After so much drawing on the iPad, it’s a good feeling to go back to pen on paper in my pocket-sized sketchbook.
Pen Sketches
Month: January 2022
Chris and Fiona
Chris and Fiona get the cartoon treatment in the final panel of ‘Bilberry Wood’. For colouring I’ve discovered a useful new (to me) tool in Clip Studio Paint, the ‘Direct Draw, Lasso Fill’.
Ruskin on Drawing Trees
A special guest artist in the Bilberry Wood comic today: instead of drawing my version of Ruskin’s illustration from Elements of Drawing, I dropped in a scan of his original.
But I redrew Charles Darwin’s sketch of his Tree of Life. This is the inking stage, colour to follow.
Bilberry Inks
I’m at the inking stage, drawing with my Apple Pencil on the iPad Pro, using the ‘Real G-Pen’ in Clip Studio Paint for images and lettering. I’m trying different styles, so I’ve gone from a cartoony approach in panel 2 to something a bit freer and messier in panel 3. I’ll decide which I like when I see the final coloured version.
Bilberry Rough
I’ve dropped the speech bubbles, panels and frames into the layout of page 2 of the Bilberry Wood comic. All that I have to now is draw the final artwork . . .
Keep Fit!
Twelfth night has just gone but the WI won’t be ready to replace our Night Before Christmas display in the Redbox telephone box gallery until February so we’re doing a bit of set dressing. We’re keeping the fireplace but out go the paper chains and the tinsel from fitter Redbox display to make way for leaner, fitter display for the new year.
Chaucer & Co
I spent the morning researching connections to Chaucer, Ruskin and Darwin for my Bilberry Wood comic strip but it’s not a thesis, it’s a double-page spread comic, so I’ve roughed out some ideas to work out how I’m going to fit it all in.
The Winter Walk
Low winter sun and a sprinkling of snow bring out the colours of the winter walk at RHS Harlow Carr Gardens.
The red and orange stems of dogwood glow against the dark of the conifers.
But perhaps because it was so cold, I couldn’t pick up any scent from the spidery red blossoms of a wych hazel.
Meanwhile, in Another Part of the Forest
There’s a lot to learn about importing and transforming images in Clip Studio Paint, so I thought that I’d make a start with a photograph from Newmillerdam this morning.
iPad Drawing
More experiments drawing on the iPad in Adobe Fresco (above) and Clip Studio Paint.
