot-on (I drew the sketch before cutting my hair, so it was really a coincidence). Still, I wouldn't mind cuddling with such a cute blond girl! They both turned way more adorable than I expected.

Painted with watercolours. Moon painted with Kusakabe opaque golden watercolour, clouds with another brand's less opaque gold. Yes, it's another one of those works that glitters like crazy in reality.

Christmas sales

It's Christmas time and you know what that means. Sales, sales, sales! Well, I haven't been just idly shopping, I also did attend an event with my own stuff to sell. The results? It went dashingly! I wasn't expecting my postcards to sell quite so well, so thanks everyone who stopped by. <3

The photo on the right is of my booth at the annual Christmas Bazaar in my university. I had quite a lot of leftovers from this summer's Artists' Alley so I took the chance to sell some of them, and I did sell out on several designs. I still have some of those long prints left (and some individual cards) so if anyone's interested in buying them, just leave a comment!

Sitting behind a table for a day is quite boring at times, so I doodled away the time. Here's some stuff I drew on good ole' cardboard during that day - coloured later on with Copics. The other one's only halfway done, though.

So what's up with drawing all these mushrooms these days? I hope someone would tell me that, also. I think I'll add some nice touches on the background with stamps and turn the 'Shroom Gal into a postcard design~ I haven't really used Copics in a while so I was pleased to find out the results weren't bad.

Since it's December and all, I've done some shopping myself! I found these lovely butterfly earrings made of wood while I was visiting Ornamo's Christmas sales on the 5th. <3

Well, the name tells your everything: "ihania" is Finnish and means "lovelies". Quite a fitting name, indeed. I am absolutely crazy over earrings. I hardly ever wear any other kind of jewelry, it's all about earrings for me. I like the cute, sort of romantic ones and especially if it's something from a small local brand. I like the sense of uniqueness, especially after I cut my hair short 'n' fluffy. When you're actually able to see your ears, what you wear in them becomes more important (for me, anyway). And what you know, earrings can make a short-haired lady look a lot more feminine. It's all about subtle details on my world.

Now that I wrote all that, I realize how weird I must sound most of the time...

Tomorrow, more Christmas shopping to do! I have to go and buy presents for my lovelies~ I know that buying presents is hardly necessary, but I'm the kind of person who likes to pamper those important to her. I'm not much of a cook or very good in household chores, but taking care of people is like my way of saying "I like you and I want you to feel happy around me". I guess that makes me quite the feminine girl in the end. (I've been writing so much about definitions of feminine and masculine for my thesis that it's making me sick, so I find defying gender roles very appealing right now)

Don't call my name

To continue our venture to Wonderland, I present you something older this time. I actually did this little painting back in July or something. TwT;; The reason I haven't uploaded it anywhere is, well, I'm not exactly sure if I like it or not. First of all, I liked it so much more as a mere lineart. Secondly, Mad Hatter's uniform turned out pretty blah. And thirdly, her pose seems too stiff compared to passionate little Alice here.

I also had to do some digital postwork to cover up for some of my screw ups, which does not please me considering it was supposed to be a traditional work. -sigh- But then again, I really like how Alice turned out here, and the background in its all simplicity is exactly what I wanted. I thought it would be waste if I never shared this with anyone so here we go, it's not perfect but hope you like it anyway.

Maybe I'll just do a remake when I have the time... I just don't have anymore of this wonderful paper left anymore. T__T Oh bummer.

Finished mushrooms

And it's finished! That was really fast for me, I can take weeks and weeks on one work with my on-off working pattern... A tutorial is now on its way and will be uploaded to deviantART sometime next week. Right now I'm too tired to continue writing it anymore, need sleep. It's already 3 in the morning here. =.=;

Is it just me or did all the redness make this look rather, er, sexier than in the lineart? What is it with red that always makes my works look like softcore porn? Dearie me. I guess it must be my subconscious at work or something. Well. These mushroom girls are supposed to be very sexy and alluring for the sole reason that they use all possible means to tempt the unvary traveler off the road to eat them somewhere more secluded. The forests at Wonderland are dangerous in most curious ways so a smart person should keep his/her mind out of the gutter.

Mushroom ladies - lines

An A5-sized lineart I'm hoping to turn into a postcard design or something. I actually did this so I could use it for making a tutorial on masking watercolour illustrations and it accidentally turned out nicer than I expected. Very quick work, sketching and inking took about 2 hours in total. ^^ Next step, start masking and painting! I hope it turns out tutorial-worthy...

Money, fame and fortune?

Something I'm currently working on. It goes by the project name of "But If I Had You" and if you're getting Adam Lambert vibes right now, yes, you're on the right track. I love his music insanely much right now, it just calls for inspiration. -jamming to his tunes-

If I had you that would be the only thing I ever need.
If I had you the money, fame and fortune never could compete.

This is a watercolour work centering around a young but lonely starlet who has it all - more fans than stars in the sky and money coming in from all windows and doors, but she'd give it all away if she could just be loved in return by the person she secretly loves. What I've done so far is the complete lineart and a light watercolour wash to serve as a base for the rest of the paint job. Still loads to do, though!

Background story
Which do you value more, money or people? That's the basic idea behind this work.

Talking with my friends lately has raised the subject of money to my awareness more often than I'd like. While I'm one of those romantic dunces who count people as the most important factor in their lives, I do know quite a few people who say that the most important thing to them is getting as much money as possible - they claim it's the key to happiness and everything they'll ever need will be accessible with it.

I won't deny that money isn't important, because of course it is. In modern society money talks and if you're poor you can't achieve that many comforts or even afford to have hobbies or, indeed, any free time at all. The way I see it, it's important to have a decent income so that you can live a comfortable life, being able to make choices without having to just settle for the cheapest option, to be able to pursue activities you want and so on. But that's all it is. Money is merely a tool for getting the everyday necessities for the kind of life majority of people aim for (a place of their own, food, method of transportation, etc.) but it can't buy the things that really matter. I'm talking about feelings here.

Call me a daydreamer or an escapist - which I know I am anyway - but I believe money cannot buy honest affection or someone's love. Sure, if you're filthy rich of course you can find yourself friends but dear, they will only befriend your money and the benefits they get from being around you. Some people claim that money can buy love, but what you actually can buy is sex, not someone's honest, sincere interest in you as a person. And if it's not sincere and if it's not about your person, then it's not love, it's either lust or avarice. And they don't compensate for love forever. I'm the kind of person who does want to live in a relationship someday and I'd very much prefer it to be honest affection. What else could someone want from me anyway? I'm not from a wealthy family, I'm not ambitious enough to become filthy rich and I can't think of any other benefits someone could wheedle from me.

The bottom line is yes, money is great and of course I'd like to have the kind of income to make it possible to live comfortably and to be able to pay my bills on time each month but that's not everything. Life in material might give you the sense of security everybody needs, but if it's all about money it'll be a very hollow sort of life. It's lonely on top, after all. I'd rather value friendship and family ties and be poor than be a Scrooge MacDuck huddled up all alone in his manor.

I guess what I'm actually afraid of is that I will eventually be abandoned by the people I care for if they become rich and famous like they intend to. I mean, if it's money they want then there will be no place for me anymore when they're off living their glamorous lives with other glamorous people. I don't want to be cast aside for something so trivial.

Strange how drawing can make you think of so many things! My brain is always buzzing like this when I draw, I can hardly sleep at night if I draw at a very late hour. @w@;; I want a Pensieve for Christmas, hahaha.

Introductory post of sorts

Hello, it's Aura here! It has been a while since I had a blog but I've felt for a long time that I need one. I'm the kind of person who always has a long story to tell with nearly every artwork I create but I don't want to overload my watchers in deviantART with a wall of text everytime I post something so my descriptions are pretty vague actually. If you're interested in learning more about my working process, seeing unfinished works and hearing me blabber all day about the inspiration behind my works then this is the place for it. I will probably also post watercolouring tips here and try to give people an overlook to my tools. It's an art blog, after all!

Like in dA, comments are welcome in both English and Finnish.（ 日本語も全然平気です！） Hopefully the people who come to read this will enjoy my mindless banter to some degree. ^^;