I Had A Notion Years Ago That It Might Be Instructive To Compare Different Methods Of Inking The Same

I had a notion years ago that it might be instructive to compare different methods of inking the same picture as a sort of tutorial. I never did make a tutorial, but on a whim I drew the comparison pictures a few days ago.

The top row is all fineliners, and compares three different choices a person might make about where to place their thick and thin lines. The bottom row is comparing water-soluble ink, a metal dip pen and a paintbrush.

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 at least I can use it here.)

People she touches crumble into dust. If you stay perfectly still, she won’t consider you a threat and may pass you by.

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Another dream monster! I’m starting to think that if I collect these into a book I’ll add some more illustrations showing how they behaved. There was a point in this dream when she was only millimetres away from somebody’s face, and they just had to stand completely still and wait to see if she killed them or not.

A little woodland scene painted with three spare watercolour half pans.

I found these in a box of half pans I’d forgotten about while digging out my gouache. I don’t use pre-made pans anymore (I just squeeze tubes into them), so I thought I’d pick two or three out at a time and mess around with limited palettes. I played it safe this time with sepia, yellow ochre and intense green, but next time I might pick some at random and see what I can do.

The tiny sketchbook is also something I used half of and then forgot about. I seem to have used a lot of it for swatches so I think it deserves some nicer pieces.

I did a one marker challenge! Well, one and a half markers; I did use a colourless blender. In hindsight I don’t think I needed to, the white space I left around Nettle is big enough that I could have done sharp purple shadows on her skin.

The purple marker didn’t layer as well as I hoped, it would only go a tiny bit darker with multiple coats, even when I waited for it to dry.

My blender ran out when I was trying to lighten the background. It’s a Copic Ciao so I ordered a refill, with only a small grimace at paying £7 for a bottle of clear ink.

Recently I've been doing some limited palette paintings using a box of spare watercolour half pans. I jumble them all up, pick two with my eyes closed, then try to paint something with them. This is cadmium red and viridian which is a pretty... festive combination. I was slightly horrified when I first pulled them out, but I'm quite pleased with the result.