Kiki figurines

These are actually not fan-made but commissioned. Some girls get new shoes... i get figurines @_@
 And because blogger sucks at the moment and won't let me link the videos...
you have to click the links.

Pumpkin Kiki

Froghat Kiki

I'll update the videos links as soon as blogger accepts the links. Grrr...
Static eye-candy:

You want a figurine of your character as well?
IF you are interested to get a high quality figurine of your original character you might want to consider commissioning Vii as well. She's a great sculptor and showed me inbetween steps and corrected things in a light speed. The price per figurine is *more* than reasonable and I highly recommend her.
Visit VII on her Deviantart page She listed a price chart but it's best to directly note her to get the final price since it can differ a lot depending on details.Did I mention I love what she does? I mean look at the pumpkin one.... I send t-poses and got back that tiny perfect squishy thing. Oh, I'm so in love with it Q_Q

Otherwise I'm still and constantly swamped in work (which is nice...nothing's worse than being unattractive in the market). I had a prototype game play yesterday and my head is still spinning from information overload. I cross my fingers this monster of a project will come out fine. At the moment I'm just scared that thing might blow up right into my face but it's a challenge and I love challenges.

We started our weekly outside swimming session again and since the sun finally pops out inbetween muddy clouds it's nice to get a bit of vitamin D. I missed the sun a lot and I am yearning to be more active outside when you're not freezing your bum off no matter how many layers you wear. I love winter but it stayed long enough this time, don't you think?

Cute galore!

*click for bigger image*
Next to finishing pages, 2 board games and keeping up with social life (I am still surpirse I keep that one steady... wow) AND normal work I prepared some things for the Animaco in Berlin.
I got my proof prints yesterday and realized these went horribly wrong with a flipped backside. Lew said she wouldn't mind but I mind a lot and less than perfect is not on my Wanted list.

Everything's already in pre-sale since I have no problem with first come, first serve. If I end up having three mugs and only buttons left... oh well, it will be fun anyway.

If you are still looking for cute christmas gifts read the journal entry HERE.

Lion Kiki Steps

and because I already uploaded it and it's no magic at all, just a very good brush

(click on the image to get redirected to the ... huge download >_< )

Basic steps as always:
sketch
flats (thankfully done by Lew)
painting
painting²
painting³
more painting
adding a background color
done

It's really no magic at all and the brush won't do the strokes for you. In the end you have to be patient and play a bit with the brush opacity and flow.

So fluffy!

That one was actually my sample print from ArtofWhere.com and no, it's not available (at the moment) but you can leave a comment with lotsa oh and ah and love and meanwhile I try to convince my editor ;(
The pillow size is 40x40 cm.

Trees in Panels

... can be total sucker...

 The actual size of the panel.... because honestly.. every tried to add details to the a stamp size? O_o I failed which meant working with 600 dpi was a good decision.

 sketch and ... flats done by Lew... and a long road to go...

 Adding the leaves, erasing a lot and adding branches because it looked unbalanced. Adding things and erasing things happens all the time. I made the sketch (I think) 7 months ago??? Some months later you pretty much feel a lot wise ;)

 Depening the texture of the branch without going too much into hardcore realism because that's what I 100%ly don't want to achieve (and never will).

 Adding a bit of light....

... and correcting the contrast and bluring out the end of every branch because it looks too hard otherwise.

Still need to do the background, foreground, birds, details and the... whole rest of the page but that's pretty much it.
The leaves are 2 custom brushes and before you ask for those: Create some yourself, it's much better if you know how your tools react and why they actually react like that. I am still updating and cleaning my own set and it's worth the time you invest.

the problem with cats and Christmas

Clearly Christmas is totally cool for cats. At least when it comes to decoration and paper wrapping. Tretel decided to chew on our chain of lights last year (when it was ON) and Hantje loves paper wrappings. Most interesting part might be half packed gifts... you have no idea how fast they can undo the whole work.

A shame we love our cats anyway.... ;) I guess we'll buy paper and stuff twice this year.

Chubbanimals Calendar 3

The third calendar is finally done and available and can be purchased >HERE<
It's A4 landscape (A3 on the wall, upper part illustration, lower part the actual calendar.

How the print quality looks like can be seen here: http://trenchmaker.blogspot.com/2009/01/snow-queen.html
It's semi-gloss and very smooth and I like how the colors come out on the Deviantart calendars. Definitely worth the shipping costs since most stores tend to have a problem with violet-blue shades.

Christmas -whoot

Short gif animation of the last illustration for my calendar.
Not as fancy as I wanted it to be but I like it anyway and it looks nice in a quite bigger version. Funny (and really annoying) is that the colors are massively changed in the screenshot mode and the final image looks radioactive in the gif version. It's actually something inbetween both color saturations you see.

If anybody knows a solution for the screenshot problem let me know. >_<

New Homepage is UP, UP, UP!

www.trenchmaker.com

ist finally relaunched. It feel a bit weird to have the video online but I hope some people will find it usefull. We're fixing minor bugs and correct some things but basically it's done.

Regarding the video: I know the japanese one is out of space awesome but at some points me and my colleagues discussed if it's even possible. I think it is possible (to achieve those results with AA) but again, for me the DS is mostly a thing for total beginners, sketching on the road and color concepts (again it comes in handy to have something that's small and uncomplicated).

Therefore the tutorials will show only the basics and images you can do in half an hour. Not more. I spend around 1 1/2 on a paprika, which is fine and I like the result but it's not the main point using it as a pro- in my opinion.

There will be a little contest in some months- so if anyboy is keen on getting a DS and Art Academy for free keep an eye on the blog. :)

Regarding my gallery and the more than honest words on the homepage: It sucks a lot if people steal your art. Really. No matter how much I'd like to be cool and stay above... it doesn't work. I get angry every time somebody sells my artwork for 200 bucks upwards and I can't accept answers like "I found it on Google images, what's the problem?!"
The problem is that it's illegal and the bigger problem is that it's my stuff.

So until we find a solution I have to keep the homepage gallery like it is. I am totally sorry (I already had all images ready :/ ). IF anybody knows how to technically prevent those rips let me know. Maike and me are trying to find a solution and every help is totally appreciated.

If you have any questions- let me know. I'll try to repost the text in German language later.

Please keep in mind that you need to have an account to post something here- it's the only solution to prevent massive spam posts from companies offering stuff you don't want to buy.

Christmas.... still unfinished

If the animation doesn't start click on the image ;)

... this will take ages to finish. I have to admit I'm having trouble with the colors but maybe it's good to know that my color schemes aren't always perfect. I suggest that whenever you have the feeling the one you chose doesn't work: Try to change it instead of finishing without trying out other combination and ending up with a result you're not 100%ly pleased with.
I changed the whole composition as well since the original one in my Moleskine didn't look very good on the new format.

I'll post a gif with the complete process when I'm done. Maybe it helps somebody... ;) It's the best attempt of something close to a tutorial I can do.

need a little magic

burned my fingertip today... which makes hitting keys pretty hard and mistyping all the time. Argg...
A bit work in progress... with a chubby fairy version of Kiki requested by somebody from Deviantart.

 

sketched in my moleskine with blue pen (thanks to Lew!)

 

Lew scans it and cleans it..

 Flats... done by Lew as well (I feel pretty useless without her to be honest XD )

 

correction of base colors and first color blocking done... by me...

 

soon to be pretty without outlines. At the moment looking rather odd.

I think the best or worse part is finetuning when the details come out nice (or not) and the shapes get clear and everything looks just "right". At the moment the dress doesn't look right but it's okay... not finished and i think it's good to show the steps between messed up and "pretty" ;)

Kiki recently got a lot of very ugly and stupid outfits. The more I make the less I think she's not gonna end up in another butt-ugly costume. Alas, she wears those with grace.

Stalker Wallpaper

... we all had those scary situations...

Froggled Kitteh

Snow Kitteh

Chubbible Day 16- Anger A Kitteh....

Chubbible Day 15- morning sketching

something for Sunday... I love my sketchbook, the more I draw in it the better the format gets.
For those who want to try the sketchbook as well (highly recommended): http://www.artsupply.com/moleskin/watercolor%20notebook.jpg
that's it. The paper is awesome!

Chubbible Day 14- Stalking

Chubbible Day 13- Teaching

Chubbible Days

Christmas holidays are always great. Especially if you find some time to sketch. I did so and still do. One sketch per day (or 2 or 3)... most of those will definitely turn into digital paintings. I am sooo looking forward to start :D ... but job first :( ewwww...

Days 2 "Pinchin"

Day 3 "Hippo Diving"
... and yes i know i forgot the tail... no idea why. Maybe because my mum was trying to sort the dishes around and on my drawing stuff... arg >_<;

Day 4 "Bugged"
Cats and bugs and everything moving... normally ends bad for the bug.

Day 5 "Headstand party"

Day 6 "Kitteh Yoga poses"

24th of December: sketch time in the evening... Kiki sleeping. I really wanted to finish my sketches but she turned around too quick every time I tried.

Today: finding the (mostly) perfect wrap up for my pencils ... and a new water color box, water colors, new moleskine (because it was so perfectly grabable right in front of me), new canvases for some presents (linen of course) and ... a horrifying bill. Oh well...

I happen to like those Tombows a lot. Watercolor is fine and Tomobows won't allow you every color mixing but for quick sketches inbetween those are great.

back to childhood

I visited my family over the week-end and it was cool to be there again for some days. Went to cinema with Nata watching "Slumdog Millionaire" (which was great but I shouldn´t think about the actors and real life), went to the park with my granny and watched my nephew walking around (he´s ten months old... unbelievable).
Sometimes I think: Ah, you painted the rasberry bush exactly like this and the tomatos look like this and there are the flowers I paint so often... so many things I keep putting into my book because I´ve been knowing those things for ages. I like my parent´s house and the land they have because normally gardens are small... but this garden is HUGE.
first thing I see when I step outside...

and second.. "Hello, Mr Gino. Good morning! :D "

the old vine (unbelievable sweet berries in late summer and attacked by many generations of cats... and still alive)

Kiki... still snorring *hugglesherawake*

a part of the garden... before you ask, this is NOT a farm, my parents just love the garden and try to grow everything there.. *really* everything (last fail were blueberries ^^; ... but the strawberries
*__* just LOVE those *yummy* )

house, walnut-tree, vine, Mr. Gino, potatoes and a lot of SUN O_O

my epic sun-fail is a sun-burn after sitting outside for 15 minutes after lunch. 15 minutes! Rahhh! I look hilarious... all red with a white shirt "on". CRAP! >_>;