I've always had a fascination with the Victorian era. I think it's fuelled by things like steam punk and Jules Verne stories, but I like the idea of it. It seems like the perfect setting for a proper ghost story. This piece is sort of borne out of that; I wanted to depict a seance or some other communion with the dead. Simple as that.

This originally started out as a doodle that sat for quite a bit in my sketchbook. I have problems with some parts of it, but as a whole I think it gets a pass, so I decided to finish it. I'm continually trying to capture the moods I want while not overworking things in Photoshop. My previous tendencies leaned toward throwing as many layers at a piece to see what worked. I'm trying to stay more conscious of that as I (hopefully) progress.

Labels: ghosts, medium, seance, spirits, Victorian

I drew this for the topic "Soaked" over at Illustration Friday. While I'm not necessarily working on the topics as they come up, I am using them as motivation when I'm stumped artistically; picking and choosing the ones I like as I see fit. With this piece, I wanted to try and be a bit loose with my inks. I have a tendency to over think the final inks, so they become a bit more rigid than I'd like. I did this using only a brush pen.

I also really tried to simplify the coloring process, as it is the biggest bottleneck for me. This was done with mostly flat colors and the pencil tool. No fancy textures or photoshop tricks. I think it worked out quite nicely.

Labels: cowboy, Illustration Fridays, Monsters, rain, soaked

Life has been a bit of a blur recently, so I'm not drawing as much as I should be. That being said I have a tendency to only want to post something here if it's a completed, colored to the nines piece. This only makes me look even less prolific than I already do. I think it's because if I didn't feel the need to finish it, I probably didn't like something about it once I completed the sketch/inks etc. I need to get over that a bit, and showcase the process more, warts and all.

All that being said, here are some brush pen drawings I've done in recent weeks, trying to get the hang of the medium a bit better. Just some characters sketches and whatnot. I'm also not quite ready to give up on the grey scale markers for shading.

Labels: brush pen, character design, goat man, third eye