Cecilia Tattoo Flash.  ink, ink wash, photoshop.

I’ve been looking at a bunch of traditional tattoo flash lately.  There’s some neat stuff going on you don’t see many other places, like that stark black shading that doesn’t really imply form but gives contrast and design.  I’d like to mess around more with stuff like this, gotta learn to assimilate more heavy darks into my usual art.

grüss vom death und cecilia.  photoshop.

Today’s comic over at Johnny Wander, with Death and Cecilia dressed as Krampus and St. Nicholas.  We wanted to do something festive-y since it’ll be our last update before Christmas.  Ananth did a really fun news post with some really neat vintage postcards over in the blog, too.

I’m have some neat Kramupses queued up over at my reference blog, so keep an eye out on Christmas Eve and Christmas!

Girl with the Skeleton Hand Epilogue pencils.  Finished illustration at Johnny Wander.

I’ve recently started to really enjoy digital inking.  Mostly because my pencils are so small, it’s hard to retain detail with real-media ink.  The original drawing is about 4.5” inches across, then I scanned it in, blew it up and inked it in Photoshop.

I’ve also recently started to kind of come around on blue pencils?  I’ve hated them for so many years, mostly because I tend to overwork things and areas become waxy and then they won’t take ink or pencil or wash.  Still, it’s so nice not having to erase my lines.

OH AND HEY.  Today I’m going to be working on an illustration for the Game of Thrones Minizine.  Submissions are due June 26th! 8D

Girl with the Skeleton Hand preview.  Full page at Johnny Wander.

Oh maaannns, last page of the story!  This one killed me, although it was mostly the heat that did it.  I hope you guys dug it. :D

Girl with the Skeleton Hand preview.  Full page at Johnny Wander.

Drawin’ ghost animals all day loonnggg (ghost animals not pictured.)

Girl with the Skeleton Hand preview.  Full page at Johnny Wander.

Oh nooo, an infestation of goast animals!

I’m beat, you guys.  Comics is hard.  Gonna go take a nap.  or play pokémon.

Girl with the Skeleton Hand preview.  Full page at Johnny Wander.

Page 2!  Let’s see if I can manage to keep on schedule enough to get page 3 out by Thursday!  8D ((aaaahhhhhhhh))

Girl with the Skeleton Hand preview.  Full page at Johnny Wander.

Did something new.  I’ve been looking at a lot of European comics; Rocher Rouge comes to mind, I adore the color palette. (although there’s no English translation, I only own the book for art reference ah hah hah hah gosh I’m a nerd)

Anyway, I came across Jake Wyatt’s blog and became intrigued with the idea of “inking” with a pencil.  I used to do it all the time, before I figured out how to preserve line weight and emotion in ink.  It’s kind of cool to return to that, although I’m still not the greatest fan of wood pencils.  And soft graphite smudges, blurg.

Cecilia and other classroom doodles.  Ballpoint pen.

Sat in on a class last week, and lo!  My doodling instincts kicked in.

On a more interesting note, did you guys see the article Aaron put up yesterday about character design?  He included the picture I posted the other day, omigosh!  I should warn you, the article is a bit NSFW for nude ladies.

Death body-type drawing.  Due to popular demand.

He’s intentionally a generic looking dude and, being a silhouette, I thought he’d draw the eye too much in the lineup.  But a lot of people wanted him in there!  So here he is, with Cecilia.

Character Body Type Lineup: Girls (boys will be tomorrow!)

These sorts of things are important.  Artists: this is a good exercise!  It’s good for you.

Nina Matsumoto posted a bunch of athletic body diversity photos on her blog a bit back, the link has been going around.  It’s seriously worth checking out if you haven’t already.

Cecilia, in formal wear.  NEWW sketches.