Die Trying

© Sybille Sterk

Do not copy or publish this in any way, shape or form without my written permission.
A quote by Groucho Marx.

I wanted to play with my new fonts and some of the cool vector graphic sets I just bought and a couple of vintage illustrations. The fonts are (from top to bottom): Abegnale, Bobbin, Eveleth Slant and Monstro. All combined and coloured in a played around with in Photoshop. :-)

On Society6:

The Crow's Treasures

© Sybille Sterk

Do not copy or publish this in any way, shape or form without my written permission.

This is a digital collage of images from various (vintage) resources, including some I bought, some which are in the public domain and some from The Graphics Fairy. I added my own flair and and imagination and a little magic to make this. 

It tells a story. What do you think it is about?

On Society6:

Also check out my new cases for smart phones and tablet on TheKase

My Happy Ever After

© Sybille Sterk

Do not copy or publish this in any way, shape or form without my written permission.

Another of my posters, this time with a fairy tale theme. Hand drawn on paper, then photographed and coloured in on the computer. Mostly my own patterns with a couple from Pixels & Icecream thrown in.

All other images/textures/brushes my own or bought. Edited with Photoshop.

All my images are available on Redbubble, Artflakes, Society6 and Bluecanvas as prints, cards, posters, skins for laptops, Blackberry, iPhones and other phones (for the skins go to Bluecanvas). You can now also get most of my images on cushion covers (go to Society6 for these).

Special Free Shipping Promotion on Society6. Check it out here.

Free Shipping*

Promotion expires February 10, 2013 at Midnight Pacific Time.  

*Offer excludes Framed Art Prints, Stretched Canvases and Throw Pillows with insert.

One for you and one for me

 

© Sybille Sterk
Do not copy or publish this in any way, shape or form without my written permission.

One for you and one for me. I knitted the fingerless gloves from a pattern I found on Craftsy for a friend for Christmas. The dragon was a present for me from a friend. :-) Little wave to uniqart.

Happy New Year everyone! Hope all your wishes come true.

Back to work....

My computer is finally back (well all new since the old one couldn't be rescued.... ) However, thanks to my favourite in-house technical wizard I am now flying. :-)

Here are a couple of new iPhone cases I produced on the laptop:

CYR53-95GR4-D37KH

Dragon Mine - buy it here

Credits on the Redbubble Page. Special thanks to Rudy Bagozzi for allowing me to use his fabulous snake skin texture.

  

MCN: CRW52-FGRAS-MATXD

The First People (hommage to my favourite ever TV series Fringe) - buy it here

More to come soon.

Mark of the Dragon

MCN: CDGMN-JS63U-VF8FS

 MCN: CH4G8-AMTN5-8TDAB

I had great fun today painting a dragon (or rather part of a dragon) on my son's arm and hand. He felt slightly tortured at having to sit still for half an hour, but I thought it was well worth the time. :-)

In case you're wondering what paints I used - it's all makeup. Since makeup is designed to go on skin it goes on and is removed easily and it also is less likely to itch or create skin irritation.The dragon skin in the background is from a picture of a Jackfruit I took ages ago.
I couldn't decide which of the two images I liked better, so here's the close-up of the dragon's eye as well.

All my own photographs and my own freehand drawing on the arm/hand.

Plus the following textures:

• Another Mixed Texture Set by Shadowhouse
• 6 Faves Texture Sets 1 by Shadowhouse
• Scratch The Surface Texture Set by Shadowhouse

The China Doll Murders - Photo Manipulation

 

 

 And another mock book cover, this time with a crime thriller theme. :-)

Credits

Model

• China Doll v.2 - 9 by squid-STOCK

Backgrounds and Textures

• Oriental Black 1 by inspyretash-stock
• Oil Painting 5 by Shadowhouse

Brushes

• Tattoo PS7 Brushes by CloakofStars
• Hair brush set by para-vine

Font

• Belisa Plumilla Manual by Lughdailh

All other images/textures/stock/brushes my own.

MCN: CJWEH-QU525-EU25L

Dragon's Eye - Experiment - Variations

This was an experiment.

MCN:CGGW3-V768U-Q3ENP

I painted the original in Corel Painter and then used it as a base for 'Altered Art' by adding textures and photographs to make a new altered image.

I wanted to try out the different effects of different textures on the image and see what variations I could achieve using this technique. I overlayed the image with textures and added photos but barely changed the original, in some cases not at all.

The idea for the orginal was to make it suitable for manipulation as I wanted to integrate the techniques used in photo manipulation in my digital paintings to create a new style. I've always been using the patterns and papers in Corel Painter, but this is going a step further by integrating textures and photographs.

Woods Dragon

MCN: CAVAR-BLVND-21LMP

She was completely lost in the woods. There was no sign of habitation and no sense of the woods ending. She struggled through leaf mulch, over roots, snagging her dress on bramble and snapping twigs. Eventually, when it began to get dark she saw an orange light shimmering through the trees. With nowhere else to go, this seemed as good a direction to head towards than any. She parted the branches in front of her and looked a huge glowing eye. Her heart took a double beat and she tried to retreat back, away from the huge beast....

Credits:

• Texture 41 - Sirius SDZ
• Candle Smoke - wasd
• Grunge Textures 04 - Goodtextures

The leaves surrounding the dragon's eye are all photographs I took with the intention of using them to frame my illustrations. All other textures used in the image are mine, too.

Tapestry Dragon 

MCN: C5LJU-USVJY-9HTGT

She had followed the instruction in the book to the letter, followed one landmark after the other until it lead her here to this dirty window in a part of town she had never been before. She wouldn’t have believed that there was any part of the town that she did not know, hadn’t been before, but the book had lead her here. She decided to follow the rest of the instructions. Standing in front of the window, she rubbed the glass, the looked through. Right behind the window was a tapestry wall, framed by tatty velvet red curtains. She spoke the spell under her breath. A huge eye opened in the tapestry wall. The oracle had awoken…

Credits:

• Dirty Glass - Enframed
• Concrete Bunker - Goodtextures
• Paper Texture - Night-Fate-Stock
• Texture 28 - Night-Fate-Stock
• Backblech 01 - Sundel
• Curtain 03 - LunaNYXstock
• Art Nouveau Pattern Texture - Enchantedgal-Stock

Stone Dragon

 MCN: CXVTY-UGKNP-VFEKE

He had lost his way amongst the tall oaks long ago, when he came across a crumbling wall. Behind it loomed a huge structure, partly overgrown with moss, grasses and wildflowers. He decided to climb the wall. Laboriously he looked for handholds amongst the crevices between the stones. Finally, he reached the top of the wall and looked across it. At first he couldn't make out what he was looking at, then he realised it was a huge reptilian eye. It blinked....

Credits:

• Texture 145 - Sirius SDZ
• Texture 117 - Sirius SDZ
• Paperstock 13 - HateStock
• Bryn Metal Decay 17 - Enframed

All other textures and photos are my own:

The ivy is one of my photos I took at Sawston Hall and the stone wall at the front is part of a wall in the Colosseum in Rome.
________________________
Please let me know which variation (or the original) you like best:

 

  

  

If you'd like to know how I created these variations, check out my journal entry on Redbubble.

The Dragon's Heart - Set

There's something about dragons that just seems to fascinate me. I was going to makes something really feminine with those handmade beads with rose gold, but the design would just not come together, however, once I started to think dragon, it was all there. LOL Remember the Dragon's Tale necklace? I bought both sets of beads from the same supplier and I am so pleased I did, they're absolutely wonderful.

Dragon's Heart

Here is the necklace of the set.


I've used: handmade beads in pink and gold, oval garnet, red coral, pale rosy pink chalcedony, white turquoise, deep red mookaite, carved big and smooth small ebony beads, and finally a lovely vintage heart shaped copper wire cage.

I've made my own wire swirls to give the necklace texture, I cut, filed, shaped and sanded copper sheet into a dragon's tail complete with a scaly texture, I made my own clasp and jump rings. Each bead was wire wrapped with different gauges of copper wire.

Finally, the necklace was dipped in liver of sulphur, cleaned, and polished with olive oil.

Here's the dragon's heart in detail: a vintage wire cage attached to the chain with sterling silver wire and the heart made of garnet and coral.


Here's the pretty clasp. One lovely round hook and a round ring wrapped with thinner wire. You can also see one of the lovely handmade beads in detail.


Here is the dragon's tail in detail:


A selection of the wonderful beads. The ebony beads are from my supplier on Etsy e&e Bungalow - the same one I used for the Sea in a Nutshell necklace. The necklace is very long, but can be worn wrapped around the neck, or with a particularly slim neck three times wrapped around. :-)


Here is the matching bracelet although it's more versatile than that as is can either be wrapped three times around a medium sized wrist or worn as a necklace. The materials used are the same as for the necklace above, except, I used a small vintage copper wire cage rather than the large heart cage.


Here's the cool clasp I made - it's meant to look a bit like a curled up dragon.



Here's the bracelet when worn three times around the wrist. It looks all luscious and gorgeous with an abundance of beads.

Both available in my Etsy shop soon... Promise!