page a day: hysterical romance

See last post.

page a day: merboy and magician

So I've been writing a Little Mermaid retelling in which the mermaid is male, the Sea Witch is also male (and in love with him) and instead of being set in pseudo-medieval England, it's set in pseudo-medieval Moorish Spain.

Anyway, have some wistful angst and pretty boys in flowy robes. Pentel brush pen and Caran D'Ache aquarelle pencils.

page a day: pen tests

(Last entry blurred for personal details. Fun fact: it was written in my mutant Futhark before I blurred it.  If you grew up with a guardian who reads your journals, you'd be paranoid too.)

Main conclusion: Hunt and Speedball nibs = decent; Joseph Gillott = horrible. Except for #303. Don't do it.

Also, I redid the mint tea illustration:

That's better, I think. I've also changed my settings to reflect the proper times of posting, and to enable anon comments (which I'd forgotten I'd disabled--sorry!)

page a day: the (human) stain

 

I'd wanted to experiment with this method of colouring for a while but I didn't get a chance to do the blotchy parts till today. It's pretty hard to control, and I didn't at all expect the way the shellac-infused inks interacted with the water-based ones (see: ugly spots in top illustration). 

I quite like the way the latter two illustrations look, but it still seems lazy to me. This could be my weak Photoshop skills, too. Well, back to work.

page a day: reverse storyboarding

Screen composition of a few films on TV today: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Joy Luck Club, Notting Hill, Captain America.

Surprisingly (or not, for those of us who love Asian cinema) The Joy Luck Club turned out the most visually interesting. There are a lot of frames centered round negative space: the empty chair where a deceased parent used to sit; the courtyard gap between a woman and her estranged family; the wall between two windows, through which we glimpse a face.

The pauses also suggest time: the momentary distance separating a man and woman hints at what is about to happen between them.

In my experience Asian cinema (animated or live-action) focuses just as much on the pause as the action; I'd like to look into that further, which is an academic way of saying I want to watch more Asian film.

page a day: let there be light

Mail-order catalogues: the perpetual answer to the question 'What am I going to draw today?'

Visconti ink, Cretacolor aquarelle pencils.

page a day: storytelling

P. Craig Russell shows you how to tell a story.

Comic book pages taken from Michael Moorcock's Elric: Stormbringer.

page a day: dance

Um, it's still Wednesday if I haven't gone to bed.

Here is a fanart of my biggest weakness: comics!

It just occurred to me that Wonder Woman and Captain America would make the perfect couple. Make it happen, Marvel/DC!

page a day: coffee

I love every way of brewing coffee: single filter, Mr Coffee, capsule, espresso drip--but siphon coffee turns me into a little kid at the Exploratorium, watching science turn a morning essential into an alchemical ceremony. And delicious coffee, of course.

Pentel brush pen, fountain pen with Noodler's ink.

Update on the book project: I spent today drawing things. Spanish combs, flip-flops, wooden slippers, headbands. I love it!

page a day: fairy tales