Ant Images and Art

Wildlife and Landscape Photography Blog; Watercolour Blog

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Design for one of my minor characters - a Saxhleel from The Elder Scrolls and the adoptive father of one of my main OC’s!

This Saxhleel is based on the banded sea krait.

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Winsor & Newton, Sennelier and Schminke watercolours; Winsor & Newton Gouache and Ink; Staedtler Colouring Pencils on Arches Hot Pressed Paper

Gift Art I did for @ghartokpadhome of her OC’s S’en and Drelethyn, and his guar, Auro! I absolutely love these characters, they are wonderfully developed and their story is a brilliant one.

Here I’ve used one of my favourite quotes by Terry Pratchett. I wanted to paint S’en and Drelethyn in one of their rare happy moments. I imagine S’en and Drelethyn are on their way to explore a Dwemer ruin. Meanwhile Auro is determined to eat Drelethyn’s Akaviri sword. Auro will eat anything, particularly if it’s shiny.

I got the idea that guar would have armour whilst sketching this piece, and am planning to develop this idea more. I imagine that the chanfron (the bit of armour that covers the head) traditionally has a spike attached to it. But Auro headbutts everyone, so Drelethyn removed it.

As for the tail armour, I had to give it an Ankylosaurus-like club because guar probably have powerful tails.

I am absolutely thrilled with how this piece came out - this was my first time painting on hot press paper and also the first time I’ve ever transferred a sketch onto watercolour paper! I’m also still getting the hang of drawing digitigrade feet and have never sketched them from the front before, so I’m very pleased with how they came out.

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Netch Calf makes a Friend

Winsor & Newton Watercolours, Gouache and Ink on Winsor & Newton Cold Press Paper.

Netches seem like some of Tamriel’s most curious creatures and I love them (and Bantam Guars) so much I just had to paint one!

This piece was very fun to paint. I was able to practice and learn several techniques as well. Overall I am very happy with how this piece turned out!

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Painting (plus sketch and inked version) of one of my OC’s, an Altmer from The Elder Scrolls. She’s a member of the Psijic Order and has some ties to House Redoran. Her armour is of a Dunmer design, but is a hybrid of elven armour plates and ebony spikes. These spikes are enchanted to flattened when needed and will flare out when an attacker charges. She made this armour whilst in Blacklight with the help of some Redoran blacksmiths.

This armour is based on a headcanon of mine that the Dunmer modelled their armour after insects and invertebrates. This is why her armour has multiple parts, such as on the arms, as these are replicating how an invertebrate’s legs look. The spikes are specifically based on the spikes found on an insect’s tibia (and are inspired by the spikes on my pet cockroach!)

Her armour was painted with Finetec Gold paints, these paints are honestly amazing.

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their art is perfect

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who?

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the my mutual reading this

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@ants-art

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Awww! Thank you! Your art is also brilliant!

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Gift art for @shadowy-dumbo-octopus of two of her OC’s! Vex is the one on the left, he’s an extremely powerful demon with some awesome powers. I chose to paint Vex in his human form; he usually takes the form of Erik’s shadow. Erik is the guy on the right, he’s an elf and scientist, conducting all sorts of dark experiments. Erik is also a warlock, Vex being his demon however the two are dating and cause chaos where ever they go. They could destroy the world if they wanted to, but Vex is more interested in stealing another popcorn machine from the local cinema.

Not sure what Erik is talking about here, but these two are planning to eat all the ice-cream in the ice-cream parlour!

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A flower I painted in art class last week! This painting took two hours. Botanical painting takes a long time but I love it!

Did several different techniques here but I’m really pleased with the greens as I chose to blend Lemon Yellow and Prussian Blue to get all my greens! I’m trying to learn how to blend paints better.

Colours used:

Prussian Blue

Lemon Yellow Hue

Cadmium Yellow

Dioxazine Purple

Indigo

I also used an orange and a red but I can’t remember their names

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Practice piece! Really pleased with how the lineart came out in this one! This was also a chance for me to test out my fan brush! I do need to get a smaller one but it was a lot of fun to use.

This is another of my OCs. Another Dunmer from Elder Scrolls, she’s a Twin Lamps member and has been living in Argonia since just before the Oblivion Crisis. She lost her lower left arm during her times in Morrowind and now uses a bound arm in replacement of her physical arm, she can extend this arm and can use it as a weapon.

The scars on her face were from where she had to have her Dunmeri tattoos removed.

Colours used:

Cadmium Red Pale Hue

Phthalo Blue

Lemon Yellow Hue

Dioxazine Purple

Cadmium Red Deep Hue

Hooker’s Green Light

Lamp Black

Indigo

Permanent Rose

Viridian Hue

Iridescent Medium

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Gift art I did for @azurasblacksheep of her Dunmer OC’s (Gilmyn Ramarys) name in Daedric. This is a watercolour (colours used were cadmium red deep hue and yellow ochre) and ink piece.

The first picture is a photograph taken in bright daylight, the second picture is a scan, as you can see both pictures vary quite a bit! The first picture is very close to how the painting looks in person, however I like how the scan came out, so I decided to upload both versions!

When I was checking how Daedric is written I found out that the letter Y isn’t included very often. The use of the letter Y by the Dunmer seems to show a pattern of being written down in names. So I developed a small headcanon that the letter Y is only written in a Dunmer’s last name as that is a Dunmer’s family/clan name. So the Y is written down in order to fully respect the family/clan as family is very important to the Dunmer. However the individual is considered less important and so the Y is not written down, it would only be included if an individual was deeply respected. Sometimes the Y in a Dunmer’s first name may be written down by another as a show of great respect, such as if they were writing down the name of a close friend.

This is why I have written Gilmyn’s name as Gilmn Ramarys.

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I recently got a dip pen and drawing ink and decided that my first practice piece would be The One Ring’s inscription! I’ve never used a dip pen before so I was really pleased with the outcome!

I did this on two sheets of A5 watercolour paper. I thought that A5 paper would be big enough to fit the whole inscription on but it turns out it wasn’t.

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Lineart I may paint in the near future. Watercolour paper is really nice to sketch on.

This is a concept piece for one of my OCs, a Dunmer from The Elder Scrolls. This isn’t how he normally looks, this is after he gets back from tracking down and arresting an enemy of his (he spends 6 months to a year hunting this person down in the marshes of southern Morrowind. He cannot kill this enemy because of Dunmer Politics. He also really hates killing anyone and would be very reluctant to use the Morag Tong as well). His ears are drooping like that due to a parasite he picked up in the marshes. He does have rather long ears for a Dunmer, this is just something I decided to give him.

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Another study! This one is of the long-tailed tit (Aegithalos caudatus), one of my favourite birds! This bird is so small and adorable, it’s just a little ball of fluff!

I surprised myself a lot as this is actually the first bird I’ve ever painted! I have sketched birds before but never painted them, so I was very pleased with the result!

In this picture I was learning/practicing how to paint on feathers. Again I am still getting used to washes, hence the background looking spotty.

Colours Used:

Lamp Black

Burnt Umber

Phthalo Blue

Alizarin Crimson

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This piece was painted a few months ago and has just been sitting around! I was really pleased with the smokey effect I got.

Here we have Ammet and Khaba from Jonthan Stroud’s Ring of Solomon. I think a prisioner is being uncooperative, so Khaba has decided to introduce his prisioner to Ammet...

Colours Used:

Lamp Black

Burnt Umber

Sap Green

Viridian Hue

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Practice piece testing out my new brush pens - turns out they’re also excellent for removing mistakes!

Here is a concept piece for the cover of a Dunmeri children’s story I plan to write! (I’m planning on doing a whole series!) I do love silt striders a lot, I just had to paint one!

(I will most likely repaint and redesign this piece at some point)

Colours used:

Lamp Black

Burnt Umber

Yellow Ochre

The green was either Sap Green or Hooker’s Green (Light) but I can’t remember!

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A study of a Glaucus atlanticus (one of its common names being the blue dragon sea slug), this sea slug is so beautiful it is hard to believe it exists! This was a beautifully simple animal to paint!

I was mainly testing out my Winsor & Newton Iridescent Medium. This medium is just incredible and so fun to paint with! I found applying it onto a dried wash worked best.

Please excuse the wash - I’m still getting used to handling washes and learning how much water they require. I applied it afterwards  As I wasn’t sure what a light blue would do on a dry green wash.

I did use some Masking Fluid here, but as I’m new to Masking Fluid, wanted to test it on a small area, rather than the whole sea slug!

Overall I’m really pleased with how this piece turned out! I’m just in love with this Iridescent Medium!

Colours used:

Phthalo/Intense Blue

Ultramarine

Viridian Hue

All were Winsor&Newton Cotman

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‘Northern Gannet at St. Kilda’

I was fortunate enough to visit the legendary islands of St. Kilda in 2015 and ended up getting this amazing shot! I was so pleased with this as the boat was rocking about a lot!

The northern gannet has a very large colony out at St. Kilda and is the largest seabird of the northern Atlantic. They take 5 years to reach their adult plumage, and are also my favourite of the pelagic birds!

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‘Rain over Mull’

This photo was certainly an adventure to take! I went for a walk on the Isle of Mull, going from where I was staying and up onto a hill. Due to my walking boots being soaked, I had to wear my walking sandles. There was no path and I had to walk through the bog you can see in the picture. The water was ice-cold but the view were worth it!

I came to a flat area and saw the stunning area above, suddenly the hills of Mull looked far bigger and the rain cast a perfect atmospheric light over the hills!