Work, work, work and ... work.

Hello =)

My giveaway is still up, just click the picture in the last post or the big thing I made in the right side bar to get instructions! :D

So what's going on here? Actually not much but producing art again. I've begun the painting for "Slow love slow". Here's some WIP's for you.

Slow love slow

I've also done a big fat tutorial about pencils. If you're looking for something like this - you can find and dowload it here. :) (It's not about technique but about the material itself in all its variations. ;))

So that's already everything for now :) I wish everyone a happy week and see you all next time! :)

(Facebook) giveaway time!

It's time again! Time for another giveaway :)

This time you can win a print of my "Sleeping sun" - painting! 
Like last time, there'll be two winners since I have two prints! :)

What do you need to do to participate?

⭐ like my facebook page if you haven't already (this is a facebook giveaway, that's why ^^)

⭐ Like and share the giveaway picture

⭐ And if you feel like doing so - leave a comment :)

Giveaway ends on december 15th where I'll choose a winner by random number generator.

Have fun and good luck! =)

This is who I am - and not what others think.

Apparently I need to set a few things straight here because it seems some people are clearly misunderstanding what and who the heck I am.

I DO admit that I feel kinda small under the big pile of pony and porn artists out there in the www (but mainly on deviant art), that's totally true and you can if you like slap me for this if you feel better then. But stop the heck saying I would do my art only for pride and wanting to be admired! This just makes me blow my top. Really, what has led you to this thought? Well ok I CAN be bitching around the one day or another when nothing's going on here and I feel unnoticed. Ok. So much for that. BUT: The main factors I am doing art are:

► First of all - because I enjoy doing it and it relaxes my mind. It is like a little place to hide from all the shit in this world (of which I get a load at once sometimes). For a few hours there's just the paper and pencil / paintbrush and me. And a good, loud background music if needed. I sure enjoy if someone says hey - I like your stuff, you're awesome! Who doesn't? Does anyone know an artist that likes it more when people say "woah man you're so damn shitty!"? I haven't got to know any of these yet. I'm a bad compliment taker but I still try to appreciate every like as much as I can.

► 2nd reason: It makes me happy when others have joy looking at my work or even wanting one custom made. Because that's what it's about. To bring a blot or two of color into people's (surely sometimes boring and grey) living spaces. To make them wanna look at it again and again, maybe losing themselves in the world that the painting / picture is representing. Or just brings back memories of good ol' days when it's maybe a family portrait or so.

► 3rd reason: Because I want to help others. (Doesn't quite work yet but well, maybe someday). Would I wanna do that if I'd be the selfish bitch some people think I am? Haha certainly no.  I have done and am planning on doing a few paintings that I'm gonna sell to give the money away to people around here that need it desperately because for example the flood has taken everything for them. I want to set a little hope into this world. There's enough hate out in this world so I wanna give a hand and say here - I can help you. It's not much but I want to help.

It is inevitable that when you wanna get noticed and maybe wanna make a little money off the stuff you're doing - you sometimes have to say "Hello, I'm here!". So would you blame a supermarket then too of being selfish and only working for pride if they send you offers and stuff? Gotcha! In this modern society it's damn hard to get noticed so sometimes you have to scream a little louder. This is apparently misunderstood by some people as being a selfish bitch. I'm no fan of this "getting seen at any price" thing either so I mostly stay calm and silent. I'm not hosting big advertising campaigns and stuff or something else. I know how it feels to get annoyed by advertising and all kinds of sh** wanting your attention. Though I could pile up a stack of ads on your heads because I am a trained retail sales clerk and know how the race is run. But I don't because I'm no fan of psychological tricks.

So if you still wanna accuse me of being a selfish primadonna, then go on. I don't bother. Really. Go get stuck in your wrong imagination, all the made up stuff that you like to babble of. But leave me alone with this. I certainly have other stuff to do. Haters gonna hate and stuff. I'm gonna keep doing art.

ArT RefugiuM rant over and out.

Once upon a time ...

... there was a little artist that almost forgot about her blog ... ^^

First and foremost: Happy Samhain (Halloween) and celtic new year everyone! =) Hope you're having fun celebrating or whatever you're doing =) (I'm gonna spend the day working)

Long time no hear. I've been doing a lot of stuff lately. First of all finishing the family commission, had to hurry up with this one but finally got it finished then. Also overcame another obstacle by doing so - the problem to be only able to draw when I feel like it. Normally I'd ruin a picture when I draw without having some muse ... but it apparently now works without too. This makes it possible for me to take more commissions :D (Still I'm full atm having 3 waiting, one sketched today). 

But for now, here's my latest works:

The first one's the family commission. Not much more to say on this one except for that it costed me the last nerve and way too much time ... but I'm happy the client liked it in the end so everyone's happy.

The 2nd one ... well. It was originally thought as entry for that artistic journey contest .. but as I wanted to adjust it to the template I discovered that the picture was way too high and the main part disappeared under the template where nobody would see it ... And if I'd pushed it up the rollercoaster rails wouldn't fit the template anymore ... so this piece is nothing but an epic FAIL. Still I uploaded it :) So this is kinda like Nightwish's Song of myself or stuff. My inner artist's world. Quite some chaos if you ask me. As for the symbols:

- All the planks lying around = part of the boat (that represents my life) that broke as I got shipwrecked on this forsaken island
- Paintbrush and pencils = my tools of the trade
- The ocean = that one that made me what I am today
- The puddle on the island = the tears I've shed through all the time
- The paintings floating in the water = the artworks I gave away and regret it nowadays
- The flying swan = all my hopes leaving
- The rollercoaster rails = blue and left alone just like my path is
- The clock: golden because the most precious thing we have -  Life. And my time is running out.
- The guidepost = past (dark) and future (bright)
- All the sheets = all my expectations and silly dreams. The "save me" is red because it represents my suicidal phases.
- Well last but not least - that stone block I'm hanging over is a reference to a certain band I'm sure some of you will recognize. ;) 

So all in all ... life goes on. I am already sketching the next commission and waiting for a "yes please begin" for the 2nd. I also try to drown myself in work at the moment to not get distracted too much. 

I wish everyone a lovely weekend, see you all next time =)

P.S.: Does anyone of you know a video editing program for computers with a weak (1,2 GhZ) processor that doesn't wanna render a week for a 5 minute video?

The road goes on...

Hello =)

How's everyone doing? I know, the last entry isn't that old yet but I wanted to keep you up to date what's going on here :)

First of all - I decided to do more traditional stuff again. Well that actually happened when I stumbled upon that artistic journey - contest on deviant art ago... 3? days. I know I have little to zero chance to win since it's almost impossible to transfer the pattern lines exactly onto a traditional piece but ey - in is everything! I'll try it. And at the same time I can let out something I wanted to do for a long time. Some kind of "this is how it looks within me" - picture

Here's some WIPs for you, after cleaning it all out again and re-pre-drawing I started coloring today. There's also gonna be a video or two of the making of this thing. :)

These days I'm also thinking about focusing more on painting since I don't have much fun in doing portraits anymore in some way. What do you think, should I continue or concentrate more on painting? I'm unsure, like with so many things at the moment.

I also can proudly announce that I lately finished the sketches for the Imaginaerum paintings so I'll begin this too before the new album comes out. Much to do, 7 paintings and one to re-do left so I need to hurry to get the series finished. It's gonna be awesome :D :D

And ... I think I've got a new title song for my life. I lately stumbled upon this on youtube and it blew me away x) But hear yourself. I love it ^_^ And I like it to see that also the music department is slowly but surely waking up.

So far for now,  I wish everyone a wonderful week :) See you all next time!

Lightcatchers

Hello =)

I'm dearly sorry for not writing again so long ... I just had forgotten the blog in some way ^_^°

So what's new? 

Health is restored ... finally. <3 There hasn't much been going on the last weeks I can hardly write anything except for that I'm quite busy at the moment with the arts, learning italian (200 days left until I probably have to use it... :D) and maybe someday continue writing ... 

The only thing WHY I'm writing today is to tell that I've lately joined a photography group that originated in the Stargate Planet chat and has condensed into a facebook group.

I now today uploaded my two submissions in Anadoriyen's blog and I wanted to show them to you too :) So here they are:

The theme this month was "light". I didn't have many ideas on this until the deadline and I don't have many even now. But I think the two pics I did are an average result and I'm satisfied with it. Curious what the next theme will be. 

Well... so much for now =) See you all next time! =)

Block entry.

Hello :)

How's everyone doing?

I know it's been a long long time since my  last entry. I'm a little lazy at the moment ... But today I've got a lot of pictures for you :)

I haven't been doing so much during the last month since I seem to have a nasty artist's block and can't get my a** up to do anything ... Still I'm trying to defeat it by doing random stuff ... Here's what I've been doing lately.

The upper two photos were shot at the Spitzingsee near here where I live. I always love it to be up there in the mountains 

For the other 3:

First one is my painting for "A Lifetime of adventure", song from Tuomas Holopainen's "Life and times of Scrooge" ... I just had to do a picture for it since it was flying around in my mind for a longer time now and I was enchanted by all the reference photos I found <3 Besides that I have that book here and I do kinda love it too ^_^ The painting didn't turn out the way I really wanted to have it but I accept it that way :)

The other two are just a sketch I did to kill the block I have ... and to train my face composition skills which aren't really there yet. That person's the high priestess from the novel I'm working on. Though she looks nothing like she looks in my head. I just saw some headdress on deviant art and that's where it went to from there on. One day when I get better in digital stuff I will show you the real one :D

And for everything else ... 

Health is still bugging me a little at the moment, I'm now taking the 4th (or even 5th or 6th?) pack of antibiotics this year ... -.- I really hope this will change somewhen soon because I'm fed up of being sick.
 

And there's another entry to come soon since I joined a photo project of a friend. I will share the results with you :)

Until then I wish you a happy sunday and a good start into the new week :)
Cya'll :) *vanishes*

New, everything new! :D

Hello =)

How are you all doing?

Here everything is going the normal way again. The check at the doc resulted in everything fine, the computer finally works as it should (I even made it to put in the RAM after all...). And I made it to set up the microphone that I got from a friend so I can now plug in my guitar and keyboard and turn my desk into a little studio xDD This is incredibly awesome since I always wanted to do something like this. I'm like a child entering a playground now that I've got these possibilities *_*

The keyboard is veeeeeeery old ... I don't even know anymore when I got it from my parents for christmas... must have been something around the mid- to end 90s... But it still works and I love it <3 (Though sometimes a KORG workstation would be more interesting... xD)

I also made it to set my graphics tablet back up and it's now working fine on the windows 7 :D I can even make digital drawings now which I'm practising from time to time... I won't go completely digital anyway, just not my thing -.- But it's nice for certain things. Here are two of the latest practise results :D The 2nd one is a self portrait out of pure boredom xD

So ... yeah. I'm gonna start working again today now that everything's fixed and fine again. So glad to have my life back :D

I'm btw also working on getting an awesome video editing program so I can present you better videos in the future... I hope it works and my computer here's not too weak for it... -.-

But for now - See you all next time :)