A new direction

I've desperately been trying to combine my love for portraits, life drawing, fashion illustration and strong women. And I think I'm getting there. I've a long way to go but I hope that this is a start of a new direction for me. I hope you will join me on this journey.

Sunday sketches

The original scanned-in drawing - looks much lighter than original

Colours adjusted slightly to reflect original

Colours adjusted somewhat more

Sepia toned

Colours adjusted to fiery orange tones

I am super busy during the week now building up my PR and marketing business, so only have a small amount of time each week to be creative. Yesterday it rained heavily, which was the perfect excuse to do some sketching and then play around on paint.net. Which version of this illustration do you like best?

Delicate

I love the delicateness of this face. There's a real sadness to it too. I sometimes feel bad for the models we draw. As no one engages with them. They come, they pose, then leave. I sometimes wonder what they do, where they come from, or even what their names are....

To bob or not to bob

I just love bobs! I did this sketch on Wednesday night and then digitally coloured it to make it look more Asian. China's favourite colour is red. The model's hair was unbelievably shiny and straight and fell perfectly over her eyes. Unfortunately my hair is fine and frizzy and would never fall this beautifully thus I will always desire the perfect bob but never attain it.

To my beautiful courageous friend - Cat

My beautiful friend Cat who is a top-notch producer in Amsterdam has just decided to change her life. Cat has bravely resigned from her job to become a freelancer, but before she gets her first big contract she's off to study Spanish in Buenos Aires.

Good luck Cat!

From darkness comes light

Here is another sketch that I found in Scotland. It is so very dark, in nature. I find myself quite depressed by looking at it. God knows what was going on in my mind when I drew this. And I am glad my mind is no longer there. But at the same time I strangely like this image.

Isn't it funny how some images are depressing and others make you feel happy.

Look what I found

What a great find! My friend Fi found an old portfolio of mine at her house in Edinburgh, which I had fun poring over when I was back in the UK. Most of the work was pretty poor and I left it behind but I liked these images and brought them back with me to Hong Kong. I actually didn't recognise them as mine! I think I drew them from glossies about ten years ago. But the first one might be a self-portrait. They've made me want to do portraiture classes again.

Freckles

Oh how I wish I had freckles, just a smattering across my nose.

My love affair with watercolours

I have a love/hate relationship with watercolours. I find them difficult to use as they're a little unpredictable. I've been practicing with them by painting landscapes - another challenge to me. And have not enjoyed the process at all. But yesterday I used them in a face, and for the first time, I have to say, I really liked using them!

LOLA notebook giveaway!

To celebrate Queenie Bee achieving over 1000 page views in only six weeks, and to thank my lovely followers, I am giving away the most popular item in my Etsy shop - the LOLA notebook. Lola is a spiral bound A5 notebook and is valued at US$14.

All you need to do is make a comment on my blog between now and Saturday (you can be a new or existing follower). I will then put your names into a hat. Then on Sunday, I will pull out a winner! If you mention my blog on your blog or on a Twitter post then you will get two entries in the hat!!

The competition is open to anyone, wherever you live in the world.

Best of luck!!!

Lempicka in H&M

This is a sketch of a woman from a Tamara Lempicka painting. This pretty lady is wearing a lovely jumper that I bought from H&M that I find too scratchy and itchy to wear! I must say that it looks a lot better on her!

Groovy baby

I drew this 60s sketch in ink and pencil (top left) and then coloured it in using my computer (using Paint so that's why it's a bit rough). The image below was created by a free ap on my iphone - silly but fun!

Raquel maybe...

This is the drawing that I said I would do yesterday. Turned out not bad. Very vampish and 80s though - although I based the make up on an old photo of Raquel Welch from the 60s - hence the name Raquel... Still not sure about the name!

This picture is A4 in size as it's easier for me to scan in my creations rather than take photos. The photos are always a little dark. But I do prefer doing the pictures much, much bigger. I used a combination of graphite, soft pastel and my Xmas presents - Derwent pastel pencils.

I have started a twitter account under queeniebeeart. Please follow me on twitter if you can!

Fashionable lady

This is a quick sketch I did in ink. I scanned the sketch in, then made two copies - I filled in her eyes and lips with ink for one of the prints, the other in pencil. Both give very different looks!

I plan to spend this afternoon creating a new Queenie Bee portrait. Watch this space!