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It was fun seeing how these whales started out with a simple image and turned into a beautiful sea of paisley! Well done!!

Paisley whales. How interesting! : )

Thanks Ann Marie! BTW, I love “sea of paisley!” Wish I would have thought of it to title this post

Thanks for dropping by Susanne!

Well, they all look pretty!

I love these wonderful whales. They are fabulous! Great work. Your site is wonderful too. Lovely work.

Thanks justdoodleit!

Thank you Vanessa!!

What a fantastic idea! They are magnificent. I just donated to The Institute for Marine Mammal Studies and look forward to my paisley whale

I just donated my $10 to ‘purchase’ your whale – ripple illustration #695!! thx! & peace

C.K. and Virginia, thank you so much! Once they send me your addresses I’ll send out your paisley whales!

Sometimes you just have to do things that let you zone out.
And if Stella likes it, what more does one need? :D

XXOO!!
Anne....in need of serious zoning out.....

Great!

Like the design.

Three wonderful paisley prints. Lovely!

Love the flat paisley patterns cut in to a 2D shape, the main flower, the zinnias and overall feel of this!

What a fun idea! I have a lovely paisley bowl my mother gave me, I keep rocks in it :) Thanks!!

cheerful. I like it too.

seriously cute. This looked like fun to make.

are you still there?

Nifty bowls Lolo. They make a nice arrangement.

This is lovely Lo, and if Stella likes it, that is the best.
xoxo

stella just asked for a designer water bowl....

So fun!
And I really like how you left the leaves 'open'.
(me thinks Stella might be a tad spoiled,,,like mine isn't, ha!)

wow, I like this. very imaginative.

Lo, these are so gorgeous....
I adore paisley.... it reminds me of the 60's - an era I missed, but would have felt right at home in.

I love how you have used so many different elements....

And now, you will have to think about a designer "By LoLo" water bowl for a certain someone! Hey, it could catch on!

Love, Love,

♥ Robin ♥

Stella likes it and I LOVE it!! The colours and patterns are super. You are so creative Laurel:)

Purdy paisley bowls!!!

Stella has good taste. This is so pretty I really love it too!

very pleasing to look at - glad stella inspired you

I love paisley...Graham was born in Paisley, Scotland where paisley was also born!

I wish I could do bowls like this when I sit for dogs, but nothing even remotely like it comes to mind, heh!

Very nice meditative art, I love it. The flowers, especially the zinnia, my fave, are so pretty!

So simple and so effective and soooo satisfying.

Wonderful!

You won believe it but yesterday I bought something here with a paisley patern for you........
Coincidence???? I don think so.
I just came back from a day to Taipei. It was not a full flight so it was quite relaxed .
Now I am listening to John Mayer feeling happy and content.
Love your paisley collage wish I could do this magic....

♥♥♥
>M<

Very nice Lolo! Great idea and wonderful design work. Love the colors as well.

I love your paisley flower bowls, they are beautiful!

This is so pretty!!!!!!!!! And I love the new header!

Stella is obviously a source of inspiration. This is great.

Nice intricate still life :)

Ooh this is lovely Laurel, beautiful warm colours too. Stella looks lovely too!

Welcome Andrew! I look forward to seeing more of your artwork.

I love the 3D look! The depth and realism with a fine mixture of textures keeps my eye interested.

I have two comments about this image...one, the boy's eyes are rather pale in an eerie kind of way. Adding a bit of natural eye color might make him look more soulful.

The second, is the darkness of the image. I'd like to see the black shadows lightened up a bit more.

The facial expressions and body positions are all quite exquisite. I know I can learn a lot from you in this regard.

Looking forward to more!

Hi Andrew,
I agree with Stacia regarding the children's eyes...they are a bit eerie, due to their paleness,a more natural eye colour would remedy that for sure.

I really like your dramatic lighting, especially how it illuminates their faces. Very good chiaroscuro effect(oh god I can't spell well in English never mind Italian- my Italian husband would roll his eyes-haha) like the renaissance masters.

I do think though Stacia is right, maybe if you lightened up the black shadows a bit, like under the girls arms, and behind the girl.
I know very little about digital illustration, so it will be really cool to learn from you!
Great job!

Hey Andrew! I'm so glad you followed me. I love the way you make me think. I don't have time to do this justice just this minute, so I will come back to it tonight. See ya!

Hi Andrew - this is a really amazing 3D illustration. It feels like a moment frozen in time, like a display you would find at an antique store.

Were you intending on evoking a feeling of the past?

The pose of the little girl seems a bit funny to me - like she is drumming her fingers on his head? Not sure most brothers (?) would put up with that?

But your characters and setting are absolutely delightful!

Hello everyone. Thanks for all your astute comments.

I can see that the darks are too dark, it's related to the ambient lighting - which I tend to avoid because it washes out the highlights. So thankyou for pointing that out because I hadn't noticed.

The eyes... hmmm - yes. I have been concentrating on 'w'eird' which is why the girl has her hand drumming on the boy's head (he is a dwarf from a past illustration!)

Evoking the past? Good point lil kim. Well, he is wearing a premanufactured out fit which is really odd - that I have retextured to suit the prompt, so I just took it as it came.

So, my job is to make my work more child friendly.... so less weird eyes and less dark shadows is a good start thankyou all very much!!!!

cheers

andrew finnie

Hi Andrew,
Wow, this is an amazing piece really. The cat feels like she might shatter at anytime. I love the effect and the colors used in the piece. The viewer is pulled in by the 3D feel of the characters.
Maybe the skin tones could be lightened up a bit too.
Great work.
Hope to see more.
Chris

Ok, this is the first bit of free time I have had and I still have a toddler crawling all over me. I only have a couple of new items to add. The eyes don't bother me so much because I know you like creepy. In my opinion, kids like creepy too, at least for the age group that I think you are going for. As far as art directors go, I couldn't say really, I imagine that you just have to find the right one for your type of work. If you are going for a more kid friendly for all age groups kind of piece then yes, definitely change the eyes a bit. I love the stroller by the way, it's wonderful. The skin tone is a little dark, which is intensified by the very pale eyes. It makes them look a little doll like, almost vinyl, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, just an observation. I love the cornerstone that they are on. My first new suggestion might be to increase the transparency on the paisley pattern on the front tree, the cat, and maybe even just a touch in the dress. I might even completely remove it from the girls shoe. I just think its too many patterns with the same or nearly the same intensity. Secondly, you might consider making the sky solid and "soft". There is so much going on and so many bold elements that I think the backdrop needs to be simple and just a backdrop. Just my 2-cents worth. You know I love your work, so take this critique lightly my friend. Lil Kim's mention of the "antique feel" is one of the things I love most about your work. If you are like me, you just have to try it and play around with it to see if it works for you(I've seen you do this on pieces in the past),it's all just a matter of opinion after all.

Hya Chris

thanks for that comment. I'll check that out on the skin! I tend to go for old people skin on kids _ I take a picture of some blotchy skin and wrap it around the 3d mesh of the face - it's to get away from the usual. But I can see that it isn't necessarily child friendly!

The comment on the porcelain cat shattering has given me an idea thankyou :)

Hya karen, thankyou for your opinions I value them very highly. You never have to worry about me being sensitive in critique matters - though I just had a painting of Humpty Dumpty (1.2 metres by 90 centmetre) with a hook instead of a hand knocked back by a local art competition and I am going round to burn their houses down ------- :)

But seriously, I spent tuesday designing a bad red haired character about 13 and when I'd finished he looked so evil I spent another three hours toning him down, so maybe I need to tone my weird down just a smidgin.

I think I have been putting too many highlights in the eyes so they look much paler and glassy? I don't know!

I'll post him up here for crit later

looking forward to more of your work.

cheers

Sorry Karen I forgot to say transparency especially in the dress is a good idea thankyou. And reducing the paisley amount and lightning of the skin. I didn't realize they were so dark!!