Inktober - Part 3

Inktober, concluded!

Day 21 (mapping pen and gel pen) - I'm pretty pleased with this one, considering I wasn't at all sure where I was going with it even when I got to the hatching. Lottie sees the Crow Boy in dark places.

Day 22 (mapping pen) - This one was going to be a cross-hatched picture of Nettle and Spider reading, but I decided after the first inking that I might want to colour it, so it remains unfinished for now.

Day 23+24 (brush pen and gel pen) - I was very busy with the Halloween music zine at this point, so I cheated a bit and bashed out the mirror twins on two separate days.

Day 25 (ink and water) - For the next three I was at London MCM, and it seems drawing while tired still doesn't do me any favours. Prepare for wonky anatomy on more characters than just Coriander.

Day 26 (cartridge pen) - Oh dear, here it is. I wanted to show the ritual modifications Vrega get as part of their coming-of-age ritual. Technically the spikes can be placed anywhere, as long as they're worked into the bone, but traditionally women get them put in their forearms (where they can be used as defensive weapons) and men get them put in their spine (where they just stop you sleeping on your back). This is also why Meruch carries Violet on his hip instead of giving her a piggyback.

Day 27 (fineliners and grey brush pens) - I was trying to explain Ereth lines to Sammy in the hotel room, so I drew them for Sunday's picture to illustrate what I was talking about. (They're a sort of minor erogenous zone Vrega have which appear when they're touched in the right way, and they're supposed to indicate fertility.) I think Meruch looks a little too young here. He's embarrassed because his Ereth lines are unusually dark and extensive, and he doesn't like people looking at them.

Day 28 (ink and water) - I was listening to Siren Song by Bat For Lashes (from our Halloween playlist)  and this happened.

Day 29 (mapping pen and ink wash) - One final try at ink wash! Lena will prophesy for you if you ask nicely.

Day 30 (gel pen) - "You had to walk past slowly and calmly, as if you couldn't see it." Louise in her creepy house again. Yet another picture started way to late at night. If I were drawing this normally I'd block out at least 5 hours for this amount of hatching! I think I managed this in 2.

Day 31 (brush inking) - And finally, Tabitha to wish you a happy Halloween. I'm very pleased with the brush inking in this one, it feels like a nice image to end on.

Part 1   Part 2

Inktober - Part 2

Inktober, continued!

Day 11 (brush inking and ink wash) - As a general rule, if I've drawn Poppet I was very tired. She's extremely easy to do. I tried to make up for it by practicing my brush inking though.

Day 12 (mapping pen) - This one turned out a little odd, as I've never drawn Spider without shading before. He puts people to sleep at inopportune moments sometimes.

Day 13 (brush pen) - I was exhausted after the University of Gloucestershire Small Press Fair (especially as I was cold and wet the whole day) so I bashed out some friends of Poppet.

Day 14 (ink and water) - I'd discovered on day 2 that I really miss drawing Nat, so here he is again, Put that cruciform down young man, those things aren't good for you.

Day 15 (brush inking and ink wash) - Further ill-advised adventures in ink wash, although I think I was getting the hang of it at this point. Also background!

Day 16 (gel pen) - My sister thought Violet was kneeling down in the previous picture of these two, so I drew a height comparison to show what's actually going on. Essentially they exist on two extremes for their respective species. Meruch is big even for a Vrega, and Vrega are bigger than humans anyway, while Violet is very petite even by human standards. Getting their proportions right is hard, I always start to draw Violet looking like a child.

Day 17 (brush inking and ink wash) - Do the adventures in ink wash get less ill-advised as I go along? I originally intended to cross-hatch this, but it was too late in the evening. Lottie's reflection is not always pleasant.

Day 18 (ink and water) - Well they can't all be winners I guess. This one came out much worse than I was hoping, but perhaps I'll re-use the concept later.

Day 19 (brush pen) - I was having another go at using block black and white with no shading, which honestly didn't turn out great, but I'm very pleased with the foreshortening as that's something I find very difficult. Nettle isn't happy with you.

Day 20 (ink and water) - Further adventures in scale and proportion! I think I'll caption this one "It's nice to talk to you without being able to see up your nose." Violet is ill and often tired, so it's not unusual to see Meruch carrying her around the ship. This also makes walking and talking a lot easier, since she's not having to trot to keep up with his stride. When I told my sister this part of the story she said 'I wish I had a giant alien to carry me around!' Don't we all, sisso, don't we all.


Part 1  Part 3

Inktober - Part 1

This year I found myself with just enough free time to do Inktober (producing one ink drawing a day for the month of October) and I really enjoyed it. I mostly did these in the evening, and it was great to take the time to sit down and draw a proper finished picture without it being for a job or a long-term project. I also tried some ink techniques that I haven't used before.

I posted these daily on tumblr, but here I thought I'd put them up in large sets.

Day 1 (mapping pen) - Nettle and Spider, with Nettle showing off her psychokinesis. Spider is horribly off model and I felt very bad about that.

Day 2 (mapping pen and ink wash) - Nat with his dangerous shadow. I re-did this one in colour for one of this year's postcards.

Day 3 (ink and water) - Sweetpea! He's sitting on Louise's hand, although you can't really tell unless you've paid close attention to her clothes. This technique always has the potential to go horribly wrong, but I think this is one of the best pictures from the whole month.

Day 4 (brush inking) - Brush inking is something I'm not experienced with, so I tried it on Tabitha because she's a very simple shape. It was clear I needed more practice.

Day 5 (mapping pen) - I felt so bad about Spider being off-model in the first picture that I drew a portrait of him for this one, then added Nettle for good measure. I also discovered I have no purple ink and had to mix some.

Day 6 (gel pen) - Louise skulking around her creepy house. At this point I'd thought I haven't done any cross-hatching yet, and I should draw more backgrounds, and didn't realise I'd just decided to do a full hatched illustration at 9:30 at night until I'd already started and was trapped! I got to bed quite late that night.

Day 7 (brush pen, gel pen and water) - This one is what a colleague of mine thinks I do when I'm not at work. I've used this scribbly system for concept art in the past, I don't think I'll ever like it for finished pieces.

Day 8 (brush pen) - Violet wants to know how Meruch got the 'lightning flower' on his side. This is another one of my favourites, I very rarely use my kuretake brush pen for line work even though I love it very much (I tend to use it for filling in black areas) and I'm very leased with how the lines came out.

Day 9 (mapping pen) - This one I doodled up while on the phone to my sister late at night. I often feel differently about pictures I draw when I would usually be sleeping, compared to ones I draw in the day. They seem to... come out more easily?

Day 10 (brush inking and ink wash) - This one was an experiment that went a little wrong, but I'm new to both brush inking and ink wash so it's all good practice.

Part 2  Part 3

Dolly Postcards - Autumn 2013

And here's the second set of postcards for Thought Bubble, in dolly style. I'll be interested to see if anyone buys them, I can never tell if my postcards are any good right after I print them.

These are Poppet and a friend helping themselves to a quick snack, Meilee and Lin who have never seen a flower before, Nettle and Spider who don't need an umbrella, and Jessie enjoying a midnight broomstick ride.

Postcards - Autumn 2013

Here are this year's postcards, in my normal style. I just managed to get these done in time for Thought Bubble this weekend, they literally arrived in the post today! These seemed much harder than usual, I think I burned myself out doing Inktober. (I'll post those pictures later.)

These are Larkspur watching the marsh-lights, Nat and his shadow, Shasta carving some charms (because I'm going to keep putting him in these sets until someone likes him as much as I do) and Sweetpea being his adorable self in his home tree. The sharp-eyed among you may notice Shasta's postcard is a colour version of one of the first pictures I put on this blog.

October Event Report!

I am a terrible blogger and neglected to mention the events Sammy and I have been to this Autumn! As October is the spooky month of the year, and I don't really like being in photos, we drew all over them instead! (The witch hat was supposed to cover my face but Sammy sabotaged me.) Please enjoy these snaps of our table from the Bristol Comic and Zine Fair, University of Gloucestershire Small Press Fair, and London MCM.

There's one more event coming up, as we will be at Thought Bubble this weekend, at table 93 in the Allied London Hall. Click here for a floor plan.

Goth Anthology - Cover and Previews

Here we are, a full preview of my comics and the cover for the Goth Anthology, now with title! Sammy asked me to do the cover, and it seemed appropriate to go with something funny, since I realised reading a PDF of the whole thing that we hadn't done a single non-comedy story between us. A serious cover might have been... misleading.

We debuted this anthology at London MCM last month, and we were very pleased with the reactions we got! We'll also have it at Thought Bubble this coming weekend. In the meantime, please head over to Sammy's blog to see previews of her three comics! Children of the Night is also in Sammy's online shop.

Goth Anthology - On Behalf Of The Moon, Or Whatever

And the final Goth Anthology preview, my third comic, On Behalf Of The Moon, Or Whatever. I was so excited to draw this one, there was something about the idea of really apathetic goth magical girls that seemed inescapably hilarious. I tried to make both the character designs and panelling as manga-styled as possible, as it seemed appropriate for the subject matter.

Now there's only the cover left to do!

Goth Anthology - Life Is Suffering

Here's another two-page preview, this time my second comic for the Goth Anthology - Life Is Suffering. This is an updated version of some gag strips I used to make in 6th Form called The Adventures of Bookworm and Gothgirl, it's nice to go back to an old idea and realise you can do something decent with it!