Jenny Dolfen

Dungeons and Dormice: The Sorcerer

Dormouse Sorcerers, like every other Sorcerer, trace their lineage back to semi-mythical sources that account for their native magical powers. Among the Big Folk, dragon, demon and tiefling ancestry is quite common; Dormouse Sorcerers are adamant that their magical powers stem from an ancient fairy link. They highlight this belief by their choice of garment and even behaviour. 

Dormouse Sorcery is overwhelmingly benign (sometimes plain overwhelming) and always good-natured (unless by accident). Dormouse sorcerers are among the mos...

Dungeons & Dormice: The Wizard

Dormice Wizards are rare, because most dormice lack the willingness to devote many years of study to the mastery of skills that have, in their opinion, little relevance for the important things in life (i. e., sleep and food). 

True Dormouse Wizards will be quick to point out that this is not true at all. In fact, to anyone who understands a little about arcane matters, it becomes clear immediately that dormice spells have rather more to do with sleep and food than magic in other parts of the world. Magic Missile, for exa...

Dungeons & Dormice: The Bard.

Dormouse Bards are generally seen as the happiest little creatures alive (and that is not just down to their consumption of raspberry wine). Always eager to entertain and educate, they tirelessly hold forth cheerful songs and ancient lore, to sounds of the walnut lute. They pride themselves on always getting strong reactions out of their audiences (though, granted, sometimes it's an empty bottle accompanied by a yell of "You'll attract the cats!")

Back to my other Etchr sketchbook - it's a good thing those are sold in packs of three, a...

Dungeons & Dormice: The Monk.

Dormice Monks aspire to the highest level of inner peace, balance, and self-control. Their bodies are the only weapons they need (or so they say). Their final test, in which they give proof of their control over body and mind and demonstrate sheer incredible restraint, takes place while their masters and their families are already at dinner. 

Many a dormouse Monk has found that she has the greatest level of control and restraint while sleeping. The trick is to remain standing and not curl into a ball, and nobody will notice. ...

Dungeons & Dormice: The Fighter.

Dormouse Fighters are very liberal spirits. These seasoned, battle-hardened little creatures are most happy roaming the land with a week's worth of provisions, sleeping under the eaves and bringing their courage and their tempered steel to anyone needing their help. 

Malicious gossip has it that all they ever use their tempered steel on is raspberries, which is of course completely preposterous. 

... My sketchbook is full! =O The first page was the Legolas under golden leaves I painted on the first day of sch...

Dungeons & Dormice: The Barbarian.

Only the most fearless of dormice aspire to join the ranks of Barbarians. The origins of this class of warriors are lost in legend, as is the origin of their traditional weapon, the chiesnif (though legend has it that the first chiesnif was taken as prize on the myth-enshrouded raid on Pantree). On this raid, it is said, Teepweep the Unterrified, the first of his name, almost disembowelled a cat. 

Barbarians of today still honour Teepweep's name, and like him, they dress in the furs of enemies they have slain (or...

Dungeons & Dormice: The Cleric

"Beware the masked swamp owl!" Dormouse parents tell their children. "If she catches you, she eats you whole and spits out your bare white bones, which will forever haunt the marshlands!" 

Indeed, infestations of undead are most often found near the nests of the short-eared owl, terrorising the local dormouse dwellings. This was the main reason why the Order of the Sacred Hazelnut came into being, whose clerics use the benign powers granted by the Deity to turn the undead, and grant them rest. 

(The short-eared owl ind...

Haven't finished the piece yet...

... but here's a preview of fearsome dormouse undead. XD

Dungeons and Dormice: The Ranger

With her trusted companion, the Ranger roams far and wide through the wild, dangerous undergrowth of the field balk. Her green and brown garb makes the ranger almost invisible to the perilous denizens she stalks. Her bumblebee, however, is often forced to just hop from flower to flower, pretending to be just an ordinary bumblebee instead of a highly trained and intelligent animal companion. 

Hope you're enjoying this as much as I am! And thank godness most people on Facebook etc have now accepted it's not Redwall. I hope the prese...

Dungeons & Dormice: The Rogue

Dormouse Rogues are rare, because stealing something is so alien to the dormice nature (though they are suberbly suited to the profession due to their uncanny stealth). If there is anything that might entice a dormouse to go down the road of roguishness, it's a fat, ripe raspberry sitting around without an apparent owner (at a very cursory glance). 

Next up: the Ranger with his bumblebee (my daughter can't wait for that one. She always plays Rangers).

Dungeons & Dormice: Paladin

Their heroic and undaunted nature makes dormice naturally suited to the Paladin's calling, playing to their natural instincts to protect the weak and helpless, even if finding someone who is actually weaker and more helpless than the paladin may sometimes present a challenge. 

Tragically, many a dormouse paladin has seriously misjudged who was weak or helpless, with desastrous consequences. 

Yes, I'm sure Reepicheep is a paladin as well. ;) Though it helps to be a very large mouse. It's a little easier to find someone w...

Sir Dormouse

I, uh, have no idea what happened. I assume it was the unholy amagam of thinking of El-ahrairah (Watership Down), thinking of doing some rabbit art at some point, and then coming across Brit's woolly-hatted alpaca on Facebook this morning. 

Maybe he'll get a friend soon. Or maybe he'll see himself out of the back door as unobtrusively as possible. But some cuteness overload might be in order. 

Maedhros and horse, coloured

So, I slapped some colour on today! I really like the combination here.

This one's actually available for sale, so drop me a note if you're interested! I will probably have to hold it for a while though. :)

Two half-good pics make one good one.

I decided to redo yesterday's piece today - and ended up with a nice Maedhros but botching the horse. So I cheated and combined the two in Photoshop. XD Will colour it tomorrow! 

Valar stickers! ^__^

The stickers are here (and I wonder whether some of my real-life friends will now finally stop calling my pins "stickers", or whether they'll just be thoroughly confused.) 

I've already started dropping one here, two there, into packages waiting to ship. But here's the whole set! 

Thanks for the well-wishes for my son! He weathered it fairly well, though he does look a little like a hamster today and is unlikely to make a habit out of wisdom teeth removed (even if he had any left). I hope to do another bit of art today,...

Waiting room sketch

Inked this in the waiting room today while my son was having four wisdom teeth removed. I'm not very happy with it, but hey, my son's fine. ;) Mostly. 

I'll probably end up redoing this tomorrow, with a slimmer inking pen! The one I had with me was just too bold.

Dragons and flowers!

 They're here, and they're so gorgeous again!! =D  

Look how tiny they are - no bigger than their clutches...

I did a little sketch today, but will finish it up tomorrow, so this will have to be my #aittoc for today. :) 

...

Ink and watercolour: Théoden

Tried out ink again today - I'd bought hot-pressed (smooth) watercolour sketchbooks a month ago to use more ink, and since this "Corona" sketchbook is over half full now, I figured it would be a good time to start breaking out the inks...!

Motivational slump with the Lighthouse Family

Have had "High" by Lighthouse Family stuck in my head for days; fittingly, a local radio station had a Nineties day yesterday. 

When you're close to tears, remember
Someday it'll all be over
One day we're gonna get so high
Though it's darker than December
What's ahead is a different colour
One day we're gonna get so high 

<3 

#theviewfromhere

There's an artist challenge going round where you paint the view from your window. I cheated. This is from the living-room window, not from my study window. Our neighbour's spectacular forsythia demanded it. 

I've also put the Valar prints up in my Etsy shop! Please note that I won't be able to ship to some countries, but I'll pack up your order and collect all the packages in a big box. <3 

Here's links to your Etsy coupon ...

Shipping updates...

Hey all, 

just letting you know that Deutsche Post no longer delivers to the US, Australia, Singapore, and certain areas of Italy, Portugal, India, and probably more countries likely to join the list.

I'm not closing my shop, since I need the income it's generating in these times. If you live in the countries that are not shipped to at the moment, you can still place an order, but you'll have to be aware that I will keep it on hold until the world is working again. :( 

Mandos, and stickers

Mandos judges you for touching your face. 

Also, I definitely don't want a Silmarillion movie, but if they make one, Benedict Cumberbatch needs to play Mandos. 

I remember again why I haven't used Daniel Smith's Moonglow in ages. While the textures are spectacular, it's hard to layer and always ends up blobby and unrefined. 

I'm going to offer matted mini-prints of the Valar next week or so! :) And I've just put in an order for 8 Valar stickers, each 7cm long. =D 

2020-03-27 09:26:26 +0000 UTC View Post

All the Valar pins!

This doesn't look like a lot of work, but I finished Manwe today, and then fixed them all up for ordering! That means looking up every colour in my colour swatch book and writing them down, which easily took two or three hours, plus almost two for Manwe. =O 

I felt experimental with skintones here! Rather than my go-to for fair skin, I tried around with darker ones for Yavanna, Aule of course, and also Manwe, for a stronger contrast with his blues. 

The dragons and flower pins are delayed until next week, but I realised...

Can't stop designing pins!

I was planning to do just two today, but then did three... just Manwë remaining. I haven't sent them to the pin company yet; maybe they'll say there's too much detail... but we'll see. I'm still debating, very slightly, to do all eight Aratar (and add Mandos when I've done him, too). I will definitely order them in different numbers. I have a feeling Yavanna will do well. ;)

I can't even decide which one I like best! 

Oromë (I may convert)

Here's a bit you probably didn't know about me as an artist: I don't see faces when I read. I have some form of prosopagnosia (the inability to recognise - and imagine - faces), and when I read, I think of characters very much in body form, movement, colours, dressing style. The same goes for real people, by the way. I can recognise a student of mine from behind and from a hundred yards away by his style of dress, shape and the way he walks, but it takes me two months to tell him apart from the other blond kid in class when they're just sitt...

Just a lineart today...

... but don't think I've been idle! The first two Valar pins are done! =D 

I braved the supermarket madness again today and had a lot of home-schooling work to do with the kids. For days, my Facebook feed and the New York Times opinion pages have been full of people saying they never realised how much work teaching was. And now imagine...

Aulë - and pin news!

Here's Aulë, the last of the six Valar I'll soon turn into pins! And talking of pins - the dragons and flowers, which were supposed to arrive in mid-April (in time for MagicCon that won't happen)... will be here this week! So look forward to a lot of shiny goodness around the weekend. <3 

I may take a break with the Valar to get the new Valar pins designed, but I will do Oromë and Mandos and get all of them printed for another card set and stickers before long. 

I hope you're all doing all right! Things are slowly ...

Varda

Again for this one, I found mself thinking that it might have warranted more time. :)

Several people have asked me of these are for sale - I'm probably being really stupid, but I'm drawing them in my sketchbook, so no, they're not for sale. (Maybe after the Valar, I'll move to a more sellable format - which might be a smart idea in these turbulent times...!)

There will be matted mini-prints, and print sets and stickers, of these later, as soon as I have all the Aratar. (And no doubt people will then demand Tulkas, haha.)

Manwë

Manwë, managing to look rather like Karl Marx. I'm unapologetic, because Marx had the best beard. 

Nienna

So much going on right now. Things are starting to look pretty alarming here in Europe - we still don't have a lockdown here in my area, though other German regions have already implemented things much like them. My husband actually was paid in toilet paper today - yes, half in jest, but only half. We were certainly grateful for it! 

My family is still fine, but I'm a little worried about my parents. My mother lives in Spain for most of the year, and she was in Spain when the lockdown came. My father is in northern Germany. Travel...