Nicole Cadet Fantasy Art

Well working from home means that I get the same amount of work done in 5 hours that normally takes 8 when in the office. So to wind down I began sketching :) Working from home was due to radiator leaking all over the place and having to get a mechanic to fix the car as I couldn't drive it. So a little bit poorer, and probably more watchful of my garage floor, at least it's fixed!

Not sure if this will show correctly, but here goes! I've grown to love sketching in photoshop - I'm using copic markers at work to try and do the same kind of stuff when I don't have my computer, but it's not quite the same.

Step 1 - 20 mins



2. Another 45 mins



hair... despite the crappy webcam details I have grey eyes... not brown or green :)

I must say a big (belated!) thank you to ladyithildiel who sent me a present and card for my birthday. It arrived about a week ago - it's lovely, thank you! *hugs*

Using a photos of Elandria as a reference. This one's been on my hard drive for ages, just changed it from a summery scene to a winter scene. Actually felt like painting, and wouldn't you know it I have to review work documents I've been putting off all weekend as I painted and read books.

Haven't had a huge amount of energy for painting recently. I've got 6 weeks until I finish with the Microsoft SDC and am cramming as much techno babble in my brain as possible :) Even when I had a bit of time this weekend to paint, I found it difficult to get into the zone (well photoshop crashing everytime I accessed my sketch folder didn't help either! Turned out to be a psd viewer must have corrupted something in the folder - once I uninstalled it I could access everything again :) )

I really only have time to do a few hours here and there on painting at the moment. Work is really full on and saps me of energy many days. I'm also studying a lot so even the nights I have a couple of hours free I'm turning on the laptop and reading everything from managing Agile development to improving code quality, to looking at code for t4 templates/ Reflections, Linq & Lambda, Anonymous types and a host of coding concepts.

Speedpaints allow me to capture a thought or try something different. I have so many painting ideas in my head, but not the drive to work on anything more than a couple of hours. I've got loads of half finished paintings which I will get back to eventually! Sorry these are farely boring ... but I'm working on capturing light at the moment :)



20 mins Photoshop - Docks (done last weekend I think)



http://nicolecadet.com/Sketch/lightAndShade.jpg (not sure if the image gets chopped off with my current lj layout)

A couple of hours on and off - reference from Tigg Stock (will post to DA with proper credits later)
http://tigg-stock.deviantart.com/art/Grunge-Angel-stock-49-105575471

Speedpaint (2nd attempt after the first try got killed by photoshop during the save :( ) 1/2 hour

Am researching masks, asian costumes, naginatas and desert landscapes for my next commission :)

Silver Dragon Sidhe - done!




Colour concept for Sophia, goddess of wisdome (Gnostic). Is a watercolour piece, but I quite like the way the digital version has come up. Still got a few details to work through.

I has books :)

Finally got to the post office to pick up my order and everything was there. I got Shadowline by Ian McCaig which I was really excited about (here's a review http://parkablogs.blogspot.com/2009/01/book-review-shadowline-art-of-iain.html with piccies). I also got some Victoria Frances books which were nice too (only had a quick flick through so no doubt will enjoy them later :) )

Mere, got your package! The book is lovely! I'll be reading through it a bit later, and also figuring out where I can put up the prints :)

Anyway, I have been painting (and sketching - haven't scanned those in yet so you only get to see digital stuff)

( Some WIP painting stuff behind the cut... )

Uploading some photos I took ages ago.

GNW event photos here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/riverhaven/pool/tags/gnw/ (I was too lazy to sort out from last years :( ) But we had some cool things apart from the fire tourney, like the Japanese swords demonstration.

Anyway - this is one of the costumes I wore (mainly during the day on Sun & today cos it was rather warm. No clouds, very hot sun. Probably was only about 24 degrees, but it was warm enough! I actually didn't wear the apron, but had a straw hat instead. ) It's waiting to be soaked in a bucket because there is a 3inch layer of mud along the hem. (The preview is chopping the photo sorry!)

Just got back from having a lovely chat with a friend for a few hours, despite feeling less than ordinary at work for most of the day. I got given a dark pink woolen dress (Nina, you are awesome!) to wear at Great Northern war so I don't freeze, and I picked up a couple of metres of mid blue patterned linen. Pity I'm going out to help set up for GNW tomorrow, otherwise I'd be sewing! I'm also supposed to be getting a sideless surcoat done up in some pale blue brocade. I know, I could probably sew it myself, but time just runs away from me! I'll make sure I get photos up at GNW next weekend.

What have I been up to???

• Work, work, work. Putting in crazy hours without even trying. Absorbing all the Microsofty goodness, even though I'm still not getting to code much :( Write lots of design doco stuff and doing investigation work to give to developers to code up. But it's new, and it's shiny, and it's pretty!
• Over the weekend I went to a small sing-along with an SCA crowd. Music in the SCA is a mix of traditional music, original compositions that are rooted in medieval themes/ stories, and 'filk' - modern songs where the words have been changed, often with a humourous overtone. Personally I'm more interested in traditional music, however I enjoy singing any song with a decent tune
• Feverishly trying to finish a costume for Great Northern War. Will have a new hood, a pink woolen dress, and a brocade sideless surcoat
• Organising costumes for tonight for a group of friends coming to GNW with me *yay*

Finished a commission piece. Still got to mail it :(. Should have done it last night - it's one of the annoying things with post offices being open only when I'm at work, or over the weekend when we had flooding. But, I just found some stamps in my wallet so I might have enough for postage.


Silver Mage by =nixjim13 on deviantART

Heya, it's doubtful that the news has made it outside of Australia, but if anyone's seen on the news that Brisbane is flooding, be assured I'm ok :) We're expecting a storm surge that may cause flooding not that far from where I live, but I'm on high ground.

So I finally got a bed for Mum to stay in when she comes to visit. I've had twinges of guilt everytime I pull out the trundle bed, set it up in the lounge room, and look at the spare room full of boxes. It's clear my Mum is high on my priority when boxes of fabric, old toys, my brother's crap*, books, an assortment of art supplies, and my unfolded washing have a better place to stay than said mother.

This is how awesome my mother is, and how bad  a daughter I am ;) ...

[Mum] Hey you know how you keep saying you're going to get a bed for the spare room ...

[me] Yeah, I keep saying that don't I?

[Mum] Well how would you like a single bed

[me] Ah sure... (free stuff is always cool, though moving into 2 bedroom apartment means I'm somewhat more selective)

[Mum] You know that spare bed that no one ever sleeps on cos no one ever comes to visit (I'm not included in the 'no one' since I actually claim the spare room with the double bed. Other visitors don't get daughter's privilieges. I'll bring them an air mattress if they want to complaing :))

[me] Yes...

[Mum] well I'm bringing it up on Saturday. Does 8:30am suit you?

[me] ... ah sure

[Mum] great, see you then. Oh, and by the way, we are going to your Aunt's on Sunday so can you make a cake. I love you!
[dial tone...]

Well not really, we talked about 5 minutes more before we hung up. And then the wheels kicked in and I realised that I would have to move said crap somewhere and make room for the bed. And oh my goodness, I haven't cleaned that room since I moved in six months ago... if the curtains are anything like the rest of the house, they will try to fight me when I pull them down and stand up and walk away when I finally get them off the windows.

So long story short, I finally got bed in the room after much moving and manouvering. The curtains were disgusting - people who smoke inside should be shot, or at least have to clean the house within an inch of it's life - feral! (Yes, I hate smoking with a passion, and if you've never looked at curtains in a room someone has smoked in, they go yellow and sticky *bleh*. Half my stuff is still in the loungeroom ... though I don't think boxes and easels count as decorating statements. The bed is wedged in there with boxes holding it against the wall in case it tries to flee. I have to sort them out, but that's next weekend's job.

Sunday was nice, mothers day drivers suck, and Mum loved her potted pansies & violas that I did up for her. No store bought present for me this year, I went to effort and potted up a bunch of flowers so she has sunshiny happy flowers outside her window... that will last hopefully longer than plants I tend to grow :( If they last beyond a month at my place, they are generally indestructible! I'm not that bad, apart from the whole forgetting to water them. Lord help me if I got a pet ever again! 



* (I found another 2 boxes, after forcing him to cart 7 boxes of his stuff down to the garage when he couldn't fit them in the car last time he visited. I'm holding a 70+ year old silk painting of tigers as ransom. He gets the awesome kitty picture back when he takes back all his crap)

Photoshop 1/2 hour.
Topic: The fortress. It's a bit more fairy tale castle than fortress, and not really all that grungy like I'd planned.

ANZAC day and Rememberance day always have an important place in my heart, given that my father was army, and my brother is airforce. I grew up surrounded by military.

This year I ended up playing paintball skirmish with some guys I know... I'm still wondering how I got roped in. To say I was somewhat apprehensive was pretty accurate... I'm sure there was excitement in there too ... somewhere. It was hot, and my prayers for rain or cancellation never came. Peer pressure got me onto the field and I kind of enjoyed it by the end. Though the idea of someone shooting at you the first 20 minutes kind of freaked me out.

I was soaked with sweat by the end, with a few sore muscles, but not a bruise on me. I used all my paintballs, and the only people I know I got for sure were unfortunately on my own team *oops*

So now I've showered, killed any good work done by all that exercise with MacDonalds for dinner, I think the rush has worn off and I'm ready for bed :)

Sorry there hasn't been much on the art front at the moment (well nothing that I can show anyway)! I'm not sure what I've officially said, but I'm doing major project work at the day job, which involves working on a joint coding project with Microsoft. It's fantastic and I'm having far too much fun doing .net 3.5 development (C# & VB for geeky people out there) :) I'm working hard, learning heaps, and some days feel like I'm barely home. But I'm enjoying every minute of it. I've got 5 days off coming up over Easter so I might get something done.

BTW, I haven't forgotten about print requests, I just got sidetracked :(

Speedpaint: "Yellow"
Photoshop: 45mins. Yup, I've been programming Unreal Tournament bots as coding exercises... so it's kind of rubbed off!

Woot! Step 1 in website update is done! I've taken my shop offline for the moment, I just couldn't stand seeing the broken CSS any more ... it's been killing me by slow degrees that I hadn't fixed what FF3 broke (mainly because I knew I was redoing the site anyway). Because I've been doing in small chunks, it's taken me a while. It's gone through at least 3 or 4 completely different designs, but I've finally settled on a more illustrative feel, which is actually fairly close to the original set of colours I started with back in 2003!

No doubt there are some issues with the site so I'll have to keep an eye on it, and I've still got to do the shop part, but I can live with it :)

Anyways, I'll start rebranding my blogs and such in a while :)

http://www.nicolecadet.com



The old pages are still floating around, I'll remove them eventually :)

And now I have to go back to commission work and coding exercises ... while trying not to cough myself inside out! Stupid respiratory infection!

Please note, I'm not allowing use of my images for tagging anymore. I got a bit fed up with people disregarding the few requirements I have, though I'm happy forladyithildiel and the people in her community to keep on playing with my images :) Avatars I'm fine with as long as they aren't commissioned pieces. Ask me questions if things aren't clear :)

Photoshop & Painter