Warming up for Inktober

Inktober is just around the corner (less than a week to go) so I thought I'd warm up with Nettle and Spider since they dominated last year's challenge. I haven't used my fineliners much this year and I didn't have my current felt tips at all last time, so I wanted to double-check how the two interact. I'm quite pleased.

Pocket Witch Gravity

Introducing Pocket Witch Gravity! Sammy has drawn a lot of free pictures for me recently (she's been offering commissions of things like 'you as a Pokémon trainer' and 'you as an Inkling' and I kept asking for them) so I offered her a Pocket Witch of her own in return. Gravity was very excited to meet Sammy and demanded a two-page comic to introduce herself.

The spot colour on these is actually neon ink, but that naturally doesn't show up in a scanned version so I'll post some photographs later showing the neon ink on the original pages.

EDIT: Here's the close-up photos showing the neon ink!

Bookmarks!

I promise these are the last ones! One of my favourite things about the design of the Diamonds is how huge they are, so I included their Pearls for scale (a Pearl is the size of a normal human). With these I think I got the desire to draw lovingly rendered portraits of alien autocrats out of my system, so if you're not a fan it's okay, it's over now!

Miniature Diamonds!

Here are some more of the Diamonds I warned you about! I'm usually a bit lukewarm on Steven Universe, but I find the Diamonds really interesting because of the single-minded fear and/or devotion they inspire in the other gems. The newest episodes gave them a lot of screen time so I started all these portraits in a fit of enthusiasm. (Including two of Blue Diamond because her character design changes so drastically depending on whether her hood is up or down.)

Thinking of single-minded devotion, I love Yellow Diamond's Pearl. There is just nothing she would rather do than serve Yellow Diamond, she's so proud to be her Pearl. I love her smug expression.

Mixed Media!

I don't often do any mixed media, so these were a fun experiment, prompted by a realisation that doing a space background in coloured pencil would take more time than I was willing to invest in Steven Universe fanart. They're not very mixed, since they're only watercolour paint and watercolour pencil, but I'm pleased with them in any case.

I have several more pictures of Blue and Yellow Diamond half-finished, just so you're forewarned.

New Years Resolution

Here's something silly I drew around the 5th of January this year! I was rather put off the UK small press a couple of years ago and hadn't really drawn a comic since, so when I suddenly felt like drawing one I dropped everything and bashed it out in a few hours. It's about one-sided competitiveness.

Some of those few hours were spent working out how to draw Markiplier, so I inked the best practice faces as well. I hope you will all continue to respect me as a serious adult now that I've revealed that I watch Let's Plays.

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 2

Here's the second batch of Inktober pictures for this year! I'm still finding it a bit harder this year than I did last year because my schedule has become very irregular, some days I barely have any time to draw anything (more than one of these was finished on a moving train), but I'm determined to keep going!

Day 11 - cartridge pen : Lena insists the fortune-telling works better if you use Nan's good tea set.

Day 12 - gel pen : The Crow Boy doesn't mean to be creepy, but he usually is anyway.

Day 13 - brush pen and coloured ink : I was out with a friend and she said "draw Poppet with a pumpkin", so here we are!

Day 14 - g-pen : Lena would probably have a whole wardrobe of dresses like that if she had the money.

Day 15 - gel pen : Tempting with fruit isn't the only way for a changeling to entrap unsuspecting humans. (Ely is also wearing her glamour like a sensible fairy.)

Day 16 - ink and water : Lena is able to use all sorts of tools for divination. She can get much the same results by scrying in a bowl of water, but a crystal ball looks spookier.

Day 17 - g-pen and grey pen : The Mirror Twins have an endless supply of creepy artifacts somewhere. That's probably some variant of a Hand of Glory, but let's not ask where they got it.

Day 18 - brush pen : I made a mistake with this one! I sketched it in the morning and did a first pass in mapping pen, then realised I wouldn't have time to cross-hatch it before work and also couldn't get away with bringing wet media to the library counter, so I had to re-do it in brush pen. Spider matches Nettle on day 4 now though, which is nice.

Day 19 - ink and water : Things look very different when Lucas looks through his bad eye. This is one of the ones inked on a moving train, I was at work from 10am to 9pm and I was determined I was NOT going to keep working on this at home when I really wanted to go to bed!

Day 20 - g-pen and markers : A companion piece for day 6. Child psychics can be a danger to themselves as well as others.

Part 1, Part 3, 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