„Last Coffee Shop Before the Galaxy“ (2024)

Monochrome illustration of the inside of a hipster coffee shop, the old lady barista is just doing some latte art, there are stickers on the coffee machine and the walls are full of coffee making equipment, that have tiny astronomical things in them (a miniature sun, moons, planets etc). There's a giant window from which you can see the surface of the moon, the earthrise and our milky way in the background.
Detail of the illustration in black and yellow: an old person with a topknot behind the bar of a café pouring oatmilk into a cup. There's an espresso machine with stickers on the left.

Old #punk lady’s #coffee shop on the #moon where the young #space kids fighting for free space travel drop by before going on their #adventures.

I’m a huge #astronomy and #coffee #nerd but I don’t really express these in my #art so I thought why not combine the two ^__^

#JfmlArt #illustration #creative #DigitalArt #FediArt #MastoArt #CreativeToots #ArtWithOpenSource #ArtistsOnMastodon #inkscape #SciFi #ScienceFiction #horror #milkyway

Lady Sindbad (2014)

Illustration of a bunch of people having fun on a tiny island around a campfire on a starry night. One of them has a wooden leg, the another one is roasting something on a stick. They're having an excellent time.
Full version of the illustration, they're actually having a party on a giant whale!

I have this weird thing that I’m only allowed to post stuff I haven’t posted before on #SocialMedia. And while I try to not care about that looks like this fits the bill as well:

„Lady Sindbad“ (2014)

Really like the #cosy atmosphere in this one ^__^

#JfmlArt #art #illustration #creative #DigitalArt #FediArt #MastoArt #CreativeToots #AdobeIllustrator #ArtistsOnMastodon #GenderBend #sindbad #fairytale #fantasy #party #fun #whale #pirates #bbq #friends #moon #stars #night

Ghost Tiger (2020)

Illustration of a night scene with a small car on a rural street and a giant, blue-tinded tiger hovering above it. There's a mountainous landscape with trees in the background.

Looks like I’ve never posted this 2020 piece inspired by the #ChildrensBook „When You Trap a Tiger“ by #TaeKeller* Not super satisfied with this (will I ever be with anything …) but I love the #mysterious atmosphere this has ^__^

Hope you have a good week!

* Look at that amazing cover: https://www.taekeller.com/ !

#JfmlArt #art #illustration #creative #DigitalArt #FediArt #MastoArt #CreativeToots #ArtistsOnMastodon #tiger #nature #animals #fantasy #ghost #night #spooky #TinyCarsOrNoCars

Cloud Scapes (2020)

A pencil drawing coloured in light grey-blue of two wanderers on their way to a big building on a hill. Above the trees a lot of clouds are stacked above and beyond each other in the sky and around the building.

This started as a #study in 2020 about the way #clouds sometimes stack behind each other to form these #fantastic #landscapes in the #sky.

I feel like I didn’t really nail it, need to investigate that again at some point ^__^

EDIT: This apparently inspired @Fjord in Progress / Semiotic Pirate to the following:

Everything leaned in to watch the wanderers approach the distant castle. The clouds began to loom protectively over the castle’s towers. The landscape filled with intent, though no decision had been made as the travelers remained silent, their footsteps soft upon the earth. There was no path but neither were there obstructions.

Which I love! It’s kinda the opposite of back when the music of The Princess and The Pearl inspired me to do Ghost Ship ^__^ Different art forms inspiring each other, it’s just the best!

#JfmlArt #art #illustration #creative #DigitalArt #FediArt #MastoArt #CreativeToots #ArtistsOnMastodon #fantasy #wanderlust #traveling #walking #landscape #nature #trees #cloud #drawing #journey

Forest Dream (2011)

Illustration of a viking with red hair and beard, sleeping on the forest floor, seen from a bird's-eye view. Next to the viking there's a fox curled-up and sleeping as well. It seems to be autumn, the leaves are red and the forest-floor is golden, with light streaming in from behind the viking on the upper left of the picture.

aka „Wikinger Wald“ ^ __ ^

Hello, #Fedifriends! Here’s a another one from the #archives (2011). I was never quite satisfied with the colours and overall composition but it has grown on me over the years.

The original also featured a sword (see here) but I’m not really a fan of tools for killing anymore.

Mh, that’s a nice thought that this might happen to pieces I’m struggling with now …

Rock Friends (2019)

Digital sketch of two happy rock creatures on a white background

Hello rock-enthusiasts! ✨ Here are some rock friends from 2019, probably inspired from the ever awesome #EllieVsBear*

This was back when I was still experimenting with brushes that imitate analogue brushes but this always felt wrong (I hate fake wood flooring that is just noxious plastic with a passion).

* https://www.ellievsbear.com/

„A Storm Coming“ / „Viking Monk“ (2010) Repost

Sketch of a viking, seen from behind, hovering in the air next to a rune stone. There's a grazing horse a bit away and dark, foreboding clouds in the sky.

Here’s a very old (2010!) piece I recently found on my blog, it was apparently for the (now defunct) #DrawingDay, done on a tiny, ancient (about A6!) #wacom #DrawingTablet (could never get used to them in the end).

Still like the atmosphere a lot.

Check out the blog for some info on the #RuneStone:

Drawing Day: A storm coming

Briefwechsel Michael Ende und Werner Zurfluh

Da ich grade nochmal panisch danach gesucht habe, hier der Link zu einem Briefwechsel zwischen Michael Ende und dem Klartraum-Forscher Werner Zurfluh (1945 – 2008):

https://oobe.ch/endebr.htm

Ist auch auf archive.org archiviert, insofern bleibt uns das wohl erhalten.

Ich weiß noch, dass ich das damals super faszinierend und traurig fand, dass Ende so unfassbar fantastische Geschichten schrieb, also Zugang zu solchen Welten hatte in den Briefen aber auf mich irgendwie verzweifelt wirkte in seinem Wunsch sowas auch erträumen zu können.

Cycle Outing

Illustration in greens and pinks of a person taking a brake from cycling the rather steep climbs in a Scottish landscape with mountains, a loch and woodlands.

Since I took part in my first ever #CriticalMass (courtesy of @EdCriticalMass@mastodon.scot, thank you! 🥰) this weekend (such an amazing feeling #cycling on a main street without being subconsciously afraid to be run over) here’s something #cycle-themed!

(I’m afraid to say that I think this is the first time ever I’ve drawn a bike …)

Hipster Café WIP

Vector illustration in black and yellow of an old person with a topknot behind the bar of a café pouring oatmilk into a cup. There's an espresso machine with stickers on the left.

Here’s a #WIP from a piece I’m working on. I realised I don’t draw a lot of the things I care deeply about in real life so (except for nature and fantasy ^__^), so this will be all about #hipster #coffee places (paired with #scifi / #astronomy).

#JfmlArt #art #illustration #creative #DigitalArt #FediArt #MastoArt #CreativeToots #ArtWithOpenSource #ArtistsOnMastodon #Inkscape #WorkInProgress #cafe #barista #espresso

Sunny Day on Harris

Illustration of a traditional Scottish cottage on a flowering meadow (Machair), surrounded by the sea. It's a beautiful day, there's sheep and birds and mountains in the background.

„Sunny Day on Harris“

This has been waiting patiently in my unfinished-pile to be rediscovered ^__^

I love summer in the #OuterHebredis and the #Machair* is such a thing of beauty!

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machair

#JfmlArt #art #illustration #creative #DigitalArt #FediArt #MastoArt #CreativeToots #ArtistsOnMastodon #Harris #Scotland #landscape #animals #birds #StandingStoneSunday #mountains #nature #sheep #ocean #summer #spring

The Selkie / Winter Morning

Vector illustration of a young, white child with long, braided hair standing on the edge of a lake in a snowy landscape. In the lake is a mermaid-creature with a seal-tail. The selkie is almost completely underwater only the top of their head is above the surface. There is an eerie glow coming from the bottom of the lake.
The same illustration but it's not snowing.

I really enjoyed #JonKlassen’s #book „The Skull“, so here is a #hommage with a #Scottish twist* ^__^

The #braids almost killed me, I’ve struggled with #drawing braids before and can totally understand when people just draw a bunch of wonky circles (like Klassen does ^__^) but this time I wanted to understand how to do it and it probably took twice as long as all the rest of the illustration. I think the dramatic shadows on them fit the eery glowing light that’s coming from the bottom of the Selkie lake, no idea how I’d do it in „normal“ circumstances …

Not sure about the #snow, I personally love it but I got #feedback on another piece that it makes it the composition very restless, which I totally see.

Snow or no snow, what do you think?

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selkie

#JfmlArt #art #illustration #creative #FediArt #MastoArt #CreativeToots #ArtWithOpenSource #Inkscape #ArtistsOnMastodon #fantasy #fairytale #winter #selkie #scotland #edinburgh

Surfer Space Wizard Raven

Digital drawing of a raven-creature with a wizard-hat surfing a yellow surfboard above a green planet with clouds and floating megastructure cities. There are red moons or other planets in the violet sky.

Hi there ^__^ Here’s a Surfer Space Wizard Raven from a few years back! ✨

Floating, pill-shaped cities in the clouds are cool but I especially like the character, I think that would be a cool motive for a shirt, what do you think?

Have a nice week! 💖

#JfmlArt #art #illustration #creative #DigitalArt #FediArt #MastoArt #CreativeToots #SciFi #ScienceFiction #fantasy #raven #crow #CharacterDesign #planet #weird #surfer #wizard #skull #tshirt #floating

A tree on a hill

A black and white sketch of a bendy tree with round canopy on a round hill.

Here’s something a bit different from my usual #style from the #archive: A nice bendy #tree #sketch 🎉

I like it how you can’t tell of those things are tiny #clouds or part of the #canopy #floating around ^__^

#JfmlArt #art #illustration #creative #DigitalArt #FediArt #MastoArt #CreativeToots #drawing #pencil #BlackAndWhite #landscape #nature

Cosmic Cow

Vector drawing in dark greens and blues of a night-scene with a highland cow on a small peninsular. The cow's reflection in the water reflects the milky way in the sky above. There's a crow sittig on the cow's back but in the reflection it is somehow in flight.

„Cosmic Cow“, first #illustration of the new year 🎉

A magic #cow and it’s time-bending #crow-companion enjoying the night on Harris ^__^

I like #HighlandCows a lot, they’re so chill and cool. This was probably inspired by John Maher’s night photography of the #OuterHebrides:

ISLE OF HARRIS, OUTER HEBRIDES

#JfmlArt #art #creative #DigitalArt #FediArt #MastoArt #CreativeToots #inkscape #landscape #milkyway #astronomy #photography #birds #animals #fantasy #mystery #scotland #harris #blue

How to batch-convert videos with ffmpeg including all audio and subtitles

Since I spend quite a bit of time tinkering with this I though it might be interesting to others.

The following can be executed on a folder with a bunch of videos which ffmpeg will convert including all audio and subtitle streams and put in a subfolder (not very) originally called „Done“ (not sure if you need to create that folder or if ffmpeg will do that*):

for i in *.*; do ffmpeg -hwaccel_output_format cuda -i "$i" -map 0:v:0 -map 0:a? -map 0:s? -c:v hevc_nvenc -b:v 2000k -preset slow -c:a aac -b:a 128k -c:s copy "Done/${i%.*}.mkv"; done

All the for i in for the batch-conversion is way above my tiny „I can’t learn programming“ brain and is taken from this StackExchange thread (among other things I can’t find now). You could do *.mp4 or *.mkv if you only want those types of videos to be converted.

-hwaccel_output_format cuda and -c:v hevc_nvenc? tells ffmpeg to use the GPU with Cuda (so will probably only work with NVIDIA) and use HEVC (x265) as the video-codec.

The interesting bits are -map 0:v:0 -map 0:a? -map 0:s? which selects all video(?), audio streams and subtitles. I was using -map 0 before but this sometimes created empty video or audio streams which caused all video players I tried to crash (except for good old VLC who did not care). Not ideal.

-c:v and -c:a select the audio and video codecs (c = codec) with slow preset in this case, whereas

-b:v and -b:a tells ffmpeg the bitrate (b = bitrate).

-c:s copy copies the subtitles.

* Edit: You do need to have a folder withe name you specify there in the folder where you run the script. If someone knows how to automate that I’d be happy to hear how ^__^

The Peninsular

Digital drawing of a night scene: A person is standing on top of a cliff looking down at the ocean and a peninsular with a tower on it. The moon is full and there are towering anime clouds in the background.

Hello ^__^ I realised I never posted the finished version of these sketches (1), so here it is!

I’m not super happy with the colours and the outlines but it was a nice, very meditative experiment ✨

(1) https://mastodon.art/@jfml/110695867856903358

#JfmlArt #art #illustration #creative #DigitalArt #FediArt #MastoArt #CreativeToots #Krita #painting #landscape #beach #ocean #clouds #fantasy #night #moon #magic #witch #bird #seagull #travel

Nach der Zeit – Cityscape

A nightly streetscene with old houses that are partly submerged in water. In the distance two reed moons and a cloud kinda form a monster's face

Hej ^__^

Here’s another #illustration from my #diploma (1),which I like a lot, I feel like this #cityscape harkens back to my prediploma (2) which was a reaction to my #erasmus #studenexchange in #Istanbul (which was very good but as a lover #nature it was a strange experience).

(1) https://jfml.eu/2009/09/illustration-nach-der-zeit/

(2) https://jfml.eu/2009/10/illustration-ein-labyrinth-ein-traum/

JfmlArt #art #creative #DigitalArt #FediArt #MastoArt #CreativeToots #underwater #apocalypse #climatecrisis #wallpaper #fantasy #night #dream #surreal #monster #flooded #TraditionalArt

Love Music, Fight Fascism!

Round illustration on a pink background with a boombox-character dancing happily on a broken swastika. Text around it says „Love music, fight fascism“.

Aus aktuellem Anlass (und schon wieder #LateToTheParty 🥳) mein #OldieButGoldie #Antifasticker, leider ohne Reim aber immerin #cute ^__^

JfmlArt #art #illustration #creative #DigitalArt #FediArt #MastoArt #CreativeToots #CharacterDesign #süss #NoAFD #NieWiederIstJetzt #FightFascism #LoveMusic #antifa #ekelfhAFD #FCKAFD #Music #Hiphop #Rap #Boombox #Oldschool #antifascist #AlwaysAntifascist

ArtVsArtist 2023

ArtVsArtist2023: A picture divided into nine squares, the middle one is a rather dorky photo of yours truly with the hoodie up, drinking something with a (paper) straw, the rest are illustrations I've finished 2023.

Late to the party as always (🥳) here’s an #ArtVsArtist2023 thingy (I’m super unsure about putting my face on the internet but since this is not going to #Instagram anymore I feel better about it).

I feel there’s a lot of #pink going on which is really nice ^__^ I hope I’ll remember doing more of these in the future, it’s a good way of looking at the past year.

Late to the party as always (🥳) here’s an #ArtVsArtist2023 thingy (I’m super unsure about putting my face on the internet but since this is not going to #Instagram anymore I feel better about it).

There’s a lot of #pink going on which is really nice ^__^ I hope I’ll remember doing more of these in the future, it’s a good way of looking at the past year.

#JfmlArt #art #illustration #creative #DigitalArt #FediArt #MastoArt #CreativeToots #inscape #blender3d #fantasy #cute #birds #science #space

Bye, Insta.

I just finally quit posting to Instagram, this is the text of my last post:

I’ll take the news that Insta’s parent evilcorp Meta has a new AI tool trained on „billions“ of Insta’s images as the final straw (it’s as good as any, really) to not post here anymore.

Sure, rich, white techbros will steal my art to get even richer with their AI bs no matter where I post it on the internet but at least I will not feed it to them „willingly“ anymore.

Continue reading Bye, Insta.

How to import PDFs as „images“ in Scribus

Since I had to figure this out multiple times now (because I always forget how to do it +___+), here’s a workflow that seems to be working for me to add white frames of different widths to different sized pages to vector illustrations – my local printer The Art of Print (which is amazing ^__^) here in Edinburgh wants it that way.

I need page sizes ranging from A5 to A2, including borders between 5 mm and 2 cm.

Screenshot of Scribus showing the same illustration on different sized pages.

Yesterday I figured out that it should be possible to do this in Inkscape with clones but there seems to be a bug that just exports nothing instead of clones on a new page (and cloning a whole illustration is no fun because you need to put it all in one top layer with sublayers).

After a lot of fiddling I remembered that in Scribus you can actually import PDFs (but not SVGs, apparently) as images into image frames (ctrl-i or rightclick > Content > Get Image) if you change the „Files of Type“(?) to „All supported formats“.

This imports the vector graphic as an image (not what we want at all!) but unlike File > Import > Get Vector file which imports (or rather appends, inserts) the PDF or SVG as editable objects this cuts the image at the original page border (yay).

You can then arrange the PDF / image just as you need on pages and when exporting it to a PDF for printing you can check the box on the PDF export dialogue in General > File Options > Embed PDF & EPS files (EXPERIMENTAL!) to export the PDF „image“ as vectors. This has always worked well for me so far.

Scribus PDF-export dialogue with the Embed PDF-Files option highlighted

Thanks to Raghavendra Kamath for pointing out this last trick out to me, otherwise this whole process would be useless ^__^

Now I just need to remember how to do this when I need it again in a few months …