Fan- The Spring Faun

Hello! Another one of my rare coloured pieces I did the previous winter and longing for spring. Now that winter is nearing again, it is fun to look back on this piece and have memories of the winter past. I wanted a touch a whimsy for this, so I put in some strange fantasy style fish flying about in the background.  They were supposed to be Koi fish, but as you can see that didn't work out so well.  I gave him a wand to represent his magical ability to wake life up from it's long slumber and the rabbit represents new life born in the spring.  Since there are so many magnolias that bloom here in BC  in the spring, I have always associated spring with magnolias.

He was quite a chore to colour, then again I find colour tough to use as I am always afraid that it will ruin the drawing. I used my favourite Faber-Castell watercolour pencils which I always use dry, because they create a beautiful soft colour.  I use a colourless blender to smooth out the finished look and added some white ink splashes for some fun sparkles.

What is your favourite season? Do you create anything to celebrate a certain season?

Hope you guys like him! If you'd like to see me working on him(it's in three parts) you can find that on my channel here: Inktangles -Fan the Faun Speed Paint-Part 3
He is also available on my RedBubble Shop! 

Thank you guys so much for reading!  Have a beautiful week. Cheers!

The Nine Tailed Fox

Hello again everyone!  I thought I would share some more recent art I have been working on lately. This is from a collab I did with another amazing artist over on YouTube. The theme we picked was Mythological creatures.  Which was a really fun theme to illustrate.  As I was doing some research, I was originally going to draw something on the Kitsune, I came across the Chinese folk lore of the Nine Tailed Fox spirit.  It was such a beautifully tragic love story that I could just not resist drawing this gorgeous fox spirit. I highly recommend that you Google the story. =D

I looked up serveral different Asian fox masks for this, and settled on something that looked like a good mix between Japanese and Chinese.  I wanted to include something that was a send off to my original Kitsune idea.

I decided to go with colour for this one.  So I broke out my favourite Faber-Castell coloured pencils, which are actually their watercolour brand that I always use dry as they work really well dry rather than as watercolours.  I blend them with a colourless blender to smooth things out.  I wanted a really muted palette for this to sort of replicate an old style print.

I hope you all liked this and have a beautiful, creative weekend! Cheers! 

Hello! Returning to blogging! Woo!

Helllooo out there!  I am so sorry it has been so very long since I last blogged here. Finally had the chance to replace my dead old laptop. Yayy!  So now I can finally return here. I am very, very excited about that. I will do my best on keeping this up. =D

I have been very active on a lot of other social sites.  Till I post some new work here you can see what I have been up to on: Instagram: @themuchacafe
                                           Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/onceuponatimeillustrations
                                           Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/inktangles
                                           YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/c/inktangles
                                           Deviantart: http://inktangles.deviantart.com
                                           RedBubble Shop: http://www.redbubble.com/people/inktangles

I look forward to seeing you there!

One of the things I would like to do with this blog now is to share with you the one shot manga I have been working one lately.  I have worked on stories in the past, but now that I've been on YouTube for a year and a half now, it's taught me how to be really organized.  And I mean really organized and finally able to meet my deadlines.  It's been one of the greatest experiences I have ever had and I love being on YouTube so much!  So, I feel this story will finally bloom and come to life and not fall to the back burner like most of my other stories.  I cannot not wait to share it with you here.  I have two character designs I have finished, which I will be posting here very soon once I finish up the backstories.

I hope you will join me on this new journey, your feedback will be so great to hear. ^_^

Have an absolutely wonderful week!

An Elfin Knight and New Year Plans

Hello everyone!

How was your Christmas? I hope it was full of warmth, family and good food! And maybe some artful joys if you had the time amongst all the craziness. I had a very nice and quiet one. Felt like everyone in my building slipped away for the week. I ended up spending the whole day rearranging my apartment and setting up a special work corner in what was my small dinning area....of which I'll mention a little later.

For now I'd like to introduce you to my Elfin Knight:

 



His name is Nyx and he is another major character in my YA novel series. He is a high ranking Knight, (hence the wings), but he only possesses one black wing. He lost his right one a long time ago due to a tragedy which he never likes to talk or think about.  The symbol on his garment represents which class of knight he is and of which order.  I love him so much, partly because he is so tragic.
This was done with pencils and white ink on Deleter art paper and took me quite a bit of time to finish, as I had taken on way too many projects at the time.  It felt so great to finally get him finished!

In future posts, I will be previewing my picture book that I have been working on as well, which ties into my novel. Woo!

I am looking forward to seeing the end of this year!  I have so many plans  for 2016 that I am excited to start. I am going to start moving forward with an art business plan. There is nothing more that I would love to do in this world than that. For the past few months I have been working towards opening a YouTube channel. I've done a ton of research on how to make videos and equipment needed to begin. I'm still starting off with the basic things to record and edit....but...oh man...I can't go on about the giddiness I feel for this!  I figured since I'm watching YouTube almost all the time, and the artists I've seen on there have been so inspiring, I thought, why not give it a try too?

It will be so nice to invite you all in with sharing how I create and hope to also do tutorials and supply reviews.

For 2016, I also want to make it the year I start submitting and pitching to publishers again. Something else I haven't done in a long time. I'd like to see where that leads. I've even thought of self publishing at some point, still researching that.
I'm ready for the awesome journey that will be 2016 and all the hope and new paths it will bring!

What are your plans for next year? Where do you hope to be by next years end?

Have a beautiful holiday and I wish you so many joys and happiness in the New Year!
I'll see you in the next post, Cheers my lovelies!

Book Review : Twas The Night Before Christmas

Good evening my lovelies!

Always wanted to do book reviews for picture books to YA; but for some reason never knew where to start, so, today I thought I would dive in head first. 

I don't celebrate Christmas, not in a long time anyway, though seeing all the coloured lights and gorgeous sweets at this time of year, I always get taken back in my memories of my childhood.  And there is nothing that says Christmas more than the delightful poem by Clement C. Moore's  "Twas The Night Before Christmas".  What makes this version particularly delightful is the beautiful and detailed illustrations of Gyo Fujikawa. Making it a truly magical experience!

Excited children, dancing sugar plumbs, eight flying reindeer and a tiny jolly elf, St. Nick himself dazzle the eyes with all the tiny details only Gyo can do.  Her illustrations make you want to just sit back and stare at all the pictures, straining to see all the tiny things she's hidden in there.

I loved books like this when I was a child.  Instead of reading the story, I would sit for hours pouring over every nook and cranny of the drawing. Running my fingers over the pages in awe of how the artist even created it. It was only then, after being fully done with ogling, would I read the actual story for the next delight.

If you have not yet heard of Gyo Fujikawa, I highly, highly recommend that you do! I'll leave you with a link to her wikipedia page to take a peek if you like.  She was a prolific creator of over 50 picture books, and wonderfully, her books are still in reprint.  I love her drawings of children. They are so cute with their happy faces, plump little bellies and sweet dot eyes.

So, with Christmas coming ever closer, what is your favourite Christmas story to read? Or your favourite Christmas illustrations?

Happy Chanukkah! And I'll see you in the next post! Cheers!

Hello new Blog!

Hi everyone! Welcome to my new blog home. I used to run the Mucha Cafe blog for a long time, but I felt like I needed a fresh start at thing and have a whole new look. I started posting less and less at my old blog because it just no longer felt like me or my style anymore. when I first started taking drawing seriously, Alphonse Mucha was a huge influence on me and pushed me forward with finding a style that worked for me, so, I made a blog title to honour that love of all things Mucha.
But, now that I've changed, my art and goals have changed; I wanted something to reflect this.
I tend to draw elves and faeries so much more now. In fact, they have completely won me over!

I still love Alphonse Mucha dearly and always will; but I now have my own style voice to go by. He will always live in my heart though, pushing me on still to create beautiful works of art.

It is my goal now to write and illustrate my own books and picture books.  I currently have a picture book challenge going on for myself. I will be sharing that with you fine people in the days to come and I truly look forward to your feedback on my book and art. I will cherish those insights and hope to make more improvements.

With that said, I hope you will join me on my story ramblings and illustrations and possibly inspire magic and creativity with you all.

To start this post off right, I'll add the first illustration! (I am having trouble with getting the Pages tabs to load up..going to keep trying, so it will make drawings easier to find)...

This little lady is titled, " Frost Faerie" - She was part of the December auction over on Twisted Ruby Red Slippers Artist Collective on Facebook.

She was created using pencils, coloured pencils and white ink. I added some little pops of blue for a wintry feel.  I was nervous doing this as I didn't want to ruin to drawing! I went really lightly at first before seeing that it was alright and going in a bit stronger.

Been working on creating a more realistic style. Still have a long way to go, but as a friend said to me, I've already come a long way already. She is available as a print.

Wishing you a lovely day and I'll see you in the next post! Cheers!