Mermay 2023 - part 1

Self-Portrait

Upside Down

Twisted

Dystopia

Heartbreak

Mysterious Beasts

Mermay is coming up, and I think now is the time to push out the merboy story. A page a day for a month! Let's do it.

First though, I want to lay out all my favourite art for this project, in chronological order, and look through how my style and these characters have changed. I also want to think about how I want to depict them.

There are only a few in colour; most of my work has been in monochrome.

What tools to use? What lines? and what colours?

So far I'm leaning toward the Zebra brush pen. The details you can get are wonderful, and it achieves the most "story"-like, comic book-y effect.

More experiments coming soon!

Curious Goods Onionskin Journal, part 1

Over Christmas holidays I received a gift from one of my best friends Annelyn of Curious Goods. She's been making handmade journals since we were both frustrated art kids in academic school, and her latest experiment is the onionskin journal.

Onionskin paper was used for creating multiple typed documents with carbon paper, or for writing letters to send via airmail. It was even used in animation: "onionskinning" is the process of flipping sheets of animation roughs to check the smooth transitions between drawings. 

It's light, translucent, and sturdy, able to take even fountain pen ink without bleeding. Because of that, it's the ideal material for an art journal.

I can draw, write, paste, layer, and otherwise play with this journal as much as I want. I can fill the blank pages to the edge with scraps, sketches, and my thoughts.

I've even worked on it during an international flight!

My habit of writing backwards seems to suit this journal. Two columns of text suit the wider format, making it look more like a book. 

The backwards writing turns the words into just another design element, a textured background against the collage and drawings. Also, writing backwards makes me feel like everyone's ideal diarist and art hero, Leonardo da Vinci.

I love adding little movable elements like flaps of paper with illustrations or stickers underneath.

My collection of inks, fountain pens, stamps, stickers and washi tape is also put to good use. In fact, I printed out some of my own art on sticker paper to use in this journal.

As they fill up, the pages wear and wrinkle and gain weight. Flipping through the journal is a sensory joy, listening to the crinkle and savouring the feel of the paper.

I loved the journal so much I ordered some more. I'm looking forward to filling up these one hundred and ninety-two pages with my art, and many pages after that!

Brass pen drawings

 Lately I've really been enjoying drawing with Dan Berry's brass dip pen. Here's an Instagram demo. 

Buildings by the Thames, Pelikan 4001 Blue-Black

My favourite thing to use it for is probably architectural illustration. I've finally been out walking again lately and falling in love with London again.

Troublemaker Inks, Abalone (Cebu-made!)

I struggle with it sometimes, but I enjoy how it wants to draw straight lines when using the edge and wonky, expressive lines when using the flat. It feels a little like drawing with a knife, in a fun way.

Troublemaker Abalone

It makes really fun calligraphy too! Look up folded pen calligraphy for the full potential of this kind of pen.

Boku-eki sumi ink with wash

With a little patience and control, it can bring out some nice expressiveness in a comic style, almost like a brush or bent-nib pen. I'm excited to see what else it can do!

not Zentangles, just tangles

I often need to do meditative drawing to let off stress, but I can't do Zentangles at all because it's too abstract for me. What relaxes me is drawing hair.

It started as a metaphor for mermaids without actually drawing a mermaid, inspired by art my mom used to make for me of slender ladies with lots of wild hair. 

Over time I started drawing more and more hair. It's very calming to fill a page with curves and lines, and I enjoyed drawing the figures swimming in their own hair too.

I love slowly filling up the spaces with ink, breathing out along with the long lines. I also like drawing the figures first, their expressions and poses, and working their hair around that. I can choose to show the shape of the body beneath, or not.

The latest one was more personal, battered but triumphant. Drawing these lines was cathartic and purged a lot of the horror and frustration I was feeling over recent weeks.

Moretta comic

I expanded the Moretta theme into a short comic to submit to magazines and anthologies. It's a little personal but I'm quite proud of it.

flashback: inktober 2018

Inktober 2018 was the first time I mostly posted work on Instagram instead of scanning it first. Some highlights:

No watercolour here, just ink!