New Faerie Portrait, In Progress

Right now I am working on five faerie portraits for children.  I have finished doing the pencil drawings for the rest of the portraits but this is the first image that I am working on with watercolor. She's a baby flower fay :)  Well I need to finish everything by January, I don't want these materials sitting too long on my table.  Because my mind has been wandering for a few days now about painting teddy bears! It's kinda' different from what I have been doing, but I don't know I have been thinking of teddy bears and it's going to drive me nuts if I don't paint them too.

Inspirations

For this post, I want to share with you some of my inspirations and heroes in illustration.

The first artist is Beatrix Potter. Her illustrations for me are a breath of fresh air.  It's simple and yet complicated; the colors, washes, and lines she used in her drawings were so alive and real.  Though I am fascinated with Peter Rabbit, I instantly fell in love with her illustrations in The Tale of Jeremy Fisher, The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck and The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle.

The next artist that fascinates me is Arthur Rackham. I know a lot of you love his works and his influence in illustration / fairy tales is huge.  I love how he used muted earth colors in his paintings and the line works are so distinct.  His illustrations are so alive and full of magic.

The third one is very popular indeed, he is the reason why I love faeries so much! He is Brian Froud. I was a six year old kid when I was in awe with Labyrinth, and little did I know that I would rediscover the artist behind that film when I was studying Fine Arts in college.  My favorite faerie illustrations are of course the ones in his Fairies book.

And last but not the least is...Tony Diterlizzi.  Tony's story of success as a children's book author and illustrator is not just an inspiration for me but also my driving force to keep doing what I love to do and if you believe in your work, well you will eventually succeed.  His art is beyond awesome and his creativity is really really inspiring.

I Love Patrick!!!

 

This is Patrick, he was created by Ms. Irma Papeikaite  (http://pudra-studio.blogspot.com).  She makes adorable Teddy Bears which are to die for.  So for this New Year, I wish for Patrick!  I pray Santa could extend his gift giving till the New Year... :)

Faerie Portrait - Mother & Child

I nearly forgot about this Faerie Portrait which I did around last year.  I made it for a friend and her baby as sort of a surprise 'gift'.  She saw it online when I shared it in our Facebook walls and was very happy about it but I never got the chance to give the original piece to her when I went home to the Philippines for a vacation last August.   Nevertheless, there's always a next time and I might bring it home for this coming holidays! :)

Engkanto: The Old Man in the Mound

This is my visual interpretation of one of the most popular Faerie denizen in Philippine folklore and myth. This dwarf is fondly called 'Nuno sa Punso' or the Old Man in the Ant Hill or Mound.  This being could cause harm and injury to anyone who mistakenly kicks or destroys the ant hill, which people believes to be the home of the old dwarf.  That is why people walking in forests or unknown territory asks permission by saying "Excuse us old man of the mound", before passing by a mound or ant hill.

Engkanto: Going Back To My Roots

This is just a quick exercise for me in sketching an 'Engkanto' or Faerie based on my own heritage. The Philippine Faeries are quite similar to the English faeries but I feel they are darker, stranger, and more dangerous!

Well I'm still researching and hopefully I could get more ideas and later on put that to paper as well.

"Instructions"

To begin with, this illustration is my interpretation of Neil Gaiman's poem "Instructions".  I did the drawings and inked it out with a Winsor and Newton Black ink and started working with watercolor.  But luckily, before I painted the piece I took a high resolution photo of  it and my friend Mik Z. asked my permission if he could use the raw file and have it painted digitally. So I said why not and this is the final artwork!

I love it! I love the colors he used and gave the illustration a mysterious and magical effect.  As for my watercolor version I'm not yet done with it, it's still in my list of things to finish :)