Pain

A young woman tears at the plants growing on her back, but grasps the flowers instead of the weeds.
This is strangely personal. I drew this today because I was feeling down. It was a really cathartic piece, and I do feel that the weight I had before has dissipated. To me it was a metaphor; we have beauty and we have flaws, and what we choose to keep and throw are up to us. Don’t judge yourself in anger or in sadness; the pain always clouds your thoughts.

Prints available

 Close ups:

 

 

W is for Waffle

My second piece for Danny Jak's Alphabet Collaboration: W for Waffle, whipped cream and walnuts.

Prints available

Frozen Collab: Princess Anna

One of my friends put together a collaboration to celebrate the film, Frozen. I was to do Princess Anna. I hadn't drawn a person for a while at this point, and struggled a little getting it right. I was adamant that I didn't want to go for the massive-doe-eyes, a gripe I had with the film designs. I wanted to make her look believable, but with the same playful charm.

Prints available

A couple of close-ups:

Cosy Penguin

*note: lately Blogger has not been showing the proper colours for my images; please go to http://jessicaxyl.tumblr.com for full colour quality viewing.

Zoe Persico's #AnimalSweaterSunday came round again and I managed to finish this little fellow up; he's been hanging around my sketchbook for a while!

Get the print here

High Tea Series

sub-titled '24 Hours of Tea-Time Treats'

*note: lately Blogger has not been showing the proper colours for my images; please go to http://jessicaxyl.tumblr.com for full colour quality viewing.

Keep checking back for more! There will be 24 in total and available as a large print. Individual pieces will be available for small prints.

 1. Pistachio Macaron

 2. Blackberry Cake

3. Crème Brûlée

4. Cherry Bakewell

5. Angel Cake

 6. Green Tea Mille Crêpe

 7. Passion Fruit Panna Cotta

 8. Brownie Cake

 9. Fondant Fancy

 10. Lemon Curd Cheesecake

Lady of the Lake

*note: lately Blogger has not been showing the proper colours for my images; please go to http://jessicaxyl.tumblr.com for full quality viewing.

There's a group called Sketch Dailies, and the results from their prompts offer the biggest range of artist talent the eye can see; so many interpretations from so many different artists. I've always wanted to join in, but have always fallen behind time since they're a daily thing.

This time, I had a few hours to spare for the Lady of the Lake.

Print available

Pastel Bunny

*note: lately Blogger has not been showing the proper colours for my images; please go to http://jessicaxyl.tumblr.com for full quality viewing.

Every Sunday, Zoe Persico runs #AnimalSweaterSunday and I decided to join in with a sweet little bunny in a carrot-themed outfit!

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Viking Anchovies

New work for the Unwork Society; last week's prompt was Viking Anchovies. 

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Alphabet Collab: J

My submission for the #AlphabetCollab on twitter, run by @SirDannyJak. I had the letter J, and paired it with one of my favourite foods - the jalapeño. 

Get the print here

Muppet Collab: Robin the Frog

My submission for the #MuppetCollab run by @Zwoltopia over on twitter. I had Robin the Frog!

Rosy Maple Moths

The Rosy Maple Moth is one of my favourite insects to look at: beautifully vivid pink and yellow, and rather fluffy. They are found in North America, sadly nowhere near me. I found a photo of a particularly captivating one, and my friend Rob Husberg suggested the photo was taken by another moth. Thus this piece was born.

'Rosy Maple Moths' is signed and dated Mar. 2014

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Castle on the Mountain

A while back I started a Switcharound collaboration, whereby a group of artists would build characters or backgrounds together. One would sketch, one would ink/clean-up, and one would colour. I had 16 artists altogether, creating 10 creatures to sit on one piece. Most Switcharounds are character portraits, but I did want to see full characters, and to work together with some great people out there.

Here is the background I completed. The challenge was a big one, finding something that would work with all the different characters. I opted for something that looked like a rather fun adventure, a small world of sorts.

I've been told to stay away from symmetrical, central stage-like compositions, but I feel this works. Perhaps it's the length and the guiding lines of the path. There were so many textures to work with, and some of the artists had chosen to do background elements which forced me to work with their techniques too.

The print can be found here.

Costume Collab: Pirate Goat

I started a second collaboration over on twitter. The first is still reliant on a few more submissions before I can reveal all.

This Costume Collab is based on a single model goat I drew, and everyone else gets to draw a costume or several costumes on it! This is my own submission/example for the project.

Magical Girl Rosie

A portrait request!

The most tasking part of this was doing all those patterns! This was a fun piece which tested my patience with pale palettes. There were a lot of glowing effects and bright outlines as opposed to my usual stance with bold shadows and depth, and this made it difficult to determine how I would approach shadows.

Robot Bath

New piece for the Unwork Society. I'm definitely improving, I think. I'm starting to be a lot happier with my illustrations, and that's a good thing. Things I've learned: don't use completely black lines, use a variant of a very dark grey if necessary; use backgrounds to set the situation; add texture. 

Close-ups

Weird Egg (loop gif)

Harry Potter Art collab :: Luna Lovegood

One of my favourite ladies from the series - Luna, the calm optimist, even in the face of death. In some ways she's Harry's opposite; they have had similar experiences, but she is unburdened by them. There is something beautiful about how she almost floats around, seemingly unaffected by the harshness of reality.

Committing to a pale palette was unusual for me. I hadn't thought about it much, but I do rely on bold, jewelled tones for my pieces, and this was a stark contrast. It took me a long time to decide on the lighting, but went with soft backlighting as well as top-right lighting.

Gloopy Octopus

An animated gif loop I did in a couple of hours. I'm really rusty with animation now, so I figured the only appropriate way to get back into action was to do quick little loops for a while. This Gloopy Octopus was really fun, and I will be making more. In the end I will probably put them altogether, with in-betweens between loops, and perhaps make a neat little short.

Unwork Society :: Unicorn

This week's theme was 'Unicorn'. My unicorn is based on a Shetland Pony, my favourite kind of horse. (They are wonderfully short, round, and friendly). I had the idea of bones and forest spirits, and thought about making this piece atmospherically dark. I usually deviate to the cuter side of things, so this was a good chance for me to see if my way of working fir into other genres of illustration.

I'm also starting to place my characters in settings, and getting to grips with using texture to distinguish different surfaces. I've found this is what is missing in my work - an extra level of depth.

Food

This is a collection of some of my favourite foods. I was inspired by Rose Wong's 'Greens and Not Greens' and wanted to try out some Photoshop pencil brushes. Similar to my sketchbooking, I wanted to keep my lines loose. Lately I've been keeping tight, clean lines, and though they are a choice for many out there, I like my fluidity, cross-hatching and 'controlled' mess.

 

Speedpaint :: Haku (Ghibli)

For this speedpaint, I was not feeling ultimately good about myself. After making a number of random marks, I eventually developed this into a dragon, and it reminded me of Haku, from Studio Ghibli's Spirited Away, so much so that I kept him in mind.

Sketches :: men

Some late night sketches of men, mostly when watching The Musketeers. I don't draw many men or creatures, and I feel the need to amend this. Sketching with a pencil felt good, and it was even better being able to make loose marks again.

Tony's Funtime Hot Tub

Tony Johnson created a collaboration, and in 5 days, it was over. I was glad to join in the madness.

Witch Week!: Witchsona

Last week was Witch Week! and I decided to contribute since I missed out on Goblin Week. This piece evolved rapidly over the weekend, since it's the only time I assign myself personal projects. The idea is to draw yourself in a witch persona, and I had a lot of fun with all the detail. It was a big struggle getting it done though, but I managed to complete it in about 15 hours!

I've resolved to start doing more full illustrations, to place my characters in scenes and backgrounds. It takes a little more time and care than doing them separately, as I need the colours and lighting to work together, but it's not as difficult as it was 6 months ago. Overall I'm getting a lot quicker and less tense with my drawing, but I've still got a long way to go.

The goal this month is to move away from drawing ladies, and to keep up the background art and paintings. An illustrator never stops growing and improving, and I know that I'm personally not quite there yet with my work. I am definitely happier than I was a year ago, and learning to embrace colour and digital canvases. I will be exploring other genres too, to vary my work from children's illustration all the way to 'grittier' pieces, in order to push my way of working.

Speedpaint: The Ship

I'm trying to do more hourly speedpaints. I saw one today that was done in 20 minutes, and it looked near complete. I want to achieve that standard, so the only way forward is to keep at it! I painted this while my fingers were swollen from the cold. The boiler control had broken and I was without heat for a good few days, which slowed down a lot of my progress. A lot of these marks were done hastily and angrily, and somehow it shows.

Unwork Society :: Victorian Llamas

I couldn't resist this brief since it consisted of two things that I love looking at, Victorian life and llamas! I had an image in my head and managed to squeeze out a drawing within the weekend.