ROTG fanart

Yesterday I watched Dreamworks' Rise of the Guardians. I actually really liked it. It doesn't have an ambitious plot but I really loved the detail of the animation and backgrounds (I found the realistic detail in the human town especially impressive) I'm glad that I watched it, I always had the feeling I'd be missing out on something by not giving it a try.
Here's a scrapped Bunnymund and Jack Frost, I had the sinking feeling it was destined for the scrap pile as I was near to finishing it. It took a long time to draw and colour and I'm still not happy with it. I think that when the art starts feeling like a chore to finish is when it starts looking bad. Oh well, it's passable for this blog. ;p

Melusines

When I was little there was a card shop in town that had a painting of a 'Melusine' (two-tailed mermaid) on the wall. I still remember it really clearly. The arms of the right mermaid are messed up, but I had spent a bit too much time on this drawing so I left it... :s

Sketch dump

C'mon me, gotta keep this blog up!!
Last month I've been working on something that I should be able to post in late June. Actually it's two things, but I've only just started work on the second and don't know the deadline for that yet. Sorry to be vague! I am excited about it, though.

Here's some sketches that are already around the web, but I feel like I can talk about them at length here. :P

(Tell a lie, these aren't actually anywhere on the web, I chickened out because I knew a lot of people don't 'get' animal-ear characters.)
One of my favourite things to spoof is 'cat eared' versions of characters. I have no idea where or how this idea spawned, but it's weirdly fun to draw characters stuck with catlike traits.
I first created 'Nyandalf' after seeing a shopped picture of Gandalf with sparkles and cat ears, and then went on to make 'Radanyast' and 'Sarumyan'. I swear I'm not high...

My sister actually said of the second picture: 'it looks like a serious picture until you see the cat ears'. My work here is done, I thought...

Secondly here are some original drawings. The first set is from an idea I've had for a long time now. It's an amalgamation of several older ideas, with a lot of influence from Eastern mythology. I have no idea when I'll draw this comic, but it's always in the back of my mind. I hope these pics look coherent even if I don't explain what they're about! (p.s the first one is a bit old!)

Drawing characters with such form concealing clothing is a real challenge but a fun one, because of course with no facial expressions or much visible body language, I still have to communicate their emotions somehow. Here's hoping I can make them sympathetic to future readers. :)
And that's it for now! Hope you liked the pics. :)

First post!

Yay! If you're reading this, thank you for visiting. I wasn't really sure what to write for an introduction post, as there's not much to say about me! My name is Rachel, though I use the pen name Baru on the internet. I draw mainly as a hobby. I especially love drawing whimsical things and fanart of my favourite films and actors. I hope you'll enjoy what you see here!
Let's post a picture to start with... yesterday I saw Megamind for the first time. It was very much a classic Dreamworks film: cynical and slightly more adult in tone than say, a Pixar movie. But I enjoyed it all the same! Minion was cute, so here's a drawing of seasonal Minion, even though it's getting warmer by the day here...