“Leadership is a hard life, my son.”

Thank you, Steven, for the title!   Under the watchful eyes of his father Hamilcar Barca, Hannibal is prepared for a life of leadership – and before he can lead, he must first learn to follow. This paves the way for Hannibal’s later success as the commander of an army composed of Iberians, Africans, […]

@темы: Uncategorized

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A sorrowful meeting

Sorrowful was their meeting in Tasarinan; for Finrod was lost and Angrod too, and never more would Aegnor walk beside Andreth Saelind beneath the green leaves of spring. ~(Paul Leone, the commissioner of this piece) You’ll remember this one of Finarfin being reunited with his daughter Galadriel around the War of Wrath. I redid it […]

@темы: walkthrough, tolkien, art, painting, technique, silmarillion, finarfin, galadriel, how-to, masking fluid, negative space, tutorial, watercolour

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The Alps and Metaurus

What’s a Hannibal obsession without a proper crossing-of-the-Alps picture? I have a large one in the works, but this scene begged to be done first. On their ninth day in the Alps, Hannibal hears loss reports over gruel. I’m working my way to the other important people in the story – the one bearing the […]

@темы: mixed media, art, history, painting, drawing, Hannibal, hasdrubal, Mago, maharbal, punic wars, watercolour

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New sketchbook, new Hannibal

I love my new sketchbook! It’s a A4 watercolour sketchbook from Stillman&Birn, and the paper is almost too good to be true. It survives two dozen nose corrections with pencil and eraser and multiple layers of watercolour. Yay! King Prusias of Bithynia. The man who sold Hannibal to the Romans (or would have, if the […]

@темы: barca, art, painting, drawing, Hannibal, carthage, prusias

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Workshop Aachen – we put the water in watercolour! (Mainly from above.)

And another weekend with great fun, fantastic creativity, and abysmal weather. Aachen really puts the water back in watercolour. Thanks to all who braved the rain and storm (and bad lighting!) to join us! Kirsten was again so kind to film some painting demos; I’ll upload the vids when I have them! Until then, here’s […]

@темы: walkthrough, art, painting, technique, drawing, workshop, dwarf, thorin, conventions and events, Hannibal, painting armour, watercolour

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First Workshop 2013

I’ve held my first of two workshop this weekend, and we’ve had two fantastic days with interesting people, heaps of creativity, loads of fun, and of course gorgeous art! Take a look! I did a demonstration of skin and clothes again, and Hannibal acted as my new demonstration model. It seems that the skin-shading there […]

@темы: art, painting, technique, workshop, how-to, conventions and events, Hannibal, aachen, watercolour

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More Hannibal

I’m gradually warming to the idea of doing more with this – a Hannibal graphic novel; now that would have been a childhood dream of mine… I’ve just come back from five days with my parents, which were largely spent drawing. First up, a dump of some sketches – Hannibal in the Alps, an age-up […]

@темы: sketch, barca, horse, art, drawing, rome, Hannibal, carthage, second punic war

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Second Punic War – Reloaded

So, I’m going to do something outrageous. I’m going to leave Tolkien – at least for the time being and a few side projects. You may now say, “Why Hannibal? Where’s all this coming from all of a sudden?” I’ve been a fan of Hannibal since the late eighties. When I was thirteen to sixteen, […]

@темы: sketch, sketches, art, drawing, Hannibal

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The Darkening of Valinor

  (I’ll update this post with the finished version and possibly progress shots when I get to it!) This is a commission I took on last November (…!), for a wonderful guy and one of the greatest clients I’ve ever worked with. He wanted a painting of F

@темы: walkthrough, sketch, tolkien, art, painting, technique, drawing, silmarillion, morgoth, illustration, F, how-to, yavanna, lineart, finwe, mandos, manwe, nienna, ungoliant, watercolour

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Harp lessons

This commission really took me some failed attempts – I couldn’t get two people and a harp to work without reference. It only worked when I grabbed my husband and daughter and had them pose for a few reference shots. My daughter’s cutely contorted feet then made it into the drawing. The harp ought to […]

@темы: tolkien, art, drawing, silmarillion, maglor, elrond, watercolour

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Musings on artistic development, reference, copying, and imagination

Over the last few months, I’ve talked to a few amazing pencil artists. You know the ones – the ones doing pencil portraits so mind-bogglingly accurate that you’re not sure if they’re black and white photos. And the funny thing is – whenever I get to talk with one of them, it turns out I […]

@темы: art

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Fingon and Aredhel – mixed media experiment

I doodled a very nice Fingon and Aredhel into my sketchbook yesterday – with coloured pencil, which yielded some really charming results. I decided to try watercolour on top of those – only to realise that my coloured pencils were water soluble. So I printed the sketches out on watercolour paper again, and got to […]

@темы: walkthrough, sketch, tolkien, mixed media, art, technique, silmarillion, how-to, fingon, aredhel, coloured pencil, watercolour

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In the Deepest Wildwood

Remember these two? They started out as a thought experiment (“What if Dior’s sons had been saved and brought up by Ents?”, but as I never really subscribed to the idea, and as it’s June and Damh the Bard’s song “Noon of the Solstice” is playing right now, this’ll be it. This is the first […]

@темы: walkthrough, tolkien, art, painting, technique, gouache, how-to, watercolour

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Twenty-year old Jenny finds her calling

I get a lot of comments from people who see my “progress” charts (like this) who tell me that it gave them courage to see good artists aren’t born, but have to learn their stuff the hard way, just like everybody else. 1995 always marked a pivotal point for my art for me – less […]

@темы: tolkien, personal, art, drawing, advice

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Tolkien-Tag am Niederrhein

I spent the weekend at Tolkien-Tag am Niederrhein (Tag being the German word for day; just in case you thought it was a weird game of tag, you’re it.) Had a bunch of very nice conversations and a drawing workshop, and sold a couple of prints – and got some art done! It’s always a […]

@темы: sketch, tolkien, horse, art, drawing, silmarillion, F, curufin, art show, conventions and events, finwe, sketchbook

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Epic: Nod

*coughs* It’s been a while since I fell madly in love with a cartoon character. I think the last one was Fireball from Saber Rider. But well, it had to happen again eventually. I couldn’t help it. It was the hair. And golden brown eyes. *cough* Liquid watercolours on Fabriano Artistico Cold-pressed.

@темы: fanart, art, nod, epic, watercolour

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The Darkening of Valinor (and other odds and ends)

Firstly, I’m finally drawing again – there’s still a whole load of tests that need to be marked over the next month, but most of the other work is out of the way. This is a commission about the Darkening of Valinor – this will be the centre piece, with F

@темы: sketch, tolkien, art, silmarillion, F, finwe

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Print Sale!

From today until May 7, 2013, all prints are special price! Regular A3 print with white border: 12? A5 Facsimile pastel print: 22? A3 facsimile print on watercolour paper with gold paint (no white border): 65? A3 + Remarque print (with white border and pencil drawing added by hand): 35? See examples of prints I [...]

@темы: art, print sale

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Watercolour Workshop 2013

WHEN: August 17th/18th; one weekend (Saturday and Sunday); eight hours on both days (10-18.00) POSSIBLE ADDITIONAL DATE: August 24th/25th. Should anyone wish to come to all four dates, that will be possible too. WHERE: Youth Hostel Aachen, Germany. WHAT: You’ll learn the basics of how watercolour works, along with an assortment of colour theory, special [...]

@темы: art, workshop, conventions and events, watercolour

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Out soon: “Songs of Sorrow and Hope – The Art of Jenny Dolfen”

I’m proud to announce that my first artbook, entitled “Songs of Sorrow and Hope”, will be published by Oloris Publishing this summer! Click here for the official announcement from Oloris Watch this space for more information on publishing dates and how to order. And probably signed copies. And thank you so much for your support [...]

@темы: tolkien, art, conventions and events