Done in charcoal, twice because the fixative decided to mess up the first version.

Mr. Cat knows your code and is getting his fish no matter what you say.

Deviantart’s April Fool of the year, of course I had to help save Fella.

In January I bought myself that other kind of tablet, discovered Zinio was already installed and promptly bought Imagine FX’s anatomy issue. I’d wanted it for a while, but the paper version just didn’t turn up anywhere I looked. Sadly the e-version doesn’t come with the disc content, but beggars can’t be choosers or so they say. After flipping through it for some days I decided it was time to really use it for what it’s worth and so a plan to do 30 minutes of study five days a week unfolded…

First I’d read through the chapter the evening before starting, it went something like “gobblegook babble pronated lorem ipsum”.The morning after I reread the chapter and it now only went “gooky pronated lorem ipsum”, then I’d get to the drawing. Monday to Friday, give or take 30 minutes depending on how focused I’d feel, I got the study done. First day of drawing I had some left over paint on my watercolor palette so without really thinking I used it to outline the figure, it helped me spot mistakes and looked rather good so I decided to keep at it. Drawing through the chapter there wasn’t more gobblegook left. Then I’d start on the next one, reading and rereading.

Occasionally I’d miss a day or two, and hell, March I was kind of sick of it and ignored it for some weeks, but it was nothing I’d berate myself for… just sat back down and started at it again. There’s probably about two weeks left before I’m done with the human anatomy. Then there’s the one on animals which I’m gonna wait a bit before starting, need some shorter things to do for a while after this.

…but what?

Markers, they’re so much fun.

Is that Squeenix fanart? Why yes it is, done with a very blunt 9B pencil at that. My drawings would probably be less wonky if I just sharpened the point of my pencils a bit better. Squall Leonhart doodle, just because I felt like it.

Yeah you read that right, this is the last paper sample of the bunch. Probably won’t be the last time I’m babbling about paper cause I actually like rambling about such things. Also I have a new drawing pad that I haven’t tried before so consider yourself warned.*grin* It’s also practical to have my notes online instead of in some random notebook prone to go missing amongst all the other notebooks around my place.

Anyway, what I got my mitts on here was a sheet of 300gsm Lanaquarelle with a satin finish, hot pressed in other words. It’s one of those papers I just like to feel up like a weirdo as it’s real nice to the touch. Working on it was enjoyable as well, not my favorite with the watercolors but if I couldn’t get my hands on something with a rougher grain I wouldn’t mind using it. It was however really delicious in combo with my markers. I have to conclude that when it comes to heavier stock I prefer fine grained watercolor over marker paper for my Copics. I liked using my softer pencils on this as well, not to mention Inktense didn’t take as much scrubbing to get loose. Neat. Harder pencils worked alright, and inking gave no problems. A likeable paper that.

Why does she have no arm? I don’t know, I guess she lost it… but she still have good music.

Now for something completely different, to me at least. A little sheet of Hahnemühle Sumi-e, weighing 80 gsm. I think I got this one because I bought an Asian style brush to test out and let me tell you, I had absolutely no idea what I got myself into with any of ‘em. It’s a good thing they both turned out fun though, though errr… the drawing turned out rather wonky. Got a bit carried away trying stuff out. I used a pen nib and fineliner as well, but mostly I messed about with the brush. That orange color you see there? That was me spilling tea on it before trying it. Yeah, need to get a bit more careful, but I always say that. It was neat to see how different this paper behaved from what I’m used to, although it made me feel like a total noob. Then again that’s what I am. Gotta try make friends with the brush, there seems to be a whole lot of fun effects to get outta it. Then maybe I should grab some more of the paper and see where that leads me… but that’s further into the future. Weeee!

I painted over the top part again>.>

Extra rough 230gsm, Hahnemühle Echt-Bütten.Definitely watercolor paper that’s for sure. The water colors look nice, and I liked working with markers on it more than I should, but pencils, fineliners and dip pens were a bit of a pain. Roughed up the surface of the paper a bit too easy, but oh the texture looks nice.

It’s a little green apple dude, he uh, likes apples. Yep.

How unexpected, another paper sample. Isn’t it just the cutest ever? Sparkle, sparkle shiny eyes. I had so much fun making this, oh yeah.

Paper used is Hahnemühle Nostalgie, 190gsm and it goes real well with most of the stuff I threw at it. Heh, it even did much better with watercolor than I expected from a paper this smooth, and flat tone copics and the color pencils looks absolutely yummy. Nice.

(Yes, I know it’s spelled wrong- that’s why I did it).

It’s paper sample time again. Hahnemühle Bamboo Mixed Media this time around, which weighs 265gms according to my snooping around the net. I must have been tired when I started this and accidentally painted over the info part, hence the writing showing up at the top. Oooops.

I spent a lot of time doing this, had I know that beforehand I’d tightened the sketch up a bit before plunging into it. However I didn’t, and after all I’m doing these to find papers I’d like to work on, not to create fantastic pieces of art, I mean they’re small and full of info from the manufacturers already. I wanted to draw mushrooms in evening again though, so this was a nice excuse. Too much babbling on unimportant stuff, onwards to my notes.

The Bamboo did well with my markers, the result looks good but it’s heavy and sucks up a lot of ink so I won’t be using them together too often. Inking with dip pens was much better than I expected from the rougher texture and I enjoyed it, the microns didn’t look all that smooth though. Watercolors worked excellent on it, ending up nice and smooth and generally yummy nummy. Inktense pencils and blocks needed a lot of scrubbing to get smooth, so next time I think I’ll mix them up with water before hitting the paper. Pencils was neat on it too, I really enjoyed working with the harder ones on it. Neat cause I normally prefer really soft pencils. All in all a good paper, and I’m probably getting more.

I have no idea why I didn’t post this last month… probably busy buying presents and packing I suppose. Oh well, then here’s the little Gimp Painter experimentation that ended up more of a speed paint sorta thing. I used these patterns with the mixbrush to get some of the really nifty things going on. It was fun, but also a good example on the whole paintings are never finished just abandoned thing. Definitely need to get some more textures to play around with.

… and Happy New Year to eveyone stopping by this blog. 2012 seems good so far, so it better stay that way.