The ones that stick around

If you're going to stick around, you might see these two return quite a bit. Once, when I was a young girl still into writing and story-making, I created these. Their names are Will(varin) and Lumindash, respectively, and those names perfectly reflect their age of creation. The long ago age of ridiculously sounding fantasy names (hence the abbreviation "Will" because that's slightly more normal. Unfortunately, I couldn't make anything of Lumindash so nowadays I blame it on his weird, fictional gypsy mother). I could be long and tell you about their respective characters, but the short thing is: they're the only two of a sh*t-load of characters that really stuck. And I love them to death.

Wingless

A lady who lost her wings? Or a lady who's growing wings? I leave it to you.
On the right is a little pose sketch to show you how awfully small I like to sketch poses. In this case, hardly bigger than my nail.

I'm not there, I did not die

Possibly one of the most beautiful poems on death, in my opinion. The rhythm is catchy and the content quite meaningful.  I hope you can read my handwriting (I'm fully aware it's quite cramped and not too straight), but otherwise you can read it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_not_stand_at_my_grave_and_weep
I could write loads about how I lost people and how I like the symbolism, but really, I think most people can relate to this poem in their own way. I just want to share it.
(something else with the same theme is the song "Ren Lenny Ren" by Acda en de Munnik (http://youtu.be/gSoYPzr7FSk, which is, unfortunately for foreign readers, in Dutch)

I was a fangirl once

Or, not really actually. But has anyone ever noticed how ridiculously easy it is to draw Naruto characters? No? Well, it is. So they make awesome bored-at-school sketch material.
Even more fun: penguin-fying them (on the side, the spell-corrector suggestions for this word are hilarious: penguin-dying, penguin-flying (whut?), and my personal favorite: penguin-frying. Somebody had a sick mind when they made these up). And that's what you see in the left upper corner. Penguin-Sasori and Penguin-Deidara.

Two Pitchers (as exciting as it sounds)

Oh my god, two pitchers! Yeah, the subject is not terribly exciting, but here you can see what we did this week at the pre-pre-pre-artpreschoolprecourse (now I'm sure there are too many pre's). First, blind sketching, which means not looking at your paper (it doens't mean drawing blindfolded, as I thought) with charcoal and secondly painting the same still-live with acrylics. This time while looking.
I don't think still-lives will be my next favorite subjects.







 Meanwhile, a little update: it's my birthday today! I'm 18 now! :)

Pre-Kiwi - White II

A companion piece to White I (wow, you wouldn't have guessed that, would you?), also in graphite pencil and colored pencils and a lot less white than her sister, I see. Yes, I should have scanned it. No, haven't done that. Sorry!

By the way, today I'll be leaving for Florence :)

Fade out

Look, someone who's looking like he's supposed to look!
And no, he doesn't even exist. Why is it that imaginary people are so much harder to get right than those who do walk, breathe and multiply?
This ballpoint-pen sketch is probably the only right sketch I have of my character Will. So memorize it, you won't be seeing it soon again. ;)

Two Sketches I Should Really Do Something With

Because they're awesome. Well, the idea behind them is.
The left could be a fantasy or steam-punk character, maybe something post-apocalyptic? Oh, the endless possibilities behind the missing arm, the small knife, the absence of clothes. That, and I just really like drawing stuff that's out of the ordinary.
Right is a little more ordinary, more comic-y. The big arrow is supposed to be part of the store behind him/her and he/she is coincidentally standing under it, suddenly becoming the center of attention. Imagine some dreary blue and wet colors around a much too bright sign and you're almost there.

The Necromancer in Black

I love this guy. Honestly. He's a fantasy book character, the anti-hero, and I find him extremely likable. Along with his brother Horst, who definitely deserved a bigger and better part.
I'm talking about "Johannes Cabal the Necromancer" by Jonathan Howard, for all those people who haven't read the book and don't have the faintest idea what I'm talking about. To everyone who loves his share of witty fantasy novels I really recommend this book.
And now about the drawing: it's Johannes Cabal, the necromancer (if that wasn't clear already), done in ink and watercolors as a substitute for ink. Because, lesson learned, one shouldn't forget one's bottles of indian ink when traveling. This results in tedious work with technical pens and lots and lots of black watercolor used.
The result is very pleasing though.

Eye Inception

Some weeks ago I enrolled in a Pre-Art Academy Preparation Course. That are too many pre's, aren't it? Anyway, the first thing they made us do was draw a scene from mind. Or rather our perception of a scene. The only thing that would come to my mind was the hotel/gravity shift scene from Inception (awesome movie, btw.) which is the charcoal drawing on the back.
A lesson later, we had to put a part of our faces on top of our previous drawing. Hence the monstrous eye. The eye is: graphite pencil, some white chalk, and acrylic paint in white and blue.
Oh, and this painting is LARGE in real life. About a good two meters high and one and a half meters wide. That's big. Trust me.

Work in progress snapshot: Peacock!

At the moment, I'm rather busy with school, but this quite unfinished painting has been lying around from before it got busy. It's inspired by a horrific drawing in my notebook. But based on that I made some follow up sketching, which resulted in the bigger picture.

The peacock lady - she's getting a big tail, just wait - is holding a shard of a mirror, not entirely happy with what she sees in there. Vanity, you know? It's a slight nod towards the seven sins, combining vanity and pride, and maybe a little envy.

Pre-Kiwi: Psychedelic colors

Some days, you just wake up with the urge to use extremely bright, eye scorching colors. In this case: wacky colors + wild imagination = wacky characters? They're very bright, anyway.

 

All Photoshop

Pre-Kiwi: Monks

It's funny how small, unthoughtful sketches can grow into something quite big. I can't be sure where the exact idea came from, but I know the English class definitely wasn't the inspiration. Anyhow, this is the first full-size acrylics painting I made. And I must say, I'm still quite proud of it.

Acrylic paint on paper

Pre-Kiwi: Narrow Lane

*gasp* Yes, it's a photomanipulation! It consists of three pictures: the street, the girl and the guy. 

Pre-Kiwi: Something's staring at me...

Now for something completely digital. It's quite old, yes, I know, but it's one of the few pictures I've used textures in, and therefore worth sharing. That, and I like her face a lot. Yup, feels like this is one of the pictures where I got the facial structure down pretty good, especially since her eyes are not exactly human-shaped. 

Completely Photoshop

Pre-Kiwi: Two Watercolors

 Today, I'll combine two older watercolor pieces. They're both fan-art, more or less.

The left one was inspired by the song "Rain" by Mai Yamane (http://youtu.be/l9_p-nhZXLg) from the anime "Cowboy Bebop". The picture refers more to the song than to the tv show, though.

The picture on the right is based on a poem, "Life and Death of Puppet Girl" by acidlullaby (http://fav.me/d2ul0y). For those who won't follow the link and read the poem, it's about a puppet girl living near the sea, wanting to go there but not able to.
For a bigger size, click the picture.

Pre-Kiwi: Horror Duckie

Once, on holiday in Scotland, I saw something floating in the water while walking down the beach. I've never closely examined it, but I'm pretty sure it was a bird carcass, completely scooped out. This friendly bird is the product of my imagination running wild with that picture:

Pencil and watercolors on paper

The name in front of the girl

Over time, many people who saw my screen name looked at me weirdly and pointed out two things:

1. It should be "nocturnal" kiwi, not nocturne.
2. Why a nocturnal kiwi? Why a kiwi at all?

The first question is relatively easy to answer: try saying "nocturnal kiwi". It sounds way less cool than "nocturne kiwi". Honestly, I just felt the flow of nocturne was better than nocturnal. I can spell, I promise.

To answer the second question, mh, yes, that might that a little more effort. Mostly because I have little clue myself where it comes from. My money is on my left big toe... Kidding aside, the origin of kiwi goes waaay back. There a (not that known) Dutch expression going: I'm not crazy, I'm an airplane (ik ben niet gek ik ben een vliegtuig). It makes me laugh, every time. Especially when you picture a drunk guy running around with his arm outspread screaming that sentence. Anyway, a variation on that is: I'm not crazy, I'm a kiwi. I'm not entirely sure whether I made that up myself or read it somewhere. I also can't say if the fruit, or the bird is meant. But who cares, it's funny.

So, there's the origin of "Kiwi". Now, why nocturn(al)e? Mostly for the sound, methinks. Not because kiwi are nocturnal (as turned out later... today, in fact), but more because I find nocturnal a extremely nice word.

I'm quite content with my name, even though I feel silly for believing that kiwi are not nocturnal and for feeling very original in creating a non-existent species.

EDIT: I'm also, as you might have understood at this point, NOT from New Zealand or in any way related to that place... Bless me for picking such an ambiguous name without knowing it.

Pre-Kiwi - Lady Moon

The second of the Pre-Kiwi series. A completely digital piece, this time. There's no story behind this -- just a sketch leading to a picture.

Made completely in Photoshop with a Wacom Bamboo tablet

Pre-Kiwi - White

Since blogger so far won't allow me to make a portfolio page -- it keeps aligning the pictures weirdly -- I'll do several posts of already finished works. It'll fill my page quite nicely, AND it will give you an idea of what's to come.

Here's the first in the "Pre-Kiwi" series, a pencil piece called "White".

 

"White" has been drawn from reference (White II by fetishfaerie-stock: http://fav.me/d2qq4cr) with regular and colored pencils. It also has a sister piece, which I have yet to scan. So keep waiting, it'll come soon!

The beginning is the most important part of the work

And thus, here I start.

Mostly just to see what the lay-out is like, so I can edit it. But it's a beginning!

This will become my personal art & sketch blog, both to show the world what I make and to motivate me to make something.

Ta-ta,
Kiwi