Tales from Wonderlandia: gallery

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Sunday, March 28, 2010

Whats wrong with Kendra?

On my travels through Wonderlandia I find it so brimming with fantastical creatures, places and stories that i often forget about all the amazing "ordinary" people I meet there. Infact, should you ever read through my travel journals - you could be forgiven for thinking that there were no ordinary people residing in Wonderlandia at all!

However, on my last visit one such ordinary Wonderlandian surprised me by becoming one of the most fascinating creatures I have ever met...

This was, of course, the uber-sweet Kendra, the 12 year old daughter of a friend of mine with whom I often visit when my travels take me through the picturesque villiage of Lapis, on Wonderlandia's Velvet coast.

On my last visit, I arrived to find my friend rather worried, for Kendra seemed to have changed suddenly and in place of the happy little daughter she once had, was now what could only be described as an empty shell of a girl. Almost as if Kendra's spirit now resided somewhere else entirely.

She would often wander now, and would be found in the strangest of places, sometimes at the end of the little wharf down the street silently staring out to sea, or sitting out in the rain, completely saturated, watching the puddles gather water.

This behaviour had been going on for months, gradually getting worse as Kendra became more and more withdrawn. After carting her from doctor to specialist to councillor and back again, still there was no difinitive diagnosis and no solution at all. Only a constant question asked by everyone she came across "What's wrong with Kendra?". When I think back to this worrying time it's so hard to believe something truly incredible was about to happen...

I hope you enjoy my portrait of Kendra above, I will have a second portait of Kendra coming shortly, in the meantime I won't say anymore though, because I don't want to give her secret away - think you can guess what is wrong with Kendra?

Manda xxx

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Secrets revealed...

On meeting Gwen I have to admit I was taken aback - I mean she's strange even by Wonderlandian standards, my mind was flooded with questions; is she a girl? a bird? where did she come from? Are there others? Why haven't I seen any of her kind on any of my travels through Wonderlandia before?

But if I was intruiged by the mere sight of Gwen, that's nothing compared to how I felt when I heard her story...

When she was just a young girl of nine Gwendolen was playing hide and seek in Brandysnap forest when she realised she had been separated from her friends and become lost. Gwen scrambled through the darkening forest, stumbling over tree roots and fallen branches - callling out to her friends, unknowingly running deeper into the forest instead of out of it.

Not looking where she was going Gwen slipped down a muddy bank and fell into a small puddle of water. However, this puddle was far deeper than it looked and Gwen found herself submerged right up to her neck. The water was bitterly cold and Gwen launched herself out immediately - however there was no relief to be had, for once out of the water she was suddenly overcome by the strangest senstation she'd ever felt...

Injecting life into Veronica...

So happy - I got my new Wacom drawing tablet on Monday afternoon and it's amazing! The feel of the pen and the drawing surface is sooo much more pleasurable and realistic than my previous model (graphire4). The increased accuracy and additional sensitivity are definitely noticeable and I am really looking forward to working more with this tool!

In my excitement I decided to play around with my drawing of Veronica and I found that I could actually make her look much closer to the Veronica in my memory by using my tablet and alot of dodging, burning, cloning etc... in photoshop.

I am so pleased with Veronica that I've decided to add digital work as a permanent part of my creative process from now on! There is only one negative - all my artwork will now take twice as long, but I really think it's worth it - I have put both versions of Veronica below so you can see the difference - let me know what you think :)

Pencil and Photoshop

Pencil only

Also, in a previous post I mentioned that I would be adding Veronica to my Etsy store on the 1st of March to celebrate the arrival of Autumn - but I actually ended up deciding to hold off until I had the new version instead, so I'll be adding her tomorrow - sorry about that - hope she's worth the wait!

Manda :)

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Look who the wind blew in...

Does anyone still remember this post?

http://tales-from-wonderlandia.blogspot.com/2009/08/still-waiting.html

Yes I know it's a little overdue but I am pleased to finally present Veronica – in all her Polychromo splendour!

Now she certainly did take a long time to come to life but I think she was well worth the wait. I am so pleased to have captured almost every detail as it is in my memory – except of course it was very hard to show all the dust and debris that had been whipped up into the air, making me wonder if I shouldn’t be wearing some sort of mask to avoid ingesting foreign objects...

Veronica will be available at Wonderlandia’s Etsy store from 1^st March to celebrate the arrival of Autumn, or at least commiserate the departure of Summer... (for me it’s the latter).

Let me know what you think!

Manda :)

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

All pencils are not created equal...

My beautiful new Polychromo pencils arrived at 10:20am last Friday (which was even earlier than I predicted), I met the postman at the edge of my driveway and in my excitement almost took off without signing for them! They were so good looking, all perfectly sharp & the same length... I almost didn't want to use them!

The first to be coloured by my glorious new friends was Benji in his little fishing boat - I did him first so I could compare the results against my old pencils and I am so pleased to say, I am delighted! The new pencils are so much easier to blend and have a smoother and more consistent flow (even on the much more heavily textured paper I chose this time). Also the oil based leads leave no waxy residue on the surface of the paper so the artwork ends up with a much more rich and vibrant finish because it isn't clouded or too shiny.

I learnt alot through completing Benji about working with these pencils and I am really looking forward to completing Elvira now there are a few things I am going to do differently.

In the mean time I am going to add the new Benji to my Etsy store as a limited edition print - there will only be 15 available and it should be up tomorrow.

I hope you love him as much as I do - I'd love to hear what you think!