MOVED TO WORDPRESS

I continue this blog at www.malerfeder.de.

:)

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

ILLUSTRATIONS FOR THE NOVEL "DUNKELWÄRTS"

During most of my free time (which always feels to be too short) I am writing, mostly still practicing to improve my writing skills, so there has not been much to show here. But now I illustrated a German science fiction novel: "Dunkelwärts" by Ulf Fildebrandt. (It's not published yet, I'll post a link when it's available.) This was my very first job as an illustrator (which feels pretty cool), but I found out that I would probably starve as such. I am just drawing much too slowly! Well, I guess I can say the same about writing, but I tend to ascribe that to the painful lack of continuous chunks of writing time ...

A RAVEN'S PARCEL FILTERED

I really am a true beginner at digital drawing! Ever heard of Filters? Textures? Esther, I guess you really do not get enough sleep to forget these things and to need your husband to remind you of such possibilities!

It does not make much difference at a small size, but at a bit larger size (or when printed) the version with some simple photoshop filters applied looks much better.

A RAVEN'S PARCEL

A quick drawing I did as birth greeting card for a good friend and (obviously) a fan of ravens.

While I am slowly adapting to the way of drawing with my tablet, I think I would have liked the look of a traditional drawing better - now that I look at the printed card. I guess I should have done this with black liners instead of digitally.

THE BOAR-RIDING LITTLE WITCH

A doodle of my little ones in their 'true form'? Who knows. At least they make us often laugh (and shake our heads) and think of a wild boar and a little witch. So I drew this kind of portrait and hang it up on their door.

ILLUSTRATION

An illustration of a temple of Boron (the god of death from the role-playing-game DSA). It accompanies a story lead by my husband, especially a passage written by him in which this temple is carved into a rock face by dwarves to commemorate the fallen of a battle. It is based on the monastery of Ostrog in Montenegro.

RESTORING PERFORMANCE

Last year's autumn has been very exhausting: The kids were taking turns in getting sick and we did not have a quiet evening or a good night's sleep for two months.

This changed just before christmas and I have been working to restore some of my creative routine (what a contradiction in terms!) since then. This drawing of our St Nichlas' Day was the first movement. The second one was a measuring rod for the kids, showing various animals at their approximate height (mostly shoulder height). And currently I am getting back to writing ...

ANOTHER BABY BREAK

"Wenn du Gott zum Lachen bringen willst, erzähl' ihm von deinen Plänen." (Quote from the film Amores Perres)

All my plans changed when I got pregnat again last year. (Well, THAT was a plan, too, but pretty incompatible to my plans for arting and writing...)
One painting for the wedding of two very good friends and a christmas card were practically the only two creative things I managed to do during my pregnancy. And since little Ragnar was born in May I could not even think about painting - let alone writing - so far. Hormones have taken over. But as stressful as it often is, I enjoy every minute with my family. Arting and writing will have to wait a bit, again.

BACK TO THE ROOTS

I have been quite busy in the evenings during the last month - busy thinking about and planning a fantasy novel I have been wanting to write down for quite a while. Since I have only about one or two hours in the late evenings, I decided that I have to concentrate on one thing for a change. So I'm going back to my roots, to the very thing that gave me the most thrilling inner energy I knew in my past: I'm back to writing.

This means there will be only few new drawings or paintings from me every now and then and definitely there won't be a new homepage. I will stick to this blog (and maybe a German version of it to replace my former homepage malerfeder.de) to post anything new.

DAILY STRUGGLE

As much as I would love to get back to more arting and writing on a regular basis, I somehow only manage every once a while. I guess I am too much of a mother hen ...

At least I started setting up my new website last month. It is still a work-in-progress, though, and I am not even sure about the content and how it will look like in the end. But it's a start.

ARTING AGAIN!

Finally some kind of daily rhythm has developed here and I can usually count on a "free" evening now. Thus I have actually managed to draw a bit more than just quick doodles or sketches. Hopefully this new rhythm is going to stabilize and I will be able to do more arting again!

BACK AMONG THE LIVING!

Elin is here!

She was born on May 1st and she is such a sunshine of a child!
















Myself I was pretty much knocked out these first months. It was a surprising Cesarean section and I had to struggle with lots of complications afterwards. Finally I am beginning to read my e-mails, draw and paint a little bit and spend a little time online again - in other words: I am slowly recovering and coming back to life!

STILL ROLLING ABOUT ...

I finally finished one of the drawings I promised:






I am still so incredibly slow. In addition, the baby objects my sitting at the desk by boxing and kicking inside me now, so even if I have some inspiration and energy to draw I will not sit to do it very long. Well, at least the inspiration part seems to be recovering a bit these days ...

SIX WEEKS LEFT ...

The countdown is running. I am really curious how life will be with a child around!

Anyway, from this week on I don't have to work anymore, so that part of my energy that's not sucked in by this little creature in my belly is available for drawing and painting again. Finally!

There are several DSA-illustrations scheduled for me. These two were the first to be done:

MAJOR ATTACK OF UNCREATIVITY

Well, let's get straight to the point: I am pregnant!

While this is wonderful news for me and my whole family, I cannot really enjoy myself at the moment. I feel tired and sick all day and I lack inspiration and energy to do anything creative. I read in magazines and on webpages that this will get better after the first third of the pregnancy - and I definitely hope so. Until then: no new art to be expected ...

NEW STUFF FOR SALE

Ellen Million Graphics is adding new designs these days. I just noticed that "Dragonbreaker's Dawn" is available in the EMG online store by now (as prints, t-shirts, cards, mousepads and more). And I hope there will be some fairy warrior cards and bookmarks soon!

MOODY

I have been terribly moody this weekend. Nothing seemed to work as planned. Most of the time I tried to fix some problems in a program I wrote for the next experiment of my PhD thesis but I couldn't fix them the way I thought it would work. Instead I found out about some other problems of the script I had not been aware of before. Pretty frustrating. At six o clock in the evening today my husband told me to stop and do something else and I started doodling around with my tablet - which is not that new anymore but which I have not used very often since I got it. I played around with it a bit, but after dinner I had lost all my desire to paint something. So this quick unfinished sketch of a sleeping unicorn is the only thing I actually did create this weekend.

Jeez. I hope I'll have a better mood and will not scare my muse away again next weekend!

FAIRY WARRIOR CAUGHT SLEEPING

This was an extremely lazy saturday! I did not have the energy to do much, but at least I finished the fairy warrior card I began to draw yesterday.
The reference photo: http://foowahu.deviantart.com/art/Severely-sleepy-94446222
Thanks so much, foowahu! :)

(The card will be auctioned as soon as I can summon enough energy to put it up on Ebay.)

CREDITS!

Woops, I totally forgot to properly credit the nice photographers who gave me permission to reference from their beautiful swallow photos:

The adult swallow

The juvenile swallow

Thanks so much!

I started drawing another card today which I will probably finish this weekend and put to auction at Ebay. These two swallows, however, are currently reserved for one costumer whose card got lost during shipping and who told me that she likes swallows in particular. She may choose one as a replacement and when she has done that, the other one will probably be available at Ebay, too.