Jenny Dolfen

Maitimo's fox (lineart)

Many thanks to my models: my daughter Jana, and the very distinguished cuddly wolf Spike doubling as a fox cub. 

Full week ahead

Lockdown teaching is very much going into full-on wacko mode, with remote and in-person happening at the same time. Unfortunately, it seems we haven't been cloned yet. Ah well. 

On the bright side, my daughter just appeared with an armf...

Legolas' squirrel (finished)

Traditional goes so fast! I'm almost glad there is no original to sell for digital work - I'd have to charge three times as much as for watercolour because it takes so long! 

Procreate has reminded me, too, that I need to do more splash...

"Don't you miss watercolour at all?"

Yeeeessss.... a little bit. XD 

By the way, I am beyond grateful that nobody here has asked me that question. It's come so often on other social media - as if people assumed I'd just thrown all my watercolour stuff in the bin as soon as...

Legolas' Squirrel

Modelled 100% by my daughter ("He even looks a bit like me this time!"), hair, bow, pose, and costume. I did correct her bow-shooting posture just a bit. XD Little Legolas probably still has a lot to learn. 

Not sure I like her that much anymore...

She's cute, but she's not Lúthien. I'll mull her over a bit more, maybe get my daughter to pose, and skip to Legolas for the time being (I have the perfect post for that - several poses!)

Lúthien’s Nightingales

I had to make this work mostly without ref - a bit of ballet dancers, a bit of little girls, and some repurposed robins (because nightingales in flight are really hard to find).

Finrod's dormouse - process video

I dug up, dusted off, and resuscitated my old Vimeo account so I can share exclusive videos here directly! <3

More elfings with critters? and other thoughts

Some thoughts on what's next - I've decided to put SquirrelPunk on the backburner for now. With shipping to the US closed for the time being, I'm deprived of my biggest source of income (it's incredible how much the American market does for me!) S...

Finrod's dormouse - finished (and some wintry walk photos)

Finished this last night! I love, love, love that I can do all the detail I want again painlessley. A watercolour friend asked me last week if I didn't miss the feeling of pigment on paper. (That, of course, assumes that I've thrown all my waterco...

Finrod's dormouse, next wip

You can probably tell I'm right in my element with this colouring style! During my last foray into digital art, I was deeply unhappy with what I produced, but I learned so much about rendering and colour in the safety of the undo button that my wa...

Finrod's dormouse - new version

I wasn't happy with Finrod's pose, so I enlisted my wonderful daughter, who "gets" poses I want immediately, with all the emotion and mood involved. I always find that poses that rely on "resting weight" (for lack of a better term) are really hard...

Adorable, I said

Thanks for your many suggestions! I combined several things mentioned - Finrod, but as an elfling, with a dormouse and a few birds. Finrod would totally be a Disney Prince who's always surrounded by critters. 

I can tell you that is was...

FORTH EORLINGAS!

Excuse the all-caps. This warrants all-caps. 

I can't wait to do more with these brushes! I'm only glad it doesn't show I switched to a totally different brush set at horse II, and got the hang of it at horse IV. =D

Prints are up ...

I'm at Stage Twelve.

Or. about halfway done, I think. ;) And I'm starting to be really happy with it. I downloaded yet another pack of watercolour brushes for Procreate, and this time, they're finally exactly what I want to paint with. These are from Tsvetka, and they...

Digital vs traditional colouring

Traditional colouring:

1. Start working.
2. At some point, be finished. 

Digital colouring:

1. Start working.
2. Be totally elated by the first stages.
3. Hate the third stage with a passion.
4-6. Try to fix wha...

More getting the hang of this

It seems I have to get the hang of Procreate anew each time I start a new piece! But I'm slowly starting to work out what works where, what things don't work, and why they don't work. Here I'm inching towards an insanely detailed style that takes ...

Home-made watercolours, here I come!

My hubby gave me a Make-your-own-watercolours set for my birthday! =D My only problem is that the instructions say "You need a clean and tidy workspace", but I'm sure I'll make do. 

(Problem is that most workspaces in this house usually...

Forth Procreate!

Have I mentioned how much I love Procreate? I think it's been at least a week, right? 

Tackling my first full illustration on the iPad. It's funny how I tiptoed around this piece yesterday, as if it were on paper - afraid to ruin it. I ...

Slight Patreon changes

Hi you lovely people, 

I'm going to adjust the tier descriptions and perks a little. I need to reduce the pressure a bit, as you can probably imagine - school is twice as much work right now as with normal lessons; there's the USPS fail...

Forth Eorlingas! Lineart

This is a piece on whose title I can't decide. They're all goosebump-inducing. "Ride to Gondor", "The Ride of the Rohirrim", "Arise, riders of Théoden", how am I supposed to choose? 

Thanks, Marieke, for the horns reminder! Here they a...

More progress

So many horses and so many helmets...! 

Question from all of you from the US who have ordered stuff from me between October and January (if I haven't spoken to you yet) - any news from your orders? Please tell me that some of them have ...

Forth Eorlingas! - lineart underway

This will be a loooong ride. ;)

It's weird, by the way - when I started drawing, my first thought was, "I want to do Théoden first, but I'm left-handed so I have start on the right or I'll smear everyth--- I can start wherever I want!!!"&nb...

Forth Eorlingas!

Rohirrim was probably the most frequent suggestion, and I've wanted to do a scene like this for a long time, so here we go! Not sure yet who is who, but on the far right, you can see a little figure sitting behind the rider. ;) Éomer and Théoden...

Quick suggestion box!

A.k.a. I want to draw a couple of people on horseback and can't decide who. XD

I have nicely dynamic ref photos (see attachment) and want to convert them to Tolkien heroes. 

Give me ideas! =D Note: A *couple* of people would ...

Lúthien's Instagram

One of those weird drawing sessions where you start with a rough sketch based on actress Jodhi May; then she turns into a Chinese student of yours, and ends up looking rather Instagram-ready. 

I still do too much STUFF when I colour dig...

Jeff - timelapse

Thanks to my son, I now have a video editing app that even I can use easily! =D Look, I can do music now! And end cards! And stuff! 

Jeff the crazy pheasant commando

... in which I suddenly mastered Procreate. I think I know I'm doing now! 🥳 Found the right combination of brushes and the perfect setting of the paper layer. It looks like traditional media and like my style, right?

Rick - timelapse

It seems Movie Maker is no longer a thing under Windows 10? Just when I’d got the hang of that...

SquirrelPunk: Rick (more Procreate)

I've decided to focus on the other painterly Procreate brushes for now - I notice time and time again that digital brushes designed to emulate watercolours tend to frustrate me because they come so close to the real thing - and yet refuse to do wh...