Heated Words !

This turned out really nice. I tried a few different things to help out with the lighting and glow of the fire. Now to learn how to breath fire words.

Heated Words (WiP2)

Cockatrice

Just a quick sketch in watercolours and ink.

Heated Words (WiP)

Sometimes I'd like to imagine that the words we have are like real and alive like in comics so that words can cut, burn, soothe and a ton of other fun things.

Portraits of my Co-Workers

I've been in the mood to draw portraits lately. I'm not sure why. It's been a lot of fun getting back in the swing of figure out what characteristics to enhance and exaggerate and how to draw this or that. These are the digital portraits of the two wonderful ladies that I work with. I got to surprise my co-workers, at my day job, with them today and it was a lot of fun. Though now I need a portrait of myself drawn ...

a bad joke ...

I like the comic medium even if I'm bad at it. I was at the Toronto Comic Art Festival and this didn't happen though I thought about using that line in the first panel as I was doing another circuit around the place.

Wake up Spring! (rough)

I like Spring and Fall; there's something nice about the transition seasons. A time of change.

Sketch Dump ... I forgot the number I'm up to ...

I need to get back into the habit of posting regularly again, which is always hard for me to do. I've actually gotten a lot done lately but avoiding some stuff I need to get done. It's sort of funny that way in that I'm trying to do a lot of different things but have my priorities pretty off. I feel like a high schooler again in that I'll draw instead of writing that essay, but it's all drawing now and no essays.

Why I like to work on paper first

I always find it interesting that the generations growing up now to be illustrators and artists work more and more on the computer and seldom ever touch a pen or draw on paper. I use to be a traditionalist and believe that it's important to work by hand first. There's a certain feel of the resistant of your medium on a surface that's not the same as on a tablet or a screen. That's not necessary true, but that's what I use to think. But in a lot of way, it makes sense with how easy it is to carry around a tablet, smartphone and light laptop. To be honestly, it's a lot easier to do something on Photoshop then to take out a paint kit to sketch on the spot. I love layers! It makes life so much easier.

For me, I love the limitation of each medium. I don't strive to do on the computer what I can do by hand. I'm not saying it shouldn't and can't be done, but this is my method of working. I like the limits of what I can and can't do with a medium. It gets me to know the medium like a friend. I know their quirks, I know how to encourage it to be this way and I know there's no way in hell I can do that with it. There's, also, a joy in mastering a medium in getting to know it so well you can always do what you want with it. Then there's a way different surfaces will fight back against what medium you choose. Sometimes I want a really course and rough watercolour paper to ink on and I'll use a technical pen over a dip pen. There's just a different feel in how I can almost lightly sketch with it since it takes a lot to get a mark on the paper. Other times, I want a smooth surface with a dip pen to flow across the page. This is what I grew up with and this is what I realized I love about drawing.

I still do and will always prefer working on paper first. It's how I work and I create ideas on paper while working on the computer I just finalize it. But I don't think digital or traditional is best. Each has its ups and downs. In the end, it's whatever works best for you.

And since I wanted to show something off without it having its own post, I'm posting it here. I have a day job where I work in a really really small organization that's just my manager, my co-worker and me. We just finished off the school year so I wanted to make a small gift for them. I haven't inked something fully in awhile so here it is.



And if anyone that sees this and knows them, please don't let them know about it. I have a feeling they don't check out my blog often and truthfully, I forget I have one sometimes so I don't blame them. And if either of you ladies find out about it, just try to act surprise when you get it.