We found this adorably informative tutorial today whilst giving our brains a refresher course on vectorising hand-drawn linework. It's by the talented and entertaining Barbra Ignatiev. Well worth a watch! x 

Wedding bells were in the air last month as France's little brother married his longtime sweetheart ♥ We honoured the occasion by illustrating them a portrait of their cat children, Stockings and Mittens. The adorable little felt cake topper was crafted by the bride's best friend and bridesmaid, Mel.

Interested in a commissioned portrait of your own pets? Contact us ♥ 

As a thank you for supporting loveLUNE.com and FRANCEillustration on Etsy we're introducing limited edition Gifts With Purchase! 

These are exclusive products that aren't available in-store. The only way to get your hands on them is to follow the download link you'll be sent when you purchase from our etsy store. Gifts change monthly, so there's always something new.

This months gift is a stunning desktop wallpaper featuring an inspirational quote by Tracee Ellis Ross, "May the space between where I am and where I want to be inspire me". We hope it helps inspire you in your endeavours ♥

It might be closing in on winter here in Melbourne, but this song is really transporting us back to summer. Ed Sheeran + Passenger - No Diggity vs. Thrift Shop (Kygo Remix). We had the pleasure of seeing these two talented musicians live last year.  

We've got this song on repeat while we're elbow deep in paint and pencils. It's hard to draw a straight line when you want to chair dance, though. Good thing we like our art "loose and gestural".

We thought we'd make the most of the Easter long weekend and break out the paints!

I've had requests to include some walkthroughs of how we create here at Lune, and I'm happy to share. This is only my second time using Acrylic paints, so this isn't a tutorial - just a walkthrough for anyone who is interested. I am constantly learning (both from tutorials and old fashioned trial & error!).

Unfortunately my good camera is broken, so please excuse the potato camera quality. 
Anyway! On with the show:

I started out by drawing a pencil sketch onto my already primed 8x10 inch canvas. I didn't worry too much about detail here as I would be blocking colours in soon. Detail work will come more towards the end.

Now I block in different colours; the skin, two tones of hair, her bodysuit and ears, etc. 

Here I've finished blocking my solid colours in. I don't want to accidentally paint over the girl once I've worked on her, so I make sure my background is worked up and how I want it before moving back to the figure.

Now I use different colours and layer up the paint. I quite like a loose, gestural feel to my traditional media artwork, so I keep the strokes broad and "messy".

I've gone over all the colour blocked areas of my painting and worked more layers of colour into them. This is the moment when I'm prone to becoming most disheartened with the work, as it usually looks like a big undefined mess. But I tell myself to keep persevering! 

I've outlined my figure in black, making sure to vary my line weight to keep with the 'gestural' feel of the piece. Adding the lines really tightens the work back up, and by this stage I'm feeling better about the piece.

Almost done! I usually leave eyes till the end... I'm not sure why. I quite like the "evil" look I guess. But I decide she needs to be less "possessed" and more "sultry", so I give her some seductive green eyes. I also plumped up her lips and added white highlights to her hair and nails.

Finished!

And here's the final piece without any filters, just to show the true colours. 

We hope you enjoyed this little peek behind the scenes at Lune.

It's the start of the Easter long weekend and we're feeling festive here at Lune! I decided to break out the acrylics and paint this little ACEO canvas (Art Cards, Editions, and Originals). This is the first in a series of pretty-yet-powerful animal/hybrid girlies I'm planning to paint. This delightful little Bunny Girl will be available for purchase on our Etsy store soon. In the mean time, I'm heading back to my paints. Have a happy and safe long weekend, everyone ♥

We woke up this morning to a lovely surprise - our 200th sale!

We wanted to celebrate and say thank you to all our beautiful friends and supporters by offering a flash 50% off sale . This sale is offered exclusivly to our Facebook and LoveLUNE.com Blog followers. Head over to our Etsy store and simply enter the coupon code THANKYOU200 at checkout.

Please enjoy 50% off all Digital Clip Art, Paper and Prints for the next 2 days. 
Offers ends Midnight 4/17/2014 EST.

Thank you again for supporting FRANCEillustration and loveLUNE.com over the last 6 months! x

Whenever we're out and about we're always on the lookout for pretty packaging and inspirational graphics. Sometimes it just takes a particular image or aesthetic to trigger an idea for a new Clip Art pack, and it can come from the most unlikely places.

The local Japanese supermarket was a treasure trove of goodies today. We're loving the bright, bold strawberry pattern on the Meiji boxes, as well as the simple hand drawn characters on the pastel coloured candies. The seals are classic Japanese "kawaii" cuteness, but right now we're really feeling the scribbly pandas on the cookie box. The Pocky isn't for inspiration... it's drawing fuel!

The Wildflower packs are now available on our Etsy store!

But we decided to take them one step further... Now we're experimenting with subtle watercolour textures and a more faded retro finish. Keep an eye out, these should be in store soon... ♥

A sneak-peek at our current work-in-progress. It's been a rainy autumn day here in Melbourne, but we're feeling lifted from an afternoon of researching flower bouquets and floral arrangements. Keep an eye out for this Wildflower Clip Art pack on our Etsy store soon ♥