Guiding light…
You’re able to light my path,
and show me where I am
But I wish you could
show me what to do,
where to go,
and tell me
what to
say,
too
.
.
.

We started using our wood burning stove to heat the house again recently. It has it’s ups and downs, but seeing the embers in the fireplace really inspired me to draw them~

I’ll admit though, when I started drawing this last night I didn’t intend to draw something with fire, I was actually planning on doodling Rikka from Love, Chuunibyou, and Other Delusions, but I changed my mind after a short while. Also, this new picture reminds me a little of this really old picture of mine… they’re not really similar, but they’re technically of the same character. Ah, improvement~

I originally sketched, line-arted and base-coloured this in ArtRage 4, then cleaned it up in Photoshop.

Thanks for looking, and have a great weekend!

Edit (several hours later): I looked at this again and saw that it was severely blue, out of curiosity I decided to look at it on my sister’s computer and it looked even WORSE… I know it can’t look good on every single computer, but that was just.. ew. So I just edited it a bit. There’s very little blue now and it’s a lot darker. Hopefully you guys like the edit too. x3

Edit 5/31/2014: I should have updated this description sooner, but on May 24th this received a Daily Deviation on DeviantART! You can view the Daily Deviation here and my dA journal about it here. Thank you for the support!!

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For a while now, I’ve found owls not only intriguing, but a bit terrifying too (which for some odd reason, just makes me more intrigued >_>)
There’s so much culture and so many myths surrounding them. They look so unique, and there’s a lot of variations in their appearance, from small and cute to huge and scary. It’s neat in the summer when we’re sitting outside and can hear some sort of owl. Sometimes they look like they’re more like mammals than birds, mainly because they’re so expressive. Their expressions seem so… human… compared to other birds.
The cute cartoony owls we see today are adorable, but somehow they just don’t compare to the real thing.

Somehow this led to me drawing Slade with a Snowy Owl (Bubo scandiacus). There’s very little reasoning as to why the snowy owl in particular, other than they’re both white with yellow/orange eyes (though I temporarily changed Slade’s eyes to match the owl’s even more). In some of Slade’s first incarnations, she was a majestic predator that lived in darkness. So I dunno, it just seemed to fit.

I kind of imagine that in the picture, they’re not friends or enemies; they simply relate to and respect each other, and that’s why they’re so close? Lol idk. ;_;

I probably drew some things wrong. I should have picked one photo or so to reference for the owl, but I didn’t. Instead I mostly eyeballed bits and pieces (“the eyes are this shape…” “the body looks a little like this, but I’ll draw from another angle…”, etc) of many photos. Its legs in particular are probably incorrect, but I’m not sure.

Overall, I’m happy with the result, and I think this will be a nice last upload of 2013. ^^
Here’s hoping 2014 is an awesome year for everybody, full of good health, happiness, and inspiration~!! <3 Thanks for looking!

Because of her high voice, Miku Hatsune is often negatively referred to as a chipmunk or something along those lines. I love chipmunks/squirrels and eventually got an adorable mental image of Miku as a chipmunk last month, and just had to draw her. XD (Even though I should have been working on more important things… oops)

I also kind of wanted to try a different style, thick line art, white around the line art, rather flat shading, and just try and make something super cute overall. I don’t think I’ll keep up with this style regularly, though it’s fun to experiment.

Thanks for looking, and I hope everybody had a great weekend~! :D

Time lapse videos: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4
You can view this image on DeviantART here.

Started doodling a random mori girl one night and then this came about. (Can you tell I’m a little mori obsessed? :P) I took a little bit of inspiration from art nouveau, though it’s probably far from perfect in that aspect. I struggled a lot with the girl’s face, and there’s something about it now that kind of bugs me… but oh well.

The bird featured in the painting is one of my favourites, the red breasted nuthatch. I love how shy they are when I go outside to fill the feeder (or when other bigger birds are at the feeder), but manage to gather enough courage to land on the feeder with others present. There’s been times where I wondered if they were going to land on me instead of the feeder. Plus, they sound so cute! <333 I just love them a lot. ;U; Anyways, as well as really wanting to draw my favourite bird, this is also kind of a tribute to autumn... my favourite season, despite how cruel it feels to me sometimes. Oh, and I got to include more than colouring in my video this time (such as the line art stage) so please feel free to check it out~ Thanks for looking, and have a good week! : D

Time lapse videos: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6
You can view this image on DeviantART here as well.

In September I had a burst of inspiration for Slade’s story (during my exam time, how lovely >>).
As well as story development and character redesigning, it prompted this Halloween-themed picture of her (the witch), Caleb (the vampire), and Rowan (the pirate) in costume. I really didn’t put much thought into who would dress as what and why, I just wanted to draw something fun! ;v;

After struggling with the shading (I couldn’t decide between hard shading or painterly/soft shading at first), I ended up getting to try some new things that that I’ll probably continue to do too, so I’m pretty happy about that. It makes digitally painting more enjoyable for me. ^^
I tried painting the eyes without outlines, but I don’t know if I’ll stick with that (I probably won’t for now anyway).
I kind of wish I had made the pumpkins jack-o-lanterns, or maybe added more fun stuff, but I’m not sure if it would’ve become cluttered, so maybe it’s for the best.. ~_~

I would like to thank my mom for helping with the title and references, and my friend Ren for suggesting that Rowan be a pirate~

Thanks for looking, and have a happy Halloween, everybody!! :D

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Artwork and characters © 2013 Sloan | designsbysloan.com | artigirl.deviantart.com
Do not use without permission.

My sister’s ghost character, Cassie; I drew her as a stress reliever last night.
She’s annoyed because somebody’s ignoring her. ovo Which happens often, considering she’s a ghost…

In this picture (which is really just a concept), she’s changed a bit since the last time I posted a picture of her (in 2009, gasp! You can see it here.) she has less wavy hair and more insanely curly hair. She’s also a little bit older than she looks (and by that I mean physically, not chronologically, though she’s still older for both). I guess I might’ve made her look a bit too lively, but she actually has a lively personality, so I don’t know. Maybe it suits?
/ramble ramble ramble

Okay I gotta go get breakfast. Thanks for looking! -u-

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Artwork © 2013 Sloan | designsbysloan.com
Characters (Cassie) © 2013 Siobhan | dashofcreativity
Do not use without permission.

View the process/speedpaint videos on Youtube!: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4
My actual youtube channel is Designs By Sloan.
I also posted a dA journal about it that you can read here.

The picture itself has actually been finished for a while, but I FINALLY recorded myself drawing, and I wanted to prepare the video and post it alongside the picture at the same time… which took a while ’cause it meant learning a new program. ;v; It’s not perfect, but hopefully somebody can get some enjoyment out of it!

But anyways, back to the picture itself. This picture started off with me wanting to draw a random mori girl with blonde, wavy hair. Then she turned into an elf for some odd reason. Then I added the animals and background, and it just.. I don’t know how to explain it.

The roses are called “Prickly Wild Roses”, also known to Canadians as the Alberta rose.
The butterflies are tiger swallowtails. The birds are common house sparrows.
The rabbit’s no species in particular. The flower beside the girl on the opposite side of the rabbit is called a “Lady’s Slipper” orchids, they’re grown wildly in Manitoba.
Most of these are things I grew up with or things I love now. The song “The Neglected Garden” by Cecile Corbel (from Studio Ghibli’s “The Secret World of Arrietty”) basically sums up how I feel.
….Except for the wheat, which is very pretty but considering I’m extremely allergic, I don’t like it too much. XD

Anyways, I’m not sure what I actually think of this picture anymore. I can’t even count the number of hours I’ve put into this over a period of.. months. I’d love to change it or redo it, but for now I really just have to let it be and move onto new projects.

Thanks for looking!! <3 - - - Artwork and character © 2013 Sloan | designsbysloan.com Do not use without permission.

I think I’m becoming a little obsessed with the mori girl style. <3 oops. lol. My big picture (that has a similar clothing style OTL) is still in the works (almost finished-ish), but I really felt like doodling today and then this happened. ;u; I sketched it out and then painted on top, like I did for my Aldora and my Kiwi picture. She's a random character. I probably dislike how her hair turned out the most, but it was a quickie so yeah. I'm still not back yet, I just really wanted to post this today. X3 Thanks for looking! - Artwork / Character © 2013 Sloan | designsbysloan.com
Do not use without permission.

Another ATC I’ve done, this time it’s of K-on!’s “Mio”, her outfit is specifically from the song/ED “Don’t Say Lazy”.

Shevi and I have been watching the first season of K-on! sice Ai-kon (yes, we’re making it last lol). Mio’s probably my favourite character of them all, and I love the song “Don’t Say Lazy”. It’s awesome. c:

Her expression could have turned out better, but overall it’s okay I guess.

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MATERIALS: Copic sketch markers, Elmer’s Painters opaque paint marker
(for shines), Photoshop CS5 (colour adjustment/cleaning), random
cardstock, atyouSpica glitter pens (.Too), Copic refillable multiliner

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K-on! / Character (Mio Akiyama) / “Don’t Say Lazy”…? © Kakifly
Artwork © 2013 Sloan | designsbysloan.com
Do not use without permission.

It’s not finished..
I’ve gotten sort of bored with it. I wanted to try and spruce it up so I wasn’t bored anymore, but it’s like a vicious circle haha. I might update it in the future, but until then, it’s finished!! OTL
Hopefully now I can get the motivation/inspiration to work on another picture.

Anyways!! I started working on this picture of my character Slade earlier this week, because we had three days that just had gorgeous sunsets and I wanted to paint them! I know I draw sunsets and sunrises a lot, but I really love them, and felt so inspired to do another. ;-;
I also tried to use the same technique that I used on my most recent picture of Aldora, but it’s not quite the same. :c

Thank for looking!