Galadriel

The Dreaming tree

Window to another world

Pencil sketches, available for sale at http://www.ellenmilliongraphics.com/sketchfest/sketchfestartist.php?id=38

I haven’t posted this to my gallery, but this was a commission sketch done a while ago. Arinna Taralom, Priestess of Elune. The description was pretty loose, a World of Warcraft night elf who is a priestess of Elune with her companion swift mistsaber. I rarely do commissions from actual games like World of Warcraft (no one seems to ask for them ), however this was more an exchange.  Sorry about the bad scan!

World of Warcraft night elf commission

This is not a fully rendered digital painting, more an expanded sketch. I did the original piece within an hour, earlier this month as a part of sketchfest, then spent another 1/2 – 1 hour refining it so I could enter it in a competition at http://memoryswake.com/fan-art/. I rarely do fan art, though I do enjoy the occasional foray into the territory.

Photoshop CS5

Sketchfest January 2012. The pencil sketches are available for sale from the Sketchfest site, with most being under $30 including shipping. Sketches include Fairies, centaurs, dragons, black-dagger brotherhood men, fantasy landscapes, and characters from Selina Fenech’s novel Memory’s wake (which is a fantastic read).

Sketches available here, or drop me an email about purchasing the originals: http://www.ellenmilliongraphics.com/sketchfest/sketchfestartist.php?id=38

On stereotypes – girls in IT

I’ve been watching the Big Bang theory which completely sends up stereotypes. It seems that a lot of people have stereotypes about computer programmers and software engineers. You know, the dorky white guy with no social skills, wears glasses, drinks caffeine like it’s going out of fashion, speaks Klingon, games, collects comics …etc etc. Ok, the reality is, you will meet people like this, or ticks at least a few of the boxes. But stereotypical girl geeks? That kind of goes against the stereotype. So we have the two views – the female version of the ‘guy geek’, or the ‘fantasy’ version who is geeky in all the right ways, but resembles Lara Croft.

Anyway, it got me to thinking about ‘girl geeks’,  in particular women in IT, and why we seem to be rare (and often at odds with the stereotypes). It also got me thinking about how I ended up in a male dominated industry which hasn’t really changed in numbers, in fact I think I see less girls coming into IT these days than when I was just beginning my career.

Was I always going to go into a stereotypically ‘male’  industry?

This is a hard one to answer. I was an Army brat so I spent a lot of time with my brother. We shared our love of Transformers, Voltron, Robotech, Star Trek and Star Wars. I was a child of the 80′s and at the time, the motto was ‘women can do anything’. I grew up with pictures of Lieutenant Uhura, female astronauts, She-ra, Lisa from Robotech, Princess Allura, and of course there were Barbies and cooking toy and Lego. Man, I loved Lego. My Grandfather had a workshop and was a boiler maker. When he taught stuff to my brother or showed us various bits of ‘old technology’ I was in heaven. I guess it never crossed my grandfather’s mind that girls would be interested in this stuff. If my brother could do it, so could I! I remember doing stocktake with my father (who was a Quartermaster) in the Armoury. We counted magazines and rifles along with the toiletpaper and ration packs. I was probably doomed from the start!

I did the girly things too. I danced until the end of high school, I loved princesses and beautiful dresses, I enjoyed romance novels when I was a teen. I never felt that by being a ‘girl’ I couldn’t join in in typically ‘male’ things. It ticked me off at high school when I had to choose between art, shop (metal working and woodworking) and physics. I wanted to do all three. I chose art if you couldn’t guess. I did computing because my parents made me, I actually loved the computer, I just was a few steps behind everyone at school since I’d come from a school that used Apple Macs, not DOS operated windows machines.

So what did I want to be when I grew up? It varied between Astronaut, pharmacist, electrical engineer, ballerina, teacher and novelist. Illustrator came during my late teens … as a result of my fantasy and sci-fi reading habits. I had a terrible time sticking to any one thing – everything interested me. I ended up going to art college (to be an art teacher), which got me interested in web design. I finished that, hated teaching, and went back and did an IT degree. I hated programming, majored in Information Systems and ended up loving being a developer in the real world.

Do I ever feel like the odd one out (in my industry and at school)?

Yes, I sat in auditoriums where you could probably count the number of girls on your fingers and toes. Yes, I’ve come up against men whose opinions of women in IT are decidedly negative (a lecturer no less!), but most of the guys are cool with girls being in IT – as long as they prove they’ve got skillz. But they feel that way about both genders – if you can’t follow up the talk with actual knowledge or skills, you won’t get respect, regardless of who you are.

I always feel as though being in the minority, you have to prove yourself to be 10 times better than the others. Partly that is the way I am, partly it’s because you feel as though you’re representing your gender and don’t want to be ‘that stupid female developer who got her job just because she’s a girl’, and partly because technology is exciting. Even a few weeks ago, I sat in a job interview and one of the candidates assumed that I was not a technical person (true, I was asking analyst related questions, but it’s a common assumption that if you’re a female in the IT industry, you probably are a tester or on the business side of things). Even working for a pretty inclusive employer, we’d have maybe a dozen female coders out of probably 250 devs, and a lot of the women kind of move into management!

Why you should encourage girls to go into Information Technology?

It’s exciting! There are so many more jobs than just writing code. Since I started (apart from writing code), I’ve done system analysis, testing, architecture and design, project management, team leader roles, system support, hardware requisitions, application deployments and now security (one of my first loves at uni was a subject on security where we learnt about penetration testing and ethical hacking). I’ve worked less than 10 years in the industry. True, I focus on Microsoft technologies and work in government, but outside you can work in gaming, mobile development, apply RFID to environmental studies, do PR, start your own business…. IT touches everything we do. It’s not going away. Sure, 10 years from now my current skills will probably be ancient, but if you love learning new things, this is the industry for you!

Do you need to be a geek to work in computing?

No! Absolutely not. I’m a geek – being a geek got me interested in technology, which is probably the way many technologists and computer scientists get into IT. But there is probably only one or two other female developer who are slightly geeky – one games, wears slightly punk clothes, and does tribal belly dancing, the other is a complete FPS nut. The other female IT workers include mothers, dog-lovers, women who are heavily involved in the Church, women who do yoga and use oracle cards, women that do craft, women that are trained as personal trainers, lottery winners, women who love cooking and do bake-offs (with the men on the team mind you!), photographers, world travellers, sports nuts, camping enthusiasts, party animals …. all normal people with a broad range of interests. Some go home and don’t do anything computer related at home, others thrive on IT. Some hate programming. Some, like me, enjoy it and get pushed into roles where they don’t get to code

So to round it all off?

Get involved with technology especially if you are a girl – it is rapidly evolving, very creative, all encompassing, and the majority of people you work with are some of the best people you’ll ever meet. Geeks are there – there is no getting away from them. We’re talking about computers so lots of smart people, lots of extremely passionate people, lots of people with vision who embrace the future.

Interesting reads around the topic (with many geeky shout-outs!):

• Felicia day talks about Women in Tech - and if you don’t know about The Guild, you should
• http://geekgirls.libsyn.com/ I love the first pod cast (http://geekgirls.libsyn.com/webpage/ggn-interviews-the-ladies-of-g33k-g4m3r-girls-video), check out the humorous video
• http://campustechnology.com/articles/2011/11/29/women-in-it.aspx
• http://wicsuo.blogspot.com/2011/03/computationally-thinking.html - the whole debate about gender and computational thinking
• Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology
• Ada Initiative - of course based on Ada Lovelace, considered to be one of the world’s first computer programmer

http://www.youtube.com/embed/TYwI-qM20x4
‘I Love being a geek’ badge courtesy of http://evasmith.wordpress.com/2010/09/04/i-love-being-a-geek/

January – Amber Dragon SidheI was continuing to be knocked around by side effects from medication, but I got this boy finished. I now enjoy painting men, though I haven’t painted that many this year!

February- Snow Flurries Fairy SpeedpaintAn extended piece from the January sketchfest I never got to finish due to family dropping in. I loved painting quick and loose, and enjoyed the limited palette.

March- Death’s Raiment sketchLife was pretty miserable. I barely slept, I was nauseous all the time, I struggled with everything. This was about 3 months in to 6 months of trialling medications. But I used sketchfest to push through the creative blockers and the lack of interest.

April … I think I was possibly beginning work on some commission pieces, but  didn’t produce anything at sketchfest.

May-Sophia I decided to take old sketches and try and finish them. Sophia was sketched in 2009, but I was a little terrified of painting wings. They’re still not my favourite thing to paint, but I’m trying!

June – KesitahFirst time painting a dark skinned woman! This was a challenging piece, but it felt good taking on commissions again. I learnt so much, and I really should upload some details as the smaller version loses a lot of the subtleties of her face. Also, omg, chainmail and shiny armour is a pain to paint at this size!

July- Stone SingerI think this is my favourite painting of the year. I was like ‘this is what my painting is about’. Stone circles, magic, storms and medieval maidens. Started in 2008, I finally finished her! I love painting snow, I loved the way the stones came out. But boy, that dress was a pain in the neck! Next time I’m doing all my referencing first!

August – Tayva Dragonrider commissionThis was a double commission for a birthday present. Technically I finished this the month before, but I didn’t release it until after the birthday was over. First ever dragon of any detail! I really want to do a proper dragon, but they’re still a bit scary at the moment. But was so happy with the way that the head came out. I want to ride this dragon! Also first time in a long time working from photographs where I needed to get the characters really looking like the photos.

September – FreyaA small painting, but one that seemed to resonate with a number of people. It felt scary going back to watercolours after a long break. I’d love to do some more Norse Mythology

October – Sexy Pinup witchSlim pickings this month. But I did get 4 sketches done for sketchfest. I like playing with slightly sexy characters and couldn’t resist this prompt!

November- Brhea Barbarian woman commissionThis was a manic commission. A friend asked me to do a painting of a mutual friends RPG character. I was a stress bunny! I knew the kind of piece he wanted, and this wasn’t the original description, but the timeframes were so small (for me anyway!) I basically painted this over about 2-3 days. Two weeks for a commission (when you work a day job and have family commitments was interesting!) I really was freaked about the background, but in the end it came out great, IMHO. Loved playing with dry brushing.

December -Ruchira & Ipsita Succubus commissionI started this just after Kesitah, but some delays on the client’s side meant that I didn’t pick this up again until November. I had so much fun on this one! I love painting strong women, but there’s something fun about painting sexy female characters. And the crystals! Oh wow, I’ve never painted crystals like this before, but I’ve been a massive fan of Geoff Taylor’s Diamond Throne cover (original version) and this piece allowed me to experience a small feeling of what it was like to paint that kind of magic

Blank meme: http://dustbunnythumper.deviantart.com/art/2011-Art-Summary-Meme-BLANK-272397998

The client contacted me and gave me a very detailed description of her characters, how they looked, thoughts on the background, and then let me go to town. She was very free about poses, how the characters would interact, and even allowed me to play with the costumes described. I’ve worked with clients who describe every nuance of the piece, and others who are happy to allow me a great deal of freedom. There are good and bad things about both types of commission, it’s just a matter of talking it through, and working through options!

At least one of the characters had been drawn before by several different artists (just because I was involved in a couple of communities where people had shown WIPs), so off I went to do a search for these. I know this sounds stalkerish, but it’s kind of like a cover artist having to paint a new version of a cover – it’s interesting to see what’s come before.  Sometimes a client will send me previous artist interpretations off their own back, or their own reference ideas, sometimes they just leave it up to me! Anyway, this is my background research of the character (I’ve included some of the links at the bottom of the post for those who are curious to see how one loose description can be interpreted differently by different artists and in different media). Because I knew the characters were D & D based, I also went off to do some research about the character types including various renditions of succubus characters. I’ve got some source books, I’ve dabbled with gaming (mostly on computers, but soon I’ll get to play some dice and paper versions with friends in the new year), I know that gamers like details.

Yes, yes, I know this seems really boring, but stay with me, there are pictures coming!

So then I start sketching. Initially I started in photoshop, but as you can see below, I wasn’t having much joy. The sketches seemed stilted, and just didn’t work. Sometimes this happens. (All images should link to slightly larger versions)

I finally threw down the wacom in disgust, headed over to a photo stock site, and just trawled for inspiration. All I knew was I had to do slightly sexy poses (they are succubus after all), where their wings wouldn’t be awkward.  I printed off a whole stack of reference photos – small ones, and grabbed a pencil and paper and just drew. I did about three or four pages of just rough sketches that I could scan into the computer and play with.

The last two sketches were the ones we ended up going with. Anyway, I scanned each figure and then began playing with composites. Below is a copy of my working thumbnails. I was still having a rough time of getting a composition I liked, but I kept pushing, adding some values to the ones that I thought might work.

I sent off the 4 ‘completed’ thumbnails to the client to see if I could get some feedback. At this stage I was feeling really uncertain as to whether any would be suitable. Some commissions you just ‘know’ which one the client will like, with this one, I felt really clueless, not a great feeling. Yes, artists doubt themselves! Even if they’ve painted the subject matter dozens of times before.  At this stage I often discard the thumbnails I don’t want to work with – just because you know you’re either going to hate it when you paint it, or it’s just not going to ‘work’.

This is the one the client liked. So I started on the linework. I started getting references together, and began working in photoshop. I actually went a step further than I normally go as I’ve worked with this client before. I basically did linework plus most of the values. Most of the time I’ll just work the linework (some times I print out the thumbnail to A4 size, then on tracing paper work out the sketch with pencil and paper), but I felt comfortable enough to push this one further. I actually did two versions, one with an alternate head for the character on the right. I was worried she looked a little too ‘mean’.

I then did a colour test. Because the client had been specific about colours and mood, I only had two options to present. This is where doing a value sketch helps. I just took a small copy of the approved lineart, added a multiply and a colour layer, and then added colour over the top.

The client preferred the one on the right.

After this, it was a matter of painting in the details. I actually grabbed the layers from the colour test and resized them over the full sized lineart to act as an almost underpainting. I kept having to stop and get more references. I looked up cave fish, crystals, ermine fur, lanterns, caves, rocks, silk, leather … the list goes on! By the time I’d finished, I had about 400 reference images saved to hard drive. Admittedly half of them I probably discarded after the thumbnail stage.

You can see the final painting with details in the gallery, or in the commission gallery

Check out more about my commissions at my commission page (includes rates) or contact me for a quote!

Previous versions of the character by different artists:

• By Maria J William
• Katerina Koukiotis
• Pierre Carles
• Tiziano Barrachi
• Comtessa (Sketchfest 10) - remember, sketchfest is a limt of 1 hour
• Lisa Cree (Sketchfest 10)
• Tina Velez

Anyways, the spoils! One has already sold, but there are still some available! I apologise if this crossposts a few times, I’m playing with some blog features, and no doubt something will go wrong!

This one has sold, sorry! But I may look at painting her since everyone at sketchfest made the comment 'Paint her!'

Topic: Overgrown city ruins (or something). I like Mayan temples, so here's a loose interpretation. Click on the image to see a larger version

The Holly King

I think the topic for this was 'Stolen by the wind', but close enough One of these days I'll do a proper study of clothes blowing in the wind, rather than guessing!

Gypsy. Title says it all. And yes, I noticed the wonkiness of her eye, after I scanned it. By that stage I was itching to move onto the next sketch

If you look close enough, you'll realise she is a true 'magic minstrel'. I just wanted to sketch a mermaid!

Lucets are sometimes known as Chain forks, hay forks, lyres, lutals and lyres.

One of the great things about a lucet is that you don’t have to cut your thread/ wool before you start, and it’s very portable. This means you can make braids as long as you want, and pick it up at any point. I have no real  idea what I will use the cord for, but it could be used as a purse string, for lacing up a kirtle, tying up hair, or even a belt. You can pretty much use any material, and if the cord is not thick enough, make a cord, then use this as the new lucet ‘string’.

How to Lucet video on YouTube

More information:

• http://www.stringpage.com/lucet/lucet.html
• http://www.finniwig.com/lucetinst.htm
• http://www.thelucet.co.uk/
• http://www.et-tu.com/soper/cgi-bin/index.cgi?action=viewnews&id=51 (This one examines possible histories with reference to secondary sources
• http://www.nvg.org.au/documents/vv/vv_issue_65.pdf Section on Viking finds that possibly could have been used as lucets

This is a really quick and dirty painting , playing with some cheap gouache and watercolour paper I hate . I’ve only ever done little bits with gouache as I tend to play with watercolours or acrylics so this felt a little weird. A friend lent me a book on illuminations, it’s glorious http://www.amazon.com/Illuminating-Renaissance-Triumph-Manuscript-Painting/dp/0892367032

I took a tiny piece of the border in a manuscript painting by Lieven van Lathem called “Medea kills Jason’s Son”. It was probably 2 x 2 inches in size and featured a sphinx playing a harp. I played a little with the flowers around it, moving the raspberry/ strawberry motif to the side. I even used the green gouache (on the ground) I made a few weeks ago. Sadly it’s not the best of textures to paint with, and didn’t flow as nicely as the modern paint. The colours used in the painting are as close a match as I could get to what was in the photograph, although I used acrylic gold paint for some of it rather than my scrap of shell gold gouache which I love to detail some of my watercolours with. It’s a fascinating mix of modern and ancient, with the 15th century garb which would have looked something similar to the photo in the link: http://cleftlands.cwru.edu/burg/index.html

This is a completely different way of painting for me, and feels like painting by numbers. Essentially I painted a layer, then added the shading over the top. It’s a fine balance between wet and dry as the wet paint lifts the dry colour if you’re not careful.

Sketchfest, November 2011. My computer’s playing up a bit at the moment, so did more pencil sketches than digital sketches. Trying to figure out whether I get a new laptop, or try to build a new computer. Both are expensive for what I want, but I fear the constant overheating is eventually going to make my machine go kaput soon.

Anyway, gargoyles, Arethusa, harpies, ice planets and what not. Heavy on the mythology, not so heavy on the pretties this time. All sketches are done in under an hour. Most are up for sale at sketchfest: http://www.ellenmilliongraphics.com/sketchfest/sketchfestartist.php?id=38, if it’s not and you are interested in it, drop me a line and I’ll get back to you.

Also, posting the full size of De-orbit which is 1024 x 768. Normally I paint much larger, but due to laptop issues I decided to go small so I didn’t have to worry about the computer shutting down mid painting. Click on the image to see the full size