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.

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!

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.

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!

brush pen sketches

Kuretake no.8 in Fabriano notebook.

Incidentally, if you haven't read the Rihannsu series by Diane Duane or The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage by Sydney Padua, do it. They are amazing.

two great tastes

This past year I've been struggling with my art: I want to move up to the next level but I also want to have a regular job that I also enjoy, with a steady paycheck. So it's been less a work/life balance issue than a work A/work B/life balance issue.

I'm finally finding that balance, and a few days ago I got some very cheap but inspiring tools!

The Kuretake Brush Pen no.8 doesn't have the stellar reputation of its high-end sibling the no.40 (which has sable hair like a real paintbrush), or even the slightly more expensive no.13, but it's a great workhorse and I started using it right out of the box. A few sketches:

The second tool I got was pretty unexpected! Like lots of kid-friendly museums, my workplace sold spirograph sets, but we've stopped stocking them and I was able to grab the last unit for £2. I started using them and found them weirdly therapeutic.

Note for grammar nerds like me: it's (im)perfectly, not (I'm) perfectly.

The best results come from combining the two - the light tone and mechanical symmetry of the hypotrochoids plus the organic black line of the brush make an intriguing combination.

It's the marriage of science and art! Or maybe the marriage of mechanical art and intuitive art, which I also enjoy.

look to the stars

I am incredibly sad about Leonard Nimoy's passing. I already wrote about it elsewhere, but here is a small tribute anyway.

As his friend and companion icon of SF William Shatner said in his memory... 'love long, and prosper'.

merboy illustration 3

Hyacinth rescues the Prince, and Fionn finds him. I'm sure I don't need to tell you what was playing in my head while I was painting this. Just be glad there isn't a seagull listening to his foot!

Later I noticed something was missing, and painted it in but didn't scan the finished painting. Can you spot it?

mysterious beasts

I wanted to incorporate more background elements for the merboy story. Noodler's Bad Blue Heron ink, Sailor Clear Candy fountain pen and Pentel waterbrushes on Muji sketchbook. I tweaked the hue and saturation in Photoshop so the blue wasn't so bright.

This is pretty much the look I want for the comic. Strong character lines, detailed but slightly hazy backgrounds, all in sea-blue on cream. Progress! (Although next time, text should be created and scanned separately.)

water under the bridge

More work for the merboy story: sketches and practice pages. Not sure whether I want to draw this story with brush or pen; the lines all have something different to say.

Dip pen and Noodler's Luxury Blue.

Dip pen and Noodler's blue;
Winsor & Newton Cotman pan watercolours.

Pentel brush pen on Canson smooth watercolour paper.

some things I have been doing...

Here is a preview of some things I have been up to.

Sketches and drawings in various notebooks, with various fountain pens and brush pens, captured by iPhone camera and saved to Evernote for the most part.