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Dragon ATC

Mon, 02 Mar 2026 05:52:07 GMT

Have a cute dragon picture!

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We like fight scenes, don't we?

Wed, 23 Apr 2025 00:33:49 GMT

Mirror Curse (1803 words) by EllerWrites
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Original Work
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Characters: Original Characters
Additional Tags: Fantasy, Fight Scene, Swordfighting
Summary:

Mirror curses are complicated. Dorion handles the technical part. Cue combat.

Only a few very short comments about the fighting, though I will answer questions if necessary.

( Behind a cut because of, um, violent topic. By necessity. )

Anyway. So, uh, that was a weird writing experience. I have no idea where this story/world/mess is going. (Yes, yes, this is clearly romantic comedy... XD I mean, I could.)

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New ATCs

Tue, 25 Feb 2025 14:24:20 GMT

My most recent ATCs. (6,4 x 8,9 cm)

I didn't take pictures of my art supplies this time, but it was again a mix of fineliners, watercolors, acrylic pens, gel pens, and a lot of glitter. :)

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Alchemical bottles

Tue, 21 Jan 2025 21:09:17 GMT

Another ATC! This one took forever, but I'm kind of happy with the result. It was inspired by finding a shimmery dark green in my advent calendar, and, well... What to do with that? Old glass was my first thought. Also, two different light sources (one cold, one warm), just to make my life difficult...

In the end, I actually managed to use all the four different types of shimmer and glitter from my advent calendar in the picture! (Shimmery transparent white on the window and the glass parts of the thermometer-weather-thingy, shimmery green on the bottles and the leaves (because why wouldn't those shimmer? XD), golden gel pen (on the jewelry, thermometer-thingy and fire-thingy), and silver gel pen on the rock samples - I guess those are ore minerals, then...) It feels kind of decadent to have a designated old-glass-watercolor, but hey, I love drawing old technology and lab equipment (and old glass often does have this color - not because people dyed it but because they had no way of removing the iron impurities), so I absolutely needed that one, I just didn't know it yet!

( List of art supplies behind the cut. )

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Witches' Cauldron

Mon, 20 Jan 2025 19:27:01 GMT

An ATC I made today, with material mainly from my advent calendar! Because it's one of my more detailed cards, I took photos during the process, so if you're interested you can view the step-by-step (with materials and methods) behind the cut.

( Documentation of the ATC )

Here's the finished picture:

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nature book postcard

Tue, 05 Nov 2024 12:44:22 GMT

Another postcard for someone on postcrossing - this time, it's a combination of drawing, painting, and papercut. It has transparent windows! The book page, inkwell, ink blob and large leaves are see-through.

Materials:
Watercolor paper: Florence watercolor paper, smooth, white, 200gsm. This was a bit of a compromise: it's the thinnest possible paper for watercoloring, but the thickest possible paper for reasonable papercutting. (Still: not much detail possible.)
Transparent paper: Folia, 115 gsm (I chose the thicker variety, for obvious reasons), light green.
Fineliners: Staedtler, different sizes.
Acrylic pens: FlySea, white and black.
Watercolors: various brands, no idea which was what. It was not my watercolor box. I'm not at home and didn't grab the box in my bag when there was a perfectly good one open on the table.
Knife: snap-off utility knife. Cheap but good. XD Seriously, it performed really well (as in: non-wobbly, good angle, and ergonomic in my hand) but it's a no-name thingy, no manufacturer printed on or anything.
Varnish: LUKAS spray varnish, satin gloss. (Added to protect the watercolors before gluing everything together.)
Spray glue: Ghiant Hightac, an ancient can. Oh well, it came out a bit yellowed and blotchy but it still worked... Somehow.

More pictures (of the papercutting and of what the card looks like with backlighting) behind the cut.

( Pictures! )

I'll definitely make more cards with this technique. It's so much fun! :D

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Inchies for inchie advent calendar

Sun, 20 Oct 2024 22:27:04 GMT

So, this is for an advent calendar game thingy... You know how much I love those. XD We have 25 participants, everyone draws 24 inchies (yes, little 1x1 inch drawings) and sends them to our victim organizer, who then builds advent calendars for all of us... With one inchie from each other participant. YAY! (Holy crap, I'm so f*cking glad I don't have to pack those letters!) These are the 24 inchies I drew. The topics are varied because I looked at everyone's profiles to find something that a) they will like, and b) I can actually draw. (Occasionally, that was one small Venn diagram.)

My favorite is, of course, the bog landscape - out of principle. (Yes, someone asked for that. Can do... LOL) I was also surprised that someone requested minerals, because, hey. XD From a purely artistic standpoint, I'm especially happy how the dragonfly and the fern turned out.

I used Staedtler fineliners (different tip sizes), watercolors, Posca white acrylic pen and Sakura white gel pen on KREUL mixed media paper (which is one of the very few "mixed media" papers that actually work for wet media).I don't know why the scan is so blurry - maybe something in the scanner settings.

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Bittersweet Nightshade Flower Fairy

Fri, 09 Aug 2024 11:21:11 GMT

Yes, someone asked for this plant. It was specific enough I felt inspired to draw this ATC.

It was fun. :)

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So, I wrote something. It happens from time to time.

Mon, 22 Jul 2024 17:55:31 GMT

Triple drabble for a drabble exchange. :) As if I could avoid a prompt involving a blacksmith... It had to happen. XD Also, the general feedback on this consists of variations on "so cute", which I guess means that I don't write what I read. ;)

The Hammer (300 words) by EllerWrites
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Original Work
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Dragon, Knight - Character, Blacksmith, Original Characters
Additional Tags: Triple Drabble, Fantasy, Dragons
Summary: A tiny dragon covets a blacksmith's hammer. A knight covets a blacksmith.

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The Jeweler... or not?!?

Sat, 23 Mar 2024 21:47:40 GMT

...aaaand the third ATC made with the help of the craft materials sent to me by Up-Quark.

I still had a large clock sticker and two metallic pens I had not used yet at all, soooo, I had to use them on this card! The materials used are:

Newly used materials:

- Clock sticker (cut up; scale of the balance and paper under the jewelry box at the bottom right)

- Dark gold gel pen (for metallic shine on the scale)

- Dark pink metallic marker (ribbons on the lady's outfit; partially painted with the brush)

- Wire (for the piece of jewelry the lady is holding)

- green tracing paper (three gemstones: in the lady's hand, at the bottom next to the jewelry box, and at the back in the display)

- dark green felt (cushion of the jewelry box)

(Plus a Faber Castell PITT brush in warm grey III and some acrylic pens abused as acrylic colors with a a paintbrush.)

By the way, I'm sure the jeweler doesn't just make jewelry: he also has tools for much rougher work out, and the scales seem a bit big for small stones... All this sparkly stuff has to be a front. The question is what the lady REALLY wants in the store! Presumably, it's not purely for, uh, fashionable purposes... XD

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very sparkly fairy

Sat, 23 Mar 2024 12:22:54 GMT

This fairy is again made with the help of the craft materials sent to me by Up-Quark.

Stuff I used:

- Flower nail stickers

- Felt (as the fairy's dress)

- Pressed clover

- Hexagonal nail glitter

- Wire (for the fairy's belt and jewelry)

- Green tracing paper (for fairy jewelry and butterflies)

I just couldn't resist the pressed clover and had to make a meadow scene! The nail sticker flowers were also a good fit - of course I added a lot of flowers in the same style. The coloring was mainly done with acrylic paints and acrylic pens.

The card is decidedly 3D: the fairy is cut out and glued to the background, as are the small transparent paper butterflies and the slightly larger flower on the right. And the dress is naturally a bit thicker anyway. So the wire decoration is almost no longer noticeable... XD I sealed the whole thing with acrylic spray varnish to protect it, otherwise the delicate pressed plant material wouldn't stand a chance.

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So, I wrote something

Mon, 05 Feb 2024 18:46:00 GMT

The Unforeseen Gambit (100 words) by EllerWrites
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Original Work
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Original Human Character(s), sentient sword - Character
Additional Tags: Chess, Swords, Fantasy, Chess Tournaments, Drabble, Magical Artifacts
Summary:

Eileen and her magical sword are playing a chess tournament.

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Drachi on Burg Ellerstein

Tue, 14 Nov 2023 15:54:04 GMT

My advent calendar of this year has actually arrived some time ago, but only now I've finally managed to unpack it and put it up... In the meantime, of course, the whole package has been carefully guarded by Drachi.

This is Drachi:

Drachi is a beautiful (handmade! wow!!!) dragon. Drachi lives at Burg Ellerstein (that's Ellerstein Castle).

The castle unfortunately doesn't have a decent moat available (I'd have to put it in the bathroom for that, but I'll spare you those pictures XD), but takes up the living room table, but I'm still very impressed by the proud walls and the working drawbridge!

Burg Ellerstein is also very cozy inside, including an LED fireplace and beautiful decorations!

I was somewhat horrified to discover that Drachi had apparently had the opportunity to escape and raid the Louvre in the meantime, but I can of course live with the fact that the Mona Lisa is now hanging at my home. Very appropriate, that. It's just too bad that our telescope (in the background) is a bit too bulky to fit on the castle roof, but you can't have everything ;)

Of course, I've already photographed all the beautifully wrapped parcels that were stored inside the castle: each one is a work of art! But I think, in order not to overload this post, I will only show them on the respective days. :)

But anyway, a HUGE thank you to Eleisis!!!

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Collaboration: dragon :)

Mon, 25 Sep 2023 17:05:59 GMT

As I mentioned a few days ago, I drew ATC outlines for Atlicedrawsstuff to color... And she was super fast! (She found someone to swap the card with already, too.)

Atlice used Ohuhu markers (alcohol-based), colored pencils, and gel pen on my fineliner drawing. :) I really love the colors she chose!

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Papercuts and storytelling

Wed, 29 Mar 2023 12:13:49 GMT

So, since I talked about shadow theater yesterday, I thought I'd talk a bit about the underlying traditional craft, Scherenschnitt (papercut), today - especially about the performance aspects of it.

I think you've all seen silhouette art before. Pretty much everyone agrees that papercut art was originally invented by the Chinese (who also came up with paper in the first place), but you know how it is with good ideas: they spread. In northern Europe, this traditional craft focuses mainly on portraiture, fairy tales and folk tales - in fact, at least from the 18th to the 20th century, it was considered the most appropriate form of illustration for traditional tales in Germany. I'm not just interested in Scherenschnitt (the German word for papercut art in this style) as illustration, though - in fact, I consider it a cultural loss to reduce it to that. Making a Scherenschnitt is, and always has been, a performance. The process is usually much more interesting than the results.

The first time I encountered Scherenschnitt as a live performance was as a young child (I was 5 or 6, maybe) at a market stall. Someone was sitting there and doing Scherenschnitt portraits of people, and I guess my parents had a bit of spare money at the time, because they paid the artist to do a portrait of me. (It's still in a picture frame on their wall. This should tell you two things: this is a VeryTraditionalHousehold (TM), and proud parents are proud parents everywhere.) Unfortunately, I don't remember the artist at all, not even if that was a man or a woman (and I'd have to take the picture out of its frame to look at the signature, which is typically on the back because you don't write or draw on Scherenschnitt art), but I remember being fascinated by the process of this person picking up black paper and scissors and... a face - my face - just appearing. I guess I don't need to explain it's extremely difficult to do a recognizable papercut portrait of someone without a preliminary drawing? Anyway, that was magical. Interestingly, in the result, it's visible how fascinated I was: some of you (the ones on access, anyway) have seen photos of the very peculiar 'focused' facial expression Kiddo!Eller had while playing chess. The Scherenschnitt somehow managed to capture exactly that. Baby!Eller was watching carefully.

At that time, of course, I didn't make papercut art. I enjoyed papercraft all right, but... Well. I wasn't the kind of artistic prodigy who would have been able to produce anything like that as a child! First, I had to figure out that I really need to use scissors and knives with my right hand despite being left-handed when it comes to everything else, like writing or drawing. (Yes, I know special scissors for lefties exist. No, my parents bought me those - they don't believe all the superstition about lefties and didn't try to re-train me when they noticed I picked up pens with my left - but leftie scissors don't help. I'm simply not capable of cutting properly with my left hand. It's interesting that cutting and drawing seem to require completely different brain activity despite both resulting in a picture, but there you go.) Also, no one in my family practices the art. (And the only shadow play I was exposed to was Mom shaping rabbits and such with her hands - you know. I got to see 'normal' puppet theater from my grandfather and father but was never really into that...) My first papercut was an ATC I made in 2009:

This is very obviously beginner work. The not-very-clean edges are not only my fault; the unsuitable material (a plain index card!) contributed, but, well. I also did not have that much control yet. Still, I'm quite happy how it turned out - as a first attempt, it's fine. Could have been much worse.

In the following years, I practiced a bit, but I was only able to add more detail on that small format when I actually used 'the good stuff', that is, professional-level papercut paper. This exists for a reason: it's thin enough for fast and easy cutting, but doesn't tear. Much. (I have, of coursed, managed even that... My superpower: destroying paper.) The following are two very classical fantasy-themed ATCs I made in 2015, using both scissors and knives. (In case you were wondering: I don't use any expensive tools for this. My favorite scissors came from the Euro Shop, and I really love break-off cutter knives. The only not-super-cheap tool I own is a Japanese swivel scalpel I wouldn't want to miss.)

These are actually okay-ish: I notice all the ways in which I could have done that better, and I shudder, but I guess all artists do that. LOL (I have somewhat better technique these days, but I haven't made any Scherenschnitt ATCs lately. Should probably do that again at some point...) Anyway... These pictures, unfortunately, were made at home, so no one got to watch the process, which is a total waste if you ask me. I think I have mentioned how the making of this stuff is soooo much more interesting than just pictures? Also: traditionally, it's inextricably linked with storytelling.

A famous example of papercut performance art are the papercuts by Hans Christian Andersen who is (unjustly) mainly known as a writer these days, but who was a storyteller really - his performances involved telling stories while cutting paper pictures. (He started his career at a theater, actually was into singing and acting before he began to write, so it's safe to assume he was extremely good at entertaining an audience!) Of course, having really good stories helped. (I mean, how many films are there of the Little Mermaid alone? I believe they recently made a new one though I haven't watched it yet.) Only the written versions lasted until today, but... From a storyteller standpoint it's really obvious his stories were designed to be told - I'll spare you the structural analysis of Andersen's fairy tales and a discussion of storytelling techniques vs. short-story writing techniques, and the (deliberate) use of colloquial vs. 'literary' language, but Andersen's stuff firmly falls into the first category. Just believe me, I would pay a shit ton of money for an opportunity to watch one of Andersen's performances... (Wrong century, alas.)

Later, as soon as film began to be a thing, silhouette animation also became a thing, especially in Germany - I simply have to mention Lotte Reiniger here, who pioneered that art form (and created the first feature-length animated film, before Walt Disney did, but got a lot less public credit due to being, well, female), but since this is getting long-ish again, I guess I'll save an in-depth discussion for another post. I will note, though, that her famous 1922 version of Cinderella (and, nope, absolutely not a coincidence she did fairy tales, too - people come with cultural backgrounds!) not only involves animated silhouette figures, but also animated silhouette hands cutting silhouette figures. She simulated the effect of hands appearing on a shadow theater screen nicely (and used it for effect!), which means she was absolutely aware of (and likely also personally experienced with) the cutting process itself as a performance technique in storytelling.

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Inchies by Ismael

Sun, 15 Jan 2023 07:08:04 GMT

So, I should have shown this in December, when I had these Inchies by Ismael in my Advent Calendar (they were in the 'books' on the bookshelf in that awesome room), but, anyway... Here's an overview picture of all 25 pictures!

(Yes, 'inchies' are really just 1x1 inch tiny pictures.)

WHEEEEE, all my favorite 'fandoms'! It has botanicals, astronomy, fairy-tales, mythology, and even some Nibelungenlied illustrations, YAY! (Also, since I use the two-raven symbolism often enough in my own pictures, which Ismael clearly noticed, I appreciated the last one for Christmas... Ahahaha!) This is suuuuuper awesome.

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ATCs with stickers

Sat, 13 Aug 2022 20:09:02 GMT

Sooooo I have some new ATCs! These were for a forum game / swap thingy: someone sent me an assortment of interesting stickers, and I had to create artist trading cards using at least three of those on each.

Here's an overview of the stickers I received:

And this is what became of them:

Since I had a pretty old-fashioned castle and a campfire among my stickers, I wanted to create a scene with a touch of fantasy. The third sticker used to be a green patterned whale (WHY??? Who designs these stickers?!?), but I cut it up and made it the lady's skirt instead.
(Used stickers marked in orange on the overview sheet).

Here, I had several galaxy and star motifs as well as a lantern and a butterfly/moth (can't identify the species; don't care much)... It was immediately clear what I wanted to do with them! Okay, the galaxy washi tape has been mostly painted over, but, there are enough other stickers involved... It was fun to continue the sticker motifs as semlessly as possible!
(Used stickers marked in light blue on the overview sheet).

When in doubt, paint a mermaid! But I couldn't help it: the shiny gold fabric tape just lent itself to a scaly tail. And I could not NOT use the gemstone... I mean - PINK SPARKLE! XD
(Used stickers marked in pink on the overview sheet).

This one maybe requires an explanation: the Wolpertinger is a South German mythical animal. Bavarians encounter it all the time (at least after a few beers), but unfortunately, we don't have it in the north. XD And I had two purple owls, from different sticker sheets! I found that so weird (like: is there a huge market for purple owls?!?) that I had to make something with them right away. The large leaves in the HG were once a salad sticker... And the wings of the Wolpertinger are fluffy cotton stickers. :)
(Used stickers marked in light green on the overview sheet).

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My friend, the fish :)

Sun, 03 Apr 2022 01:24:46 GMT

Today, I have a step-by-step for you, so you can ~~laugh at~~ admire my ~~messy~~ loose coloration style! :)

It's for the "Random Material" ATC swap, where participants received an art box with random ~~and, let's face it, pretty crappy~~ art supplies and had to do something with the stuff they received. This is not supposed to be an advertisement for the material I used here: it's - literally - randomly chosen stuff that's neither exceptionally great nor matching nor anything, really. Which, of course, is the challenge of this game!

When I don't know what to draw, mermaids are one of my default themes. Very fast fineliner drawing.

First layer of the coloration was done with alcohol-based markers:
Twinmarker BG1 Blue Grey
Winsor&Newton promarker brush in Almond
Ohuhu YR10 Brun
Ohuhu PB10 Turquoise Green Light
Ohuhu YR34 Yellow

I apologize to anyone who actually likes markers. This is bad and I know it. Okay, partially it's the fault of the paper - you're not supposed to use these markers on watercolor paper - but also, it's painfully obvious that I simply can't use markers. I can't even tell whether the brands I received are good or bad. They're wasted on me either way.

The next layer is with watercolor:
Arts Arch Brilliant Yellow
Arts Arch Vermilion
Apolo Arte Violeta Intenso
Daler Rowney Aquafine Transparent Turquoise
Jaxon Brilliant Green

Fortunately, at least with the watercolors, I know what I'm doing! XD This is starting to look like a perfectly normal intermediate coloration stage.

Also, I have Opinions on the colors that were in my art box. The Daler Rowney paint is great, and it's a PB16 (!), which is a pretty rare pigment and very lightfast, so that's one I'm super happy with. The Apolo Arte is a PV23, which is one of my standard pigments anyway, and the manufacturer, as far as I can tell, didn't do anything wrong with it: it's strongly pigmented and I'll definitely keep using it. Yay! The Jaxon Brilliant Green is a PG7, and wow, this is the first time I have to consider a PG7 a crushing failure: it's so weakly pigmented it's basically just greenish slime. And PG7 isn't even an expensive pigment, so, there's no excuse! The Arts Arch colors are questionable because they don't have any pigment information. Also, the yellow handles okayish, but the red is CRAP. I assume this is the super-cheap stuff. Whatever...

I also had some colored pencils in my box and tried them out!

Then a few crayons came into play:
Castle Arts Pasteltint Juniper Lime
Castle Arts Soft Touch Flesh
Stabilo aquacolor in a dark blue
Cretacolor AquaGraph White

I rarely work with pencils, so, no detail work here. Just some unification of the color areas. :) Also, I'm no expert, but these pencils are fine as far as I can tell. I especially liked the Castle Arts pencils which gave off a very rich, smooth color layer. The white AquaGraph was a bit of a disappointment, though: virtually invisible, just a barely noticeable lightening of the color below.

Then cameFlySea Acrylic Markers in white, black, yellow, red, and light green.

Unfortunately, they also don't come with pigment or lightfastness information, so I'll have to conduct my own tests - but I have to say, I'm very happy with how these markers handle. The colors are very opaque and the hard plastic tip is wonderful for detail work.

And, of course, I added some white sparkle. Every picture needs some sparkle! XD

The sparkle didn't end up as dots but rather... strings?!?... because the paint is somewhat slimy. It's super weird. Anyway, I tried to use this as an effect, so I paid attention to the direction in which the strings were going. I suppose if you want that kind of directionality, this paint is actually quite useful, but, let's face it: it's not very good white paint.

And this is a proper scan of the finished ATC. :)

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December ATCs :)

Sun, 26 Dec 2021 22:20:17 GMT

These are two ATCs I drew this december!

The first one is a character by Renira. A Magical Girl who works in a planetarium... I could not resist, I simply had to draw her!

And the other one is a dragon. With crystals. It's not really visible in the scan, but I abused glitter glue on those crystals. SPARKLE!

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The Broken Sword

Mon, 21 Jun 2021 22:17:12 GMT

I drew this ATC last week but somehow forgot to upload it here. This is a very German dragon: guarding a hoard of gold, eating the (anti-)heroes who are after that treasure, and everything. :)

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Fairy Chess

Sun, 13 Jun 2021 21:08:06 GMT

Fairies playing chess on a flower that was, basically, made for it... :)

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Art!

Mon, 11 Jan 2021 16:31:39 GMT

I drew stuff! :3 These are my newest ATCs. Fineliner and watercolors on white cardboard.

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OC Innis: colored version

Sat, 09 May 2020 15:33:05 GMT

I colored the picture! As you can see, I was in the mood for some hardcore kitsch. (But then, kitsch suits Innis: canonically, she happens to have a fondness for elaborate hairstyles, a collection of very nice dresses, and a magical harp, so it's her own fault if she ends up being painted like this! LOL) A larger version of the picture, where you can see all the detail (like the harp strings made of water), can be found on deviantart where I collect my OC related stuff.

It's fineliner (Staedtler, my favorite) and watercolor (I used my QOR colors this time; they're lovely) on paper, postcard-sized. I regret choosing the paper I did: it buckled and the surface dissolved in some places. Usually, I use those watercolor pads that are glued on all four sides to avoid buckling. But since that's a bit expensive when you paint a lot, I bought very cheap loose watercolor paper in A6. It's wonderful for making postcards and fast drawings but doesn't survive several layers of color.

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WIP: my OC Innis

Fri, 08 May 2020 00:19:50 GMT

Just to show I'm still alive, a work in progress: a late-night sketch of my OC Innis. (Postcard sized.) With her magical harp, she conjures water dragons.

Uh, these dragons still need a lot of work, so far I've only defined their position in the overall composition, LOL! I have a very scribbly style of sketching. Most of the detail is drawn directly with the fineliner. I'm very bad at the whole "sketch" thing.

I just lined her head and one hand because I felt like it, and because it's motivating to have something done already. It ensures I don't accidentally throw the sketch away. (Her hair almost killed me.)

I'm also simultaneously working on an ATC (I'll show that when it's ready; in its current state it's quite ugly but that's normal for my style of coloring...) and a commission. I just sometimes simply have to draw my own characters to relax.

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Inktober day 19 Star Clock

Sun, 20 Oct 2019 21:58:10 GMT

The design of the star clock is strongly inspired by a piece in my collection. :)

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