Space Girl features a lot of textures, which I found on the excellent site http://www.cgtextures.com/, and was created solely because when asked for ideas, someone I know replied with, “OOO, draw a unicorn fighting space banditos!”. [Long story short - I have another work in progress featuring a space unicorn, and there was some discussion as to whether the unicorn would be able to repel space ninjas, space bandits, etc etc]. Anyway as I didn’t feel like drawing more unicorns, but did like the idea of drawing a quasi-futuristic (thank you, Dr Evil) space woman fighting unknown enemies, Space Girl was born. I am particularly fond of the way her hair turned out, what do you think? Slightly influenced by the webcomic “Yu+Me dream” (http://rosalarian.com/yume/), although using textures in this way isn’t exactly a new thing for me - just a thing I hoped to improve upon.

On the subject of Space Girl, I recently discovered that on the website http://zazzle.co.uk/, it’s possible to design not only posters, t-shirts, etc, but also shoes. Specifically, converse style canvas trainers. They are fully customisable, and upon playing around with it, I found that Space Girl looked fantastic (in my humble opinion) emblazoned across these trainers, in a very graphic novel/comic book style sort of way. The picture itself is not the most suitable for this purpose, but I am hoping to create some more in a similar style for the express purpose of customising these trainers, and perhaps offering them for sale. Watch this space!

This brings me to Untitled-1, another piece in need of a more creative title. I actually drew this last summer, when visiting my partner (the man who created this lovely site for me, who can be found at http://connorhd.co.uk/). It bears a slight resemblance to another digital piece I did but which I didn’t consider to be of a high enough standard to upload here (it can be found on my deviantArt), and was mostly created out of nothing but boredom and a longing to once more use charcoal for a proper piece. I also created two self portraits, which I am debating uploading, but once again the lack of a camera or scanner causes problems.

I’m working on another traditional piece, and have thus far got a background which is a little different from usual, for me. It’s a lot of bright colours, and a lot of textures using fabric, paper, and masking tape, and I have to say I love how it’s turned out. Over the top will be painted the head and shoulders of a person listening to music, (although this is liable to change, knowing me), and in my mind’s eye it looks good, at least Hopefully I’ll be completing that and uploading it for your viewing pleasure :p

So until next time, adieu, faithful reader!

But I’ve got one big new painting, which is as yet untitled, featuring a girl gazing out of a window. Her emotions will be entirely up to you as the viewer - much more interesting that way. Whatever you think of how she’s feeling, is how she is feeling! What’s beyond the window is up to you. I’m pretty proud of the way this painting came out - it’s more colourful than some of my stuff, but I don’t feel that this depletes the moody overall atmosphere at all.

I’ve got some other bits and pieces to upload, as well. I’m hoping to be getting a dSLR within the next few months, fingers crossed, so expect photography next year as well!

Preview of girl picture (hooray for terrible phone cameras):

So, Icarus can flap away for now, because I’d much rather talk (write/type?) about “Untitled Nude”. Yes, yet another nakedy lady, I know But it happens to be the first life painting I’ve done in a while. Due to the absence of a life model, I’ve had to resort to using 3D modelling programs on my computer to create poses for me. Sad, yes. But in this case, it panned out nicely, as I could rotate her to my heart’s content. And I love the way it came out! I only used four colours, but I think it works beautifully. There are a couple of mistakes (right forearm; hair I’m not too fond of), but overall I think it’s pretty spiffy really There’s not really any great story behind it, but I like that her face is hidden. It’s up to you what she’s thinking. I’d love to hear your opinions on that, actually. Half the fun is audience reaction The colours are pretty open to interpretation, as well. I intend to improve on this painting at some point, but for now…let me know This lady is also being put up for sale at the exhibition.

Anyway, this exhibition I keep mentioning. It’s at Manningtree Methodist Church from the 8th until the 13th of April this year (2009. for any slow people reading this :P), and it features artists from all over the Essex and Suffolk area. I’m entering three pieces, so if you happen to live nearby, come have a look Hopefully I’ll sell everything I enter (I need the money, damnit!), but I’m kind of also hoping they don’t sell; I’m very attached to my pieces!

I’m hoping to sell some artwork, too, individual pieces of course but also perhaps a way for you to customise a design you like, for example by offering things like prints and cards and mousemats with a certain picture and customisable text. This would be a cheaper and quicker alternative to owning an original piece of mine - although not the same as the real thing, of course!

So please keep checking back to see what’s happening around here, and have a browse through my work, which I will be adding to. And of course, get in contact if there’s anything you’d like to discuss!

You can subscribe to my blog, too, and I’ll try to post an entry whenever I upload new work.

I hope you enjoy looking around!

Esther.