(K)Nights and Days on the Beach

Witchphibians:
Kimeira Wartribe

DTIYS:
Cactus Knight

Witchphibians:
The Witches Almanac

Arcryla City:
Kiss on the Beach

It’s only two weeks since the February recap, but I already got four new art pieces, so let’s do a mid-March recap!

First of all, Witchphibians series got a new character, Kimeira Wartribe. I actually created here already in February but saved her for the March’s PaintLog.

Creating this character and the accompanying text sheet also made it necessary (or to it felt) to write down all the Witchphibians lore I came up so far in one single work.

At the same time I changed the subpage’s web address from „Raven-Frogfeet“ to „Witchphibians„. The old page still is available, so older links won’t lead into nothingness, but now you will get directly on a page that bears the series name.

Before doing this I also participated in another DTIYS and afterwards I wanted to draw a new Crissy&Paula piece so badly. It turned out not to be done that fast as hoped for (as usual), but I’m quite proud of it (and there again is a not so safe for work version on my special Patreon account*).

*If you are new here:You will get access via a tip in my jar on Ko-fi.

Witchphibians: Kimeira Wartribe

It took me almost a whole year to add another character to the Witchphibians series.

I had this idea of a battle witch riding an axe instead of a broom some time ago. Doing so, I could have stopped by drawing her on an empty canvas, but as usual I got carried away and thought „What if she is some kind of guardian of Witchwood?*“.

I also was struggling a little bit with here name. Initially, I thought of something like „Chimeira“, but this would’ve been shortened to „Chi“ and this name already is taken by another character (in a completely different context) who is really dear to me.

So I got to the „K“ and this way I was able to shorten her name to „Kim“. I also wasn’t sure if she is going to be spelled „Kimeira“ or „Kimera“ but in the end, I kept the „ei“. Additionally, I wanted to call her „Yasha ‚Kimeira‘ Wartribe“.

At the point of time I was drawing her, I read a book about Star Trek: The Next Generation. So, „Yasha“ would’ve been a blending of the name of the security officer „Tasha Yar“. Plus, it resembled the name „Sasha Waybright“ from Disney’s Amphibia series. It wasn’t intended but she even got a scar in her face.

Still, I abandoned „Yasha“ for now since it wouldn’t have fit into the witches name system that I established so far (on the other hand this leading to writing the Almanac (see below) to explain the handling of the witches names (among other things)).

However, you can be asured, the name „Yasha“ connected with Kimeira will pop up again in the future.

Another issue I was struggling with was if she is going to be called a „Battle Witch“ or a „Warrior Mage“. Again, the fist one wouldn’t have fit into the nomenclature system of my witches world where witches with a magical profession are called „mages“ and, well, nobodys stops her (or others) to call „Battle Witch“ in day to day live.

*The not yet mentioned region where the Witchphibians series is taking place.

With this piece I took the opportunity to playing around with blurs again. Sadly, many of the background details I worked on for hours go blurred too and there was no way to de-blur them without crushing the whole painting. But, well it, it wasn’t that of a problem.

A problem was, however, that I added a leafy shadow overlay but I forgot to blur it first round. Therefore, it looked more like Kimeira was covered in mud. The (now) final piece, though, is the corrected version.

Sidenote: Not long after I finished Kimeira, the anime show „Izetta“ on Crunchyroll caught my eye (and I loved to watch it). Seems like there already have been other people around with the idea of a fighting witch riding on a weapon through the air – Izetta even has the same hair colour like Kimeira.

DTIYS: Cactus Knight

I don’t do a lot of DTIYS. Like with fanart, ideas regarding my own OCs are too many and time is rare. Still, this DTIYS of Greenfinch.Garden (Instagram) caught my idea right from the beginning and I wanted to participate. However, it took me until a few days before the deadline before I got any idea how to approach it.

I got the idea of an armor resembling an organic grown plant and its leaves with spikes, like a cactus. Same applies to the sword. Hence the title of my drawing. I even thought of giving her a green skin colour but then I thought brown also will be fit for a cactus.

The armor in the original painting is more silver but to get the cactus, it had to be changed towards green. This had the disadvantage that I had to struggle with the sword not standing out enough. Both had the same colour tone, the one the original painting provided for the plants. So I painted the blade way brighter and the hilt way darker.

I also changed the pose and this resulted in an exercise in shading because now one side of her body lies in shadows, the other one is lightened by the moon. Actually, I’m quiete proud how I managed this.

Witchphibians: The Witches Almanac

As hinted above, when creating Kimeira I noticed there were so many details I until now only kept in my head or hinted at in past posts you would have to search first to get this information. It also may become handy to have something you actually can look minor details up, if they slipped your mind (even as creator of the series).

So, the idea of an almanac to collect all the lore of Witchphibians was born.

I put it in the design of an actual Almanac, using the paper texture as background which I used since the Mermay 2020 entries as background for things written down on pages (may it be Samandra’s Fabric Journal, the Mermaid Squad’s character sheets or the letter Sam received on „Pragmatic Alien Day“).

Right from the beginning I wanted to decorate it with (newly drawn) tiny sketches but it also came handy to just insert old drawings in black & white (or rather a deep purple & transparent parts).

So far I shared three postings on Instagram, feauturing the introduction, a disclaimer, the terminology and some chapters of the main part.

The first part is some kind of introduction and terminology to tell you what the Almanac is talking about when using certain terms. And since there were space left, I also included a disclaimer with copyright information and information about what influenced to this series.

The more interesting information is to be found in the main part which gives an overview over the witches community, social structury, some traditions and general behaviours. It will be continued in the future whenever new information comes to my mind and feels consistent enough to be put into words and sentences.

Arcryla City: Kiss on the Beach

Since my last Crissy painting (as Aquarius) was from January, my last Arcryla City painting (Secret Santa to Eun Bee, depicting her OC) and the last Crissy Arcryla City painting even from end of October (the Midnight Gala piece), I felt the urge to draw a Crissy Paula Arcryla City painting again.

„One advantage of living in a floating city was that you were able to go places. Sandy, warm and splashy places.“ (NSFW version: „One advantage of living in a floating city was that you were able to go places. Sandy, hot and wet places.“)

I felt, they needed some „us“ time and also wanted to took the opportunity to practice anatomy and anatomy poses again (at the same time adding more content to my Patreon account for more explicite poses).

First I thought of depicting them making out under the shower. To get a SFW piece I would’ve tucked them into one big blanket. But this wouldn’t have taken away the N in NSFW at all (even more so, because it would’ve fired the fantasy and got you an even more imaginative picture in you head of what they might be doing there under the blanket).

So, I tried to skip the blanket and just give them swimsuits* for the SFW version and it worked in every way I could imagine. The shower head remained, though, because there are showers on public beaches. The hardest part of this drawing was to draw the kiss, though. If you don’t want to get a nose boop, the heads had to be tilted. Therefore, I looked up references and drew my way pixel for pixel towards the kiss you are able to see now.

The first approach of beach scene already contained Acrcryla City floating in the sky in the background. There were two reasons why I additionally put some leaves in the upper right corner.

1. Because I planned a NSFW version it would’ve looked strange seeing them enjoying each other when a whole city in the background is able to watch them doing so.

2. The city alone won’t have the same effect as the other object in the edges of the painting. There would’ve been some kind of big space, leading the eye away from the important part towards the floating city.

So, I added an extra object to frame the painting properly. In a first attempt, now the city wasn’t to be seen anymore at all, but I erased some of the leaves. Therefore, you now are able to spot the city again (after giving attention to anything else).

*Perhaps you noticed, Crissy’s swimsuit resembles the colours of the Pansexual Pride flag, Paula’s fingers and toes nail polish together with the bikini the one of the Lesbian Pride flag.

From Snow to Space

Witchphibians: Warming Thoughts

Ride with Sally

Pragmatic Alien Day

ZodiOCs: Pisces

February is a short month, 3/4 are already gone. I managed to draw five paintings in three weeks. Surprisingly, two of them were fanart or kind of fanart. Still, I only will show you four today to keep the fifth for the next time.

The first one is another tale from the Witchphibians series, not only telling a story but also adding to the lore.The second one is fanart of the Netflix series „Trinkets“.

There won’t be any (heavy) spoilers, although in theory the painting as such may be considered a spoiler (despite not really being one).

Another fanart is the Valentins piece I drew of Sam Uggler, the OC of the Instagram artist AlienPrideArt and last but not least, we entered Pisces season. So, enjoy the addition of two fishy OCs to my ZodiOCs series.

Witchphibians: Warming Thoughts

This piece was inspired by an exchange of thoughts on a Discord server about how Raven and Sam would manage winterly tempertures. While feeling cold easily but managing quite well in their human forms, it could get quite freezily when changing into their amphibian forms at the wrong moment.

So, this image popped up in my mind and it was rather convenient since I regretted that I couldn’t show all the character design changes of Raven in the SFW version of the Witchphibian painting before. Now you will be able to spot the freckles on the shoulder region, the arms, the legs, regions that usually would’de have been covered by her dress (on Instagram and Ko-fi at least, for the NSFW version see Patreon).

There were a lot of things I practiced this time when drawing it: Perspective, pose, anatomy, water in it’s various forms, but it turned out the actually new thing I tried out was the overall lighting of each section of the painting (left, right, front / main characters) to give each of them a specific feeling.

To this purpose I used overlays and colour gradients. The left side got a blue overlay to give it a cold, wet, muddy feeling, the right one an orange overlay for a warm, dry and clean impression. Finally, I laid a red overlay over the front to make it rosy, cosy, comfortable.

Finally, there is the Spongehole Magic you can read about in slide two. This is an idea I came up with when adding Samandra’s glow to her spots. They glow when she is excited or when she’s doing magic. So, the spongehole magic theory was a handy device to provide her with as much fresh, hot, clean water as she needs to thaw Raven out.

It is inspired by wormholes, of course. When wormholes are holes in space adn time that are connected by tunnels, why shouldn’t the same apply to sponge holes? You would have to have magic abilities to use them, but since sponge tissue technically is nothing different from any other natural fabric materials (animal or plant based), it would be an easy match for Samandra the Fabric Mage to get hold of them.

For everyone who is interested in the drawing process I also created a short video clip made from the drawing steps which I shared earlier with my supporters on Ko-fi.

Ride with Sally

The Netflix show „Trinkets“ is one of my guilty pleasures. I can watch the show again and again and again (and actually, I’m doing this). It’s one of my comfort shows with a great cast, great music, lovely relationships and teenage High School drama with a lot up and downs (most of the time simultanously). It’s already a few years old but Elodie and Jill still make a cute couple.

Is this a spoiler? Not really, not if you already saw the painting. And even regarding the show it’s no real spoiler since the he depicted scene only is inspired, not an actual scene of the show. If you know the show, you surely will recognize the scene, though. If not, see here (Spoiler alert!).

You will notice that I changed Jill’s costume slightly by adding the badge (which also has a special meaning within the show).

It says „I ride with Sally“, hence the title of this piece.

Pragmatic Alien Day

AlienPrideArt‘s drawing and dialogues with his OC Sam Uggler are hilarious. They made me want to draw Sam in my own style and in the forefront of Valentines Day inspiration struck me after seeing this post.

Sam may be a very pragmatic alien, but she asked for Tequilla, so she will get Tequilla and a good old-fashioned Valentines letter.

Happy Pragmatic Alien Day, Sam!

ZodiOC: Pisces

Admittedly, this was an easy one. I remembered Arrivals comic strips that featured two fish last year. Therefore, meet Eusthy and Eusthwo again!

I kept the drawing style of the comics and (of course) the mood of their personalities. In the background you may notice Lilly’s (the dragonfly), Miles (the millipede) and Silvies (the silver fish) accompanying them as constellations in the sky.

Above & Below

Digital painting, comic style: A fairy with pink hair and pink freckles but small wings standing on a leave like on a surfboard, two more leaves are attached to her arms which she spread wide open, she wears a leaflike skirt,d a bellyfree top made by crossing stripes of leaflike fabric and a belt with hooks at the hips; sky with clouds, birds and bright sun flares in the background, leaves and blossoms in the foreground, a radial motion blur effect laid over them, speedlines directing to Skatie.

Skatie Skysurfer

ZodiOCs: Aquarius

Witchphibians: Secrets

Time for the January recap (January already is almost over! O.O). Tbh, I’m quite satisfied with my January work. As usual there were a lot of work to do in my bread and butter job, but at least I was able to paint one new painting per week. Additionally to the Capricorn piece (see last PaintLog), I mean.

In the course of January I also changed the title of my Witch Apprentices subpage.

I finally came up with a title for this series, so it’s now Witchphibians – A Tale of Frog and Salamander. I’m mentioning this because I actually did another piece following Raven’s and Samandra’s adventures.

But before this one, I painted another fairy and of course, it’s Aquarius season now, of course.

Therefore, we got a new ZodiOC.

Skatie Skysurfer

Clip Studio Paint, the company from which is the drawing software that I’m using, launched a drawing contest that ended in the first week of January. The topic of this contest was „Fairies“.

Although I don’t think I will win anything and although I wasn’t even sure if I would make it in time, I therefore created Skatie Skysurfer. I actually made it in time, the winners are announced on 2 February 2023, though, so I still have to wait.

Initially I thought of drawing one of my Bicker Fairies (see below) but then I got the idea of a fairy who isn’t able to fly – the usual way, to be precise. So she would have to built her own wings and even a surfboard to surf the skies.

Perhaps you remember this fairy from almost two years ago? I once draw her in the frame of a DTIYS, originally depicting a skateboard girl but altered to a fairy by me. I remembered her only after the concept was clear, or even after the painting process. Still, it’s a nice coincidence.

Digitalzeichnung, Comicstil: Nahaufnahme (bis halbe Oberschenkelhöhe) einer jungen, weibliche Feen mit goldbrownem Haar im Seitenschnitt. Sie trägt ein bauchfreies Top und darunter ein Netzshirt, dessen Ärmel ihre Arme entlangreichen, sowie eine hellviolette Zweidrittelhose. Auf der Hose sind Pfirsichflicken, sowie ein Pfirsichaufdruck auf dem Top. Sie hat den linken Arm zum Schutz vor der Sonne gehoben, mit dem rechten Arm hält sie ein großes, rotes Blatt, das an ein Skatebord erinnert, hinter hinter dem Rücken. Ihre Flügel sind leuchtend-violett und ebenso wie das Blatt schimmernd vor Feenstaub. In Netzshirt und Hose sind Löcher, sie hat einige Schürfwunden an den Beinen und ein Pflaster auf der rechten Wange. Der hintergrund sind verwaschene Grüntöne vor einem hellen Beige.

Digitalzeichnung, Comicstil: Eine junge, weibliche Fee mit goldbrownem Haar im Seitenschnitt. Sie trägt ein bauchfreies Top und darunter ein Netzshirt, dessen Ärmel ihre Arme entlangreichen, sowie eine hellviolette Zweidrittelhose. Auf der Hose sind Pfirsichflicken, sowie ein Pfirsichaufdruck auf dem Top. Sie hat den linken Arm zum Schutz vor der Sonne gehoben, mit dem rechten Arm hält sie ein großes, rotes Blatt, das an ein Skatebord erinnert, hinter hinter dem Rücken. Ihre Flügel sind leuchtend-violett und ebenso wie das Blatt schimmernd vor Feenstaub. In Netzshirt und Hose sind Löcker, sie hat einige Schürfwunden an den Beinen und ein Pflaster auf der rechten Wange. Der hintergrund sind verwaschene Grüntöne vor einem hellen Beige.

The goal with this painting was to practice perspective and pose as well as creating an impression of speed. At the same time I had to get the shadows right with the sun right in her back but under a light flooded sky amidst green tree leaves.

Additionally, the POV had to be tilted. With finally leaves all around this was a little bit hard to achieve. There is a landscape, a green field or something, with a horizon but I think the birds in the sky are giving it away a lot better.

ZodiOCs: Aquarius

With January came the next Zodiac sign and so came Aquarius.

To represent this sign, I chose my Arcryla City OC Crissy refilling her waterbearbot in which she keeps her favorite animals and loyal pets you already know from earlier paintings.

An obvious choice for The Water Bearer.

Or so you would think. Truth is, I frist thought of Navarra, my Breath of the Wild Zora OC. Aquarius regularly is depicted as some merperson with trident, too (usually a man with beard but most of my OCs are female and so will be my ZodiOC). Therefore, initially she came to my mind.

But soon I remembered Crissy and her pets. I not only loved the pun, it was also an opportunity to include Crissy in the ZodiOCs. Most ZodiOCs are already settled (not drawn, though) and a ZodiOC series without my favorite OC Crissy? Never!

Before I started drawing, I searched the internet for poses typically related with Aquarius. You will find the one I used as reference – although changing it a little bit – here.

Again, I was practicing poses and anatomy, an additional challenge was the water pouring into the aquarium. Both of them are semi-transparent and some parts of them cover each other and others don’t. What now looks like being one piece actually is a cut out aquarium glass wall that is pasted under the water layer which itself is located under the aquarium glass layer.

Finally, I would like to add that in the first lineart Crissy’s skirt has been a tad too short. Therefore, I changed it for the sake of dignity.

Witchphibians: Secrets

A new painting of my Witchphibian series featuring my OCs Raven and Samandra. It’s set some time before the „Weaving Magic“ painting from March 2022. As it’s regularly he case, I had this one in my mind for some time.

I not only wanted to practice pose and anatomy, I also wanted to recreate a scene from the Netflix show Arcane (and changed it slightly). If you watched the show, you hopefully will recognize the scene (if not, see this screenshot on the internet). Additionally, I was influenced by some beautiful The Witcher fanart of Greenfinch.garden on Instagram.

As mentioned above, I practiced anatomy and poses. Especially Raven was really hard to draw because she isn’t simply lying on her side, she is lying (partly) on her belly. Additionally I did a small design change. I added freckles to her face and the shoulder region.

Sadly, you won’t see a lot of it (and a bunch of Samandra’s body spots) because I had to keep it SFW for sharing publicly and her dress covers a lot of her anatomy and the freckles. However, I there luckily is my Patreon account for anatomy studies and poses. You will find the link together with the WIPs for supporters on my Ko-fi account (yes, there is a full nu.dity version that doesn’t reveal much but enough to better be safe than sorry).

Since I elaborated the story a little bit more with this piece, I also had to edit the story accompanying the „Weaving Magic“ painting for the sake of coherent reading:

Merlamander

Character sheet, digital painting, comic style: Merindiana Jane, a mermaid resembling Indiana Jones, light brown skin, bluish black long hair, brown fish tail with a golden tail fin, bellyfree tanktop, a belt across her hips with a light blue whip at her left hip, she is looking determinded putting a ray as hat in her head; the background is pergament coloured, resembling a journal page; explanatory text: "Merindiana Jane - Restless Raider of the Sunken Arks -; Inofficial leader of the Mermay Squad; Adventurous treasure hunter and enterprising explorer, risk-takingly eager to swim where no mermaid had swum before; Discoverer of the Lost Pineapple, finder of the Golden Spatula, Seeker of the Dentist's Bubble Chest; The whip is made of jellyfish tentacles; The hat always comes back to her (because it's a stingray); Always getting in trouble but also being able to wriggle out of it; Coffee addict since an adventure involving a sunken truck, hot underwater springs and a wagonload of best Arabica-Coffee Extra Strong; She only fears Seantipedes: Giant underwater centipedes haunting the Lost Pineapple Plains and other places; Archrival: Captain "Sushi" Tigra Selachii, Pirate of the High Seas, Terror of the Seven Beaches since they are usually hunting the same treasures; Met Ceratia the anglerfish mermaid (and became her friend) after she had to walk the plank over a deep sea trench".

Merindiana’s Character Sheet – Weaving Magic

Another week flew by, some more paintings got finished and since it’s beginning of April, I already started preparing for Mermay (this time the actual Mermay, not the redraws of my old Mermay mermaid OCs). I can’t tell you yet, so please stay patient.

In the meantime more ideas grew regarding Crissy and Raven + Samandra but I’m not sure when (or if) I will be able to finalize them. But don’t let’s talk about what I may not be able to, let’s see what I managed during the past week:

Merindiana’s Character Sheet

In the beginning of the past week I finally finished Merindiana’s character sheet in addition to the last week’s redraw. It mentions a lot of events from previous Mermay paintings depicting her.

I also love to put in pop cultural references into my paintings and my OCs. In this one, there are at least nine different ones. Leave a comment, if you can spot them!

Weaving Magic

Another follow-up to last week’s PaintLog is the continuation of Raven the Witch Apprentice’s story.

Last week, I introduced Samandra Elvennewt. This week, I threw more light onto Samandra’s witchcraft skills. The painting kinda got out of hand since I originally only planned a quick, tiny drawing, not necessarily even with Raven in it. However, this is a crucial part of the story of their relationship, so Raven had to be with part of the picture. And after this, I got carried away more and more.

I tried to change the body poses a little bit and to play around with blur and lighting. Then, in the middle of the drawing process, I got this idea of Sam’s spots glowing whenever she does magic.

First I thought of her living in some kind of closet with clothes hanging in the foreground but then I loved the idea of a full moon shining on the two of them and her sleeping place actually being in the attic of her witch’s hat (the only place she could spare as she hexed her into human being):

Saying Samandra was a great fabric mage wasn’t just figuratively speaking. She found her special field of study in bewitching clothes. This came handy after Raven nearly lost her amulet in the course of an unintented form-changing frog moment. The amulet was all that remained of Raven’s family. Sam, after having learned about this, tailored her a special collar to make sure this would never happen again.

Salamermays

Digital Painting, comic style: Raven, a young woman with light rosy skin, short white hair in sidecut, barefoot, wearing a golden brown dress, tied with a rope in the middle, a pouch and a necklace with a raven charme, the left hand and the right foot are turned into frog hand and foot, Raven is looking amused towards the right, her her left a small pink frog sitting on the floor, Text: "Raven Frogfeet"

Raven and Sam – Merindiana Jane and The Mermay Squad 3/X

When reading these words you surely will notice, I’ve switched to English language when writing my PaintLog. Last week it was the second birthday of my website. It started as a German speaking website since I only had a German speaking target groupe. This changed in the course of the last one and a half year since I started posting on Instagram and joining English speaking Discord servers.

Even then I stuck to German and just added an English translation but since my target groupe became more international and the translation (and linking in both columns) always needs its time, even with DeepL translate, I’m going to try to skip the German part and writing in English right away. I’m also going to change the PaintLog’s structure a little bit (well … giving it structure!):

Raven and Sam

Last week I introduced my new OC Raven Frogfeet, my entry for the SoG Moodboard Challenge but also an OC who enriched my imagination. Not long after submitting my entry, I painted her in frog form and after that I now created Samandra Elvennewt, her companion and soulmate.

These ideas were heavily influenced by the Tiffany Aching novels of the late Terry Pratchett. They have some nice witch apprentices interactions within them and somehow like this witches‘ universe I imagine my witch universe with Raven (and now Samandra) in it.

The witches are less morally integer than Granny Weatherwax, obviously, turning people into animals and vice versa on purpose. They may not intend any harm and in fact Raven as well as Sam are quite content with their new lives, still this is a mistreatment they will struggle with, a plot point for further exploration later on.

After finishing the introducing Samandra charachters sheet, I also gave them a sheet of their own:

$Digital Painting, comic style: Raven to the left, a young woman with light rosy skin, short white hair in sidecut, barefoot, wearing a golden brown dress, tied with a rope in the middle, a pouch and a necklace with a raven charme, the left hand and the right foot are turned into frog hand and foot, Raven is looking annpoyed towards the frog foot; Samandra to the right, a young woman with brown skin and yellow frackles and spots on her body, neck long red hair, barefoot, wearing light brown leather trousers with buttons on the sides of the legs, a red tailor's bag by her side and a grey apron-like dress held by some ropes as straps, a scissor and needles tucked into a band on the of front part of her dress, a ruler in her right hand; she's looking amused towards Raven, covering her grin with the left hand; Text: "Samandra Elvennewt", "When you are a witch apprentice, you meet other witch apprentices. One of them was Samandra Elvennewt. She was a natural with needle and thread and experienced in retailoring clothes of people who occasionally turn into animals (you get them a lot around witches and wizards). She retailored Raven's dress which was no more than a mere sack before and together they travelled around a lot.>>"$
$Digital Painting, comic style: Raven to the left, a young woman with light rosy skin, short white hair in sidecut, barefoot, wearing a golden brown dress, tied with a rope in the middle, a pouch and a necklace with a raven charme, the left hand and the right foot are turned into frog hand and foot, Raven is looking amused towards Samandra, to her left a small pink frog sitting on the floor; Samandra to the right, a young woman with brown skin and yellow frackles and spots on her body, neck long red hair, barefoot, wearing light brown leather trousers with buttons on the sides of the legs, a red tailor's bag by her side and a grey apron-like dress held by some ropes as straps, a scissor and needles tucked into a band on the of front part of her dress, a ruler in her right hand, a tall fire salamander's tail appeared on her back, waving the back of her dress into the air, she's looking embarrassed out of the corners of her eyes towards the tail, blushing, still covering her mouth with the left hand, right to her a small fire salamander; Text: "Samandra shared Raven's fate in reverse. Originally she was a fire salamander. The whitch she was apprentice of was in need of a helper who could do the chores she wasn't able to do anymore. So she simply turned a newt into a human being. Since Sam was a fast learner and also showed talent in witchcraft, she finally raised her as her apprentice. Although not completely voluntarily drawn into apprenticeship, she, like Raven, preferred her new life to the old one (not having many memories of it anyway)."$

Merindiana and The Mermay Squad

Well, no, your calendar is not wrong, it’s still March, it’s still a month to go until Mermay. Still, you may remember that I started to redraw my Mermay OCs in the beginning of this year.

I already did redraws of Nema and Merdusa, this week it was Merindiana’s turn. I wasn’t able to finish the character sheet yet but i surely will be next week (it’s always good to have a painting for the next PaintLog up the sleeves).

Merindiana is one of my most often drawn mermaids ever. I created her for my first Mermay participation in Mermay 2019 in which she had four appeareances and once again four times in Mermay 2020 and in Mermay 2021. In the meantime there even was a cameo in my Inktober 2019 painting.

In all this time there were visible design changes and this time I changed her slightly, too. The most obvious item is the belt to fix the whip (it was never depicted how she actually carry it along before). Other changes were made with the fin tail, it’s more transparent now, the top has become bellyfree, she got more muscles and visible abs and the hip crest and the top are torn at some points.

Of course, I put her together with Nema and Merdusa into The Mermay Squad painting I talked about some time again. There are still some of my Mermay OCs missing but now it’s coming together.

Merindiana Jane

A Frog, an Owl and a Raven …

Digital painting, comic style: Raven, a young woman with short white hair in sidecut, barefooted, wearing a simple golden brown dress and a necklace with a raven charme, sitting on the floor (terracotta tiles); in front of her a tipped open jar, pouring a red puddle between her feet, next to it a tipped wooden magical staff, throwing light towards the puddle, creating several circles with magic symbols in the air; more jars and a broom are standing or lying on the floor as well as an open book (pages down); she is in front of a storage rack (left to right, top to bottom: 1st row a small chest with a frog ornament; a jar with something black and one single eye, several tilted scrolls; 2nd row books; 3rd row a wicker box with several magical accessoirs, tarot cards, keys, feathers; a kettle, several jars), the area between Raven's legs and her face is well lit, the background is dark but the details are visible; my Instagram nick in the background of the painting.

Digital painting, comic style, light beige background: A small, thin light pink frog with several darker pink spots, staring unbelievingly towards the viewer, golden brown frog eyes, a semi-transparent light blue amphibian crest on the head, covering parts of the right eye; an amulet which doesn't fit around the neck anymore and light pink clouds around the frog; the frog is sitting inside an empty collapsed simple golden brown dress.

Raven – Witch Apprentice
The Owl House + Amphibia Returns

🇩🇪 Die vergangene Woche verzeichnete aus meiner Sicht eine dreifache Rückkehr.

Sicherlich erinnert ihr euch an die Moodboard Challenge der School of Games aus dem letzten Jahr. Zu dieser hatte ich ein Bilder meiner Wüstengöttin Saharia eingereicht. Dieser Contest findet auch dieses Jahr wieder statt.

Wie ihr dem Link entnehmen könnt, geht es dieses Jahr darum, ein*n Magic Apprentice zu kreieren. Dies inspirierte mich zu Raven, der Diebin, die bei einer Hexe einbrach und daraufhin ein neues Leben begann (beginnen musste):

🇬🇧 The last week meant a trifold return for me.

Surely you remember the School of Games Moodboard Challenge from last year. I submitted a painting of my desert goddess Saharia. This contest takes place again this year.

As you can see from the link, this year is about creating a Magic Apprentice. This inspired me to create Raven, a thief who sneaked into a witch’s house and started (was forced to start) a new life:

Raven and the Chamber of Witchcraft

Jedoch, das war noch nicht das Ende der Inspirationenstange. Ausgehend von oben nachzulesender Hintergrundstory spann ich den Faden weiter. So weit, dass ich den Raven-Content inzwischen auf eine eigene Unterseite ausgelagert habe.

Und es schwirren noch immer Ideen in meinem Kopf herum, an denen ich derzeit arbeite – mehr dann (hoffentlich) nächsten Sonntag!

O. However, that was not yet the end of the inspiration lane. Starting from the background story above, I’m continuing the flow. So far that I moved the Raven content to a separate subpage now.

And there are still further ideas popping up in my brain which are work in process – hopefully, you will hear more of them next sunday.

Ebenfalls zurückgekehrt sind die Disney-Serien The Owl House und Amphibia.

Auch wenn ich seit dem letzten Mal keine neue Fanart gezeichnet habe, so habe ich je ein kurzes Review zu den beiden heute erschienen The Owl House und Amphibia Episoden geschrieben. Mehr noch, um hierfür mehr Platz zu haben, habe ich die Amphibia-Inhalte von der Fanart-Seite abgetrennt.

Amphibia-Kenner werden es weiter oben bereits erkannt haben: Im Chamber-of-Witchcraft-Bild gibt es eine kleine Amphibia-Referenz:

Also back are the Disney shows The Owl House and Amphibia.

Although I didn’t draw any new fanart since last time, I wrote a short review of each of the The Owl House and Amphibia episodes released today. Even more, to get more space to do this, I separated the Amphibia content from the fanart page.

Amphibia connoisseurs will have already recognized it: There is a small Amphibia reference in the Chamber of Witchcraft painting:

First Things First

Digital painting, comic style: Crissy Faith (young woman, big round glasses, purple hair) in the centre of the painting, standing on a step stool, her right arm raised, wearing a black bellyfree leather suite with golden zippers and long leather gloves; next to her Potato (young woman, ginger neck long hair, two long bangs falling down the side, boots, kneelong skirt, brown leather corset, shoulder free blouse) in sideview, tailoring Crissy's suit; in the right edge of the painting Paula (young woman, short light turqoise hair, wearing plaided toefree boots, a plaided skirt and a bellyfree purple leather shirt) in sideview leaning with her butt against a shelf, amused facial expression, holding the fist in front of her mouth, grinning; in the left edge Conway's head (white hair, ponytail consisting of several streaks), impatient facial expression; Text: Conway "You still not ready?!", Potato, Crissy and Paula: "No!"; small oblong text box with an arrow towards Conway saying "Waiting for hours", decorated by Crissy's pocket watch.

Fist Things First

🇩🇪 Wir starten in die dritte Woche von Putins Angriffskrieg auf die Ukraine. All die düsteren Nachrichten mag ich hier nicht wiederholen, die findet ihr auch selber.

Die Liste mit den Links und Beiträgen zu Organisationen, die speziell Künstler*innen und LGBTQIA*-Personen aus der Ukraine unterstützen, die ich in meinem PaintLog vor zwei Wochen begonnen habe, ist in der Zwischenzeit wieder ein wenig gewachsen. Deshalb habe ich sie als eigene Seite als „List of Support“ ganz mit nach vorne ins Linkmenü gestellt.

Es ist nicht ganz einfach, von hieraus nun eine geschickte Überleitung zum zweiten Thema einzufädeln, doch habe ich auch in der letzten Woche an einem weiteren Beitrag für das Arcryla City Valentins-Event gearbeitet.

Nachdem meine bereits bekannte Kooperationspartnerin, Potato, kürzlich ein Bild mit Crissy, Paula, Potato und Conway gezeichnet hatte (siehe letzte Woche), hatte ich ebenso eine Idee zum Prompt Nr. 3 „Outfit„, die alle vier involvierte. (Nebenbei, Potato hatte vorgestern Geburtstag, also noch einmal Herzlichen Glückwunsch und alles Liebe von hier aus an dieser Stelle!).

🇬🇧 We are heading into the third week of Putin’s war of aggression against Ukraine. I don’t want to repeat all the gloomy news here, you will find them yourself.

The list of links and postings about organizations that specifically support artists and LGBTQIA* folks from Ukraine, which I started in my PaintLog two weeks ago, has grown again a in the meantime. That’s why I put it as a separate subpage as „List of Support“ quite in the beginning of the link menu.

It’s not easy to thread a clever lead-in to the second theme from here now. Still, I’ve also been working on another post for the Arcryla City Valentine’s Event.

After my wellknown cooperation partner, Potato, recently shared a painting with Crissy, Paula, Potato and Conway (see last week), I had as well an idea for the prompt No. 3 „Outfit„, which involved all four of them. (By the way, Potato’s birthday was the day before yesterday, so Happy Birthday again and all the love you deserve!).

First Things First

„The day Potato and Paula persuaded Crissy to try out new outfits – and Conway waiting to cook the dinner.“

Potato wasn’t only Crissy’s best friend, she also was a talented tailor. So, she and Paula talked Crissy into trying out something new but since it takes time to do something well, in the meantime Conway was starving.

Erneut habe ich mich mit einem einfachen Hintergrund begnügt und, da es ohnehin sehr comicartig ist, auf eine komplexe Raumausstattung verzichtet. Dass ich eine solche kurz angedacht hatte, sieht man daran, dass ich dennoch nicht umhin konnte, zwei Texturen zu nutzen, die ich extra hierfür heruntergeladen hatte. Es wäre ja zu schade drum gewesen, sie dann überhaupt nicht zu nutzen.

Auch Crissy ist im Prinzip aus dem Photograph-Prompt übernommen und Paula liegt liegt jene zu Grunde, die bereits beim Zeppelinflug Anwendung fand, gepaart mit jener aus dem Fairyfloss-Bild. Nur Potato musste ich komplett neu zeichnen. Hier geriet mir allerdings ihr eigenes allererstes Bild von dieser zur Vorlage, an der ich mich orientieren konnte. An einen ähnlichen Hintergrund wie dort hatte ich hier ebenfalls gedacht, aber … siehe oben.

Conway wollte ich ebenfalls unbedingt noch ins Bild bekommen, am besten in einer amüsanten Situation. Hier hatte ich eine Weile hin und her überlegt, in welche Situation ich die vier bringen könnte und bin dann schließlich bei der obigen angelangt. Ebenso war mein erster Gedanke, Conway im Ganzen zu zeichnen, aber das hätte dann doch irgendwie zu gezwungen gewirkt, weshalb ich es bei dem Kopf gelassen hatte.

Once again, I was content with a simple background and, since it’s very comic-like anyway, did without a complex room decor. That I briefly thought of such a thing can be seen from the fact that I still couldn’t avoid using two textures that I had downloaded especially for this purpose. It would have been too bad not to use them at all.

Likewise, Crissy is basically taken from the Photograph prompt and Paula is based on the one already used for the Zeppelin Night Ride, paired with the one from the Fairy Floss painting. I only had to draw Potato completely new. Here, however, I used her very first painting of her as a model to orientate myself. I also thought of a similar background as there, but … see above.

I also wanted to get Conway into the painting, preferably in an funny situation. I thought for a while back and forth, in which situation I could bring the four and then finally arrived at the above one. Also, my first thought was to draw Conway as whole body painting, but somehow that occured to me to be too forced, so I just went for the head.

Love

Digital painting, comic style: View from above; Crissy (young woman, short purple hair) is lying in her bed on her belly, eyes closed, ruffled hair, ruffled bellyfree pajama, the right hand is holding a hald band (choker), the head is resting on her left arm; to her left a plush water bear clothed like a mechanic, to her right a small letter with indistinct handwriting, the signature "Paula" and a purple lipstick print; there are two pillows (a small one under a big one), the blanket covers only a part of Crissy's butt, it's right side is pulled back; the left side of the painting is covered by faint but warm yellow light, hinting to a pattern of a window's frame.

Digital painting, comic style: A photograph in sepia colours slightly askrew showing a ballroom inside of a Zeppelin with Paula and Crissy in it; Crissy: young woman, short purple hair, big round glasses, skirt, bellyfree top, toefree kneeboots; Paula: young woman, light green hair, a big bang combed to the left side, knee long dress, parted at the front, many frills, bellyfree shirt, plateau kneeboots, holding a bottle of wine to hide it behind her back; they are standing close together, Crissy looking blushing to Paula, Paula looking to the wine bottle out of the corners of her eyes; chairs, a table and a window showing a star filled night sky in the background; the photo is laid centrally over the (coloured) version of the Zeppelin's ballroom.

Love Note – Photograph – The Way to a Woman’s Heart

🇩🇪 Diese momentan in der Welt zu sehen fällt zugegenermaßen schwer. Entsprechend bleibt mein Eintrag der letzten Woche noch eine Weile oben im PaintLog angeheftet.

Dennoch gibt es genug Ablenkung und tatsächlich Liebe zu entdecken, wenn man sich vom Doomscrollen nicht allzu sehr fertigmachen lässt. Für mich stellt das Zeichnen ebenfalls eine mögliche Art, den Belastungen durch die Weltlage zu entkommen.

Wie ihr euch sicher erinnert, fand im Februar in Arcryla City das Valentins-Event statt. Ein erstes Bild hatte ich euch hier vor zwei Wochen bereits präsentiert, inzwischen sind noch drei weitere hinzugekommen, sodass ich den Arcryla-City-Bereich meiner Webseite nunmehr um das Valentins-Event erweitert habe.

Beginnen möchte ich jedoch nicht mit meinen eigenen Bildern, da nämlich auch meine Kollaborationspartnerin aus dem Sleepover– und dem Zeppelin-Night-Ride-Bild an diesem Event teilgenommen und für Prompt Nr. 2 „Best Friend“ ein Bild bzw. derer zwei gezeichnet hat, auf dem sowohl Crissy, wie auch Paula, Potato und Conway zu sehen sind! Ich finde, sie hat alle ausgezeichnet getroffen!

Mein erstes Bild indessen, Prompt Nr. 1, hätte hier eigentlich letzte Woche bereits erscheinen sollen, musste aus bekannten Gründen aber auf diese Woche verschoben werden. Ein ähnliches Bild, allerdings aus anderer Perspektive, hatte ich schon länger im Kopf, nun bot es sich an, es auf diese Weise umzusetzen. Inspiration war ein Amphibia Fanpic auf Instagram. Dennoch war es eine recht knackige Übung in Anatomie, speziell Kopf und der sichtbare Teile des Gesichts mit Nasen- und Mundpartie:

🇬🇧 At the moment to see this in the world is difficult. Accordingly, my entry from last week will remain pinned to the top of this PaintLog for a while.

Still, there’s enough distraction and actually love to be discovered if you don’t let the doomscrolling get you down too much. For me, drawing is also a possible way to escape the horrors of the world.

As you surely remember, the Valentine’s event took place in Arcryla City in February. I had already presented you a first painting two weeks ago, in the meantime three more have been created, so that I have now expanded the Arcryla City section of this website to include the Valentins-Event.

But I don’t want to start with my own pictures, because my collaboration partner from the Sleepover and the Zeppelin Night Ride painting also participated in this event and did a drawing (actually two) for Prompt No. 2 „Best Friend“, in which Crissy, as well as Paula, Potato and Conway can be seen! I think she did an excellent job of capturing all of them!

My first painting, Prompt No. 1, should have been shared here last week, but had to be postponed to this week for well-known reasons. A similar painting, but from a different perspective, I had in mind for some time, now it offered itself to implement it in this way. Inspiration was an Amphibia fanpic on Instagram. Nevertheless, it was quite an exercise in anatomy, especially head and the visible parts of the face with nose and mouth area:

Love Note

The day Paula had to leave early – but left a note.

Das zweite Bild, Prompt Nr. 6, spielt in der Nacht, in der Crissy, Paula, Potato und Conway zusammen auf die Zeppelinfahrt gegangen sind.

In diesem Fall habe ich auf denselben Hintergrund zurückgegriffen und das Bild dann noch einmal separat gespeichert, um es in Sepia umzufärben und dieses dann als Basis für das Foto einzufügen.Kurz hatte ich überlegt, das Foto von vornherein in Sepia zu zeichnen, zunächs die richtigen Farben und Schattierungen zu nutzen, erschien mir jedoch akkurater und wenn man schon ein Programm hat, dass in Sepia umfärben kann, wieso soll man das dann nicht auch nutzen?

Kleines Detail am Rande: Endlich ist im Hintergrund auch Potatos Handtasche zu erkennen, im Zeppelin Ride Bild war diese noch von Potato verdeckt.

The second painting, prompt No. 6, takes place the night Crissy, Paula, Potato, and Conway went on the Zeppelin Night Ride together.

In this case, I reverted to the same background and then saved the image again separately to recolor it in sepia and then to paste it as the base for the photo. Briefly, I considered drawing the photo in sepia from the start. Still, first using the right colors and shades seemed more accurate and if you have a program that can recolor in sepia, why not use it?

A small detail: Finally you can see Potato’s handbag in the background, in the Zeppelin Night Ride painting it was covered by her.

Photograph

The Night they went on the Zeppelin Ride – and Paula nicked the bottle.

On the Zeppelin Night Ride there was a photographer around. After their dance, Paula and Crissy posed but the photographer had bad timing …

Und zuletzt Prompt Nr. 7, „Baking“. Bei diesem Bild wollte ich einfach nur eine kleine, kurze Episode aus dem Leben des frisch zusammengekommenen Paares darstellen. Hier was ich zugegebenermaßen faul, für Crissy habe ich das Template wiederverwendet, das ich von ihr für das Haustier-Prompt der September-Challenge gezeichnet hatte und auch keinen richtigen Hintergrund verwendet:

And lastly, prompt No 7, „Baking“. For this painting, I just wanted to depict a small, short episode from the lives of the newly made out couple. Here I was admittedly lazy, for Crissy I reused the template I had drawn of her for the September Challenge pet prompt and I didn’t use a proper background, too:

The Way to a Woman’s Heart

The day Crissy decided to build the Steamomix 2000 to bake Paula a cake.

Crissy has zero baking skills, so she chose to solve this problem in her own way – she just had to fix some minor adjustments on the prototype.