Richard Bell's nature sketchbook since 1998
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.
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.
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 . . .
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.
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.
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.
More experiments drawing on the iPad in Adobe Fresco (above) and Clip Studio Paint.
Still learning various techniques in the first two frames of my Bilberry Wood comic, drawn, designed and coloured in Clip Studio Paint on my iPad Pro. I like the slightly resistant surface of the Paperlike screen protector when I’m drawing with my Apple Pencil.
After thinking it over for several years, I’ve finally got around to adding a Paperlike screen protector to my iPad Pro.
As you can see from my before and after photographs, the matt finish film hasn’t made my Clip Studio Paint app any less clear but I find the surface more sympathetic for drawing with my Apple Pencil on than the glass screen of the iPad.
Here’s my first Procreate sketch, drawn with one of Paperlike’s free brushes for Procreate from a collection designed by Filip Zywica.
Card for Henry, who just before Christmas got to meet Santa in Lapland and, equally exciting, got to see a superb display of the Northern Lights.
'When you walk in the snow,
And it's over your feet
You can never know
Who you're likely to meet.
It might be a hare
Or a lemming or goose
Or perhaps the Great Bear!
- or BIG-FOOT on the loose!
But now all of the Snow Folk
Have gathered to say:
'Happy Birthday to Henry -
Have a great day!'
