Author: Dïne

2027 Mushroom Ladies Calendar is almost here!

| Dïne

Kia Ora my lovely tribe!


I am super excited to let you know that I almost finished my calendar on time this year!

Only a couple of weeks out of schedule. Which means that maybe next year will be The Year, the year when I will not end up super stressed about running late.

Who knows, miracle exists (maybe?).

ANYWAY!

This year winning illustrations are the Mushroom ladies.

They are back! Last Shroomy calendar what 3 years ago if I remember right?
I am so very happy to show you the one I chose out of my Flash Tattoo Collection.

I picked 13 of them, plus one for the cover.

They are all badass, generous and powerful ladies. I added some colors, a wee bit of a background and I triple checked if my dates were right. (Yes we all remember the Fiasco of my very first Calendar, from another Era, when I got literally ALL THE DATES wrong. But the illustrations were cool?😅)

Each year, I choose a cause to donate to. This year, powered by the unfortunately very eventful year it has been for several of my dear friends, I chose to donate to the Women’s Refuge.

WHAT’S THE WOMEN’S REFUGE??

This is an organization which as for purpose to liberate women, children, families and whānau from family violence. They also work with 41 affiliated Refuges throughout New Zealand. They are providing women with a warm bed, a safe, secure place to rest, and the wrap-around support they need to rebuild their life.

Find out more about them HERE and about the safe nights program HERE..

HOW IS THE CALENDAR GOING TO HELP??

By buying some cool and powerful artwork for your wall, you will also participate to a donation to the safe nights program. For each calendar sold, 5nzd will go towards the donation.

(the rest of it will pay for the production of the calendar itself, as well as a wage for the time I worked on the project)

The more calendars sold, the more safe nights we can help to provide. So feel free to talk to your friends about the project, to spoil your besties and to cover your friend’s walls for the new year!

Ngā mihi, thank you for your support, and I hope you will love this year’s illustrations!


Dïne

(actually, it’s 13 + the cover huhu)

New Mushroom Art Collection!

| Dïne


Why a new collection, would you ask? Because I HAD to.

I have been struggling again with eating disorders this year, extreme fatigue, a bit of dismorphia, lot of imposter syndrome and low self esteem.

Are those enough reasons to need the Grand Return of empowered pinups, body acceptance, and women with no f to give??

On the top of this, the sudden reappearance of anorexic bodies in the Hollywood business has been freaking me out. I thought we were done with that, I thought we destroyed enough lives in the mid-90’s.

But no. New generations of girls are trying to make their bodies disappear, and this is too serious to be ignored.

So the Shrooms ladies are back for another round! I started by designing a couple, and then I got totally in the zone and a full new collection was here. Full of power, full of exposed bodies.

And to celebrate women even more, 5nzd of each Shroom Lady tattooed will go towards a donation to the Women’s refuge of New Zealand, to provide a safe night to a woman in need. Including custom ladies.

But no more wait! Here is the new collection, along with a few of the oldies but goodies.
Which one are you gonna be?

You are also very welcome to ask for a custom lady ♥♥

A silhouette of a person flexing their bicep while wearing a large, patterned hat, with artistic elements of leaves integrated into the design.

A minimalist illustration of a person sitting with a large mushroom cap overhead, surrounded by small plants, on textured paper with a wooden background.

An illustrated woman sitting in a wheelchair, wearing a large mushroom hat, surrounded by flowers. The artwork features a whimsical and artistic style.

Illustration of a figure with a mushroom cap, entwined in chains, surrounded by textured paper on a wooden background.

A black and white illustration of a figure with a mushroom-shaped head, holding a sword. The figure has intricate floral tattoos on its arm.

Illustration of a fantastical bird with a sewing machine in its body, featuring a woman seated with a large mushroom hat. The image is sketched on a textured paper background.

Illustration of a woman with a large mushroom-shaped head, wearing a patterned dress, holding three books, against a rustic wooden background.

A black and white illustration of a woman wearing a large decorative hat, holding a plant and standing with her back to the viewer. The background features a textured wooden surface.

Illustration of a mermaid holding a large mushroom hat, with intricate floral designs on her tail, set against a textured background.

Illustration of a seated figure with a mushroom cap for hair, surrounded by nature-inspired motifs, drawn in black ink on textured white paper.

An artistic illustration of a figure wearing a large hat adorned with flowers, holding a sword, set against a textured wooden background.

Full collection available on my flash page HERE.
Please be respectful of my work, ladies are copyrighted©

Be yourself.
You’re a badass!

’til next time. Ngā mihi nui.


Little Red Gouache

| Dïne

I sometimes do commissions: when I have the time into my busy schedule, or as a swap of skills for example. I have clear boundaries about them: you give me a prompt and a size, and then I am free.

I was so delighted to work on this commission last month: an illustration of the little red hen, a old school American children’s book. I never heard of this book before (what?? as a chicken mum how did I miss that??) so it was a great discovery!


So I took my gouaches, read the book and started sketching. Lately I have been a lot into patterns on fabric, so this was the perfect opportunity to play around with it!
I put a square of fabric on the hen’s head, a nice apron for her baking and a cool carpet as a background.

☝️
I chose a cool photo of a red hen on the internet and used it as a reference for my character shapes and colors. I made her a bit rounder, fluffier in her little apron.
Then I sketched a few patterns until I found the ones I want to use. I wanted them really specific to each material (fabric, apron, carpet) so the image would not be difficult to read, but also with ranges of colors that would make them go nicely with each others (I used a base of yellows and blues)

Obviously I had fun painting the tiny kitchen features. Sugar and flour for her cake, and a couple of wooden tools. She’s now happy and proud of her baking, which she made all by herself and which she will eat for afternoon tea!!

Which makes me think that it is time for me to bake a delicious apple crumble, and that I should probably share the recipe with you. But that will be for another day!

Thanks for reading!
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Eowing Gouache & cape struggle

| Dïne

I’ve just finished my next illustration from the Lords of the Wings collection! I was pretty excited about that one, the most badass of the very few female characters.

I went for a Takahē, a rare flightless native bird of Aotearoa New Zealand. Takahē looks a bit like another of our natives, the more common Pūkeko. So we had a pretty good quote going here!

“I am no Pūkeko”

Thanks to my friend for the super fun idea. Please send me yours if you want to see it painted!

Again, this illustration gave me some opportunity to learn more. First super dumb thing I’ve done: I thought that if I was working on the colors schemes on my Ipad it would be faster. (spoiler: NO NO NO. You’ll see why later).

Here is the color rough on my Ipad, working on the bright lights.

Once the drawing done, I used the masking gum to cover the main drawings, so I can work easily on the background.

I love the texture of the dried masking gum!

Big gradient area with gouache = super scary to work! So I started by making sure the whole paper will be wet.

This article has been originally posted for free on my Patreon page. Check it out to see the rest of the pics!

to see the full article and photos check out the patreon original post!

READ THE ARTICLE

Boromir the Kākā – photos of the making of !

| Dïne

I’ve finished this one last week, so it’s time to share the process and the questions that did hit me on the way of the making! I learn more after each painting. Today’s lesson’s at the end of this article…

“I am still learning.”— Michelangelo (age 87)

This is the second painting the series, I want to play with lotr references with enough freedom so it does not seems like quoting but rings a bell to any connoisseur. I am having a lot of fun painting those characters. For this one I chose Boromir and the bacons of Gondor.

After working on my composition and draft, I made the drawing straight on my Ipad. I use Procreate here.

After working on my composition and draft, I made the drawing straight on my Ipad. I use Procreate here.

Once I'm happy with my sketch, I ink it so I keep clean lines before printing it. This allow me to draw on my paper without damage.

Once I’m happy with my sketch, I ink it so I keep clean lines before printing it. This allow me to draw on my paper without damage.

As always my first step is the masking gum. Then this time I did'nt quite start with the background but with this tricky burning pan.

As always my first step is the masking gum. Then this time I did’nt quite start with the background but with this tricky burning pan.

Once the fire done, I did a background that reminds of a forest. I used salt on watercolor, creating the effet of the light through leaves.

Once the fire done, I did a background that reminds of a forest. I used salt on watercolor, creating the effet of the light through leaves.

This article has been originally posted for free on my Patreon page. Check it out to see the rest of the pics!

to see the full article and photos check out the patreon original post!
READ THE ARTICLE

Free note sheet

freebie note sheet illustrated to download
| Dïne

It is time for a little gift for you my friend.
If like me most of your days are made of to-do-lists, grocery-lists, book-wish-list, etc…
Then you will love this little freebie here!

A cute note sheet decorated with a Miromiro on a teapot, and surrounded by golden autumn leaves 🥰

You can download it and print it as many times as you need, to write all your favorite lists or just to make your everyday to-do a bit more romantic.

This post is originally posted on my Patreon page. Click on the link to see it and download your sheet!

FREEBIE HERE 🥰

A little Gandalf vibe

| Dïne

A little sneak peek at one of my current project:

Southern-Earth
The Lords of the Wings


For my very first illustration of the series, I chose the most obvious one: my Kākādalf. I had lot of demands for this one and after finishing all my previous projects, decided that it was time to put this one as my main work for the next few months.

illustration studio gouache winter
Studio time


Winter is a perfect time to lock myself in the studio surrounded by my gouache and watercolors, with a movie I watched thousand times in the background (I let you guess which one)
I spent a bit of time on the prep for this one: doddles, composition, color roughs. And then 10h on the painting itself. I used mainly Talens gouache.

Hope you’ll enjoy this little commented photo dump. FULL DUMP HERE

kakapo illustration gouache heroic fantasy
Here is my final draft, the composition I chose out of a few ideas
sketch before painting
I sketched the whole thing on basic printer paper, before reporting is with my light-table on the expensive watercolor paper
drawing gum I use
As usual, one of my first step is to cover some areas with masking gum. Here I want to be able to paint the background largely and fast, so I cover all the borders of the characters
taking the drawing gum out is so satisfying
taking the masking gum away is so satisfying. Looks very sharp, I’m happy!
to see the full article and photos check out the patreon original post!
To see more photos please jump on my free patreon!
HERE

I’m very please with this illustration (which does not happen as often as you think!)
It seems like not rushing the process and really taking the time to work on the composition and color choices pays off—who would have known? 😆
Let me know what you thing of it!

Coolest couple tattoo of the month!

matching tattoo for couple title
| Dïne

I am always very excited when I get emails that say:
“I’d like a tattoo of this animal, doing that, in your style. Have fun!”

And yes… I always have fun 🙂

I am also a big advocate for matching-not-matching tattoos. For friends, families, or couples. It is so much more interesting to have tattoos that respond to each other, rather than a copy-paste of the same design. Don’t you think?

So you can imagine how excited I was when I got this request.
Animals doing things. Full freedom in the design. A matching-not-matching couple project.

Yeepee!

The idea was a bearded-fancy-pipe-smoking fox playing cribbage with a cute-bookworm red panda. (Cribbage is a card game I discovered when I read the email.)

I fully dived into the design process, exploring a few different options to propose… while secretly hoping they would pick one in particular.

And guess what.

I lit some candles, burned some sage… and they chose my favourite drawing 🙂

If you have a project involving cosy animals, you are more than welcome to tell me about it.

For now, enjoy these few photos!

Stencil ready to go!
A happy fox tattoo
Super cute couple tattoo idea !!
A red panda playing cribbage with tiny shrooms

Like always, this post was originally posted on my patreon
join the forest HERE