Journal of a Something or Other

HA.  I love people who tell me what they want in October and then forget about it. I had to get a store bought thing to go with the hand-made aspect of this one, and also wrapping paper, so this technically has been done a bit, but is 100% finished now.

And I’ve figured out how to show that I’m hitting goals.

My present spreadsheet is filled out and ready to be obliterated. MAN, I love making stuff and then not having it hanging around my house after.

BAM, ‘nother one done.

This is the title page for Primp, which is set in a semi-Victorian world. So I wanted the illustrations to reflect Victorian paper cut work. Only I am a lazy thing and am not going to actually cut that paper.  But! The image is created in a way that it could be a whole piece of paper, without loose bits.

I drew half of the dressing table and used the lightbox to mirror it, filled in most of the blacks by hand then my big pen started to die so I filled in the larger spaces after I scanned the image and cleaned it up in Photoshop.

I like how this turned out. I enjoy pretending that I am different people illustrating different stories for a magazine.

The interior illustration for this story I want to do maybe as split half pages, which I haven’t seen much.

HA. Oh man, I cannot believe I finished an illustration already.  I do plan on scanning some of the stuff I’m using as reference/illustration, but you’ll just have to enjoy some process pictures and finished image until then.  All images link to Flickr where there are more shots and info.

Splash page for end of Morningstar.

First Chase helped me get a reference shot. I kind of hate using myself for reference shots because my frame is weirdly proportioned and I always have to draw on more weight. But my easy-to-see-skeleton was nice for this reference in this case.  I did a rough sketch over the digital image in Photoshop, with a little bit of shading and printed it out.  Then I used a lightbox to do the basic pencils and I dug in with some black acrylic paint.

Kept painting. Started cleaning up with white. Various pen happened too. Sharpie, felt tip, micron.

With the figure done, it’s time for the background.  Since I don’t trust myself I did it on a separate sheet, placed over the figure, on the lightbox.

Looks okay so they both get scanned, cleaned up and composited. It didn’t take long.

I like it. Yay me. I especially like my tasteful way of hiding the bits between the legs. I am classy, is what.

So, I haven’t really drawn since February. But I used to draw all the time and I should get back into that. But I need a reason to draw that’s more illustrate-y than comics-y. So I figure why not try to make some illustrations to go with all that shit I wrote in January.

I am a huge fan of old sf mags and pulpy mass market paperbacks from the 1970s and 80s. So I’ll be flipping through my old Asimov SF mags and using the black and white illustrations as inspiration (and ignoring the sad moment of the 90s where there was a lot of bad greyscale airbrush work).

Because I know a lot of people who draw for a living, I’m pretty self-conscious about how I do it. But whatever, I’m learning and I don’t quite give a shit. Anyway, finally started sketching out some things this evening. Trying to figure out what I should do for Morning Star.

And you can pretend that she’s wearing underwear if it makes you feel better.

So it will be like a blast from the past, me dumping process sketches of dubious quality on a regular basis. Rock.

Well, July’s focus wasn’t entirely a failure. I mean, it mostly was because here I am at the end of August, having just finished the basic goal (to tidy my craft area upstairs so I can actually use it). But I still finished it!

I made slow progress in the earlier part of the month

But hoorah, now it is done.

I need to vacuum, and there are areas that need to be further broken down and tidied, but the primary issue—having no floor space and just junk everywhere, is done.

And it’s not as though I haven’t been doing other things these past two months. I’ve been going to class at C.O.P.S. and writing ridiculous hyperlinked notes, regularly updating Audacity Gambit and generally enjoying the most pleasant summer in my memory.

I know what next month’s focus will be too. One of the points of this exercise was to hold off working in certain themes until the itch to do so was so strong I’d really be able to focus—instead of flitting around dis or half-interestedly. So I know what I’ll be doing by the end of the year and I know what I’m doing for September. It should be fun.