Finally posting Inktober

I did Inktober this year; dropped it on Facebook everyday with the intention of putting them here too. Clearly I did not. So here's a selection, because thirty-one  pictures is a lot for one post.

"Cut it out, Richards."  "Make me."

The white on dark paper was fun, but next time Ill use a different white ink . This stuff was too gummy.

Princess Bride or Gravity Falls: you decide!

Bad Apple

Read Umbrella Academy, it's a good one.

You're Not Looking Well

Sharpiiiiiieeees and Hiiiiliiiiters! Doo dee doo! Pencil under-drawing showing through, la la laaaa!

Just a Tree

It came out of the end of the pencil trippingly, lightly, hardly felt like it touched the paper at all.

He Looks A Bit Like Uncle Deadly

...but it wasn't intentional. I swear! Please don't come after me, Disney incorporated or unlimited or whatever you are. There are perspective problems, but aren't there always?

Many poems I write are just words strung together is ways that sound pleasing or humorous to me. I also enjoy giving things a vaguely prophetic tone to make it more ominous. As the Future, such at is is, looks largely like unknowable gibberish from our vantage point in the Present, it seems to work.

This is quite an old poem below, but it fits the description nicely.

It did indeed all come to pass, in ages long ago

We spirits men sought out as sage

Gathered ‘neath the storm’s black rage

And began anew the war we’d waged

That brought the Devil low

For though we once were sought as sage, our shapes are but as glass

In which secret fire again shall shine

Twisting us round through life’s bent line

Until cold stars swim in the murky brine

And it has come to pass.

The universe is older now, much longer are the miles

That pass between the moon and earth

With no hope of death or bright rebirth

And all our pow’r (for what that’s worth)

Must help us pass the whiles

For while the Dwindling’s snared my kind and our stories go unheard

Light passes through the side you see

It blows past whispers over me

The one and one fuse into three

I speak the silent word

Can't See The Blinky Light On Top

I hope you like this picture of sketchy foolishness, because I had a hell of a time getting it on the blog. Wouldn't load at all for a while and then insisted on loading sideways. There was a time I was good at computers. Hell.

And while you may be excused for thinking that's a mermaid, it's a ghost.

There was a page full of the wee drawings

But the dragon was probably one of the best ones of the bunch. The odd floating mask is not part of the picture, but it was there and couldn't quite be cropped out. I guess I could have erased it, but nah.

I'm going to put some links below to some artists whose stuff I've been looking at lately. You can look at them if you like, I'm just doing it so I have somewhere to keep them. They are all tremendous fantasy illustrators whose work I first noticed on Magic cards, but then I used the power of the internet to find more of their stuff.

Steven Belledin
http://stevenbelledin.blogspot.ca/

Wesley Burt
http://wesleyburt.tumblr.com/

Jason Rainville
http://jasonrainville.blogspot.ca/

Adventurer, Fire, Thieves, Rook

There was something very important I was supposed to be doing. I wasn't supposed to be drawing, certainly. On the other hand, those occasions when drawing was what I was supposed to be doing have been very few and far between. On the other other hand, on those few and far between occasions when I was supposed to be drawing, I was usually drawing something other than what I was supposed to be drawing. Or sleeping.

Sharing is Nice

Drawings are nice to share, for example.

Ink and Marker

Blue Col-erase

It can also be fun to share observations that will only be relevant to a small number of people. For example, I've started getting into chess recently, and I've found that the Pirc Defence led to a careful but ultimately successful game, whereas the Spanish Opening led to a total bloodbath. I mean, I'd read about them, but putting them into action really makes the point come home. I guess most things are like that, with the difference between theory and practice and all.

Lastly, although I'm not usually in the habit of sharing quotes, this one from Berkeley's Three Dialogues really struck me today: "Truth and beauty are in this alike, that the strictest survey sets them both off to advantage; while the false lustre of error and disguise cannot endure being reviewed, or too nearly inspected."

That's all the varied and unrelated things I have to share today. Go share some of your own stuff.

Eye Tyrant

He only has nine stalks; I'll bet all the other beholders make fun of him. Tough to get an expression out of one giant eye, makes it look like his face is melting a bit.

For the Kicks

Here's the original line art for that marker sketch from before, along with some alternate inking. You know, in case you felt there was something missing from your life.

More Ink n' Marker

The first one I roughed with the marker and then tightened up the drawing with the black ink. The second one was the more traditional pencil, then ink, erase the pencil, photocopy the ink, then marker. Looking at them side by side, I note the pitfall of the "default pose". I mean, they're not identical, but they're close enough that I'm smelling formula. 

It was just sitting there, so I took a picture of it.

The taking photos of drawings may or may not be getting out of hand.

Some on post it notes, some on legal, some from honest-to-jeebus sketch books. The marker is fun, it's a prismacolor, cloud blue or sky blue or tears-of-a-clown blue or something.

Things are going pretty well, thanks for asking. My wife is watching "Suits", which is a show starring attractive, intense, driven people doing attractive, intense, driven things. I can relate. I'm doing a blog post after two scotches and a beer. Basically the same thing.

I'm in a play. My lines are a good deal of political exposition. I talk a lot about legislation and Victorian economics and other things I don't understand. I plan on growing some very large side burns, I think that will sell it.

Running a short Dungeons and Dragon's campaign. I'm finding that my group seems to get a bit bored with the fighty stuff, they like the social encounters. I threw an insane kobold guide into the mix last session, really seemed to perk things up. Maybe I'm just more entertaining doing funny kobold voices than I am describing graphic violence.

Lastly, I just noticed that last December marked ten years that I've been on blogger, if you don't count the bit where I took an almost year long break. So happy Bloggiversary to me, I suppose.

I Take Photos of Drawings now

Much faster and easier for stuff that's so rough it's not really worth taking the time to scan.

Everyone loves Spidey.

A few love the lesser known but still famous Garruk Wildspeaker.

Chandra Naalar is reasonably loved, depending on to whom one is speaking.

Non-specific Elf Adventurer is widely admired.

This guy just makes me laugh.

I didn't even shrink the files, so the pictures are annoying and unwieldy. Really starting to join the21st century.

Christmas is Busy

So here's a quick thing.

I drew it, but I dunno, it kinda feels like clip art to me. Does this seem like clip art? That kind of soul-less drawing that people just stick on newsletters and stuff? I mean, it's pretty empty. But it's supposed to be one of those background things that you stick the characters on to.

Have a good Holiday, hopefully not an empty and soul-less one.

If I said "I like dogs"...

...would I be accused of waging a war on dachshunds? I dachshund is a dog, right? It falls under the general heading. If I don't mention that specific breed, are the dachshund owners gonna get worked up? Actually, there are probably a few out there who would, I suppose. They'll think I'm playing favorites with the spaniel people.

The argument seems to start earlier every show season, too.

Very well. To business, such as it is.

Gadzooks, but this digital painting nonsense is as slippery as a ferret riding an eel. Got tired of mucking about, this is what you're getting and no griping, clean your plate there's kids starving in In-jya.

There, no color at all to this. Just lines. Give 'em what they want, leave 'em wanting more, one in the hand, two in the bush, all with one stone.

Next time, next time

Inktober looked fun, but it's just about done,
And I never did get in my licks.

I'll poop this out my brain, 'till it come round again,
Thank goodness for Sharpies and Bics.

Contract, Expand

One of the little tricks illustrators and artists sometimes do is draw something bigger than it's final presentation is going to be; this is especially common with mass produced stuff like comic books and things. Drawing big and then reducing it can make the art look more detailed, with the added benefit of making medium mistakes look small and smaller mistake disappear.

However, I've found it's just as rewarding and sometimes more more fun to go the other way, which is  to say drawing something quite small and then blowing it up big.

Rather than making your mistakes less noticeable, it instead makes them seem almost intentional, as though the drawing is organized by some weird principle. The accidental textures and variations add subtleties and complexities that usually commercial art tries to hide. Makes it more expressive and less slick.

As I said, fun.

Stay Strong

Hey I read Alan Moore announced that he will be retiring from comics. I guess it won't be long now before he fakes his death and comes back as his own son, as he's done so many times before.

By way of tribute, here's Warren Strong (we all love Warren, right?)  Chris Sprouse did fantastic work on Tom Strong, but I never felt he quite captured the funnybook feel that Warren should have had. Too much anatomy or something. So I figured, why not more or less directly rip off Preston Blair? That oughtta do it. After all, we animators have been doing it for generations.

As a bonus Warren, a small doodle done in a meeting:

Not sure how I feel about Moore's retirement. He's been one of my favorites since I started reading comics, and he was a big part of defining and re-defining what the medium meant and what it could do during this terrifying 20th to 21st century rollover we've been enjoying the past few decades. On the other hand, he expressed concern in his announcement that his contributions to comics had run their course and he didn't want to end up re-treading old ground.

It's never fun to see that happen to someone you admire, to watch them become a parody of themselves. It's good when someone has the self-knowledge and the grace to do bow out before they overstay their welcome, but when it happens I always wonder, "Yeah, but what if you stay? What if your next thing will be the best thing you've ever done, but now it won't be because you're not going to do it?" But I guess that's the essence of the whole "Leave 'em wanting more" thing.

Ha, "Leave 'em wanting Moore". Good one.

Filler

August, amirite folks?

Lessee, what have I got here I don't need to scan...?

Well, here's a picture of a bad mustache.

Starting it off right there.

Ah, hmmm, a worm in a top hat?

That's pretty fun right? Oh, um , and then there was that time my WOW character got his head stuck in a boat, and the boat dragged him around and it was funny...

Ah jeez. Let's take another look at that mustache.

Not quite what you were expecting was it? I know I wasn't.

I must be a cat who really is gone.

So I look at my blog stats, and hey lookithere I have all these hits from Russia. At first I figure "Check it, Russians dig me," but then I look it up and the internet tells me it's all bots, and it's very bad that the bots are doing that. When I try try to determine exactly why it's bad, the explanations very quickly become incomprehensible gibberish.

So, like most of my problems that I don't understand, I figure it's best if I just ignore it. If you're actually a Russian person viewing this blog, then Добро пожаловать! If you're a bot then I dunno, keep on keepin' on, I guess.

So now we've got that out of the way, here are some drawings.

These pretty much have nothing to do with each other except that they were all done by me when I likely should have been doing something else. Actually, why don't we go ahead and make that the definition of Art in general? "Things that people make when they probably should have been being productive." Works as well as any other definition I've ever read.