ink

Inktober 2018

Creative Challenges, illustrations

Update: Check out my 2015-2019 Inktober collection.

That’s right, Inktober is back baby! …okay we are at about the halfway point, but I am still excited about it!

4 years straight of participating and looking forward to it every minuite of it! Inktober is an amazing creative crunch time without the pressure of feeling like all your pieces have to be perfect – being a perfectionsit, leanring to embrace the “finished not perdfect” philosophy (also advised from Jake Parker, the creator of this amazing challange) – is very liberating, giving yourself the freedom to create without the stress and with no alternative motive in mind.

If you find yourself to be a perfectionsit, I strongly suggest challanging yourself in two ways:

1. create some amazing work for fun

2. welcome the freedom it has to offer, you will be happy you did!

Start letting go of perfection and gradually embrace the progression, not only of your mad inking skills, but of building healthier work habbits that allow you to put less pressure on your self – releasing the string of tension that perfection holds around your brain – all in just 31 days!

Follow me on instagram to stay up to date on my inktober progress: @noelle_fontaine

Here are the Inktober prompts for 2018:

Screen Shot 2018-10-17 at 12.04.13 AM

Visit inktober.com for more details about this great challenge.

It is never too late to start challenging yourself, jump in half way through, see if you can catch up and do your best to participate for the rest of the month!

Thanks for reading 🙂

Thank You Artwalk 2018

Events

Another @yegartwalk in the books, 2nd year in a row 😊 thank you to everyone that came out to support me and the other artists this year! #yegartwalk #yegartwalk2018 #artwalk #artist #supportlocal #thankyou #thanksforthesupport #thanksforcoming

Inktober Logo: Inktober.com

*POW* Inktober 2017 *SMACK*

Blog Post, Creative Challenges, illustrations

Soooo stoked to start Inktober for my 3rd year in a row!!

Last year I decided to do a horror theme, this made planning and illustrating much easier! This year’s theme is going to be *insert drum roll here* Super Heros!!

My focus this inktober is to work on figure drawing with these dynamic characters. This is also the first time I am using the inktober prompt list.

I am super (no pun intended) excited and will be posting them here and to all my social media pages, so be sure to follow me on instagram or twitter for live updates!

More about this awesome challenge can be found here: Inktober – Where it began

Click here to view my Inktober 2017 results.

Don’t forget to Check out my Inktober 2016 and Inktober 2015 and let me know what you think!

Thanks for reading 🙂

Pink Whale

Pink Whale Watercolour

Blog Post, illustrations, shop

Completed this whale illustration I started during #artwalk & it is also available in my Redbubble store

For this piece I used Royal & Langnickel watercolours, watercolour paper & watercolour pencils (see my watercolor post for details on the pencils & paper used here), Liquitex muted inks & Fabre-Castel artist pens.

Please let me know what you think of this piece & don’t forget to follow me on Instagram or Twitter for the most up to date info on new creations & promotions!

Thanks for reading 🙂

Bear Watercolour Illustration

Blog Post, illustrations, Redbubble Shop

This illustration came about while on a family camping trip, near crows nest pass. I was sitting at our picnic table with my watercolour pencils & paper (more on materials here), when I noticed one of my watercolour illustrations was tucked between some of the blank pages; my geometric buffalo illustration.

The combination of finding this lost illustration with being surrounded by beautiful trees & mountains inspired me to create a similar piece with a woodland creature – bears in particular – these beautiful, gentle, yet fierce animals who rule the mountain side.

Wanting to make the new illustration more powerful in colour & shapes, I planned the geometric designs/patterns out in pencil before outlining in ink (instead of inking on the fly like the buffalo), which made the inking process quicker & colour choices a bit easier; allowing me to play with different shades of colour opposed to the inking to give the piece more dimension.

Overall, this illustration is much more solid & put together compared to the buffalo. I am very pleased with the final outcome & have received a lot of positive feedback at artwalk & online.

This illustration is also available in my Redbubble shop as prints, appareal, gifts & more! Check it out here: Noelle Fontaine’s Redbubble Shop

Please let me know what you think of this piece & which you prefer – the Bear or the Buffalo.

And don’t forget to follow me on Instagram or Twitter for the most up to date info on new creations & promotions!

Thanks for reading 🙂

My First Artwalk YEG 2017 

Blog Post, Events

Participated in my first Artwalk this year, it was such an awesome experience. I was excited and terrified to see my work displayed next to other artists lol all of the feelings were felt!

There were also some things discovered about me and my work: a lot of my illustrations are more masculine, I still have quite a variety of different styles of work – some people thought there were 4 different artists in my tent lol and stepping out of my comfort zone to engage with people looking at my work – being some one with social anxiety, this was terrifying to say the least, but it is one of those things that help you grow as an individual to better yourself and your skills so you just gotta power on through – which was becoming a little less terrifying each time 🙂

I was on 83rd Ave all weekend (July 7, 8 & 9th, 2017) from 10am-5pm each day. The spot I had was fantastic: right across the park where there was live entertainment, between both the crafter’s market and Farmer’s market; however, the majority of people walking through this area were of an older and a more family orientated crowed – now don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with an older and more family orientated crowd, it is just that my sales were not so great. It was my first year, so there have been a couple of lessons learned, one of them being that my work appeals to a younger/more niche crowd. So next year I will see if I can be positioned along Whyte Ave as this is more of where my target market will be; I just hope the weather is as beautiful next year as it was this year!

Special thank you to my volunteers, supporters and @thepaintspot plus all the sponsors for creating this great event!

Follow my Instagram and Twitter for live updates @noelle_fontaine

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FAN ART: HR. GEIGER’S ALIEN

Blog Post, fan art, illustrations

Out of the blue I was stricken with inspiration to do some Alien fan art; I love HR. Geiger’s work, in fact I have some as wallpapers on my Mac book pro & pc at work lol

I though about doing this as an airbrush piece at first, but then decided to do an ink wash instead; once i decided this I was debating on doing highlights with the airbrush…but it’s been so long since I’ve done traditional ink (with India ink, water and paintbrush brush) in general so I decided to just stick with the 1 medium.

Ink washing is one of my favourite techniques, the last time I did any was back in October for inktober 2016 which were all relatively quick illustrations, so it was nice to actually be able to spend a bit more time on this than the inktober pieces (October is a bit of a busy whirlwind month for me lol).

I can see some things that I think I could do better but that comes with time and experience lol want to refine  and improve my skills and the only way to keep improving is practice, practice, practice 🙂

The substrate used for this illustration was Canson Bristol 96lb (260g), 11″x14″ (27.9cm x 35.5cm). I have been using this for most of my illustrations lately, it is double sided (1 is smooth and the other is textured – prefer the textured side myself but its nice to have the option) and is made from 30% recycled paper #awesome

In retrospect, to really achieve the look I was initially looking for I should of used Illustration board, but I am pretty happy with how this turned out…even though I am very out of practice lol That said this substrate surprisingly holds up really well to ink wash and water colour techniques (posts to come!) with little to no warping of the paper; mind you taping this down to a board does help to prevent this as there is a fair amount of water and ink used on this piece lol but even if there is a bit of warping you can place a heavy book on top and it smooths right out!

PENCIL SKETCH
PENCIL SKETCH CLOSE UP
INKED OUTLINE
MID-TONES AND BASE LAYER OF BACKGROUND
FINAL OUTCOME
CLOSE UP

I’m not going to lie, since it had been so long I procrastinated on finishing this piece for a little while lol I was afraid to mess up my pencil sketch and inked outline so the first layer of the ink wash was terrifying lol but sometimes you just gotta take the risk, swallow your fear and give it your all!

To see more of my work be sure to follow me on Instagram & twitter @noelle_fontaine where posting happens more regularly 😛

Thank you for reading and please do not hesitate to share your thoughts and critiques on this piece 🙂

INKTOBER 2016, accomplished

Blog Post, Creative Challenges, illustrations

Inktober has already come and gone, it seemed to happen so fast!!

This was my second year participating in inktober, you can check out last years blog post inktober 2015, many random ink pieces were created lol I found it a bit hard to squeeze in time to get these done but I am very happy I was able to complete the challenge and work on my inking skills!

October is usually a crazy month for me (making my niece & nephews halloween costumes, freelance work, full time work, participating in the night of fear festival media promos & event itself) so I decided to get a bit more organized & go with a theme: horror & macabre  movies & tv series.

Please let me know what you think!

Check out my 2015-2019 Inktober collection.

Buy Prints Here!

Don’t forget to follow me on my social for instant updates 🙂

1968 Ford Mustang Illustration

illustrations

This project was done as a Christmas present for my boyfriend’s dad, he is rebuilding a 1968 Ford Mustang – yellow with two black racing stripes & soft top. I made the license plate his dad’s initials with the number of the month he was born & the year (BN•0462).

Something that was very important for this project is having good reference photos – especially to be sure you are basing your piece on the right model. I had 1 car for the model, 1 car for the colour & two cars with a side view that both had soft tops.

A great tool I just picked up from the dollarstore was a water tray with a brush cleaner that holds brushes around the edges. I bought one for facepainting & then picked up a larger one for painting, the brush cleaner works awesome! Before I would use jars and containers but sometimes I forget to take my brushes out of the water and the finished on the brushes start to crumble & break off – this is particularity annoying when the finish starts to flake off onto the pice your painting.

Another great tool is a Staywet or Stawet Pallet, preventing paint waste by keeping paint moist (even acrylics) for days! It is especially helpful when this painting will take a few days to complete. This is how it works: there is a sponge saturated with water placed in a deep tray & some special paper that has soaked in hot water for about 15 minutes before being placed on the wet sponge. Once this is done you can place your paint directly on the special paper (which is also reusable) & when you are either taking a break or putting the paint away for the day you place the lid on top of the tray – be sure it is sealed tight – to keep the paint moist. Just do not leave it for too long where the sponge or paper could mold – this happened to me while in school, I forgot about it for about a month or two & did not clean it our or let the sponge dry out so it started to mold; I bleached the container & bought a replacement sponge & paper set, which are not expensive at all.

Here is the process & final outcome:

Blank Surface
Reference Photos
Plastic Paint Brush Holder/Cleaner
Sta-wet Pallet
Pencil Sketch
Penciled Background & Inked Car
Car base paint phase 2
All Taped with Final Details
Removing Background Tape
Final Outcome
Final Outcome
Final Outcome
Final Outcome
Car Process
Materials & Process

This was another experimental piece, I was not too sure how it was going to turn out as my paining skills & knowledge need some work; that being said, I am pleased with the final outcome & think his dad will really like it.

You can follow me on my social to see my projects & process in real time.

Thank you for reading 🙂

Welcoming November!!

Blog Post

October was probably my busiest Month this year!

Between teaching myself…rather giving my self crash courses on how to do Special FX make up & Face Painting, the first Global News Press release for Night of Fear Festival, where I painted my sister as a green zombie & did some special FX make to promote me at the event: Press Release Link

Making 17-20 zombies with another spray artist and an Author helping with latex  the following weekend: Night Of Fear Fest Zombies

Branding & building a new Facebook page, website, signage, price lists, signup sheets & business cards for my side project: Inspiring Designs Body Art to further my creative career in other ways while making a little bit of extra income.

Thanksgiving with my boyfriend’s family & celebrating his birthday.

A 4-5 hour pro-bono face painting session at Spirit Halloween to promote my business then go to an AMAZING Slipknot concert the next day – my boyfriend’s b-day present & some tasty treats I made that he likes to eat.

My Niece’s 9th birthday, baking then decorating her cake & my side of the family’s Thanksgiving the following weekend. (Link to come)

Being haunted by some old ghosts that just wont leave me alone.

Making my Niece & Nephew’s Halloween costumes. (Link to come)

The actual 2 day Night Of Fear Festival Event (LINK) Making my first official client into an undead creature: Link to the Undead Then taking my niece & nephew trick or treating – my dad usually takes them every year but last minute was not able to come out sooner; since they are 7 & 9 I brought them out to start and my dad came by later to join us 🙂 While doing this my sister Marie and her boyfriend were able to come over and tend to the trick or treaters for me – they were coming over to watch horror movies while I did the door anyway this year so it worked out perfect.

Finally, I decided to also take on another awesome creative challenge: Inktober! You can read more about this and see my illustrations by clicking here: INKTOBER to read my Inktober blog post.

…it was a very busy month to say the least lol so I am welcoming November with open arms to hopefully catch up on some sleep and experiment with other creative things 🙂

Thank you for reading 🙂