MBoulad's Portfolio

One Like You

MBoulad — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 09:39:44 GMT

One Like You

Fairy Tale 3 The Goose Girl

MBoulad — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 01:36:40 GMT

Fairy Tale 3 The Goose Girl

I always loved the Grimm story "The False Bride". In the story, while on her way to wed a neighboring prince, a princess is tricked into losing the magical protection her mother has given her. She ends up being forced to give her identity to a maid servant who takes her clothing and magical talking horse. The princess is made to serve at the castle as the goose girl (with Conrad, who is seen here clutching his hat). When the false bride beheads Falada, the princess's talking horse, the princess manages to get the head hung by the castle gate so she can talk it everyday as she passes.
It's a rather convoluted story, sorry, I can't do it justice here.
This was published in the first issue of Dante's Heart, an online journal that showcases work (written and art) related to fairytales, myth folk lore and fantasy http://www.dantesheart.com/
I loved painting the geese, honeysuckly, baskets and pears best. I was tempted to show drops of blood dripping down on the pears, but squeamishness won out.
Painter, wacom intuos, about 40 hours total.
Happy New Year

Illumination

MBoulad — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 21:52:42 GMT

Illumination

I'd been studying some Medieval illuminated text on a lark when I made this, just kind of soaking up the prettiness of it all. I wanted a fairy tale theme mirror based on the idea of 'what the story gives us'. the mirror frame, based on illuminated decorations on old texts, was great fun, like doodling in the corner of piece of paper.

What does the story give?

Something precious, lost but found. But there is always a catch...(frog)
Renewal (fairy)

A magic potion to heal (or harm), from a secret recipe. (dark lady lower right)

A pretty apple for you my dear (treachery, old hag with apple)

Hope to escape an unjust confinement (princess sends her precious necklace and a note tied to a doves leg from her tower window)

Danger! (what good is a story without it?!) (dragon)

Courage and perseverance in the face of extreme hardship (Bearskin)

A reward for just-bein'-your-good-old-self (little trollish fella with a bag of loot)

The Drought Has Broken

MBoulad — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 01:53:30 GMT

The Drought Has Broken

I painted this a couple of years ago, when we'd had a particularly verdant spring after a long season of drought. Amazing how lovely green grass and dandelions look after not seeing them for so long. The birds seemed unusually happy that year :)

I painted this about 6 months after I first took up digital painting, and it amazes me now to look at this old file. What I have posted here is 50% of the entire original size, it's a teensy little thing. My computer at the time wasn't up to anything much bigger, and, inexperienced fool that I was, I ended up with so many layers that the program kept hanging/crashing. I was laughing so hard just now as I got this file ready to post, I can't believe there were over 129 layers to this. ROFL hehehe....

At one point I lost almost all my work because I shut down the computer too fast during a thunder storm (I was panicked and pulled the plug, and got what I deserved!) I ended up with just a few layers, the rest went bye bye. I was so upset, but I repainted the darn thing. And learnt a good lesson.

Gibraltar Falls

MBoulad — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 01:33:45 GMT

Gibraltar Falls

Gibraltar Falls is located about 30 minutes away from my house here in Canberra. I love going there with the family, it's a beautiful place.

I used a personal ref for this, that and the wip series for this painting can be found in the scraps of my DA account for anyone geeky enough to be interested ;) I love work in progress series, so I'm the sort of geek who would be lol.

Painter, wacom intuos, a lot of hours. Not sure exactly, maybe 100?

Seraph

MBoulad — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 00:57:31 GMT

Seraph

Painter, wacom intuos.

Old Man Willow

MBoulad — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 22:08:13 GMT

Old Man Willow

This started as an idle sketch and turned into something else.

Old Man Willow waits by the side of the river, gaurding Goldberrys waterlilies, awaiting the arrival of Tom Bombadil.

The question I kept asking myself while I painted is "Will he ever come?"

I read the LOTR books every year in the autumn, it's like a ritual. I always hate when the story draws to a close, and that is reflected in this painting. All our favourite beloved characters have left Middle earth, they've travelled to the havens. We are left behind to mourn the passing of an age. I wonder if Old Man Willow survived the transition, I wonder if Tom ever showed up again. Even the sun has lost it's power here.

The story is complete as it is, but greedy me wishes for more.

Welcome to the Garden

MBoulad — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 21:49:59 GMT

Welcome to the Garden

I worked on this in little bursts for a couple or three weeks, about an hour a day, so perhaps 20 hours total? This was practice and experimenting with brushes, using bristley artist oils, real bristle brush and some oil brushes I haven't really gotten the handle of yet, trying to achieve a cohesive finished product. I'm rather pleased with the finished work, and it was an interesting experience.

I have to admit I should have spent more time considering the composition. And the file size/ratio etc...ah, well...

There is a ref photo for the tiger in the scraps of my DA account, where you can see I've skewed the proportions of the snout unfortunately...no ref for the background, just playing around with atmosphere for fun.

Welcome to the garden, it's nap time. Claim a bit of ground and sleep out the heat of the day, there's going to be a feast in the cool of the evening.

Of Fairies and Dragons

MBoulad — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 13:57:40 GMT

Of Fairies and Dragons

Fairybelle orchids and Eastern Gippsland waterdragons. Painter and wacom, and unfortunately I don't remember how long this took. Probably in the area of 100 hours.

This painting is inspired by the rainforest area of the National Botanical Gardens in Canberra Australia. Our family often visits the gardens, and I've always loved the colourful (and surprisingly large!) waterdragons that wander free throughout the park. It's quite an experience to see these beautiful animals right next to you, and they seem quite uninterested in the humans wandering around their domain!

The rainforest walk is really spectacular, it follows a steep gully to a little trickling brook at the bottom, and all around are strangler figs and tropical trees festooned with deershorn ferny type plants and orchids.

I didn't use ref for the landscape in the painting, I was more interested in getting the feel of the place rather than painting it directly. I did use personal reference to help with the water dragons, orchids, and butterflies!

This is a really huge file...painted more for my own enjoyment than anything else. It was a great experience working on this!

Answer: They Grow Underground

MBoulad — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 23:08:32 GMT

Answer: They Grow Underground

Question: Where do baby fairies come from?

Crunched for time, I thought this would be a quickie So I put other (more time consuming) ideas for projects on hold and had a go at this months theme for *childrensillustrator : underground.

I didn't have a clue what I was going to paint, like I told a friend the only thing I could think of was 'dirt'. So I started painting the sky and the dirt, and hit inspiration when I started painting in a tulip bulb

I thought this would be fast, but fell in love with the theme...so it ended up taking more like 30 hours than the 10- 15 I'd planned on. I love it when a painting is so engaging it's hard to finish...it's the process I love

Fairy Tale I Thumbelina

MBoulad — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 22:58:39 GMT

Fairy Tale I Thumbelina

I've always loved fairy tales. Not the sanitized versions produced for most kids these days, but the old versions of Bros Grim and other older style tellings of folk stories.

Thumbelina is one of my favourites from HC Anderson, though honestly I prefer the Ugly Duckling. Someday I'll have a go at that one too :)

This painting started as an experiment with art nouveau, just diddling around with a design for a frame. The rest painted itself, I had no intention to paint this particular scene...but somehow it started appearing, and the overly designed frame I began with receded until it was completely gone.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed creating it.

Red Riding Hood

MBoulad — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 22:51:45 GMT

Red Riding Hood

A fairy tale illustration using Painter and Wacom tablet. Can't remember how long this one took, probably around 35 hours?

Circus at the Castle Moat

MBoulad — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 22:47:49 GMT

Circus at the Castle Moat

For *the Childrens Illustrator club September theme: circus.

The most interesting place to be at the castle at the moment is in the middle of the moat

C'mon in, the price of admission is only two flies

Dream Under the Northern Lights

MBoulad — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 22:42:34 GMT

Dream Under the Northern Lights

For the Childrens Illustrator club http://childrensillustrator.deviantart.com/ November theme: Polar Bears.

Under the flickering northern lights, the polar bear sleeps soundly.

And as he sleeps, he dreams...

Of rising into the air like a snowflake on an updraft off the early spring tundra; of swimming through the aqua lit sky as though he were underwater, chasing the laughing fur seals that leave trails of shining stars in the heavens.

As he dreams his feet twitch with every dream stroke of his legs through the sky of water--through the shimmering Northern Lights.

It is a good dream, and he is happy.

I don't think polar bears are cute or cuddly, I think they're splendid beasts...hunters. I think their dreams might be something like this

I hope so!

Artemis

MBoulad — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 04:15:42 GMT

Artemis

Artemis with some of her hunting hounds and the Golden Hind. The peregrine has just launched himself from her shoulder, I think they're sighted something of interest.

I started this image almost a year ago, and have picked it up when I'm between other works. I loved working on it, I like having an image like this sitting around just waiting for me to daydream over when I have some spare time. It's somewhere to play and experiment, taking as much time as I like, just enjoying the process.

Link to reference photo (nudity) http://skydancer-stock.deviantart.com/art/Skydancer-Stock-0735-39881819 , and many thanks to Sky Dancer Stock for providing it.

Painter, wacom, 10 bazillion hours (heh). Honestly I think I repainted the entire piece about 5 times at various points :) I don't know that that made it any better, but it did make it a whole lot FUN-er.

Happy Halloween

MBoulad — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 01:01:25 GMT

Happy Halloween

A group of children wandering the neighborhood on Halloween night, shrieking in delight as they check to see what goodies have been handed into their pumpkin buckets at the last house.

A typical Halloween scene, right?

Right. At least until you look under their masks.

From left we have a young faun, a young Big Foot boy, a boy vampire and the daughter of Frankenstein and his lovely bride. Oh, that's her cat down bottom left. And front right is my favourite, a tiny hobgobblin. His mom won't like him gobbling his candy before he gets home, I bet, and I wonder how many wrappers he'll injest before she finds out ;)

They've decided to give this human holiday a try, and have disguised themselves with masks of human children and what they hope will pass as human costumes.. I wonder if anyone has noticed yet that these children aren't your typical trick-or-treaters.

Painter, wacom, 20 hours give or take a bit.