more drive by

I've continued to do the drive by drawing off and on over the years, although I haven't been posting. I ride the bus a lot less often these days; I miss it.

Calligraphy

Doing some italic practice with dip pens and Diamine inks, using forms by Gaye Godfrey-Nicholls.

Quote from One Week One Band.

My favourite poem, known as the Maboroshi poem, by Murasaki Shikibu. Translation by Liza Dalby, from her book The Tale of Murasaki.

Some quotes from blogs and my new fandom Yuri!!! on Ice. The original was in all caps too! I find it silly but inspiring.

Speedball C-4 dip pen with Diamine Oxblood, Grey and Carnation.

Fashion illustration: the Moretta

Got an idea for fashion illustrations revolving around the Moretta, or 'mute servant' mask: a Venetian ladies' mask held on by gripping a button between the teeth, rendering the wearer silent.

The Moretta was also said to embody the Renaissance ideal of feminine beauty. Stripping away speech and expression, the mask forced women to perform their responses, creating a blank canvas on which anything could be projected. Fashion is supposed to be the ultimate form of expression and identity. Which aspect is true?

Zebra Super Fine disposable brush pen and Pentel and Zig waterbrushes filled with ink in various dilutions, in Fabriano journal.

small pleasures

Taking a break from digital watercolour to post some small things I've been doing in traditional watercolour as loosening-up exercises. The School of Life recently released a little card pack called Small Pleasures, and I've been painting my favourites.

1. Feeling at home in the sea. I used a technique called 'spontaneous painting' by YouTube artist The Mind of Watercolor. Winsor & Newton Artist watercolours.

2. Figs and lemons. Staedtler clutch pencil, Winsor & Newton Artist pan watercolours and watercolour markers.

3. A book that understands you. I love painting people reading! Kuretake brush pen and Cass Art professional watercolour travel set.

There's quite a few cards in the set, so there will be more of these soon!

learning and sketching

I've been working on my facility with digital art lately. I may be most comfortable with creating work on paper and then painting it digitally, as I'm doing for a current project:

Watercolour brushes and techniques from Kyle T Webster!

My Bamboo tablet and Photoshop are my tools of choice, although I've seen amazing work on Corel Painter, Paint Tool Sai and a relatively new open-source program called Krita.

But I'm still most comfortable with pen, paints and paper. Sometimes you are seized with inspiration and need to get something on record RIGHT NOW. A digital illustration still takes me many hours and a lot of equipment. So when, for example, one of my favourite actors appears at my place of work and I want to commemorate the experience...

I still grab my notebook instead of my tablet. I do hope to be equally quick on the draw with both someday!