Fangirl Geekery

Hello chums, Happy New Year to you all! I know ten days in to 2015 isn't exactly an early new year post but better later than never right?!

As I never really leave my house apart from trips to the cinema and quests to the post office I have nothing to tell you about really.

I do however have two brand new illustrations to show you! (yay)

as you might have guessed by the title of the post, my latest illustrations are of the geeky persuasion, since I am after all, a humongous geek and avid fangirl.

although I have lots of ideas for new illustrations and paintings, lately I can't seem to stop doodling existing characters, and in the run up to the New Year I spent a lot of my time cooped up working on these two new designs.

if you follow me on Instagram (and hey you really should!) then you'll have probably already seen my post about the illustrations, but if not, keep scrolling and you'll get to see them!  

first up is one for the video game fans, if you've ever played Super Mario then you'll no doubt be familiar with this pastel pretty! May I present the one and only Princess Peach

like most 90's kids, I grew up playing the Mario games and although Luigi was always my favourite character, I had a soft spot for the pretty in pink style of Peach! I like Princess Daisy as well but I think Peach wins hands down in the style stakes!

 

i've never drawn a video game character before but I can't think of a better one to start with than Peach (except for Zelda maybe, but I might draw her at some point as well!) since she is after all such a total Candy Doll! 

I created the Mario symbol pattern for the background myself from scratch (I seem to be getting a bit obsessed with creating repeating patterns lately!) and put together the rest using my original pencil sketch + some stuff I drew directly on the computer once I started adding colour.

 for my version of Peach the fun part was figuring out how to make the hair work + trying to come up with tattoo ideas for her arms!I hope I did her justice anyway. Prints and merch available HERE

alright that's probably enough about Princess Peach, my next new illustration features another Japanese designed character, this time it's San from the amazing Studio Ghibli anime Princess Mononoke

if you're not familiar with the work of Studio Ghibli then you should definitely check out their films asap! Ghibli is the powerhouse of animation magic behind the most incredibly animated films like Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle and Ponyo (to name but a few, but there are many more and you should go watch them!)

Princess Mononoke was made in 1997 but I only saw it about three years ago (at the behest of my friend Danny who knows more about Studio Ghibli films and Japanese anime than anyone else I know!). Personally my favourite Ghibli film is probably My Neighbour Totoro or maybe Howl's Moving Castle but Princess Mononoke is definitely very brilliant, hence why I wanted to have a go at drawing San.

as you can probably figure out from her attire, San is a warrior girl, she was raised by wolves she helps defend and protect the forest from humans and monstrous spirits.

I considered drawing San in full Candy Doll mode with coloured streaks in her hair and tattoos etc, but it was nice to do a more 'normal' fanart piece for once, sticking to stuff from the animation and not going too crazy on colours.

one of my favourite things from the film is the group of little tree spirits called Kodama with rattling heads and whimsical expressions. So I had to add a bunch to the drawing + the banner has the title of the film in Japanese. Prints and merch available HERE

so yeah, you should totally watch the film if you haven't already seen it!

and I can't really think of anything else to say so I should probably just draw this post to a close and stop typing rubbish.

I hope you like the new illustrations, i'm currently working a few more so you can expect posts about those in the not too distant future. Probably.

alrighty then, until next time, farewell my friends!