Knave of Spades

Have some paper bags. I'm still throwing ideas around - maybe one day I'll be able to make some of those into nicely finished drawings :-).

( Two paper bags )

Not a lot of 'paper bagging' went on this week. But there is something :-).

( Paper bag )

The machine at my coffee place broke down twice last week. But I did get one cappuccino, in a paper bag. And I drew more Darksome Trio sketches.

( Paper bag below the cut )

I don't dare to take part in fests anymore because I have less time for art (non-doodly, that is) than I used to. But I couldn't very well forego the celebration of Snape's 50th birthday, so I subscribed to severusbigbang. As of yesterday I know that I won't come empty-handed to the party :-). I have a finished Snape picture! Hopefully I can do a few more - several pictures that belong together and tell a story would be great - but I have learnt to take these things one step at a time.

In any case: I have a picture. And not just any picture. I actually followed instructions on how to use the medium I chose. Okay, it is a very simple one, but still, that's a first! Surprisingly, it was a pleasant experience. I should follow tutorials more often :P.

I need sleep very badly, so I'm off now to dream of more pictures.

These were done over the weekend, when it wasn't quite so hot :-). Today I did indeed get my ten degrees less, by the way, so there will be more comic tomorrow.

Anyhow: have some Snape, Dumbledore and Avery. Please excuse the garish colours - they are what happens when I get my hands on markers :/. Clearly I have no talent for working with markers at all. I have very few colours too, which is why Dumbledore is wearing pink and lilac. Hum.

( Wizards )

Today I have no limits :P.

Below are non-paper bag Snapey sketches. And some of Brynhild, because I love her, though it's probably not quite proper to say that of your own OFC. Hum.

( Sketch dump )

Today's edition of the Paper Bag Files is entirely Snape-centric :D. The thing is, I will be participating in severusbigbang, but I haven't drawn any fanart for ages. Work sucked up my life and I all but drifted away from fandom. It was high time I got my hand in again. Fortunately HBP: the Movie brought a lot of good Snapey memories back to me, and I noticed that I started doodling the Potions/DADA/Headmaster again.

I find that I have a lot of things to sort out for the Big Bang. When I had just read DH, I was so aghast that I decided to ignore canon forever and stick to my guns Snape. In the meantime that feels like cheating. If I can't come to terms with canon, can I still call myself a Snape fan? Snape is also DH-Snape. I am fine with that now. But it does demand quite a bit of story re-orientation.

My usual way of sorting out my characters and stories is by doodling. So that is what I did. On paper bags. Below are a few results.

( Paper bag Snapes )

Lookie lookie! It's Snape art! :D

I haven't posted any Snape art for a while. I haven't written any Snape for even longer. That's what happens when you have an ongoing original project, I guess... But these last months (I'm afraid I do keep people waiting ;^_^) I have received three Snape commissions at once, so the ex-Potions Master, ex-Defense against the Dark Arts teacher, ex-Headmaster has been on my mind quite a bit. And then I haven't even mentioned the prospect of the Big Bang next January! I have started brainstorming about that too.

One thing I have noticed while working on my commissions is that drawing Snape is still tremendous fun. There is nothing quite like that hooknose and those black robes... :P



I have also realised that Deathly Hallows hasn't really changed 'my' Snape. The character I draw is the same sarcastic, tenacious and rather ruthless git I used to write before the seventh book ruined it for me. The only - rather worrying - difference is that these days, I seem to be making him more handsome (see sketchie above) than he is supposed to be. And I'm not doing it on purpose! That's just painful. He's ugly, dammit!

Ah well. In any case: have some Snape.



( Her Glasses )

By golly! And there I was thinking I'm a Ravenpuff!
:)

Your result for The Sorting Hat Test...

Slytherclaw

You scored 50% Order/Chaos, and 44% Moral/Rational

Take The Sorting Hat Test at HelloQuizzy

...I'm getting sentimental in my old age ;-). But seriously, the man has suffered enough in canon, hasn't he?

A very quick picture to celebrate *g* (pencils on the train, speed-inking at home).

Hee. I can try, can't I, to post a picture a day? I have enough material, though it's not all equally finished - in the sense of having got beyond the sketch stage. I have been dreaming about my Gawain Project a lot, and have done quite a few ballpoint pen sketches.

Somehow I have suddenly started liking the ballpoint pen as a drawing utensil. Maybe it is because I can't erase the ink. Whatever I draw with it is spontaneous and keeps a kind of ... lack of artifice? unstudied-ness? ... something like that. I am also trying - but this is really very difficult for me - to become more fluent in my line work. When I draw, I lack confidence (a lot), and every line consists of small traits that I smoothe out afterwards. That is not how it should be. A good line is firm and bold.

Do you know that I am incapable of drawing the basic of basics - a straight line? How stupid is that?

It has become quite an automatism with me to use small traits. So I am trying to remedy that. With the ballpoint pen, I have also rediscovered my Moleskine booklets. Their lightly tinted paper really didn't give great results with pencils, especially as I never apply a lot of pressure to my pencil when drawing - again, lack of confidence. Ballpoint ink, however, shows up nicely. And guess what: it's scan-friendly too! :D

So nowadays I am not going anywhere without a ballpoint pen and a tiny Moleskine cahier - light, small, and so satisfying :-).

All this is a kind of run-up to the fact that the picture I am posting today is drawn with a ballpoint pen. It's a bit of a departure from the pictures you are used to from me, because - well, I didn't do a pencil sketch, but threw this Snape straight onto the paper. There are a few help lines there that I didn't Photoshop away, and on the whole the picture is just not as clean as when I pencil and ink. But it's very spontaneous, and I'm surprisingly pleased with it. One thing I am not entirely sure about is the combination of blue ballpoint pen inking (the only pen I really like for drawing happens to be blue) and ... watercolour.

Well, I guess you can judge for yourselves :-).


(I hope the unusually large preview doesn't cause anyone trouble; I just wanted to show some of the detail...)

( Class Rules )

Semagic just ate my post. Bad, bad Semagic!
*glares*
*tries again*


Dear branquignole,

I am quite, quite sure that after all this time, you had stopped believing that the drawing I promised you would ever materialise. But lo and behold, here it is! That is all because my boss has been gracious enough to grant me ten days' holidays. Frankly, after a year's work I had forgotten what holidays feel like. So the first thing I did was - draw pictures :-).

I hope you like it!



( Bottle Fame )

I wish you all a merry Christmas!


A number of cards are on their way - less than last year, I'm afraid, and they'll arrive later too... Next year I'll have to take a day off to draw! ;-)


NB: You can interpret the picture any way you like :-).

Dear journal friends,

I am not sure that after this long silence anyone is still watching this space at all! Let me beg your indulgence. I am still alive, even if only barely :). The past three weeks have been the most horrible of my copywriting life (a life which is, admittedly, as yet only eight months old, but soit), and I have not found the energy to do anything at all. I have just bewailed my fate, cursed our clients, annoyed my family, suffered headaches and been very unproductive. My projects have all been - ah - stored in the freezer, if you get my drift.

The good thing is: it can only get better. Right? My projects aren't dead. I'll have four days off soon. I have a Christmas holiday - my first holiday of 2008. So... I'll be back. With Snapes. More particularly, there will be Snapes for protowilson, branquignole and Aquavian at dA. Just so you know.

There will also be Sir Gawain. You are not going to escape :P.

Boy. You don't know how much I am looking forward to reading what you have all been up to!

Hugs,

Sigune

For J. K. Rowling, via hp_art_project

Illustration for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Chapter 36: The Parting of the Ways





( If You Are Prepared... )

Here is something you haven't seen from me in a while: Snape art in black and white! Well, and some red :).

This picture is a commission from pennswoods, who has some affinity with the grading of papers *g*.

I am very fond of the subject she asked me to draw. Even though I only taught for three weeks, I always read Snape's classroom scenes with glee. If only a glare from me could have achieved the same effect it has when it comes from Snape! I would have hated to be his student, because he would most definitely have reduced me to tears on more than one occasion. But as a teacher? Ho ho ho! I mean, I'm far too morally upright to even try to treat a student the way Snape does, but a girl can dream, can't she? :P



( The Marksman )

If you are a member of snapedom or keep an eye on the_bitter_word's journal, you may already have seen this painting, but I am posting it here for completeness' sake :-).

The Quiet Storm was commissioned by sylvanawood as a gift for the_bitter_word. It is the first time anyone commissioned a watercolour from me, so I was a bit nervous - what if it went wrong? Also, because it was intended for the_bitter_word, I wanted to create something intense, a portrait of Snape that had an emotional impact. Sylvana left me a lot of freedom: she only specified that Severus should be young, sad and lonely. Here is what I came up with.



( The Quiet Storm )

The Snapedom Summer Fest is nearly over! I really enjoyed taking part in it; I thought it was a great idea and I hope there will be a repeat next summer :D. For those of you who weren’t in the loop (though at this point it is difficult to imagine anyone being less in the loop than myself): the Fest was an exchange between writers, artists and crafters. So I would draw an illustration for a writer’s existing story, and a writer would write a story to go with one of my existing pictures. I got matched with mary_j_59. And it’s really high time I pointed you at the story she wrote for me!

If you have ever read any of Mary’s stories, you will know that she is not really into spectacular action or incredible romance. Instead, she paints sensitive, psychologically true pictures of her characters, who are at their most interesting between grand events rather than in the middle of them. She likes them deeply human, with imperfections that touch her readers. Me, I lurve imperfections XD.

I was really excited when Mary said she wanted to tackle Ride of the Valkyrie, my slightly crazy picture featuring Snape, my OFC Brynhild Bromley, and a white horse. I had never expected anyone to be interested in writing my original character - I had never heard of a writer writing another person’s Snape/OFC ship! Naturally I was thrilled, and even more so because it was Mary who would be writing…

Brynhild in Mary’s story sounds so much like Brynhild that it makes me all giggly and a little spooked out *g*. And I just adore that my favourite hag, Severus’s mother-in-law, gets to put in an appearance too :D. My OFCs and I feel loved and honoured. Thank you very much for a great gift, Mary!

Go, pop over to Snapedom and have a look…

Ride of the Valkyrie!