frogmugged

test-print for my frogged mug. Gosh, I love it! (the sample means it's a sample... obviously)

21 Weeks later - no horror though

She's really pretty O_O and I love her eye color (smoked amber something). She's 1 kg lighter than her brother which can be quite unuseful in fights ("and here rolls the panzer over meee"....)

Her character is quite clear. She's a bit reserved, quite and a silent bon vivant. She purrs only when she feels like purring and usually loves to watch everything. Normally her cuddle time is around 4 in the morning where she gets in a total frenzy and treadles on my face to get attention O_o;

Tretel got really big. I know that the cats from this breed (if you can call it "breed") turn out to be usually Catzillas so let's see if Tretel will be a Catzilla too. He's the one of the siblings who loves to be pampered, to cuddle, to snorr on his back and who loves to crawl into holes, your shirt, under your blanket and freshly washed clothes. He's still not the bright one of the two cats but I guess it's one of his charms. Treadle likes to get his cuddle time at 5 in the morning.

Alltogether our nights got a lot shorter....

21 weeks ago

Games... and more games

 Well... after I think 3 weeks working on "Pong" I might say that we are closer to finish (than 3 weeks ago... haha). Eduardo, Isabel and me decided to do a game with little chubbanimal Pong. Animating and painting took ages and still does. But I guess it won't be the last :3

Detail of a game background I did for an Australien company. Will post shameless advertising screens when the game will be released. Much pink, many clouds, very kitschy and so very me XD

and it gets bigger

 I totally forgot to write something about the light table i bought some months ago. >_<
A few months ago I had the wonderful situation of getting payed for a game coloration job. And since I needed a new light table (Ikea table didn't work that good if you need to clean up a lot of sketches...) I bought one.

Hurray!
My light table is from the "Dörr Professional Line", measures around 30 x 46 centimeters and is awesome.
It's one of those flat versions and I like the whole thing a lot.
If you need to work with bigger paper sizes a light table with 46 cm length is quite nice, not to mention that it doesn't weigh tons.




Price: around 200 bucks (yeah, a lot)
I got mine from ebay which didn't hurt that much.

What I like as well is that the cable is quite long. If you happen to have a lack of outlets this is very practical (I happen to have a very big lack of outlets).

 Best friend for lightboxes and two sheets of paper: Uhu Glue Roller (non permanent!). I roll some centimeters on the copy paper and stick it to the final sheet... copy... and rub it off.

Works good although i should mention that you shouldn't keep it too long on a sheet or else it gets yucky when you rub it off and smears.


Price: around 4.50 Euro (I bought mine 6 months ago and it's still not empty so the price is *okay*)

And because Lew was so nice and offered help for flattig comics (yes, .. comics!) Ty and me spend the last evening to set up her working space next to mine.

I hope it works... I decided that I rather ask for help than banging my arm again (or worse) and if it works that way and I can finish some things faster.... I have no problem with it. :)

Little Helpers

what do you do when you need to paint a pattern with water colour and you have two basic colors already underneath?

Correct... you use masking fluid (I use Schmincke although some papers don't like it... Torchon eg ... very bad idea to use Schmincke fluid).

You can make an educated guess what the test-pattern shows ;)

What do you do when you have to mask 61 centimeters with a size 0 brush?

Right.... you start swearing and try to find somebody giving your neck a massage afterwards (volunteers? :( ... )

I like the work thoug... when everything's done you can see how many hours are in one illustration. Hopefully.

Hurray masking tape- to hell with mounting tape

If you ever consider doing watercolour illustrations everybody keeps telling you: "Use gummed mounting tape. It's the best, it's awesome..."

Awesome nightmares: yes
Awesome results: um... not really






This is my very personal opinion with many nightmarish experiences. Atm I am still sad about an illustration I have to redo (third time) because the mounting tape literally exploded. The paper worked a lot and the tape wasn't able to keep a constant grip.

BANG!
I fixed the illustration as best as possible with Tesa but of course the friction is not the same.
There comes a wave... and another... and another. ARG!








When I studied we used Tesa masking tape. I remembered but couldn't remember why and when. With a test (above... no fancy artistical brilliance) the memory came back.
All smooth like a baby booty. And no waves. and all awesome. And me so happy.


How to:
-Wet the paper some minutes (I do it WITH sketch) as usual
- Let it drain a bit
- put it on your board
- I use some kitchen tissues and dry it a bit more, no need for a lake
- happily apply the masking tape
- (blow-dry... I admit, I'm impatient and want to use the paper 2 minutes later)

Some people might say: Oh my, Anne.. that's no news. Well, no... wasn't even for me but I hope it will keep some people from buying gummed mounting tape.

@Lew Throw yours away o.o .. I'm sorry I gave you the brown tape >_<

How's life? - Oh, nice!

 obviously we start with random Hantje and Tretel pics...
what can I say... both are fine, Tretel grows into a catzilla and Hantje is a little princee-nator.

Normally I am not a fan of piggy pink but her nose is just so "awww" and "owww" and going all the ugly babytalk down like an idiot XD.










I have to admit that I'm fighting with getting back into normal mode after sickness- even more with a sinusitis feeling like a jelly-head. Hopefully I'll be able to finish a little in-game animation and backgrounds for two games this evening... doh!
Many things to write about but it feels odd to talk about things I can't show, companies I can't name and project I rejected. (after 5 years it's nice though to say "no thanks!" instead of getting rejected... hohohoh!... I'm sorry, the mint-oil burned my braincells away... )