Draw Your Day

 

 

 I recently moved house and didn't draw anything for about a month, so I set myself a 'draw your day' challenge to get drawing back into my routine. I originally planned to do it for the whole month of August, but I found it had served its purpose by the 12th (that is, I had started to have other ideas again), so I stopped there.

I learned a few things doing these too, like that William Morris pattern only has 3 hues. I would never have realised without copying it!

Dream Monster 13

People she touches crumble into dust. Stay perfectly still and she may pass you by, not believing you to be a threat.

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Another dream monster! I’m starting to think that if I collect these into a book I’ll add some more illustrations showing how they behaved. There was a point in this dream when she was only millimetres away from somebody’s face, and they just had to stand completely still and wait to see if she killed them or not. It was very tense.

Dream Monsters

If you breathed in the gas you turned into one. They were all people once.

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More dream monsters! This collection is starting to reach a decent size, I think these are numbers 11 and 12. I dreamed these quite a while ago, but only recently had time to paint them.

I sent one to my friend Sammy and she didn’t appreciate it.

Sammy: :S why are you drawing body horror during a pandemic?

Sarah: because I had the day off work I guess

Ink comparison

I had a notion years ago that it might be instructive to compare different methods of inking the same picture as a sort of tutorial. I never did make a tutorial, but on a whim I drew the comparison pictures a few days ago.

The top row is all fineliners, and compares three different choices a person might make about where to place their thick and thin lines. The bottom row is comparing water-soluble ink, a metal dip pen and a paintbrush.

I've never met another artist who uses water-soluble ink the way I do, does anyone know of any others? I'd like to see how other people do it.

Self Portrait

We’re all working from home at the moment and there are a lot of Skype meetings, but I’m working from my bedroom so I’m not really comfortable having the camera on. (I just don’t want everyone being able to see into my room.) I thought I’d update my old skull avatar so my colleagues would have something to look at.

I couldn’t use it in the end because there was no way to set it to JUST Skype and not my email avatar too, but I used it on some social media instead. Should I use it here too and redesign the blog a bit?

Inktober 2019: day 31 - mapping pen and ink wash

The Mirror Twins and their friend wish you a happy Hallowe’en! Be careful who you greet after dark.

I posted a terrible, late-night photo of this on twitter just to prove I finished it on time, because it was so close to midnight!

Inktober 2019: day 30 - gel pens

There was also just time enough for one more Sweetpea! He really wants to show you how lovely he tree’s Autumn leaves and acorns are.

Inktober 2019: day 29 - Pentel pocket brush and ink wash

Berix isn’t crying, those tear tracks are permanent stains caused by a hallucinogenic drug.

Just time enough to introduce one more new person! Berix is another courtesan of the Dai Empress. His people make extensive use of mind-altering drugs, so one of his special skills is formulating them for courtiers. He enjoys music.

Inktober 2019: day 28 - ink and water

In principle, divination can be done with anything that has an element of chance. Even throwing rocks and dust in the air.

Fun fact: I didn’t clean my waterbrushes properly after using them for silver paint, so this one is slightly sparkly in real life.

Inktober 2019: day 27 - fineliners and grey pens

I was handing out minicomics featuring Patience at MCM, so I thought she could join in Inktober too! She’s the last character I can think of for the ‘girls looking straight ahead’ set, so I’ll have to come up with something else to do on busy days next year.

Inktober 2019: day 26 - G-pen

Poppet’s friend found a smashed up breakfast bar, and it was far too big to eat alone.

This was much simpler in my head than it was to draw! Poppet and her friends are very easy to draw, but I didn’t factor in having to draw the breakfast bar and figure out how to position them all.

Inktober 2019: day 25 - ink and water

She emerged unharmed from a deadly house fire, and now when she touches objects they ignite.

This is the same girl from day 21, somewhat earlier in life. By the time she’s employed as a servant she’s learned to control whatever is happening to her, but at first she would leave charred footprints everywhere she went.

I was tabling at London MCM from the 25th to the 27th, so I tried to keep them simple for those three days.

Inktober 2019: day 24 - ink and water

This isn’t quite as dangerous as it looks.

This one was originally going to have a dramatic background, but I was travelling to London with a suitcase I could barely lift, so this was all I could manage. I think I might re-draw it; it might be interesting to have a true comparison between what I had in my head and what I was actually able to do within the limits of the challenge.

Inktober 2019: day 23 - Pentel pocket brush and ink wash (G-pen for the strings)

Here’s another character we haven’t met before, although you may have seen his eye if you’ve been here a while. Jothan is a courtesan at the palace of the Dai Empress, with music among his specialist skills. His people never show their open mouths, so he wears a veil if he’s been asked to sing as well as play.

(The harp design isn’t final, I think it should be a bit less symmetrical.)

Inktober 2019: day 22 - gel pen

Sweetpea and some of his friends are comparing the Autumn fruits of their trees.

I was trying to keep this one simple because I was starting to get very tired, but I put in too many characters and props! It wasn't hard exactly, but it was time consuming.