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 13 - brush inking and ink wash

A character we haven’t really met before! This is ‘Sapling’, the Dai Empress, in extremely casual clothes. This might even be something like pyjamas. She rules a vast empire that spans more than half a galaxy.

I normally try not to use the same inking method two days in a row, but carrying bottles of ink to and from work was making me nervous so I thought I’d better do all the brush inking at the weekend. I did use different brushes though!

Inktober 2019: day 12 - brush inking and coloured ink

The way Nettle’s hair waves around when she uses her powers is a sign of poor control.

I wanted to practice using those rigger brushes a bit more, so I drew something pretty simple. They’re so hard to control! You can get more ink in them at once without losing the fine tip though.

Inktober 2019: day 6 - brush inking and coloured ink

One foot in front of the other, repeat as necessary.

I inked this with some rigger brushes that I’ve never been brave enough to use before, they have minds of their own!

Inktober 2018 : Day 11 - brush inking and ink wash

Levitating is Nettle's equivalent of fidgeting.

I only have a short shift at work today so I hoped to do something more impressive, but I was so tired that this was all I could manage. I did try to ink with a brush though, which is something I still want to practice more.

Inktober 2017 - Happy Hallowe'en!

Day 31 : brush inking and coloured ink

It's that time again! Tabitha and her coven are busily preparing for All Hallows Eve, when many spirits roam the village and magic is at its strongest.

In Tabitha's village some people still carve traditional turnip lanterns, while others have swapped to the new imported pumpkins, but this year her job is just to ensure they're all lit before sunset.

Happy Hallowe'en!

Part 1, Bonus Picture, Part 2, Part 3

Inktober 2017 - Part 3

Day 21 : fineliners and felt tip pens - Eventually the school agreed that Nettle should just sit out of P.E. lessons.

Day 22 : mapping pen and brush pen - "It followed us home, can we keep it?"

I was hoping for this one to have a more scary feel, but the Mirror Twins seem to be too cute and are taking away from the horror of the black dog. I'm pleased with the composition though.

Day 23 : G-pen - Tree fairies of his type don't usually venture very far from their home tree, so Sweetpea has never seen a sweet chestnut before.

Day 24 : brush inking and coloured ink - I regretted not using coloured ink for the flames on day 1 every time I opened the sketchbook, so I finally relented and did a new version of the same concept, this time with coloured ink.

Day 25 : cartridge pen - Lottie is fairly sure she shouldn't talk to the Crow Boy, but she doesn't really want him to leave either.

Day 26 : mapping pen - Sweetpea's ear frills, like the leaves on his tree, turn brown and fall off in Autumn. Also like the leaves on his tree, they tend not to go at the same time.

Day 27 : fineliners and grey pens - The next three were all done while helping Sammy at MCM! It's very hard to find time to do anything else while at a convention, so I feel quite proud of myself for not falling behind. While we were on a bus Sammy requested some more pictures of Poppet's friends, 'with a musical instrument', so here are the two we didn't see in the teacup picture earlier.

Day 28 : brush pen and ink wash - Louise's house also plays host to a slightly alarming type of house fairy called Lob-Lie-By-The-Fire. He looks a little more frightening than most house fairies, but he just wants to sit by your fire and help with the washing up.

I still can't quite believe I managed to do this one after spending 9 hours selling comics in a packed convention hall, and a further 45 minutes on a bus.

Day 29 : fineliners and felt tip pens - I caught con lurgy so this was one of the hardest ones to do all month, I felt dreadful while I was drawing it! It's also very hard to draw when one has to stop every 5 seconds to blow one's nose. Still, it looks pretty good I think.

Leilus has a lot of features he could choose as his 'I am a demon' warning sign, but the tongue is the obvious best choice because it can be hidden inside his mouth. The stereotypical spaded tail would probably be the worst.

Day 30 : ink and water - Well, it seems I finally ran out of steam and had to settle for one that I really wasn't happy with. I wanted to draw Nat one more time because it was the last day, but I was still ill and didn't have the brain power to get him on model or work out a good composition. I probably should have used a different pen too, but I'd hardly used ink and water at all! I should have been sensible and opted for something with less risk, but these are the lessons we learn in Inktober.

One of the reasons Nat keeps his hair so long is that it's usefully prehensile.

Just a Hallowe'en picture still to come!

Part 1, Bonus Picture, Part 2, Hallowe'en

Inktober 2017 - Part 1

It's finally here! Inktober is my favourite art challenge of the year, here's the first 10 days!

Day 1 : brush inking - In the spirit of self-improvement I started with a brush, since I don't usually ink that way. I think it came out quite well, although in hindsight I wish I'd done the fire in coloured ink so it would stand out a bit more. I don't know if Nat needs more practice controlling it or if he wants it to run up his fingers like that.

Day 2 : G-pen - The Mirror Twins have many friends to talk to. So on this day I was out of the house from 6:45am to 10pm because I had a shift at both jobs, AND I had come down with a horrible, horrible cold, so frankly I'm extremely proud of this one just because, despite all of that, it looks okay.

Day 3 : fineliners and grey pen - This was another long day and another day full of cold, so I'm also very happy that Sweetpea looks okay in this one! I've never drawn him dolly-style before.

Day 4 : fineliners and felt tip - Franz's nosebleed is brought to you by the dire state of my nose on this day. I'd had the cold for 3 days at this point and my nose was shredded from all the tissues! I also forgot that I try not to use the same pens two days in a row, I was very tired.

Day 5 : gel pen - I think it hurts Jessie to channel lightning through her body like that, but it's the only combat magic she knows. I can't believe how well this one turned out since I was still trying to get rid of that cold and still at work!

Day 6 : fineliners and felt tip - Finally I had a day off work! It was such a relief! I realised last year I've done a version of this picture every Inktober since 2014 (in a different ink each time), so now I want to keep going and see whether I run out of ideas or ink methods first.

This year Nettle is trying to practice moving only the things she wants to move, but I don't think she'll ever be able to use her powers without some of her hair floating around. Turning the pages for Spider is by far the hardest part of this exercise.

Day 7 : mapping pen - Caspian finds it harder to hold his human shape when he feels threatened. This one was a lesson in paying attention to ALL your materials, I thought my pen nib wasn't cooperating but it turned out to be the ink, not the pen.

Day 8 : ink wash - I wanted to use masking fluid for this one but I turned out not to have any, so instead I just had to be really, really careful painting around Louise.

Later in life she will know better than to follow the forest lights, but when she first moved in with her foster parents she didn't know what they were.

Day 9 : gel pen - If you pick a magical fight with Nat under the assumption that he'll be as unprepared as his sister, you will get yourself seriously hurt. I sort of wish this one had more movement, but at the time I wanted him to look more controlled than Jessie.

Day 10 : ink and water - One of Sweetpea's Autumn jobs is to bless and plant some of the acorns from his tree, to ensure its children grow in good spots.

Bonus Picture, Part 2, Part 3, Hallowe'en

Inktober 2016 - Happy Hallowe'en!

Here's the last picture for this year's Inktober, celebrating Hallowe'en as usual!

This year Tabitha has a very important job. On All Hallows Eve the coven sends a witch to the entrance of the local graveyards and forests, to safely escort anyone not wearing a mask while the spirits roam free. Always wear a mask on Hallowe'en to protect yourself from malicious spirits!

Happy Hallowe'en everyone!

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Inktober 2016 - Part 3

Part 3 of Inktober! I continued to struggle to find time to do these, but I'm happy with most of them anyway.

Day 21 - mapping pen : Autumn is a good season for fairy-spotting. I was absolutely exhausted when I drew this so I'm surprised it turned out okay!

Day 22 - G-pen and grey pen : I suspected my G-pen was misbehaving so I drew something simple to test it, I'm still not sure if something's wrong with it or not.

Day 23 - brush pen : I don't have a good bead on what Trispin's glamour makes him look like, possibly just cleaner? I was so pleased with the sketch for this that I think it was very brave of me to ink it with my brush pen, probably the pen with which I need most improvement. Inktober is supposed to be a way to get better at using ink after all!

Day 24 - G-pen : I had a long day and felt like drawing something cute.

Day 25 - ink and water : The Crow Boy has lots of friends.

Day 26 - mapping pen : I already drew Ely with her glamour on, so here she is without it. She's just as disgusting as Trispin.

Day 27 - brush inking and ink wash : I've never drawn the Crow Boy dolly-style before. It doesn't really suit him, which presents a problem because it does suit Lottie but they come from the same place so they have to be drawn in the same way. Hmmm.

Day 28 - brush pen : Spider is, on the surface at least, a very laid-back telepath.

Day 29 - cartridge pen : Spider is taking precautions with the tea tray, but Nettle won't drop those. I usually ink my dolly pictures with my G-pen, so I had a go with my cartridge pen instead. I think it looks pretty good.

Day 30 - G-pen : Just enough time left for Lena to show off another divination technique!

Part 1, Part 2, Hallowe'en

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 - Happy Hallowe'en!

Day 31 - brush inking and coloured ink. My last Inktober picture always doubles as a Hallowe'en picture. This year Tabitha is collecting branches for the bonfires that ward off evil spirits on this important night.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Inktober 2015 - Part 2

Here's the next few pictures from this year's Inktober challenge.

Day 11 - G-pen and brush pen. I was short of time so I went with a dolly-style picture again, this time Louise with a bonus Sweetpea.

Day 12 - mapping pen and markers. I hope coloured markers count as 'ink'. Visuk suffers from a skin condition that's a little like eczema and a little like herpes. Flare-ups last about two weeks. Meruch is there to make sure he doesn't scratch.

Day 13 - gel pen. I wanted to check I could still use gel pen reliably after such a long break. Nettle's effect radius for this sort of thing is more than a mile, but you'll be safe as long as she can see you're running away.

Day 14 - brush pen and grey markers. The process for this one went something like this: Brain: Okay, we're going to do something different, something subtle, with a proper background and- Hands: Re-hash a theme we already used with the heaviest pen we have and no background at all, got it!

Day 15 - ink and water. I don't think I've ever drawn the mirror twins in ink and water before, so it seemed a good time to give it a try. It's nice to make new friends. At the graveyard.

Day 16 - mapping pen. Sometimes you're tired and you just want to draw a big pile of hair. Andersen has the biggest hair among my characters so here he is.

Day 17 - ink and water. They're lost. I'm trying to develop a technique for doing decent backgrounds in this style, but it still needs a bit of work. The sky isn't bad I think.

Day 18 - brush inking and ink wash. Fun fact, that roof is the roof of my local church (from memory though). Rooftops and windowsills are the Crow Boy's natural habitat.

Day 19 - G-pen. I wondered what Ely and Trispin would look like in dolly-style, the answer is apparently 'like a much creepier Poppet'.

Day 20 - brush pen. I accidentally crippled my hand copying up notes and could only manage a line drawing. Violet has taught Khet and Vekh anime poses, but they're not as cute when you have terrifying goat eyes. Adorable vampire teeth are okay. These two are perfect for my poor, crippled fingers because as devout Khukh-worshippers (the vrega nature deity) they are forbidden from cutting their hair, wearing piercings, ritual scarification or any of the other fiddly details my vrega usually have. Violet likes it too, since they opted out of the Trial due to the ritual mutilation aspect, and therefore have no back-spikes and can give a decent piggy-back ride. At a relatively short 6', Khet also doesn't loom over her quite as badly as most of them do.


Part 1, Part 3, Hallowe'en