Jam day with Sipsetti

Sometimes it's good to plan nothing before you start painting. This one was very much fun to work with, and I really like the outcome even though it was totally random. I wanted to draw jam jars and a cute girl with ruffled up hair, but that's pretty much everything I planned beforehand. Everything else - made up as I went. My favourite strategy for everything.

Sipsetti with lots and lots of jam~ The text on the jars says 'strawberry' and 'blackcurrant'. Sipsetti's hair is actually mint green, but it would have looked too out of place here so I made it pale lilac.

What's your favourite flavour of jam, by the way? I love raspberry and cherry. <3 Blueberry is great, too.

Graceful Lightning

I've been playing lots of FFXIII lately, and Lightning is my favourite out of all the playable characters. She's tough and rought around the edges, but she has this unintentional sort of grace about her. I think it's interesting. She's not very girly, but I wanted to capture her in a passing, unintentional moment of feminity even the roughest tomboys probably experience every now and then.

I should be designing my collection but I don't feel the slightest bit inspired... Ugh.

Pencils and Photoshop 7. Rose screentone from here:

Rose Screentone Pack by *Mysticalpchan on deviantART

Distance

'Though I pursue you
Though I pursue you
I don't reach you
Even though I like you this much'
Nishino Kana - Distance

...That's it. I'm beat like never before. Two straight days of nothing but Thesis seminars left me totally drained, so I'll just share this little sketchbook scribble with you and go to bed. Mine went well, by the way.

This song touched my heart at first listen; the lyrics fit all too well. I can really relate to what she sings about.

Struggling with the White Queen

I've been working on a gift illustration for a while now. Who ever knew it would take three tries to get a satisfactory result? The images above are the first two tries.

These illustrations I did didn't really come out the way I wanted due to various reasons, like stickers not being ink-resistant, too dark colours, just being plain unable to draw what I wanted... I did try fixing my mistakes but in the end I didn't like these two, and I don't want to give away works I'm not happy with. It's against my policy, because I'd feel so cheap.

 This is the very first illustration I ever did of the White Queen, from last summer. Since the other ones didn't work out, I took up this for hints and decided to give it one more try. The third and final illustration is based upon this little painting's design of the Queen.

Watercolours didn't work for the other two, and I wanted to try something else. I ended up on markers - on the left is the inked lineart and on the right what I've coloured so far. I scanned the lines and printed on another paper so that I could start over in case I make a mess again. So far so good, I think. I usually start with the skin first when I colour with markers because it's the best part.

Let's keep our fingers crossed for a good result at last, shall we?

Sipsetti sketches

Sketches scribbled in class today, mainly featuring Sipsetti and a roommate. Chibi characters are much faster to sketch these days, I want to do some postcard designs with them. The 'stealing cookies' one came out pretty cute, might actually re-draw it in bigger size. ^_^

The big picture is the lineart of a watercolour illustration I'm doing, girl couple on a magical horseback ride! I haven't drawn horses since I was 13 or 14, by the way. It was nice after such a while~ I was a horse-crazy girl in my teens! But horseback riding was too expensive, so I did it once a week only for two years. TT___TT I love horses.

You have mail, muffin

More paper-cutting!

Finished an older work just in time for Valentine's Day. I had drawn and painted the girls on a plain ultramarine blue watercoloured background but it looked so dull that I cut them off and glued on shimmery crafting carton. (suomalaiset: jos etsitte tätä paperia, niin kyseessä on siis helmiäiskartonki, jota saa mm. Sinellistä)

For increased cuteness I added some cherry blossom stickers. I bought them from Japan in fall of 2009 and had been wondering where to use them for a long while. It's all sugary and girly, but I like it very much for that. <3

Fun facts: When I showed the work-in-progress to Sadyna last year, she said the brunette reminded her of Belle from Beauty And The Beast. -teehee-

Related Rambles: Mmm... I've never received a love letter but I have given one to someone. A mistake I shall never, ever repeat! I'd rather speak up than give someone a letter nowadays - if only I had the courage to talk about my feelings in the first place. It was my New Year's Resolution to be more outspoken about my real feelings, but confessing that I'm in love with someone is way out of my comfort zone. No can do. What ever shall I do with my infinite shyness...

Scared someone

I had completely forgotten about this drawing that I made sometime in November, maybe. I'll finish it someday once I figure out what to put beside the black shadowy thing. I somehow lost interest towards the end and buried it under various other unfinished drawings. ^^;

She's a comic character from me and my friend's pet project. I don't want to reveal much yet, but she's a nerdy girl who's deadly afraid of vampires for some reason. Then a real vampire enters her everyday life... And hilarity ensues. Her name is Sipsetti. Yes it's a real, old-fashioned Finnish name, stop laughing. Since it has somewhat become my nickname these days I decided to give the name to her. I hope I'll be done with this Thesis thing once and for all so I can continue with the comic~