Inktober 2019: day 19 - brush inking and coloured ink

If they fall down without time to prepare, they don’t come out right.

Inktober 2019: day 5 - dip pen and liquid ink

Isaac doesn't always know how to pass the time at night

I had the idea for this one a few days ago, but had to save it for the weekend because I knew I wouldn't have enough time on a workday. In hindsight I could have pushed the lighting even more, maybe I'll give it another go later in the month.

This is also a turnip pen instead of my normal mapping pen. I've been having trouble finding replacement mapping nibs (although I've finally tracked down some that I like) so I've built up a small collection of alternatives.

4 Fantasy Eyes

I realised I had just enough pages left in what has become my 'eyeball sketchbook' to do two more sets of four eyes, so here's four fantasy characters for one of them. An angel, a demon and two fairies.

Previous sets include some horrible eye deformations, and four sci-fi characters.

Inktober 2018 : Day 30 - ink and water

Among the places you may find Isaac: mausoleums.

This one was more of a test to show Isaac’s wing shadows bending around a wall, so it’s a bit messy. I might try to work it up into a full painting some other time.

Inktober 2018 : Day 9 - grey and black fude pen

I have a nice fude brush pen with one grey tip and one black tip (I'm told this is because sympathy cards are supposed to be written in grey in Japan, but I don't know if that's true), so I wanted to try doing 'colour holds' like Sammy. Although we couldn't decide if it's still a colour hold when the colour is grey.

The girl Isaac has attached himself to can see him, so his preferred method of introduction is to sit creepily somewhere nearby and wait for her to notice him.

Inktober 2018 : Day 2 - Pentel Pocket Brush and ink wash

Alexis is a type of angel made to interact with humans, so even his unnatural features look soft and friendly. He likes loose, fluffy clothes like jumpers and scarves.

My Pentel Pocket Brush is one of my favourite pens, but I don't think I've mastered it yet. I usually do my inks in two or three steps but with a brush pen it seems it's better to make one line and then leave it alone. I'm going to try to use it more this Inktober to see if I can really get the hang of it.

Inktober 2016 - Part 1

It's Inktober again! Here are my first 10 pictures from this year. I'm often tired from work so we're a little short on backgrounds so far, maybe I can make up the gap later in the month.

Day 1 - mapping pen : It's still not a good idea to take fruit from fairies, even ones who go to your school.

Day 2 - brush inking and ink wash : Spider's parents didn't do a great job of dealing with his seemingly ever-increasing psychic powers, but in their defence I don't think I'd handle this very well either.

Day 3 - cartridge pen : Vekh, if you keep saying things like "Oh Meruch, you're... so strong" he's going to start refusing to carry you. I made a bad choice of pen for this one, my cartridge pen ink looks very different to my other pens so I have to use it for the whole picture, and it took forever to fill in the black areas with such a fine nib!

Day 4 - brush pen : It's not a good day for Nettle. (This is probably the pen I should have used for the previous one.)

Day 5 - gel pen : Lena is dowsing for a lost object, probably her brother's house keys.

Day 6 - g-pen and markers : Psychics are generally more dangerous as children than as adults.

Day 7 - fineliners and grey pen : Isaac would make a good guardian angel for a goth child who likes things creepy, always assuming he is an angel.

Day 8 - g-pen : It says something about Spider's personality that he can be so happy about bending that one spoon when Nettle is levitating him, herself and probably half the house without even really trying. I think I've drawn a variation of this picture for the last 3 Inktobers in a row, it's probably fine as long as I keep using different pens, right?

Day 9 - ink and water : I've used surprisingly little ink and water so far this year. Louise likes the rain, but I've never tried to get a rain effect in this technique before so I don't know how happy she'll be with that view.

Day 10 - mapping pen : Lottie lives in a cold place, but her adoptive parents buy her lots of fashionable fur-trimmed coats.

Part 2, Part 3, Hallowe'en

Inktober 2015 - Part 3

All but the last one!

Day 21 - mapping pen and grey pen. My hand was still hurting, so I went with something simple again. Although having said that, those crows were an absolute pig to fill in. Lottie isn't sure how to feel about all these new friends.

Day 22 - ink and water. I went blackberry picking, so Sweetpea and Coriander did too.

Day 23 - mapping pen. This is the only one I drew all month where I just started doodling without planning it. I was pleased with it in the end because this is the most on-model Nat has been in years. He may be a bad influence on his sister.

Day 24 - mapping pen. Oh no! Jessie looks like him already! At least she's still got her clothes on. I was trying to avoid using the same type of inking two days in a row, but I thought day 23 could use a companion piece.

Day 25 - fineliners and markers. This one was hobbled by the sudden and unexpected death of my favourite purple marker. Spider is trying to learn how to bend a spoon, but he's about to be distracted.

Day 26 - ink and water. I'm still working on my backgrounds for the ink and water method, but I may have been too ambitious. Shasta's environment is hard to draw at the best of times.

Day 27 - gel pen. Just in case anyone was unclear on where Lottie's new friends come from.

Day 28 - g-pen and grey pens. Isaac is just floating around, doing dead person stuff.

Day 29 - cartridge pen. This is the same pen I use for ink and water pictures, just without the water. Lena is showing Lucas how to tell fortunes with playing cards. That's a real divination system, so bonus points if you can read what the spread means. (It's ace of spades reversed/10 of hearts/4 of clubs.)

Day 30 - gel pen. This is pleasingly symmetrical, both the second and second-to-last pictures are slightly disappointing pictures of Nat hobbled by a misbehaving gel pen. It must not like him.

Part 1, Part 2, Hallowe'en

Christmas Card Sets

Remember those Christmas cards I posted last year? I decided to have a go at selling them in these little sets. I'll have these at Thought Bubble this weekend, but I've also put them on my Etsy shop.

It took quite a while to put these all in cellophane like that so I hope I can sell at least a few!

2013 Highlights

It's that time again! I thought I'd put together another collection of the work I'm most proud of from the past year. In chronological order (I think):

The Mystery of the Roofrunner, this year's free Patience mini-comic. I thought the story was a little weaker than The Mystery of the Night Boy (2012), but I really tried my hardest on the environments, and I think they're miles better than my backgrounds had been before.

Children of the Night, the goth anthology I made with my bestie Sammy Borras this Summer. This was by far the biggest project I've ever cranked out, we did about 30 pages each! It was divided into shorter stories, but it really gave my a feel of how much work a long comic project would be. I'm also really pleased with my writing on all three of my comics!

A couple of pictures to represent Inktober as a whole. Last year I had no time to do Inktober, so I was really proud of myself for not only finishing it, but actually getting some good work out of it. Also I learned to do ink wash.

Finally, right at the end of the year, the twelve Christmas cards I made for my friends and family this year. I had the idea for these last year, but had no time to get them done for Christmas. I'm so pleased to have managed it this year.

I confess, it was... much harder to find things I was proud of this year. (Only Children of the Night leapt to mind.) Mostly because I didn't finish most of the things I'd planned to do by 2014. I had a portfolio review in... February? and got some excellent advice, but I did the same thing I did last year and got caught up in a lot of smaller projects and didn't manage implement any of that advice. I feel very foolish for allowing that to happen even when I'd identified it as a problem at the end of last year.

Obviously I fall into this trap very easily when I don't have some sort of structure in place, so this time I've made a to-do list for the WHOLE OF 2014. Complete with month-by-month breakdowns of which projects need to be started when. If I can't get the stuff on that list done by 2015 (barring major life problems) then it will only be because I lack discipline!

Bring on 2014! I can do better this year!

Christmas Cards - Set Two

These six are all plant-themed, and went to my friends. There's conifer, dogwood, hellebore, holly, mistletoe and rosehip. (I know rosehip is more of an Autumn thing, but I've seen it used in wreaths so I thought I could get away with it.)

I can't decide if dogwood or hellebore is my favourite from this set.

Christmas Cards - Set One

Now that it's safely after Christmas, I can show off the cards I made this year! I did twelve angels themed around different Christmas motifs, these six went to my family.

These are baubles, bells, candles, ice, nuts and oranges, and the Star of Bethlehem. I think ice is my favourite from this set.