I found the photography of Dara Scully through photodonuts and she also has a completely amazing photostream on flickr.
This is what I do for Coffee Stain Studios. During my first week at work I got to create this background piece for Rock Paper Shotgun, a PC game site. It was really exciting and I'm super happy to be a part of this team right now, working hard to make Sanctum as good as possible. The kind of art I do at work and the kind I do at home is not the same at all. It's probably good, and I learn a lot. I mean, sci-fi in general is not my thing at all when I get to chose for myself, but Sanctum has a special place in my heart anyway, and all this techy stuff is really interesting to paint. This particular piece is a mix between the 3D used in-game and my own painting, a technique that I haven't worked a lot with before, but it gives interesting results I think.
I just bought myself a new, slouchy, knitted hat off Etsy to go with what I'll wear when the weather turns colder. They say this entire week will be sunny and warm here, but I know things will get colder very soon. My mom was here visiting me this weekend, and we enjoyed the sunshine and cinnamon coffee on my balcony, cuddling the dog and just talking. She also bought me new shoes for the winter, since my sad red converse are ready to fall apart. I love these boots and I can't wait to get to wear them!
I recieved the latest issue of Allas Magazine a few days ago, featuring my illustration for one of their short stories! It's always a lot of fun and a bit surreal still to see my images like this, and I felt like sharing! I think this is the fourth one I get published in this magazine, but I'm not a number person, so don't trust me on that.
I've been sadly inactive online this week, all because of work. But the good news is that it's friggin' fantastic work! I can honestly say that I love my job and right now I can get over the grudge of having to wake up super early because I feel happy about getting into my little office to paint all day. 
I woke up this morning and wished that I was back in a Scottish castle. Then I remembered all the guidebooks I was given and this postcard I bought at Fyvie Castle. 
I found these two sketches of faces in my sketchbook that I had never made digital. I decided to put them together into one piece of art to kind of show the two sides of my emotions right now. Hmm, that sounds kind of deep, but it's really every day life for me, these moodswings I get minute by minute. One moment I'm happy, excited about life and smiling about all the nice things I've gotten to do recently and looking forward to a bright future, the next my mind is filled with death, destruction and doom and I'm ready to just lay down and pass away. Then luckily, some minutes later I'm back to normal. 
I keep a little box of magazine cutouts that I have collected over time. It's really easy to get a big collection of pictures and papers quickly by just browsing through old magazines you don't want or even junk advertising that you get in your mail. Every piece of paper has some potential.
I then choose a bunch of stuff I like and try to think of a theme. This time I wanted to create some kind of geisha doll like thing with cherry blossoms. Nothing complicated, just a girl with cute crazy hair and such.
I cut and rip and paste until I have some sort of organized mess. I usually paste all the paper material into my journal before I start painting. I use a very cheap paper glue and then I colour everything with watercolour. The trick that I found early on in my process of art journaling is that it's the mess that creates the charm. I tend to be really messy and sloppy when I do this, because the point of doing this for me personally is to just let go and not think too much. If you fail, just start over, or try to mend it by sticking more random stuff onto your page. Even failed pages can look cute in the end.
My goal is to fill this entire notebook with messy, colourful pages. On some of them I write a little piece about my day, like in a diary. I put the date in and sometimes I quote poems or songs I like that fit the page I just made. Art journaling for me is pure creative freedom without any kind of preassure. The best thing is, you don't have to be able to draw well, or have any kinds of special skills or tools. Just some paper, glue, scissors and whatever you want to use to put some splashes of colour in there. If you haven't done this already, I really really urge you to just pick up an old notebook and start making a beautiful mess!
I hate it. Well, that's not entirely true, I've always had a need to be on my own now and then, especially with my art and when I feel creativity flowing. Sometimes having someone else too close can be distracting in those times. Right now though I just feel a sharp painful longing and a need for company, well, mainly hugs to be honest. Hugs are the best. My dog doesn't seem to be in a hugging mood at the moment.
I woke up this morning, got kicked out of bed and went to make some coffee. I've read a book while I'm here about creating and selling your art online and it's really inspired me to try to get some more energy to get things going for real with my artwork and handmade items and how I sell them. I've been kind of distracted, doing other things and focusing on just figuring out things about my life in general, so the small cute things I normally focus on have kind of gotten pushed aside.
I found Stella Im Hultberg through a blog post on Papaya and fell in love with the way she paints faces. She lives in Brooklyn NYC but she was born in South Korea. She uses different combinations of ink, watercolor and oils, working on paper or canvas. The two portraits at the top and bottom of this post are painted on tea stained paper, which is something I love to do myself, so I find a lot of inspiration from this artist. You should really take a look at the rest of her artwork at her website. This is just a fraction!
Finally I got my hands on the pictures I've taken over the last few days while going around visiting all the castles of Aberdeenshire and Inverness. Well, most of them, I can't imagine I've missed any because of the sheer amount of castles I've been going around. It's been really amazing seeing them all. Unfortunately a lot of them had a no photography policy, but I'll just have to try to remember all the artwork and detailed, carved out ceilings and adorable bedrooms I've seen.
I am currently working on improving my portfolio and learning new things. This is one of the pieces I've been spending a lot of time on lately, and it still isn't finished. It's a challenge and it's really fun at the same time, to try things I otherwise don't think about drawing. In the future you'll probably see a lot of art from me that's not what I normally do. I'm getting a lot of help and inspiration from Matthew who comes up with amazing stories for me to illustrate, or stories about what I have already drawn.
