inktober review

The Inktober Initiative was created by artist and illustrator Jake Parker in 2009 and became a massive worldwide art event, much like NaNoWriMo is for writers. I joined in the last 2 years; my first year was a huge failure but this year I managed to get some fun work out despite other project demands.

In fact it got me into the habit of regularly drawing something for myself along with my commissioned work. Inktober is lots of fun and I love being part of the community; I'm definitely doing it again next year!

Copic markers

Back in my all-anime-all-the-time days I painstakingly built up a collection of Japanese Copic alcohol markers over years, and taught myself how to use them. This year I am relearning how to do manga style for a project, so it seemed appropriate to go back to working with my old friends.

I have a lot more experience under my belt now, but it still took a while to remember the techniques! Luckily there are some awesome tutorials on Youtube to work with, which I didn't have when I first started.

But sometimes you get a challenge that you can't find a tutorial for, and that's when training and practice come to the rescue. I used the wrong side of the marker paper by mistake and didn't realise a very obvious thing: the other side isn't like the front at all! It's smooth and pencil slides across it and the alcohol just sits on top and doesn't absorb. Colours will smear and push each other out of the way. But if you know some basic principles and are willing to play around, it produces a fun effect of a very different kind.

Copic marker, fountain pen ink, various pens, nibs and brush pens.

collage: books and cybernetics

Two quick things I knocked together. Sometimes you just run across something that makes you want to cut it out and keep it: one was a picture of piles and piles of new books and another was a few lines of text that were just too weird to forget.

Both collages in a Moleskine Large Squared Notebook.

Stamp of Observant Owl, from Ink Wit

Apparently a performance artist I won't name has had a cybernetic ear affixed to his arm. The text reads: 'The ear cannot currently hear; however, the artist now plans to use his own stem cells to grow an external ear lobe before implanting a Wi-Fi enabled microphone which will be permanently activated so that people all over the world will be able to listen live.'

But to what, I wonder?

Esther Quek is my fucking hero.

Esther Quek.

Quote from here.

messing about

Some more collage work to wind down from current projects. After hours of meticulous drawing it's good to pick up scissors and paste and slap together a few compositions.

Stamps, Neocolor crayon, washi tape, tea and magazine clipping.

Cotman watercolour, white Signo pen and black Platinum Preppy.
Inspired by Lisa Congdon's fish.

Tea, stamps and magazine clipping.

collage: it's a fashion nation

When I'm not feeling so great, I sit somewhere with scissors and a pile of stuff and cover myself in art goop. It makes me laugh to think how many materials I used on this. Paper punch, magazine cutouts, acrylic paint, masking tape, washi tape, clear gesso, regular gesso, PVA, white ink, Neocolor crayon, stamp ink and a brush pen to lay down my almost invisible signature.

'It's a fashion nation'...and a terrible pun.

Don't mind me, just checking out my imaginary closet...

screen face

The 'Screen Face' is what I call one of my favourite character design tropes.

Ibor the robot gorilla from Twice Upon A Time
(courtesy of the Muppets Wiki)

It provides an endless canvas for artwork and pop culture references, while emphasising the fact that this character is made of non-organic material. The Screen Face humanises and de-humanises a character at the same time.

Prince Robot IV, from Saga (courtesy of Bitch Team Alpha)

TV Tropes calls this the 'TV Head Robot', and has a fascinating list of characters that embody this trope. (Warning: don't click this link unless you have several hours to spare. This site is very addictive.)

Canti character designs from FLCL
(courtesy of the FLCL Wiki)

I'm currently designing a few non-human characters for my new project, and I thought it would be fun to give one of them a Screen Face. It's a projected screen with programmable faces that floats in front of a robot head. You can pick faces of existing people from history or come up with your own.

I drew the head and the framing screen in black ink with a Kuretake brush pen, then did the faces in Diamine Grey with a Daler-Rowney 0 round brush. Effects are added in Photoshop: I filled the screen with 50% grey, added Noise and then Dust and Scratches, and lightened the whole thing. Then I recorded this process as an Action so I could just select the screen and redo the effect in one click.

There's going to be a lot of this character in the comic, so more famous faces will be appearing, as well as some original ones. If you want to do your own Screen Face character, remember that some faces or images have copyright holders, so do your research and stay legal.

Happy New Year, all!