Natalie Heaman

The Art Garden 🌱

  • Minthara

    Minthara from Baldur’s Gate 3! She is hilarious to me, all power-hungry confidence despite a terrible track record. Here are two in-game quotes from her; I tried something new for colouring the second one in particular.

    A drawing of Minthara from the game Baldur's Gate 3. She is an elf with an intense expression, smiling and splattered in blood. She is saying "And they would know that they could depend on my. Feared, venerated, adored. I would be everything to them." Which is a line of dialogue from the game.
    A drawing of Minthara from the game Baldur's Gate 3. Her expression is intense and the lighting dark, with glowing blue light reflected on parts of her face. She is saying "We have a purpose and a bond. By my oath, i will fight with you while that purpose holds." Which is a line of dialogue from the game.

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  • Monday Portrait

    An oil painting of Monday the cat. She sits on a colourful patterned rug. She is a short-haired cat, and a mix of white, black, and orange tabby colouring. Her bright eyes give her a curious expression.

    Over the summer I slowly chipped away at this oil painting of my friend’s late cat Monday – slowly chipped away looked like 3 painting sessions with long gaps in-between. After this and the other cat portrait I completed earlier this summer, I’m finding the process looks something like:

    Session 1: drawing, transfer to panel, get down first layer of paint (Very Important: do not judge how ‘good’ or ‘bad’ it is at this point. It’s gonna look messy. Faith in the process and all that. At times I do actually feel that faith in the process and at such times can enjoy the messy weird-ness more. But it’s hard to stay in that mind set! Practice, practice, practice.)

    Session 2: Refinement, add detail. This takes a similar length of time to the first round of painting.

    Session 3: the last details, like whiskers, the glint in the eyes, and little additions or touch-ups. With this and the last painting, this session didn’t take long.

    That’s only the process for two oil paintings, but that’s more oil paintings in the last 6 months than the last 5+ years! I plan to keep practicing oils, and I’m curious how the process with continue to evolve as I do.

    A photo showing the original sketch of Monday, and a copy on tracing paper, which is being used to transfer the drawing onto a wood panel.
    A photo of the in-progress oil painting, where some colours are laid down but mostly you still see the underpainting, a solid blue.
    A photo of the in-progress oil painting: almost all of the panel has a first layer of paint down. The colours are flat and rough looking.
    A photo of the in-progress oil painting: colours have been refined and given more depth, but there are still details missing. The cat’s face in particular looks blank and unfinished.
    A close-up photo of the focal point of the painting: Monday the cat’s face.The detail shot better shows the different colours carefully painted.

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  • August 2024 Hobonichi

    My “daily” drawing pages from August! In August I thought about cutting my hair (and eventually followed through), saw The Boy and the Heron (loved it), watched old Simpsons episodes (very funny, but the heartfelt moments are the best), and saw Cats for a second time (and outdoors, in the pouring rain… hooray for ponchos). Boo also ate some blueberries right off a bush, the scavenger!

    A drawing in Posca acrylic markers showing a cartoonish person with eye close and a smile. Her hair is a layered haircut and text around her head reads: “Shag haircut on my mind”
    A sketchbook page showing a humanoid character with four arms and extra eyes. It’s body is entirely brown and just a silhouette. It stand on green grass and a blue sky is behind it. It looks like it could be dancing.
    A sketchbook page with text that reads “The Boy and the Heron” next to a drawing of the heron character from the Studio Ghibli movie of the same name. Below the drawing “weird and very good” is written.
    This sketchbook page has three colour striped, each with text in them. They say: “Art supplies equals toys”, then “Art making equals play” and lastly “scheduled time for art equals play date.”
    A drawing of a somewhat abstracted face. Lines criss-cross over its contours, and each shape they created is coloured with a different shade of blue.
    A gouache painting of a bird – it’s not a specific species of bird, but kind of looks like a flamingo with a long neck, long legs, and pink. At it’s feet a fern grows.
    A drawing of a black dog with pointy ears in profile. Her mouth is open and tongue out in anticipation of eating blueberries with are in front of her. Text captions the drawing: “Boo hearts blueberries”
    A drawing of a grey cat with big sad green eyes. Her whiskers are bent and her coat scruffy. The drawing is meant to be Grizabella, a character from the musical Cats. Behind her is a night sky with stars and a full moon. Text in the sky reads “Memories… all alone in the moonlight”
    A loose drawing of Marge Simpson, done in Posca acrylic markers. Her hair is full of curly swirls and she is smiling while look off to the right.

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  • July 2024 Hobonichi

    A sketchbook page that has been covered in red and pink ink. Drawn on top is a bird, it is stylized and sketchy and has a human-like eye. A thought bubble coming from it’s head reads ‘CHIPS’
    A sketchbook page that is painted in gouache, showing a strange creature that looks part dog and part kangaroo. It has long droopy ears, big eyes, only two legs, and a long tail. Text on the page reads “Creature from the Garden of Earthly Delights”
    A sketchbook page painted with gouache showing a sun on a blue sky background. Text in the middle of the sun reads: “Too damn hot!”
    A drawing of a potted strawberry plant, with many berries drooping from it. The drawing is loosely rendered, and coloured with alcohol-based markers.
    This drawing is done on the backside of the same paper with the strawberry plant. The colours have bled through the paper. On this side the colours are used to create a drawing of a person with big wavy green and pink hair.
    A watercolour sketch showing a classic Hilroy brand notebook, with the words “tried and true” next to it.
    A sketchbook page created with acrylic markers. Big blocky letters read “Good enough” on a dark blue background with a dotted border.
    A sketchbook page showing blue mountains and the ocean against an orange sunrise, drawn with alcohol-based markers. Text above the image reads “Beach sunrise”
    Layers of watercolour circles blend on the paper. This sketch was done using very wet paints to create interest bleeds where the colours meed. It is abstract and doesn’t represent anything in particular.

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  • June 2024 Hobonichi

    Presenting: my hobonichi pages from June! Honestly skipped a lot of days this month, but it is what it is! I’m going to try to get more in this month 😎

    A drawing of a person in profile wearing a classic wizard hat – blue with yellow stars and a moon. They are looking out of the corner of their eye and their blue-green hair flows around them.
    A drawing in red ink of flatten, stylized flowers, leaves, and a dragon fly.
    A felt pen drawing of a borzoi dog in profile, and a cat looking straight ahead. On the paper are two stickers made with a label-maker: one has a cat emoji and says “meow” and the other a dog emoji with “woof”
    An ink drawing that shows tree with birds. The tree trunks and branches are all in black ink, while the bids are neon colours. The negative space is filled with greens and swirls.
    A page with pencil crayon light layered to create a sense of moving lines. Over these a quote reads: “The world spins. We stumble on. It is enough.” This quote is from the novel “Let the Great World Spin” by Colum McCain
    An abstract gouache painting, mostly circles and ovals of colour, inspired by a dogwood tree in bloom. There are prominent deep and pale pinks, on a background of sky blue. Some green to represent leafs also poke out.
    An ink drawing of Godzilla shooting a laser from her mouth. A caption reads: “watched a Godzilla movie for the fist time.”
    An ink drawing, all in blue with fine black outlines, of a set of stairs. At the very top is a small silhouette of a dog with a speech bubble above her head, with an exclamation mark. The dog is expectantly waiting for the human to catch-up.
    A pencil drawing of a dog laying down. The pencil is soft and hazy with no hard lines. Text reads “Boo is here.”

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Blog Index

PROJECTS / SERIES
Gouache Creatures Series, 2019
Somerset Series, 2021
Thrift Store Catch & Release
Beautiful Day Records

SHARED SUBJECTS
Dungeons & Dragons
Figure / Life Drawing
Pet Portraits
Character Art

OTHER
Daily Challenges
Bookbinding
Writing
Photography

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