I’ve listened to the “Dracula” BBC radioplay.
Dracula himself is read by David Suchet in that one.
My brain blissfully exploded.

See the result and “how to…” explanation below.

The result:

The “how to…” part (hopefully the layout of this blog allows to show the entire image; if not, click for the full size):

Dracula: step-by-step.

I certainly hope I’m gonna put my brain together in the nearest future, aye.
Have fun ;3

Seriously, I never quite got the meaning of this word. Sketchwork is a sketchwork, why call it other names?.. Oh, forget it.

Tricky thing is my sketchworks are mostly… ahem. Well. I cannot put my finger on an exact word here, but do blame Tom Hiddleston for whatever I’m painting these days. I’ve already written about him about a week ago; I can understand why he was +927% of popularity on IMDB last time I checked.))

Herein I must stay calm and tell you one thing.
As a keen painter, I often like people not ‘because of’, but ‘in spite of’.

I like them in spite of their stubby chins, broken noses, too big ears, too strange eyes, etc. That ‘in spite of’ hint makes any person INTERESTING for any painter (ha, guess why one of my favourites is Anthony Hopkins, with all his asymmetry and wrinkles; David Bowie is also a pure artistic joy)). Tom Hiddleston’s face isn’t perfect, but it’s oddly balanced in its imperfection. Plus, he’s got that particular sort of twinkle of genuine intelligence in his eyes; I’m a weak woman, I can’t stand that.

I feel NEED for painting that.

So.
Here come the sketches.

I must admit that I’ve painted this one in less than ten minutes. I’m not a fan of checking the time any moment I pass the clock by, but I’m a music addict; so this one has been painted in the period of playing Nine Inch Nails’ “The Great Below” two times. Photoshop only, sharp normal brush, colours added with the same brush in “Multiply” mode, shades performed with soft “Burn” tool. The shade on his face is a simple “Smudge” tool (do play with the settings, this game gives the nicest results)), the blur of the cloak is achieved by applying “Radial Blur” filter (and recovering the rest with the “History Brush”).

The second one took exactly 7 min 58 sec to perform; that’s the time of playing Sarah Fimm’s “Forgive Me” twice in a row.)) I’ve already mentioned being a music addict, haven’t I?)))

This time I used “Corel Painter” and some of thingies that “Artistic Brush” section offers (more specifically — “Impasto Oil” and “Impasto Palette Knife”; they give a wonderful effect of pretty natural colour mixture). The smaller details are the result of applying “Detail Airbrush” (or any small “Airbrush” tool of your choice) and that lovely blender tool, that’s called “Just Add Water”.

Looking at this one, I feel slight urge (if the urge can be slight)) to give you some more precise examples of brush strokes you can imitate thru Painter and some other software, e.g. ArtRage (that one’s pretty nice). But alas, I’m six feet under other activities now.

So I merely give you a teaser.
I’m painting Jonathan Harker at the time. Yes, that pal from Dracula story.
And I promise that as soon as I finish I’ll give you ALL “how to” tips to imitating the traditional painting in digital form.

Tschüss, as my fellow German friends say.
Stay tuned for further madness.))

You see, I’ve recently gone to the cinema with my mates (The Odd Order of Leather Coat and Umbrella-ella, these guys constantly ROCK), and… uh, how do I put this? That “Thor” movie is somehow called “Thor” for whatever reasons; but I’ll re-watch it for the third (edit: fourth) time only because there’s Loki in there. A while ago some unknown journalist (really, I fail to recall his/her name) predicted women drooling over Tom Hiddleston… What can I say? That guy was so damn right!

I’m not mentioning the fact that the whole movie turned out to be some “spot-the-British-guy” game for me (mea culpa)). But even those reviewers, who call “Thor” an epic failure, admit that Mr. Hiddleston is a genuine treasure. British actors somehow possess that peculiar ability to use their facial muscles in pretty gorgeous way.
Can you remember Bill Nighy’s right eyebrow of Doom?
Same thing here.

Tom Hiddleston’s right eyebrow surely needs a separate article in Wikipedia, its own agent and its own fansite.

I won’t be surprised if he can express several passages of written text with only movement of his right eyebrow. Also, we’ve recently had a talk with my mates that most part of gorgeous actors are… let me use the word “fading”. Yes, they are fading now. Michael Caine, Alan Rickman, Bill Nighy… They are experienced, ingenious, they are True Giants of Acting, etc., etc., but they are already The Mighty Past. And with the appearance of Hiddleston it is somehow touching to see that there actually is a possibility of The Fascinating Future for British acting school. I do have high hopes for this young gentleman, God bless his smart eyes and his right eyebrow.))

But I’m not calling this blog “an art blog” without a reason, yeah.

If you’re familiar with Norse mythology, you need no extra explanation. I didn’t mean to paint a portrait, but I do confess: I was inspired by Tom Hiddleston’s acting… and facial anatomy.)) After watching the movie I was like, “Oh dear, why isn’t Loki ginger, like in those myths?! Why doesn’t he have scars from the stitches on his lips?!!..” I was possessed by this idea for quite a while, and now I feel like I need to share the result; at first I didn’t actually want to paint something more than a plain sketch, but the subject appeared to be too tempting.

You see, Hiddleston’s Loki is VERY SMART – ergo, he’s mostly sad all the time. So I mixed the “modern version” with some hints from the Norse myths, and here’s what I got after few hours of work and endless Dave Gahan in my ears. Sketchwork was performed in PhotoShop, the major part of artwork was painted in Corel Painter; see my previous entries — I used my old usual trick with using blender tools.

But here comes the difference… Did you notice the 1st image in the left top corner? It’s simply a few drops of plain colour, madly and roughly blended together with the “Palette Knife” tool. That’s also a blender, but it’s extra sharp and plain, so if you move it randomly you get the curious texture. I made this a separate layer and applied it in PhotoShop over the image in “Overlay” mode (“Shadow” mode also helps). It makes the image look more finished – and a bit weathered. Being quite a sucker for grunge effects, I like the way it works.

After applying the newer layer all that’s left to do is to erase the parts you don’t need; for example, I used 30% eraser on Loki’s nose and forehead to make them lighter, and I also used 100% eraser on his eyes to make them shimmer in contrast.

Merge the layers down, save the image, be happy — I love these final steps, I really do.)

Frankly speaking, I thought I’d paint The World Tree or a serpent underneath his robes, but alas, I’m always in a hurry to finish the work; so maybe I’ll re-paint this later, who knows…

…and now I’m leaving just because I need some sleep… and some BBC “Dracula” audioplay with David Suchet as Dracula and That Hiddleston Gent as Jonathan Harker.)) I bet I’ll have good dreams after this one.)))

I want to tell you about my little adventures here.

I’m being rather funny and generally stupid these months — mostly due to multiple stresses I experienced. I’m not going to give you details; I just want you to remember, ALWAYS remember that there’s nothing as important as family. Blood bonds, that sort of thing. Remember about them. But I started the different story…

In September my muse Chiffa and I performed a huge task. We shot over a dozen of completely different people for a HUGE photosession (in “sketch version” there was over a thousand of shots) — I am not allowed to show you the results until April 2011 comes, so be patient… But believe me, that was madly entertaining.

In October I had an enormous luck to meet my French friend (whom I used to know as a poet and photographer, but who appeared to be the famous [sic!] guitar-maker)), but that’s a huge story for “insiders”. All I can say is that he is a pure wonder, seriously.

In early days of November I SUDDENLY achieved a “daily deviation” label on one of my graphic things. I drew this one under great stress and I nearly asked out loud for help in “author’s comments” section; well, I literally asked for luck. And imagine my feelings: I received feedback that can be measured in several THOUSANDS of different people’s voices. I was flattered, embarrassed, madly happy and needed a shock blanket.

Wow, then, I said in my normal grim voice. And got back to my sweet everyday angst, which haunts me so far (and it’s family issues, again). There was one thing that saved me… well, I lie. There were two things.

#1 was Agatha Christie via David Suchet proxy; I’m a huge fan of the “Agatha Christie’s Poirot” series (I’m gonna celebrate “20 Years Of Being A Fangirl” in 2011, really)), and the most recent adaptation of “Murder on the Orient Express” was an exquisite gift for my shattered feelings.

#2 was (and remains being)) the fact, that I somehow managed to become The Recruiter and Spiritual Leader of some tiny, friendly and secret Order))) I can give you a link with details, so that you can see the limits of our mutual madness (seriously, limits?! we don’t know them))), right here. We laughed so much that we started to cry, our weird stories were read out loud, we performed team “solve-the-crime” role-play games… God, we even talked several waiters into having drinks with us — and we did that so charmingly, that we’ve been actually invited to some “insider parties”.

Both for the sake of #1 and #2, I started making T-shirt designs.

Here comes the first (you see, that’s Dame Agatha Bloody Christie, her gardeners are always SO mischievous))

Here comes the second (see this entry for the reasons, it’s a LONG story)))

The most peculiar facts about these ones are that:
#1 made me acquainted with lovely Czech lady, who writes the most nice fiction;
#2 appeared to be retweeted by the author of the phrase, Michael Sheen.)))

The #2-thing still makes me giggle. Add to that the fact, that we actually found the retweet out at the day we went to see “TRON”.)) Insider’s joke, yes, but so bloody funny.)))

So.

I have to finish about five or six art projects, so far. I am obliged to finish four texts. I’m going to re-launch my website these days. And I pray for some opportunity to write more “how to” things; I have TOO MUCH work to do.

Let me be off with this…
…and mind that I’ll be back on Christmas Day, preferably with some art to be discussed.

xxx

In spite of the fact that I still have issues with depicting human anatomy in realistic way, I never give up (and let that sound like an advice; you never should, as well). Never surrender, yes, Churchill quotes and all that jazz. At some point, when I feel like I’m stuck and have NO IDEA of how to paint some body feature, I simply try something new. I stubbornly redo, repaint, erase and paint over. You have sometimes to be quite an ass (in Bible definition, not in too common one — I just mean being extremely stubborn and self-absorbed in a way)), if you want something to get done the right way.

Funny how sometimes issues with anatomy can really help.
I mean painting the nightmares.

To begin with: have you ever had GORGEOUS nightmares? Those, which scare the something out of you, but still leave an impression of wondrous and divine beauty? Those, which make you wake up screaming both of horror and delight?

I have some.
More over that: I share them.

In my dreams I’ve been eaten by amazing dark creatures. I’ve been kept in wonderfully designed cages by brilliant ghosts and dead men. I’ve been threatened by unknown species of such outstanding and extraordinary beauty, that I still have no ability to dare and portray most of them. I must confess, that I’ve actually written down two of my most precious nightmares, as short novels (20-25 pages long), and some of my friends kindly consider those texts to be worth printing out as books, or developing into screenplays for some Paul Anderson or whatever.)) Still, most of my nightmares don’t get written in words; I just paint them.

This one “visited” me quite a while ago. Imagine a silent gardener, who himself is growing from shadows and planting blue wild roses within his own self. See, you enter some room, you turn off the lights, you hear some quite weird noises, you turn the lights on… and you see him, growing from a wall in some dark corner, bleeding, blossoming with ridiculously blue petals, dripping with something black and instantly moving, like very dark and very alive smoke. And you really cannot be certain about his feelings towards this reality. You just see, that he is… wrong. And it totally freaks you out.

I can’t say that he possessed exactly these facial features in my dream, but I give you not a certain character, but rather a concept of something wonderfully wrong. I give you colours, shapes and some… mood of his.

I believe that judging by this you can figure out my feelings about my nightmares.)) This is not the last one; so I bet I’ll tell you about some more, as soon as I’m able to upload more nightmare-based art. I assume that it would be useful for you to check out this animation just on order to understand the progress of this work.

I painted this, as usual, in Corel Painter (IX, but really — version of the software doesn’t matter that much) in two hours or so. Mind that I’ve been constantly listening to the gorgeous “Rocket Collecting” track by Milla Jovovich (or Yovovich? does anyone recall the right spelling, except the undoubtedly correct Йовович version?)). I guess that affected me much. In fact, music ALWAYS affects me. This slow and grim song appeared to be a perfect soundtrack for the painting process…

P.S.:
Yes, I mean THAT Milla Jovovich — in case you didn’t know she’s not only Resident Evil kick-ass wonder-woman. Besides, I must admit that I actually love RE — movies, not games. I’m really looking forward to see the next one in 3D. Lovely Milla, cute guns and blades and gadgets, nice Marilyn Manson music, grim humour… doctor’s prescription. Seriously, I feel like I’m having beautiful rest for my brain every time I watch any of RE movies. Knowing that the mentioned lady is not only good-looking (I’m being fair, you know), but also can sing, makes things even better.

P.P.S.:
Yes, she REALLY can sing (I like her “Divine Comedy” album, really – very elegant sound indeed). I’m not some huge fan, I’m just being fair again.))

See? I’m in a tiny house in the woods these days. Some of my friends in Europe can’t fully understand this, but I am 110 km away from any capital cities (Moscow & Tver’, just to be exact). No people. No city heat. Almost no smog from wood fires (which terrify people in my country these days; some of my sarcastic friends call Moscow “New Silent Hill”, if you get the point of their grim humour). Just woods, a shaggy cosy old house, snakes in a swamp and me. Tricky thing is that my “wood vacation” is anyway provided with some glimpses of civilisation, e.g. I do have internet connection (a bad one, but better than nothing), and I still do watch new British TV shows on my laptop. Guily pleasures of girls in woods, yeh.

So to speak… British TV, yes. Have you seen “Sherlock” yet? Gorgeous thing, I dare say. Wonderful soundtrack — all that slightly pathetic and obviously folk stuff with string instruments, and all the ways to Dublin, whack-fol-lol-de-ra. I’m a sucker for shades of grey and violet — and those people seem to colourise London twilight exactly according to my taste. Add to this Mark Gatiss & Steve Moffat (hail the Doctor Who and other British weed!), and Holmes, who is slightly similar to Neil Gaiman (if you see him from the back — really, he is!)… Well, that really IS worth watching. And those dialogues, oh!

— So why are you talking to ME?
— Mrs Hudson took my skull!

Ahem, sorry, seems like I got a bit distracted from the blog theme…
When I started writing this entry, I wanted to say the following: Even if you’re far enough from cities to forget about people, DON’T STOP CREATING THINGS. You don’t have a scanner, a graphic pen, a software? You still have your head and your hands. Take any chance to practice. Don’t you bloody dare to waste your resources.

Me, I’m deep into sketchy mood these days.
Just to make things clearer — situation looks like this:

And you know what? The main things about sketches is that you MUST NOT THINK about how good, or emotional, or colourful, or neat the result can be. You just make doodles of anything you see or imagine: rough ones, colourless ones, doesn’t matter. It seems to be quite simple thing to comprehend, but I’m constantly astonished by the number of people who just don’t get it. SKETCHES AREN’T FINISHED WORKS, so you naturally needn’t try to make them exqusitely fine; you must always remember that you use these scratches of pencil or inkpen, as some reference for your newer works, or as some extra practice lessons to improve your skills. One who paints big works without any primary sketch is either a very lucky and corageous person, or just a jolly idiot. And believe me, jolly idiots are the most common type (naturally, I used to be one for a very long time).

Just to conclude the obvious things above, I must add: there’s no school like old school, believe the line from Rock-n-rolla. There’s no painting like traditional painting. So even if you’re used to digital stuff, take a note: making something by means of traditional tools is always useful for improving your style and trying something new. The things I’ve just written makes me feel like Captain Obvious, really, but I have to repeat: amazing number of people just don’t get it.

Now, my inbox says I have 712 unread (I almost spelled ‘undead’)) mesagges, so I better close the browser, so that I won’t see that dreadful number, and let myself sink into peaceful painting process. I have lesser than a week of vacation left, so I’d better enjoy it while I’m still able to.

A bonus pic from my woods, just to make you imagine how I’m doing here, included.

P.S.:
Remind me to tell you about munching butterflies, Baskerville birds and foggy swamps next time. For now… fare well, my acrylic-on-board thingy waits for me.

Let that be all, that I want to tell you about these books; they’re better when they’re read, not talked about. If you want do talks before reading, I can recommend you to try this review — quite truthful one, indeed (I especially like the reader’s comment about escapists, for that one hits bull’s eye)).

Sir Juffin Hully, sketchwork and details; click to enlarge.

For all those queers, who think that digital painting is like “oh-just-edit-a-photo-in-Photoshop-in-a-minute-or-so”: YOU’RE WRONG. Even if one takes a reference photo of real person (e.g. in order to paint portrait), one doesn’t just edit it with some cool software; one actually paints it. The only difference from full portrait, oil on canvas and all that stuff is that you actually paint something you cannot touch or see from any other angles. It’s DIGITAL. Mind you don’t watch your hands when you use the digital pen — you watch the screen. Some people find it more difficult, than traditional painting; in some way they’re right, yet all the difficulties of the process are equal to one single advantage.

You always have “UNDO” button. Love it.

Speaking of reference photos and similarity… I must admit — I SUDDENLY!!1 discovered that, if you try to paint in greyscale mode a male face slightly alike Rutger Hauer, except for the eyes, which are supposed to look a bit more “cunning”, “foxy”, etc., at some moment you get…
Guess, whom?
Sean Bean.
Now THAT was a true shock for me, as a painter. That bloody hit me like a train at full speed. It took me half an hour and two cups of cocoa drink to recover and re-paint the face. That was a sort of “OMFG HOW?!!” experience, really.))

Juffin Hully, sir. Click him to see him.

Now — a word about the “how to” side of this painting.
This one is different from the “younger version” for the following two reasons:
1. I didn’t make a primary sketch in pencils.
2. It was a kind of portrait of a known figure, after all.

I bet most of those, who asked for tutorial, don’t need explanations for “draw-a-sketch” part, so I’ll write down few “know how” things.

Almost all painting is made with “blender” tool of Corel Painter. I use the “soft” one; a little blur here, a little smooth shades there… actually, you just soften the sharp lines of the primary sketch, get most of shapes done this way, and then remove the parts around the shapes with sharp eraser. As you see, the painting’s made in greyscale; the most interesting part begins at the moment you start colourisation.

After the painting’s done in shades of grey in Corel Painter, there comes time of Photoshop, God bless the inventers of this software. Tools you actually need, besides slight knowledge of working with layers, are “Burn” and “Brush” (in “Multiply”, “Screen” and “Soft Light” modes). You add and deepen shadows with “Burn” tool, while layers and brush modes help you with colourisation.
The ways to bring colour to any shape are:
a. Apply Brush in “Multiply” mode (good for skin surfaces).
b. Apply Brush in “Soft Light” mode (good for dark things, e.g. cloth, hair, etc.).
c. Add new layer with texture/pattern in “Overlay”, “Screen” or “Multiply” modes (choose which’s better yourself, that depends on the primary painting)), edit it with Eraser, drop the layers into one.

Finally — here’s a small tip about the “Screen” mode of the Brush tool… If you want to add ANY light effects, use it. Feel free to make experiments with its sharpness, size and strength, from 20% to 100%. Any flares, any fireballs… they’re done with “Screen” brush mode.

I’d also like to add a word about cards in this very painting. Actually, I made them at the last moment; Ctrl+C a smaller card pic, Ctrl+V it into the actual painting, as new layer, and try “Edit>>Transform” thingy. “Perspective” and “Distort” tools really help. Just don’t be afraid of trying new things.

Instead of some smart conclusion… here comes the Joker card of both Juffin Hully’s faces — the younger one [I've written about here] and this, the older one. Let us pretend I just got tired of talking and sank into the world of painting, shall we?))

J for Joker, J for Juffin...

When I say “for idiots” I do not mean that’s a greeting card for idiot’s birthday (well — I have to admit that in this very case the guy, whom I gave this card to, cannot be possibly offended by the “i” word, he would be bloody HONOURED, if I call him so)). I mean that I want to write here a Total Walkthrough On Making Such Thingies For People, Who Actually Didn’t Try To Make Handmade Birthday Cards, EVER. Hope you ‘re okay with my sick humour, anyway.))

Back to the theme.
This is the example I want to write about.

Click to enlarge this horrendous card.

Now, a word about the technical side of the process…
You need:
- a piece of thick paper. Paper for watercolours (A5 format or larger) will do perfectly.
- a piece of red ribbon.
- some golden contour for glasswork (or nail enamel; you can cope with the task with anything thick and waterproof enough).
- red [preferably Indian] ink.
- black Indian ink, or technical pen (0.38 is perfect), filled with black ink.
- big soft round brush.
- a needle with big eye.
- a lighter and a sharp knife (or matches and nice scissors, you get the idea).
- two normal hands, which can actually make things without breaking them or cutting themselves.
If you don’t own a pair of such hands, do not even try to reproduce the trick.))

Sure you can handle the task of “cut a piece of paper of the size you need and fold it the way you fold greeting cards” without my advice, so I’ll write here only major tips. First of all, mind that you need RED ink only for dropping it from the big brush to get a nice splatter “blood” effect, while you need BLACK ink only for text and decoration. Note: you can actually “make splatter” before you cut the piece of paper for the card, that’ll save you some time you could spend on aiming the red drops at the needed corner of the card. When the red ink is touch-dry, add some scary lines, like “ZIS DAY COMES TO ALL OF ZE HUMENS, ZE SHAMAN HOLEEDAY OF GETTING CLOSER TO DEATH…” or such stuff; I can’t tell precisely, how twisted the lines can be — that depends on your own mind’s state, thank you very much.

Back to the “major tips”, then. Take the red ribbon and cut a piece, enough for your imagination. If you’ve been wondering, why on Earth you need an enamel/contour for glasswork, a lighter and a needle — behold. You need the needle (ugh, “need the needle” — sounds like sick Tim Burton) to attach the ribbon to the corner of paper. You need the contour to add decorations to the piece of ribbon; let your imagination go, it’s nice to make experiments! And — you need the lighter to set a bit of fire to the cut ends of ribbon; don’t tell me you don’t know this trick, it’s OBVIOUS.

Don’t try to make the card too full of information, too neat or full-painted. Scratchy lines, primitively drawn characters and a nice story full of suspense, nonsense and heart-warming birthday terror can do perfectly; for example, I wrote about getting a Monster’s head, as a gift for the Geburstagskind (sorry, I dunno how “the Birthdayman” can be called in English))… so I bet you can imagine your own story; I can guarantee that anyway your birthday card will be the most bloody impressive one among the others’.

In conclusion of this clumsy guide I must confess that I really cannot imagine how this “tutorial” can possibly help anybody with making birthday cards. No, really. My mind’s not THAT twisted. So, of all the alternative endings I have for this entry, I beg you: if you make such card, pleeeeeeez, PLEEEZ, send me a photo, I need to see the result!!!

FIN.

P.S.:
Wait! I didn’t add the P.S., how dare I!?

This was actually painted for Eisbrecher band, as a sketch for their new album artwork. I can see that the painting itself appeared to be “too gentle” for the Eiszeit CD, so I’m not offended at all by the fact the band didn’t choose this one, as the cover art. Well, that was worth a try, anyway.

Ice Queen close views, click to enlarge.

In its full size (which is huge) and with all its features (which means, it was supposed to be decorated with snowflake patterns and cracks) the finished painting reminded me* of the Snow Queen… except for I’m still giggling about scratches on her back. It looks like she just felt itchy.))

It took me few minutes to imagine the pose and more than an hour to actually paint the silhouette. Unfortunately, I didn’t save the sketches; but I can say that this was the last work I painted in Corel Painter IX with my Genuis pen tablet (which is hidden safely under my bed these days)). So now I can tell the difference between Genius and Bamboo; both are nice, but Genius feels more like a pencil (e.g. the average normal pressure of a digital pen is similar to a traditional tool — it kinda “likes it rough”), while Bamboo is more like a brush (e.g. you need more gentle touches, when you’re performing some “Blender” blurring effects).

In conclusion I want to add, that most of the light effects were added in Photoshop. C’est la vie: you can draw digital things well, but you cannot possibly finish anything using ONE software.))

________________________
*well, not only me, I guess

P.S.:
Sounds like off-topic, but now I know that Piña Colada looks like butterflies, thanks to geeks with microscopes. I guess that’s a nice reason to like this drink even more.

P.P.S.:
No, seriously. How could I possibly write an entry without P.S.?!!))

I’ll better get straight to painting stuff.

I must admit that this one is certainly one of the strangest things I’ve painted. Ever. I tried to paint Juffin Hully from Max Frei’s “Stranger” and other books of the sequence. So, for those who’s not familiar with the subject – let me quote Wikipedia first:

The books making up “The Labyrinths of Echo” describe how Max, born in our world and having lived his first 30 years here, ends up in the city of Echo in another world, having been called there by the chief of the Secret Police, Sir Juffin Hully.

Now let me tell you “my” part of the story.

Sir Juffin, step by step: click to enlarge.

The mentioned sir Juffin Hully (born in the town of Kettary [Germans spell "Kettari" and "Halli", Russians spell "Кеттари" and "Халли", dunno why I had to make this note anyway], Shimara county, about 400 years old) is a weird magician, who is about 1/4 or so a kind of – how do I put this correctly? – some peculiar were-fox. Before his becoming the chief of the Secret Police, he used to be quite a notorious criminal, who used to be called “The Kettarian Hunter” or “Chiffa” (by the name of the fox species of Shimara county, which is [fox species, not the county] famous for its being enormously curious). His real young face is remembered by most part of Echo citizens, so he has to look older and funnier in order not to scare common people. He’s quite a… character. The most interesting thing about him, as Max Frei says himself, is that you cannot actually say if he’s good or evil; he’s “just DIFFERENT”. The author also describes his younger face, as strikingly beautiful, but extremely cold in his cunning eyes’ expression. Sir Hully seems to be funny (especially in the first books of the sequence), but he just hides his might underneath his nice joker’s masks. That’s why I decided to paint his “real” face, ever-smiling, but a bit predatory.

Juffin Hully, younger version, full-painted.

The trick about painting this one wasn’t only… huh… technical one.
Max Frei’s books often disturb people by the slight scent of nice madness and certain feeling of TOTAL escapism in them. People of the city of Echo, which is described in the sequence, wear weird stuff, count by dozens, don’t have weeks, etc. Add to this some specific Russian proverbs (like, “I’ll step on the throat of any song”), some non-existent, but very convincing phrasal forms (like, “Sinning Magicians!”), some odd (from the Earthian’s POV, of course) traditions, and you’ll get the result – which is awfully picturesque, but magnificently difficult to portray.

The very image of sir Juffin’s younger self appeared, as a rough pencil sketch. Then I had to scan it, spend a challenging hour in Corel Painter IX, working on Juffin’s face, have 24 hours of rest (meaning: to spend them on actual NORMAL job I do to fulfil my daily need in money)) and finish this in 2,5 hours with same software and a little help of Photoshop CS2. Take a note, that I painted the character in shades of grey first, and added colours and patterns only afterwards (Photoshop allows some nice effects, like “Overlay mode” of brushes or layers – that thing works really good).

P.S.:
The books of Max Frei are now being translated into English, German and Spanish, so I guess if you have too much of chiffa’s blood in your veins are too curious about this, you can easily find out the rest of the story.)

P.P.S.:
Mind, that men of Echo can allow themselves to use makeup, so - yes, I worked on his eyes to show that effect, too.))