Jenny Dolfen

Maitimo's fox (lineart)

Many thanks to my models: my daughter Jana, and the very distinguished cuddly wolf Spike doubling as a fox cub. 

Full week ahead

Lockdown teaching is very much going into full-on wacko mode, with remote and in-person happening at the same time. Unfortunately, it seems we haven't been cloned yet. Ah well. 

On the b...

Legolas' squirrel (finished)

Traditional goes so fast! I'm almost glad there is no original to sell for digital work - I'd have to charge three times as much as for watercolour because it takes so long! 

Procreate h...

"Don't you miss watercolour at all?"

Yeeeessss.... a little bit. XD 

By the way, I am beyond grateful that nobody here has asked me that question. It's come so often on other social media - as if people assumed I'd just thr...

Legolas' Squirrel

Modelled 100% by my daughter ("He even looks a bit like me this time!"), hair, bow, pose, and costume. I did correct her bow-shooting posture just a bit. XD Little Legolas probably still has a lot ...

Not sure I like her that much anymore...

She's cute, but she's not Lúthien. I'll mull her over a bit more, maybe get my daughter to pose, and skip to Legolas for the time being (I have the perfect post for that - several poses!)

Lúthien’s Nightingales

I had to make this work mostly without ref - a bit of ballet dancers, a bit of little girls, and some repurposed robins (because nightingales in flight are really hard to find).

Finrod's dormouse - process video

I dug up, dusted off, and resuscitated my old Vimeo account so I can share exclusive videos here directly! <3

More elfings with critters? and other thoughts

Some thoughts on what's next - I've decided to put SquirrelPunk on the backburner for now. With shipping to the US closed for the time being, I'm deprived of my biggest source of income (it's incre...

Finrod's dormouse - finished (and some wintry walk photos)

Finished this last night! I love, love, love that I can do all the detail I want again painlessley. A watercolour friend asked me last week if I didn't miss the feeling of pigment on paper. (That, ...

Finrod's dormouse, next wip

You can probably tell I'm right in my element with this colouring style! During my last foray into digital art, I was deeply unhappy with what I produced, but I learned so much about rendering and ...

Finrod's dormouse - new version

I wasn't happy with Finrod's pose, so I enlisted my wonderful daughter, who "gets" poses I want immediately, with all the emotion and mood involved. I always find that poses that rely on "resting w...

Adorable, I said

Thanks for your many suggestions! I combined several things mentioned - Finrod, but as an elfling, with a dormouse and a few birds. Finrod would totally be a Disney Prince who's always surrounded b...

FORTH EORLINGAS!

Excuse the all-caps. This warrants all-caps. 

I can't wait to do more with these brushes! I'm only glad it doesn't show I switched to a totally different brush set at horse II, and got t...

I'm at Stage Twelve.

Or. about halfway done, I think. ;) And I'm starting to be really happy with it. I downloaded yet another pack of watercolour brushes for Procreate, and this time, they're finally exactly what I wa...

Digital vs traditional colouring

Traditional colouring:

1. Start working.
2. At some point, be finished. 

Digital colouring:

1. Start working.
2. Be totally elated by the first stages.
3. Hate the ...

More getting the hang of this

It seems I have to get the hang of Procreate anew each time I start a new piece! But I'm slowly starting to work out what works where, what things don't work, and why they don't work. Here I'm inch...

Home-made watercolours, here I come!

My hubby gave me a Make-your-own-watercolours set for my birthday! =D My only problem is that the instructions say "You need a clean and tidy workspace", but I'm sure I'll make do. 

(Pro...

Forth Procreate!

Have I mentioned how much I love Procreate? I think it's been at least a week, right? 

Tackling my first full illustration on the iPad. It's funny how I tiptoed around this piece yesterd...

Slight Patreon changes

Hi you lovely people, 

I'm going to adjust the tier descriptions and perks a little. I need to reduce the pressure a bit, as you can probably imagine - school is twice as much work right...

Forth Eorlingas! Lineart

This is a piece on whose title I can't decide. They're all goosebump-inducing. "Ride to Gondor", "The Ride of the Rohirrim", "Arise, riders of Théoden", how am I supposed to choose? 

Th...

More progress

So many horses and so many helmets...! 

Question from all of you from the US who have ordered stuff from me between October and January (if I haven't spoken to you yet) - any news from y...

Forth Eorlingas! - lineart underway

This will be a loooong ride. ;)

It's weird, by the way - when I started drawing, my first thought was, "I want to do Théoden first, but I'm left-handed so I have start on the right or I'll s...

Forth Eorlingas!

Rohirrim was probably the most frequent suggestion, and I've wanted to do a scene like this for a long time, so here we go! Not sure yet who is who, but on the far right, you can see a little figur...

Quick suggestion box!

A.k.a. I want to draw a couple of people on horseback and can't decide who. XD

I have nicely dynamic ref photos (see attachment) and want to convert them to Tolkien heroes. 

Give m...

Lúthien's Instagram

One of those weird drawing sessions where you start with a rough sketch based on actress Jodhi May; then she turns into a Chinese student of yours, and ends up looking rather Instagram-ready. ...

Jeff - timelapse

Thanks to my son, I now have a video editing app that even I can use easily! =D Look, I can do music now! And end cards! And stuff! 

Jeff the crazy pheasant commando

... in which I suddenly mastered Procreate. I think I know I'm doing now! 🥳 Found the right combination of brushes and the perfect setting of the paper layer. It looks like traditional media 2021-01-24 19:54:25 +0000 UTC View Post

Rick - timelapse

It seems Movie Maker is no longer a thing under Windows 10? Just when I’d got the hang of that...

SquirrelPunk: Rick (more Procreate)

I've decided to focus on the other painterly Procreate brushes for now - I notice time and time again that digital brushes designed to emulate watercolours tend to frustrate me because they come so...