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 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 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 9 - dip pen and ink wash

The Mirror Twins have spotted a potential new friend.

I’m getting really tired so I tried to keep this one simple, but it actually took longer than yesterday’s picture!

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.

Inktober 2019: day 4 - Pentel pocket brush and ink wash

Lottie wears her hair over that eye for a reason.

This one snuck past my 90-minute time limit, I'm not as quick with the brush pen as I thought!

Inktober 2019: day 2 - gel pens (and a brush pen)

Louise and her foster parents are not the only creatures that live in her house.

My 90-minute time limit fell apart already! I could only get the lineart and the spot black done in that time, so I've been frantically crosshatching in odd moments throughout the day. I'm very pleased with it though!

Inktober 2018 : Happy Hallowe'en!

Happy Hallowe’en! The Mirror Twins are looking for some new friends, if you’d like to join them.

No Tabitha this year! I had so many Tabitha pictures that I recently made them into a set of postcards, so I thought it was time to try something different. I don’t think I’ve ever tried ink wash over hatching like this before, so maybe this will be my next Hallowe’en tradition?

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 27 - Pentel Pocket Brush and ink wash

One more for the ‘girls looking straight at the camera’ set! It was hard inking the Mirror Girl with such a thick pen, but it was one of the only ones I hadn’t used yet for this set.

You can tell I was at MCM this weekend because all the pictures become extremely simple.

Inktober 2018 : Day 21 - gel pen

The Crow Boy appears in dark corners, by means best known to himself.

I had the idea for this one days ago, but I didn't have enough time to draw it until now. I think it took about 4 hours from start to finish, which I'm quite pleased with considering all the layers of cross-hatching.

Inktober 2018 : Day 18 - grey and black fude pen

I’m really pleased with this one, but I might re-draw it later. I made a couple of small mistakes that are bothering me more than usual because I’m so proud of the concept. It’s partly because I used my fude pen when I shouldn’t have, but I realised I could do the whole thing with just that one pen so I wanted to try it! Ah well, I can do another pass 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 4 - G-pen (and brush pen)

(I used a brush pen to fill in the black areas.)

I have now come down with a horrible cold, so I thought the Mirror Twins would be nice and easy to draw, but I was sneezing so much that every line was a battle!

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 - 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

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