Inktober 2014 - part 5

Day 25 - cartridge pen. This is the same pen I use for ink and water, but without the water there's no way to correct my horrible perspective.

Day 26 - fineliner, grey pens and ink painter. This is the same Derwent fineliner and one of their new ink paint pens that I was given at LICAF. Nettle and Spider are not really the same height, but they look more dramatic this way.

Day 27 - g-pen. Since I drew Chiihon, here's her friend the Devil Boy, who is a pre-Disaster vrega. Their planet was not a nice place to live back then. (It's not now either, but at least it doesn't make your teeth fall out any more.)

27.5 - ink and water. My manager wanted me to draw a lightbulb in ink, so I did.

Day 28 - g-pen. I think I made Nettle too short this time. She probably wants the hug but doesn't really know how to express that, so she'll just stand there awkwardly until it stops.

Day 29 - brush pen. Meruch likes to carry Violet because otherwise all he can see is the top of her head.

Day 30 - mapping pen. Ely's toenails are just as long and gross as her fingernails.

Inktober 2014 - part 4

I got ill in the week before London MCM, so between that and con prep I fell very behind on these. I think the next one that was drawn on the right day is 29.

Day 19 - g-pen. I inked this on a moving train. Visuk thought being carried by Meruch would be fun, but it turns out it's mostly embarrassing. Also Visuk has at least two scars that I forgot to draw.

Day 20 - ink and water. I realised I'd never drawn Lottie in ink and water, so here she is.

Day 21 - mapping pen. I wasn't totally happy with the way I drew Trispin's standard glamour, so here's another try.

Day 22 - ink and water. Adventures in late-night character design. This is the doctor on Meruch and Visuk's ship. He's also a priest, which is common. He wears the ponytail and that vial for religious reasons, and is a lot older than he looks to humans. (He looks his age to other Vrega, since they know what they're looking for.)

Day 23 - g-pen. This is where I fell behind, I sketched this on the 24th, but didn't ink it until the 27th. This is Chiihon, who appears to be a mammal but is really a carnivorous plant. Her people eat their planet's native hominids.

Day 24 - ink and water. I tried drawing the Crowboy this way too.

Inktober 2014 - part 3

 A little late in posting, but here are some more Inktober pictures.

Day 13 - ink and water. Levitation practice is also nap-time.

Day 14 - brush pen. I have a Pentel brush pen that I usually use to fill in black areas or occasionally for observational sketches, so I tried using it for a whole picture. It quickly became a game of 'how much black can I put on this before it becomes an unreadable mess?'

Day 15 - mapping pen. I drew Trispin a lot, so here's Ely.

Day 16 - g-pen. If you're wondering why other people don't just stay away from Ely and Trispin when they're so obviously bad news, the answer is glamours.

Day 17 - brush pen. This one was done at LICAF! Violet is tiny compared to most Vrega. For reference, Khet (who is carrying her) is just over 6' tall.

Day 18 - fineliners and grey pens. The Derwent people gave us free fineliners at LICAF. Take three cards and Lena will tell your fortune.

Inktober 2014 - part 2

Day 7 - Ink and water. Trying to see if I could do good smoke effects with this technique.

Day 8 - brush pen and G-pen. The mirror twins might be ghosts or they might just be creepy. (Although they're certainly not 'mirror twins' in the medical sense.)

Day 9 - gel pen and brush pen. Violet doesn't need a ladder, she can just climb on her giant alien.

Day 10 - gel pen. I was torn between wanting to draw a background and really, really, not wanting to draw anything.

Day 11 - brush inking and ink wash. I found some white ink after I finished this one so I had a go at using it for highlights.

Day 12 - mapping pen. My cheap mapping pens remain my favourite inking tools. Don't take any food Trispin offers you.

Inktober 2014 - Part 1

Day 1 - ink and water. A lesson in how ink and water can go horribly wrong. I chose the wrong cartridge pen so it was doomed from the beginning.

Day 2 - brush inking and ink wash. One day I'll be confident enough in this medium to use it outside of Inktober.

Day 3 - G-pen. Simple headshots to break in a new pen.

Day 4 - ink and water. I felt bad for messing up Louise on the first day, so I drew her again with the right cartridge pen.

Day 5 - various. I was still quite tired from a convention at the weekend so I scribbled up some Poppets in various ways. Smiling Poppet with the G-pen, happy Poppet in ink and water, angry Poppet with a brush, surprised Poppet with a mapping pen, sad Poppet with a brush pen.

Day 6 - brush inking. Lena is wearing her brother's jacket.

Music Zine Highlights

Some highlights from the new issue of This Is Not A Serious Music Publication. I was introduced to a lot of new music this year, so it was much easier to come up with feature ideas than last time!

Sammy's already put this issue up for sale in her shop.

Oliver

Another baby portrait, this time with a jungle theme. I had a good time shading all the foliage on this one.

The Mystery of the Nice Granny

This year's free mini-mystery, The Mystery of the Nice Granny.

As usual, I'll be giving these out as business cards at conventions. Some events I'll be tabling at with Sammy include:

Comica Comiket - 16th August 2014
Bristol Comic and Zine Fair - 4th October 2014
LICAF Comics Clock Tower - 17th-19th October 2014
Thought Bubble - 15th - 16th November 2014
True Believers Comic Festival - 7th February 2015

If you'd like some free mini-comics, remember the secret password: 'do you have a business card?'

Adventures in Book-Binding

Recently my co-worker paid me to make her some custom books. She wanted two in the same dimensions as a lined notebook she already had, but one which had plain paper so she could write in it horizontally, and one which opened at the short edge to form a very long, thin double page spread. That one also needed heavy paper, so she could paint in it if she wanted.

It was a lot of fun making something different to my usual A6 notebooks, but cutting the pages to a custom size left me with a lot of off-cuts. So, naturally, I made those into books too. I got four mini notebooks out of them, in two different sizes. (I photographed them with an A6 book for comparison.) I'll have the minis to sell at Manchester MCM later this month.

Barnabas Oley Bookplates

Finally, things that aren't fairies!

I was hired to make some designs for my old primary school (Barnabas Oley), that could be used either as certificates or as bookplates for excellence or progress in handwriting. I hand-wrote the text using the letter forms the children learn.

I said 'things that aren't fairies', but later I was also asked to do some powerpoint slides featuring Poppet the House Hob for the awards assembly, so there were fairies involved after all!

Maroon Flower

A miniature painting I included with a notebook sale recently, by way of apology for a shipping delay.

Moth

A birthday card I made for my Grandma last week, it's loosely based on that Venezuelan Poodle Moth photo that went round a while ago.

Windflower

I heard my Grandma has shingles, so I whipped up a get-well-soon card for her. I hope it cheers her up until she feels better.

These... may not be the most botanically accurate windflowers I've ever drawn...