I'm off for a little vacation, so I won't be around for a while. It's finally summer here, finally warm and beautiful, and as the winters up here are long and grey, I'm going to try to make the best of it.

I'm going to go to my parents' cabin and watch their little lake filled with tadpoles, and the little baby froggies, and all of those cutsey things – I'm very much looking forward to it. Azrael and I will have a lovely time wandering the woods the way we did last summer.

Then I'm going back for the Swedish premier of Pirates 2, and after that – unless there's work that must be done... I think I'll go on a bit more vacation.

Just sending hugs and kisses – hope you all have a lovely summer (if it's summer where you are :P ) and sorry about posting in the gallery and then having it deleted, but I realised I won't stand a chance of replying to the amount of response I usually get... and I think it's rather rude to post in the gallery and not replying.

Might repost it later when I'm back geeking in front of the computer.

(Check out a comic strip called Meehan Streak... wonderful understated humour, I've been addicted to it for a good long while now, and still mourn that there's no album available)

Hugs,
L.

While I remember, I snapped pictures of another two of my masks before I took them to a little art show the other week. I was afraid they'd be ruined (they weren't, by the way), what with all the people poking at them... and wanted to keep something of them at least.

I feel I'm really getting the hang of the mask-making, and above all, developing an eye for things I can use for them... everything from little necklaces I've had since I was a kid to cheap brooches and crap I find downtown. My friends and I joke about my 'butchering' jewellery to make new things. It's fascinating how a piece I've had since I was a kid can fit together with something I found at an antique shop the other week along with something I bought cheap downtown. It's fast becoming an expensive habit, though... the papier mache is cheap, but the feathers are REALLY expensive... and some of the masks, like the dark gold one here, are pricey enough that it would never be a viable option to sell them. Not that I want to sell them, but I keep getting offers and I feel almost guilty turning people down. As is, there's only one of each and I can't remake them because a lot of the jewellery is unique and besides, when you do things by hand like this it's impossible to replicate... I've given a few away to people that matter to me, and I feel awful about even that. You get spoiled with digital art, with there being no original. I don't want to sell my originals. It feels like cutting little pieces of me away. Silly, I know.



This one along with the green one I showed earlier was the biggest hit without doubt. I personally find this one the prettiest one I've made so far. It took almost two days to finish, gluing all the feathers individually and cutting pieces of jewellery up. There's a plume of feathers going up that doesn't show properly in any of the images I snapped of it, which is a pity. It's quite striking.



This one I like because it's bold and the nose is cute and uppity. It's not as grand and big as the green or gold one, but has a charm of its own. Quite wearable, too, nowhere near as heavy as some of the others.

I wish people hadn't complained about me painting too many masks, last time I painted one... I feel I want to paint more of them, they're almost as fun to paint as they are to make by hand. Besides, masks symbolise a lot for me and I find I adore their mystery, hiding some parts and accentuating others. I find it fascinating how wearing a mask can transform an entire face, making a mouth look much crueller because of the shape of the beak, or turning the eyes soft or hard. Anyway... I'll contemplate masks a while longer... sneezing and coughing (I've got a terrible cold) and trying to fall asleep. Meanwhile, keep an eye out for me in ImagineFX.

Hugs and kisses,
L.

Having finally finished a project on Friday, I've spent this weekend completely immersed in laziness. I feel as if though I truly needed it. I am worn thin, worn out, worn ragged and wispy like one of those last year's leaves stubbornly clinging to a branch though they're little but skeletons.

Imagination, however, runs wild. Creativity is at an all time high. I want to paint, I want to write, I want to do things... you know, the things you do when you're twitching with ideas.

Aching shoulders and head keep me from the computer though. So, in the computer's stead, I dug out my papier mache, my paints, my old, broken bits and pieces of jewellery, feathers, bric-a-bracs and bits and pieces I've picked up along the way... and sat down to make yet another mask.

Everything worked against me. I couldn't find the piece I wanted to fit over the mask's nose, at first... and when I finally did, I couldn't find the papier mache. Once I did find all the things, the clay still had to stay three hours in the fridge for best effect. I cheated, pulled it out after one and a half, and jumped on it. I had Corpse Bride playing on the dvd at first.

Then I watched Sin City, I watched some Buffy, I watched Dangerous Liaisons, and then suddenly noticed that... it was light outside, the sun was coming up, the mask was done, and I was pleasantly exhausted. I think it's my best one yet.

Sorry about the poor photos. I just want to show it off.

Against the mountain side, the Hairam people built their greatest city. It sprawls along the slope, half underground and half above – with flat, flowing buildings and corridors lined with gold-veined stone.

They are artists and artisans, worshipping the earth itself with its treasures of precious metals and gems. Their architecture, their jewellery, their weaponry – all of this is art in itself. They are intense, focused and intelligent. They are private, as closed off from each other as their fashion makes them seem to be... showing barely an inch of skin or vulnerable patch of soul to the inattentive watcher.

Their ruler is the child Queen Kirkii, as guarded and fierce as her people.

When I'm finished with my current job, I will either paint Queen Kirkii (seen here in a concept sketch I did a little earlier)



Or, the Goddess Xaa – of Hatred, a powerful, alluring presence with a serpent's gaze.

Or, another mirror image like my Into Your Eyes – only this time to show the nature of the viewer, not that of the subject in the painting.

I can't wait to paint my own stuff again. I am drowning in ideas. I want to paint! PAINT!

Something sweet happened in my life recently, and then something sad – so I'm split between the two.

Hugs and kisses,
L.

Psst... here's me with my Posterbook. I gave my second copy to my father on his 60th birthday - and I feel like giggling like a little girl whenever I see him pick it up and leaf through it. My parents have always been wonderfully supportive of my career and they're almost happier than I am whenever something good comes my way. As for the book: the quality is even better than I had thought.

I will use my blog mainly, I think, for sketch work, unfinished work, work I feel so-so about, stuff that for one reason or other I've not shown around much, or projects that are underway. Sounds like as good a place as any to do these things

So, let's post some sketches and random things first. I won't be doing any new work for at the very least two weeks - that I can show anyway - so after this…see you when I see you.

Not all of these are even decently new. Sorry about that.













[edit] I just realised - see that green-blue colour in the first and the last piece? I think that's the colour I use more than any other colour in my work. Even when you can't see it, you betcha it's there. I use it in my skintones, in my highlights, in the skies and in the folds of clothes. I think it's the single most useful colour I know Just a total sidenote.

That's it for now