Monday 23 January 2017

Pet Portraits - Dexter

Morning everyone,

Today I have for you a traditional pet portrait commission, one that came on in right at the end of all the Christmas commissions for a January birthday gift!

Let me introduce you to Dexter the yellow Labrador!



This commission was coloured using pencil colours on A4 cartridge paper.
If you would like to see more of my pet portraits, caricatured and traditional, then please click here!

Like what you see? Then please get in touch to commission me to draw a portrait of your pet; sara-dunkerton@hotmail.com 

Wednesday 11 January 2017

Pet Portraits - Avatar Cats

We're going back to the pet portraits with this blog post today!

Commissioned by Tom (who I met at Bristol con last year) he requested that I draw his friend's two cats Mako and Bolin as their namesakes from the animated TV series The Legend of Korra, based on Avatar: The Last Airbender, as a gift for christmas.

So depicted below is Mako, with black fur and red scarf bending Fire alongside Bolin, the tabby who is Earthbending.


I found this commission quite an interesting one to do as it meant researching the specific Earth and Fire bending poses and putting them together into a almost a yin-yang, dance-like composition.

This commission is A4 in size and coloured using Copic Markers. If you'd like to see more pet portraits that I've been commissioned to do then please click here to see a range of caricatured and traditional illustrations of our furry (and feathered) friends.

If you'd like to commission me to draw your pet, then please get in touch: sara-dunkerton@hotmail.com

Tuesday 10 January 2017

Botanical Fairies

As you can see from my earlier posts the pet portraits have really begun to take off, which is great! I really enjoy doing them!

However this commission I'm going to share with you today was a request for something completely different, but equally exciting.

Last year I took part in the Inktober challenge and used it as an opportunity to get some little ideas out of my head. I used the theme of Botanical Fairies to turn flowers, fruit, vegetables and other plants into little creatures all of which I posted daily (or as dally as I could) on my Instagram.

I dedicated no more than roughly 10 mins per sketch so they are rough and undeveloped, but the stepping stone to some interesting character design and potentially a series of prints!
Well someone else saw the potential in them and commissioned me to draw their favourite four as a christmas present for their sister.

The four that they chose were Dandelion, Thistle, Lavender and Blackberry.






Using real life reference and my Inktober doodles as a starting point I was able to develop the ideas further into these 6x4 inked and watercoloured illustrations. 

You can check out my original Inktober sketches for Dandelion, Thistle, Lavender and Blackberry by clicking the links on their names, or take a look at my Instagram as a whole here!
If these have taken you're fancy then please take a look through the rest and I'll happily re-create any of them for you!

Monday 9 January 2017

Pet Portraits - King Charley

Morning all!

Today I'm sharing with you yet another commission requested as a Christmas present!
You may remember the portraits I did previously of The Goblin King, Batroc, Peckasus and Hawkeye? Well this portrait was commissioned by the same person, but this time he asked me to immortalise his Granddad's cat in in the same style.

This feline considered himself King of the household, so here is King Charley sat imperiously on his throne!

 
 

This commission is A3 in size and coloured using Copic Markers, the text also is hand drawn.

Pet portraits are a specialty of mine, be they traditional or caricatured like this one.
Check them all out by clicking here!

If you'd like to commission me to draw your pet, please get in touch: sara-dunkerton@hotmail.com

Friday 6 January 2017

Pet Portraits - Rodent Family Portrait

Hey Everyone,

I've another Christmas commission to share with you!
This one is a group portrait depicting small furries, past and present, belonging to one couple. The pets are caricatured to the style of MULP but instead of being drawn as their namesakes they instead have certain subtle characteristics which nod to the characters that lent them their names.

So without further a-do, I give you Pikachu the Hamster, DD (short for Daredevil) and Foggy the rats and JL (short of "Just looking") the Hamster!

This commission is A3 in size and coloured using Copic Markers.

If you'd like to see more pet portraits that I've been commissioned to do then please click here to see a range of caricatured and traditional illustrations of our furry (and feathered) friends.

If you'd like to commission me to draw your pet, then please get in touch: sara-dunkerton@hotmail.com

Thursday 5 January 2017

Pet Portraits - Cosplaying Kittens

Happy 2017 Everyone!

It's a new year and now that I've tied up a few loose ends from last year in my previous convention write ups, I can begin sharing with you the works I was commissioned to create as gifts for Christmas!

So to kick things off, here is a super cute pet portrait commissioned by Jeremy Briggs for his sister featuring Dobby and Stitch the kittens dressed as their namesakes!



This commission is A4 in size and coloured using Copic Markers.

If you'd like to see more pet portraits that I've been commissioned to do then please click here to see a range of caricatured and traditional illustrations of our furry (and feathered) friends.

If you'd like to commission me to draw your pet, then please get in touch: sara-dunkerton@hotmail.com

Tuesday 3 January 2017

Thought Bubble 2016


There's one more convention write up that I need to catch up on before I can start 2017's posts properly on this blog, and that's for one of the best cons of the year, Thought Bubble!

So once again, I'm going to take you back in time to the weekend of the 5th and 6th of November 2016, where Thought Bubble Comic Art Festival was a-happening in Leeds!


The whole Improper gang was back together again for the con, the table keeps getting more and more full each year! In fact this year we had to install a rota system for when each of the artists would be at the table because there simply wasn't enough room for us all to sit there and sketch!

Bevis Musson had copies of his excellent Dead Queen Detectives as well as Knight and Dragon. Matt Gibbs and I had all three issues of MULP: Sceptre of the Sun on show. Laura was sporting some beautifully gift wrapped and wax sealed copies of Night Post, whereas Ben Read and Chris Wildgoose had copies of Butterfly GateBriar, Porcelain and Bone China, along with the free 12 page preview of the latest Porcelain instalment; Ivory Tower!


Since MULP: Sceptre of the Sun #3 made it's convention debut at Nottingham Comic Con we had a few really lovely reviews pour in;

In Review: MULP - Sceptre of the Sun #3

The lovely Jeremey Briggs reviewed our latest issue on downthetubes.net

"Artist Sara Dunkerton certainly does not make things easy for herself with many impressive full page-width panels featuring multiple characters, one has 15 rodents in it, panels which she is making more and more cinematic as the story progresses. However for me it is the amount of pathos and, dare I say, humanity that Sara is able to get into her characters’ little furry faces that really impresses with her artwork."

As always, thank you very much Jeremy!


Comics Anonymous MULP: Sceptre of the Sun #3

Over on the Comics Anonymous blog Gary Watson gives us another sterling review

"Intricate in its story, epic in its art and slick in its execution we end up with an all-age book that has “animate me” written all over it. The best issue so far from the team and Improper Books has surely got a winning team working on a winning release."

Thanks again Gary!

Page 45: MULP #3 review

And Nottingham's best comics retailer Page 45 have put ups a review of issue #3 alongside their website listing where you can purchase it!

"I love how so many visual clues have been embedded in the various mythical accounts, along with extra allusions to the likes of Prometheus. It all ties together so satisfyingly."

Cheers guys, you're the best!

Back to Though Bubble though, and the fantastic time that was had by us all!

Thank you to everyone that stopped by the table, there were so many of you who had bought MULP #1 and were coming back for #2 and #3! I even had people bringing their previously bought and unsigned issues to have them sketched in! I have to say that on one occasion I had a queue for signing and sketches that could almost rival Chris's! (Though I remain quite proud in the fact that I managed to sign and sketch in three books for every one that Chris did)

Many other people came by to pick up the full works on the recommendation of others, so thank you to you all! Especially to Elenore Hollindrake creator of Dragon Mouse, who we met last year. She came along with a new collection of Fantasy Dragons and we spent the weekend pointing rodent lovers over to each other's tables.

And lastly, as always it was fantastic to catch up with everyone who attended. I only ever see most of you once at year at Thought Bubble, but it's always fantastic to spend a few moments catching up! Thanks also to the organisers, the Red Shirts and the Roller Grrrls for all your hard work and for volunteering your time! You all rock!

I am looking forward to Thought Bubble 2017 and what the new date and venue have in store!

Nottingham Comic Con 2016 - MULP #3 Launch!


Although 2016 has seen itself through to the New Year already I suddenly find myself drastically behind in all the write-ups and blogs I didn't get round to posting before the year was out!

So I'm going to start 2017 by tying up all the loose ends before I do anything else. One such loose end is my write up of Nottingham Comic Con!

So lets take a short trip back in time to Saturday 29th of Novemeber 2016, where MULP: Sceptre of the Sun made it's second appearance at Nottingham Comic Convention along with Chris and Laura Wildgoose with Improper Books.


 As well as our usual array of books, from all ages Knight and Dragon and Night Post to the darker tales of Porcelain and Briar, our table was also sporting the latest release from the Improper fold and celebrating the launch of our own MULP: Sceptre of the Sun #3!




It was great to be back at Nottingham, it is such a pleasant con to exhibit at!
We saw many people returning to get the latest instalment of MULP, as well as new faces starting their collection. It was also great to have an opportunity to hang out and catch up with so many other creators and friends, much fun was had in the evening and I was glad to be staying another night!

Chris and Laura were on top form also sketching and signing in books as well as appearing on panels, despite being fresh from travels to Paris and their tour with Delcourt, the publishers of the French edition of Porcelaine! Read about it on the Improper Blog here!


Big big thanks for everyone who stopped by our table, it's been proven for a second year running that Nottingham loves mice! So Thanks for coming and making it such a great con to exhibit at! Thanks also to the organisers for taking care of us and extra special thanks to Kev who invited us along again!

I'm very much looking forward to Nottingham 2017!