Now Fight ♥

hello chums, today it's going to be an Illustration post because I FINALLY finished my new 'Babydoll' fanart piece...

for those of you unfamiliar with her, Babydoll is a character from the 2011 movie Sucker Punch.

Now you probably know by now that I'm kind of a big Fangirl and that I often Geek out over all sorts of things (books/TV shows/movies/games/people etc) and that from time to time I like to draw characters from Popular Culture to show my appreciation for the source material. Well that's why I drew Babydoll! Also I really like Emily Browning, the Australian actress who plays Babydoll in the film.

The movie Sucker Punch often gets a really bad rep, it's looked down upon as nothing more than a video-game style fantasy movie for teenage boys. It was pretty much universally panned by critics which is ironic because I would bet money that had the film been gender-swapped, with an all male leading cast instead, it would have done much better at the box office! Just think, they keep churning out films like the Expendables series (who cares?! I DON'T) but heaven forbid someone release a female action movie.

 Anyway i'm getting into RANT territory here. Because if you watch it, and I mean really pay attention, look past the skimpy costumes (which DO make sense within the storyline I promise) and flashy gamer style graphics and what you have is a FEMALE led film about a group of young women working together to fight corruption and oppression.

It's one of those 'guilty pleasure' films for me but in truth it shouldn't be a 'guilty' one at all. I mean it has dragons in it for crying out loud! And pretty girls fighting and generally kicking ass all while looking GORGEOUS. It's completely unbelievable of course but who cares; the leading lady is a tiny girl wearing a sailor outfit. She has tiny cute plastic charms hanging off her gun while she shoots the living crap out of various baddies. How can you not love this film?!

Right anyway, enough about the film. If you've seen it and you liked it... GREAT! If you watched it and hated it, then 'oh well, never mind'. And if you've yet to see it, try not to take it too seriously and just enjoy the visuals! It also has a pretty killer soundtrack, with some brilliant mash-ups and remixes.

Back to the drawing now. I meant to have her finished in time for Halloween but I was so busy with other projects that I only managed to finalize the design a few nights ago. As always she's my take on the character, so she looks like a Candy Doll and she has tattoos.

I was going to add some ombre colour to her hair but I settled for keeping it simple in the end. By that point i'd added so much detail to the outfit and weapons that I figured it didn't really matter what colour her hair was! In the movie her gun and sword both have intricately engraved designs on them, featuring cute characters and flowers. I recreated the design for the gun but the sword was even more complicated so I skipped it. I'm SORRY!

The tattoos are simple but reflective of the film's storyline. The quote 'If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything.' is one of my favourite lines from the film. The swallow represents her inability to escape from the confines of the asylum, the knuckle duster is there because she's such a badass, and the bunny because it's a symbol in the movie, painted onto one of the girls' weapons.

You can see the texture in the clothing better here. I don't always add loads of texture or detail, sometimes I just keep simple gradients or flat colours but I added in some texture for the skirt and top for this one along with some contrasting stitching which took FOREVER to do.

Am I boring you yet? Anyway, the design is all finished now. I uploaded it to the usual spots online including my Society6 and RedBubble stores.

Personally I quite like the design on the tank tops, they look like the sort of thing a Girl Gang might wear to go out and cause havoc. 

So yep, a new illustration, hop y'all liked it and if you didn't, I don't particularly care! ^_^

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in other news, there are only FOUR days left to enter my mega Instagram Giveaway...



I'm giving away a literal HEAP of cute stuff + extra goodies have been added to the bundle. To enter you must be following me on Instagram + follow the rules HERE

and on that note i'll say au revoir for now, hope to see you here again soon.

bye

Cry Baby ❤️

Hello dearhearts, I've gone a bit AWOL again recently haven't I?! A lot has been happening and I just haven't found the time to write a blog about it.

And i'm still not going to!

so instead, here's my latest new illustration, it's a new addition to the Candy Doll Club (obviously!) and it's an illustration of one of my favourite singers... Melanie Martinez

for those of you unfamiliar with her work, Melanie is an American singer/songwriter/artist with this gorgeous voice and a candy coloured electropop feel to her music! The look is all sugar and light with sweet feminine pastels and lacy frills, but the sound is often deliciously sinister in contrast. 

 I love her music and performance style because it's a reminder that just because something looks sweet and innocent, doesn't mean it is. It says don't judge by appearances; evil can be pleasant and pretty on the outside. Just like poisoned candy.

it isn't hard to see why I like her so much! If you know my work at all then you'll known that Melanie is basically like a real life 'Candy Doll' complete with pastel hair, sweet tattoos and the 'don't mess with me' attitude that every Candy Doll embodies.

Her debut album has just been released and it's called 'Cry Baby' and I absolutely LOVE it! Melanie's songs are like a Mark Ryden pop surrealist painting come to life, with fairytale/nursery rhyme themes laced with darker messages and a much more sinister vibe lurking under the sugary sweet surface.

here's the title song from the album (there's some swearing in this one! so don't say I didn't warn you)

I particularly like the song because it's kind of empowering!

When I was younger I was quite an emotional girl, clumsy and quick to cry whenever I got a bruise or a scrape (which was often!), because of this the other students used to tease me and call me 'cry baby'. By the time I was fourteen most of my yeargroup + the ones above and below would shout 'cry baby' or 'cry me a river' at me whenever they saw me whether it was in class or not they'd yell it repeatedly at me until I walked out or inevitably burst into tears. So of all the things I COULD have been bullied for, this is what they picked.

Obviously looking back now it seems utterly ridiculous and laughable, but at the time it felt upsetting and interminable. I didn't want to go to school, I couldn't concentrate in class, even my so called 'best friends' used to join in with the rest of the bullies in an attempt to avoid being picked on themselves. It might seem petty and unimportant but it ultimately led to depression, anxiety and a life-long inability to exhibit emotions properly unless they become overpowering. I didn't cry for years, it wasn't until I started treatment for depression in February 2014 that I began to realise that it was OKAY to cry sometimes. That there was in fact nothing wrong with it!

So to hear a song like this with the lyrics 'You're one of a kind, And no one understands, But those cry baby tears, Keep coming back again' is kind of inspiring. I wish this song had been around ten years ago when I was being bullied. My favourite part of the song is the chorus,

'They call you cry baby, Cry baby... But you don't fucking care' 

anyway, inspired by the lovely Miss Martinez's new album and general AMAZINGNESS, I decided it was about time I had a go at drawing her!

 

she's always updating her look so although her hair doesn't look like this at the moment, it's one of my fave hairstyles that she's had and I don't think i've EVER drawn a Candy Doll with a bob before! 

The Cry Baby pennant flag was just a little addition to include the album title and one of Melanie's tattoos.

she has quite a few lovely candy hued tattoos including this pretty pastel Carousel horse.



as well as ice creams and other cute characters and designs.

the dress is inspired by Japanese Lolita culture but with some of my own designs to fill out the detail on the full skirt.

It was lots of fun to draw this one. I rarely draw the Candy Dolls based on real people so it was cool to recreate Melanie's actual existing tattoo designs and stuff.

right well I can't think of anything else to talk about so i'll leave it there I think. Thanks for reading, I hope you like the new illustration! I should have some more to show you again soon.

BIG THANKS to Melanie Martinez for being so fabulous and inspiring! you can check out her official website with links to buy her album HERE

and if you like what you see, then here's another of her songs with a twisted candy coloured music video!



bye for now!

Feelin' Thirsty? ❤

Why hello dear readers! It's been a whole WEEK now since I turned 24 and to be honest I don't feel a single bit older. I'll never really grow up so all this birthday and ageing business seems a bit pointless really. I mean i'd have birthday cake and kinder eggs for breakfast every single day if I had my way!

anyway moving swiftly on, you'll be delighted to know that I've just finished another new Candy Doll Club illustration!

 If you keep up with me on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook then you might have seen that I've posted the odd sneak peek WIP shots over the past few weeks as I was working on the illustration during my recent trip to France/Spain/Andorra. Well I've actually finished the design now, so let's meet her properly shall we?!

As you can probably tell, she's quite the sultry pinup babe! But don't be fooled by her sugary sweet appearance, she'll mess you up... if you're dumb enough to try and mess with her!

It's been a while since I worked on a brand new Candy Doll and this one was SO SO SO much fun to work on! Especially the tattoos, I spent hours trying to get them as fun and colourful as possible!

 

Intergalactic space babe themed tattoos + a very tasty beverage to relax and refresh in the sunshine, because every Candy Doll knows that nothing tastes sweeter than a carton of 100% fresh boy tears! Yum.

 

Don't forget a pair of cute bleach striped denim shorts to show off those pretty pins and tasty tattoos! Throw in a few neat little pins and badges and you're good to go.

Sassy brooches on a pink lolita sailor girl top to ward off potential suitors, check. Fight like a girl tatts + a busty mer-babe = Girl Power 24/7!

seriously... SO MUCH FUN!

She's available now on prints and tees and bags and stuff over in my Society6 Shop + there's FREE worldwide shipping on today! So it's a good time to treat yourself to something candy coloured! 

oh and in case you were wondering what's going on with the different coloured bunches, the amazing hairstyle is inspired by super lovely and fab youtube blogger Chloe aka xxchlozaahxx who has the most perfect pink/blue split dyed hair. Check out her Instagram for more magical pics.

so, yeah. Lots of fun to work on a new Candy Doll design, I'm not sure what the next one will be like, I'll have to draw some more inspiration from some of the pastel babes I follow on Instagram and Tumblr.


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in other news, last Thursday my dad took me out to lunch in Peel in the West of the island. I don't get to spend much time with my dad, despite living in the same house as him. We're both very quiet and isolated people, preferring our own company most of the time, and there are enough rooms in this house to mean that we can go days without exchanging more than a 'hello' or 'good morning'. So every now and again we head out to somewhere on the island and get some lunch and have a mooch about the local shops, visit a museum or just wander around and look at stuff.

It sounds strange but it's something we've done since I was a little girl. Obviously I spent time with my dad as a kid, we'd play football and tennis and i'd put furniture together after my dad had given up on the instructions and stormed off. But growing up I would spend most of the week talking to my mum and spending time with her practicing my reading or spelling etc, then on Sundays my dad would take me on the electric railway or to the Laxey Wheel or to get flowers and fruit plants at the garden centre. Or sometimes he would try to teach me how to fish off the bridge in our garden (the river Cornaa runs right alongside our house) but after I dropped the rod into the water I didn't get many more lessons!

Anyway, we went to Peel and had a lovely afternoon watching the boats in the harbour and all of the bikers flooding into the town for lunch and to visit the Castle and the museum (the TT races are on at the moment so our normally quiet island has been overrun with bikers from all over the world!) there were people everywhere and the sun was shining, it was a good day for visitors and locals alike.

And since I had such a nice day I decided to snap a selfie when we got home because my mood was so bright and I don't feel that way very often so I have to make the most of it when I do.

I know, I know, if I get any paler i'll turn into a vampire! But so what, I liked how my hair looked, hence a selfie. For more about my thoughts on 'selfies' and why there should be NO shame in occasionally turning into a big poser and photographing yourself in the mirror, check out my old blog post here

and on that note i'll say goodbye for now!

thanks for stopping by dearhearts 

New Painting + Stickers ♥

Hello dearhearts, I've been terribly neglectful lately, in fact it has been over a month since I last posted anything on here. I keep visiting the blog trying to conjure up post ideas but I always invariably end up clicking away without any new thoughts. So this afternoon (while I attempt to write this) i'm going to force myself to pull something together and actually publish a post! For once.

As i've mentioned time and time again, I really don't live a particularly interesting life; I spend almost all of my time alone in my room reading, drawing or trawling the internet on my macbook and if i'm not cooped up in my room you'll occasionally find me painting in my poky studio down the hall or wandering around the garden listening to music. The point is, I usually leave my home maybe twice a week at most for appointments or lunch with friends (if I can talk myself into actually going).

I've thought about other ways I could share content on here, I read a lot so book reviews seem like the obvious choice but i've never been particularly good at writing those, I tend to get carried away with gushing, syrupy comments and declarations of how much I adore whatever book it is I just happen to have read. The same goes for movie reviews.

So instead i'm going to do what I usually do, and recount a little about what i've been up to recently, regardless of whether or not it comes across as boring.

If you follow me on Instagram you might have noticed that I recently went across to Coventry to visit my family for a week (I might even write a blog post about that at some point), but right before I went away I rustled up a brand new Candy Doll painting. 

it's kind of difficult to snap a photo of since it's on a 24x24" board, so excusing the shoddy colour quality this is what the finished piece looks like. 

 as per usual I posted a stack of candy coloured progress shots to my Instagram as I worked on the painting. See, this is why you should really follow me on Instagram if you don't already! I always remember to post stuff on there, even when I forget to post stuff anywhere else!

early painting progress, colour blocking using liquitex and crafter's acrylic + posca pens.

paint shots! mucky brushes and my chosen messy method of mixing colours in plastic shot glasses.

my favourite part! starting to add in the lineart with Sharpie pens and permanent markers.

lineart complete, time for the background. The Lace very nearly killed me but I got there in the end!

after the lineart was done I taped up the painting and used a mixture of acrylic and spray paint for the background to give it a nice contrasting texture to the smoothness of the posca and acrylic I used for the girl. I always like to keep the colour flat on my work and the only blending I do is usually for whatever rainbow hued hair i've given the latest Candy Doll because blending is fiddly and because that's just how I like to paint!

also, as per usual, I completed the digital version of the design first before I began working on the painting. Here's the full digital version...

so yeah, there you have it, a new painting. Fun times! I'm not sure what to do with her yet, for the time being she's perched on my desk to keep me company while I work but i'll probably try and sell her if I can.

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in other Candy Doll Club News, I recently designed a new sticker to sell in my Etsy Shop

Yes they're food themed! So Feast your eyes on these Girl Gang inspired beauties!
Fries Before Guys x 100% Fresh Boy Tears

the stickers measure 69mm across and are currently for sale in the shop at the bargain price of just £1 + postage for 3 tasty stickers! Get yours HERE

I've already sent a bunch of these babeful stickers off to the UK, America, Australia and Japan! So if you fancy a trio for yourself or to share with your best babes, then go grab some NOW.

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and on that note i'll sign off for now, i'm currently on book number 27 of 2015 (an anthology of H. P. Lovecraft stories, if you're interested) and it's calling to me so i'd better go

cheerio chums! Hopefully it won't be a month before I bother to post again...

What Time Is It...

Hello chums, apologies for the total absence of posts over the past couple of weeks, it's been a tough month so far, i've been feeling unwell recently and it's getting me a bit down. But no matter for here I am THIS week with some new illustrations to show you all!

If you're one of the lovely people who follow me on my various interweb profiles like facebook, twitter, tumblr or instagram then you'll probably have seen me post about the wonder that is Adventure Time at some point.

well Adventure Time is one of my favourite animated shows, I love it for so many reasons, one of which being the fantastic characters that inhabit the Land of Ooo (the world where the show is set) so I decided to draw two of my fave characters from the cast.

So here's my take on Princess Bubblegum and Marceline the Vampire Queen...

Yeah so these two definitely fit into the Candy Doll Club category but with a bit of a twist since technically neither of them are human. But more about that in a moment.

Bit of a backstory for those of you unfamiliar with all things Adventure Time, the show mainly focuses on the adventures and shenanigans of Finn the human and Jake the (magical) dog as well as the many other various inhabitants of the Land of Ooo.

It's a brilliant show for kids of all ages (that includes 23-year-old kids such as myself) with catchy songs, witty storylines and cleverly explained morals and life lessons.

Some of you might remember one of my previous Adventure Time fanart attempts, namely my Ghostbusting Time design featuring Ghostbuster Finn and Slimer ghost Jake (+ ghost princess, cherry blossom ghost and ghost-trap Beemo)

well this time i wanted to have a go at recreating some of the characters in my own style.

 There are so many incredible characters in the show, my brain is already buzzing with ideas for some of the other female characters, all potential future members of the Candy Doll Club for sure!



But for the time being I picked the two I love the most, Princess Bubblegum and Marceline.

So first up we have Bonnibel Bubblegum aka Princess Bubblegum, or PB, is the ruler of the Candy Kingdom

 PB spends most of her time benevolently ruling over the candy people but if she's not helping her loyal subjects you'll find her in the lab cooking up some new chemical concoctions or whipping up a snazzy new invention. She's a total Science whizz, all round genius and she's made entirely of (you guessed it) bubblegum!

Since she's made of gum I tried to go for a slightly different look, so instead of drawing normal hair, I gave her sugar sweet flowing locks of sort of gloopy candy hair (they look a bit like dreads as well I think) + a flask containing one of her latest chemical experiments because SCIENCE!

PB looks about 19 but she's actually over 800 years old! Her best friend is Lady Rainicorn (she's a rainbow striped unicorn in case you were wondering). By the way, PB doesn't have any tattoos because her candy biomass is incompatible with ink. And also needles!

but listen up cause now it's this gal's turn...

Marceline Abadeer aka Marceline the Vampire Queen, a radical dame who likes to play games, musical lyricist, songstress and bass player, 50% demon, 50% vampire, 100% awesome.

Unlike most other vampires, Marcy doesn't feed on blood to survive, instead she can gain sustenance from sinking her fangs into things and drinking shades of red, in particular the red of strawberries.

Unlike her Candy counterpart PB, Marcy has no aversion to needles and her carefully inked sleeves are dedicated to the most important things in her world.

Despite her youthful appearance, Marceline is over 1000 years old and has spent her long life travelling all over the land of Ooo. Marceline's father Hunson Abadeer is ruler of the Nightosphere but Marcy isn't really interested in ruling over the demons, preferring to be Vampire Queen instead.

Marcy and PB don't always see eye to eye on everything but they can work together when necessary, despite bickering and teasing they're still kind of close, even if PB doesn't always agree with Marcy's taste in music.

so that's that. New illustrations always wreck my head for a day or two, probably because i stayed awake until 3am trying to finish them. But oh well.

no plans for this week, but then as you all know I rarely do anything any more that requires me to actually leave my house for more than an hour or two.

so until next time, thanks for stopping by to see the pictures and stuff

cheerio folks!