I Realised I Have A HUGE Backlog Of These Journal Pictures, So Get Ready For A Lot Of Posts!

I realised I have a HUGE backlog of these journal pictures, so get ready for a lot of posts!

This lot is from when I was still working at Bea's, that was back in last Spring.

Day 6 - drawing on a train!

I was on the way back from Birmingham and listening to Peter and the Wolf, so I doodled up a little illustration in pencil and washed over it with watercolour. I couldn't mix colours very well because, you know, train, but I think this technique could work well for a larger illustration.

I'm not doing it this month, but I may do this later in the year.

JANUARY IS BORING, LET’S DRAW COMICS!

The holidays are over and there’s not much going on, so let’s have some fun! Me and my friends pigeony and internetkatze are challenging ourselves to complete comics of at least 15 pages in length during the month of January. It’s like 24 hour comics day but less stressful and sleep-deprived! We’ll be posting our wips and finished stuff in the tag #january comic month 2014.

It’s not anything big and official, but we hope you’ll join us!

2nd January 2014

Continuing the theme of 'things on my desk' a nice pottery candle holder I've had for a long time.

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!

Here are the six I made for family members, themed along different Christmas motifs. Specifically bells, ice, baubles, candles, nuts and oranges (traditional stocking contents) and the Star of Bethlehem.

Originally these were going to be A8, and basically just tags to go on presents, but I got a little carried away and ended up painting twelve A6 watercolours all together. It was a lot of work right before Christmas, but I finished them in time!