Mapping Pen - Tumblr Posts
Inktober 2015 - Day 12 : mapping pen and markers Visuk suffers from a skin condition that’s something like eczema and something like herpes. Flare-ups last a couple of weeks. Meruch is there to grab his hands if he starts scratching it.
Marker pens count as ink, right?
Inktober 2015 - Day 16 : mapping pen Sometimes you’re tired and you just want to draw a big pile of hair. Andersen never got on board with the idea of ‘wearing clothes’.
Inktober 2015 - Day 21 : mapping pen and grey pen Lottie isn’t sure how to feel about all these new friends. My hand is still slightly crippled, so nothing complicated yet. Although having said that, my goodness those crows were a pig to fill in, even with a brush.
Inktober 2015 - Day 23 : mapping pen He’s a lovely and responsible brother, but magically speaking Nat may be a bad influence. This is probably the first one I just doodled up without a plan this year. I even changed my mind about how to ink it halfway through (originally it was going to have spot colour). That’s probably why I can’t tell if I like it or not. Nat’s nice and on-model though, that’s unusual.
Inktober 2015 - Day 24 : mapping pen Oh no, Jessie is already starting to look like her brother! At least she’s still got her clothes on. I’ve been trying to avoid using the same type of inking twice in a row, but I thought 23 could use a companion piece.
I found some old marker tests that I never shared! These were basically tests for how best to get skin tones with my limited range of marker colours, but I’m still pretty pleased with how the characters look. Especially Franz (the blond covered in blood). Even though he’s my character I find him nearly impossible to draw, and that picture is the only one that really looks like him. I only remembered I never shared these because I was trying to draw him and it would not go right and I had to dig out this picture for reference. I’m sorry Franz, I try.
Inktober 2016 - Day 1 : mapping pen What’s this? An Inktober picture posted on the same day I drew it? And I didn’t goof up the first one? Incredible! Don’t take fruit from fairies, children. Not even if they go to your school. Especially not if they haven’t even bothered to put glamours on. I’m not really prepared for Inktober this year, but I’ll do it anyway!
Inktober 2016 - Day 10 : mapping pen Lottie lives in a very cold place where Summer is short and Autumn is freezing, but her adoptive parents buy her plenty of fashionable fur-trimmed coats.
Inktober 2016 - Day 21 : mapping pen
I wasn’t feeling well yesterday, so I could only manage a quick sketch with minimal shading. I also messed up Louise’s face but I do that so often that I’m sure she’ll forgive me. Autumn is a good time for fairy-spotting.
Inktober 2016 - Day 24 : mapping pen
Another fairly simple one as I had a busy day and was very tired. I originally planned to do a little more shading but by this point I’d already smudged it twice and it didn’t seem worth the risk. Louise is having a good time with the fairies anyway.
Inktober 2016 - Day 26 : mapping pen I already drew Ely with her glamour, so here she is without it. She’s just as gross as Trispin.
I ended up doing a lot of companion pieces in this year’s Inktober, so I thought I’d compile them so you can see them side-by-side. I’m pleased by how well most of them line up, since I do these in a bound sketchbook and they’re all many pages apart. Also a bonus pair from last year!
Inktober 2017 : Day 7 - mapping pen Caspian finds it harder to hold his human shape when he feels threatened. This one is a lesson in paying attention to ALL your materials. I was having really trouble with it for the first few passes, and I thought it was the pen misbehaving, but it turned out to be the INK. Always consider your pens, inks and paper!
Inktober 2017 : Day 15 - mapping pen (and some others) This one is a bit of a hodge-podge, it’s mostly mapping pen, but I used a brush pen for the black areas (including the shine on the ribbons) and a fineliner for the red. A bundle of oak, thorn and ash twigs tied with red string will ward off fairies, both good and bad.
Inktober 2017 : Day 22 - mapping pen and brush pen
‘He followed us home, can we keep him?’
Inktober 2017 : Day 26 - mapping pen Like the leaves on his tree, Sweetpea’s ear frills turn brown and fall off in Autumn. Also like the leaves on his tree, they don’t tend to go at the same time. Three pictures in one day! The consequence of not always having access to my scanner.
A beached mermaid for Mermay. Should she call attention to herself in the hope that humans will help her back to the sea, or stay quiet for fear they'll put her in a specimen case? With the tide going out, she doesn't have much time to decide.
Another birthday card? It’s true! I draw quite a lot of birthday cards for my friends and family. This friend loves both dragons and books, so I tried to combine the two. Then I put a pun on it because I can’t resist it once I’ve thought of one.
It’s been a while since I used my dip pen, I’m always afraid I’ll forget how to use it! I’m happy with how this turned out though. This is the Shaggy Ink-Cap, an edible mushroom native the UK (pick the baby ones if you want to eat them though). They sometimes dye your food black, and you can make ink out of them if you want to. We used to have a patch of these in our driveway but there were never enough to eat, which is a shame because they’re delicious.
Inktober 2018 : Day 31 - mapping pen and ink wash Happy Hallowe’en! The Mirror Twins are looking for some new friends, if you’d like to join them. No Tabitha this year! I had so many Tabitha pictures that I recently made them into a set of postcards, so I thought it was time to try something different. I don’t think I’ve ever tried ink wash over hatching like this before, so maybe this will be my next Hallowe’en tradition?