Queen of birds Work in Progress

Working on this:

Queen of birds! take 1

www.helenaecija.com | Ecija on DeviantArt

Queen Designs

I have been working on designs for a Deck of Cards. I am not yet decided on the suits. So far I have tried to sketch the Queen of Woods, the Queen of Birds, the Queen of the Sky/Sun and the Queen of Mammals. I like to start with the queens because drawing women is my favorite and helps me get in to the zone. I  am deciding if I want to incorporate Type as a really prominent part of the card's design or not.  I want to do so as a challenge, because I love type but I am not to good at it. I think I should, illustrations will get to a whole new level.

Maybe I will put them as part of the frame? We will see, First I need to decide the suits. I would like the suits to make sense with each other as a ecosystem of sorts. Or like layers of the woods (sun, sky, woods, roots, underground water...). I really like the idea of the queen of birds so I don't want to give that one up, but I think that is precisely the one that I could live without concept wise.

What do you guys think? Birds, Sky, Woods and Mammals? Seems incomplete, where is the water?

www.helenaecija.com | Ecija on DeviantArt

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everyone!

We had so much fun decorating eggs! Check out some of the eggs I did! My boyfriend helped me with the Stormtroopers and the death star! I think they came out really good. You can tell I got pretty intense by the last ones. Ha ha

Nonami Toy

I made a little toy! 

This is my little girl without name (but for short "Nonami") She is a character that lives inside Pi's head and explains her whimsically how the world works. Pi has Aspergers Sindrome. Both are characters of mine for a project about autism. It is a long term project but I like to treat myself into doing some fun stuff while some other projects take the priority. I hope I can find some time to get back to it soon

The sculpture/toy measures about 4 inches (10 cm) and it's made out of Sculpey. Spray painted white and then painted with acrylic paint. It was really hard to keep the symmetry, I tried to do my best.

Here is an old drawing of the Girl without name:

I am proudly exhibiting my master piece on my living room. I love it! 

Now, Toki Doki, do you want to do business with me? ha

www.helenaecija.com | Ecija on DeviantArt

Japanese crafts

My sister in law brought me some fun little novelties from Japan. I used to them today as a good end point to the weekend. It was really fun (and relaxing) to decorate the girl in the kimono and make some sushis. I paint and design dress up dolls for work so this was a really thought full gift.

This are the packages:

 My Creation:

I put some on my computer and the sushis look so good on there!

Thanks Yoko!

www.helenaecija.com | Ecija on DeviantArt

Shizue in the woods

Things that I like. Day #1

Here is a drawing of my girl Shizue, she is a BJD doll and character of mine. Shizue (Zoe for short) is a Halloween elf that helps to spread the spirit of Halloween all across the world. I have made some other drawings of her but I think this one really captures her gaze.

I am starting a new challenge today, 30 days of drawings of things I like or things I have made illustrations of before (that I like). So, I expect to do some illustrations of my characters and re-illustrate some of my pin-up-type illustrations, but who knows, I am not really planning anything. This will be another 30 days, because that seems to work pretty good. It is just for fun! Fun drawings to help me strengthen my style and my drawing speed. I hope to move into a more concept-oriented challenges after finishing with this one if I get the results I am looking forward to achive.

This is the process I used this time:

Pencil skech

Work on values on black and white in a multiply layer

Work on color with Overlay layers and multiply layers

Add detail on layers on normal mode.

I hope you liked it! Tomorrow more!

www.helenaecija.com | Ecija on DeviantArt

Making wood block textures

I want to make some new illustrations in Photoshop with wood block feeling and I decided to make my very own textures with what I had at hand. I didn't have wood block paint so I used Blick's student acrylic. I also didn't have etching paper so I tried a couple types of papers from my sketchbooks. A mat to avoid making a mess and big brush and I had everything I needed for some experimentation!

It was a little tricky to make them look just like the wood block etching but it was lots of fun. Here is how you can do it.

1. get a piece of wood

2. Apply the paint with a roller. I didn't have one so I used a big brush.

3. Place your paper on top and apply pressure with your hands or another utensil. I some times helped myself with other piece of wood, a coworker told me you could use a wood spoon. Ultimately the amount of pressure depends on the type, thickness and quantity of the paint you used. This one of those trial and error thing:

4. Peel it up and enjoy!!

I got several good ones!

Like this one

I am looking forward to use them!

www.helenaecija.com | Ecija on DeviantArt