Here’s the raw ink work on Rainmagic pages 2 and 3. I’m working a bit more on page 4 tonight.

I’m trying a couple of new things on these pages:

I’m trying to use more blacks. If you’ve seen Green Monk, you’ll know that it’s mostly linear. I want to create more shapes out of lights and darks. I’m finding I need to plan things out much more carefully in the penciling stage to get the lights and darks to balance out correctly.

I’m trying to figure out how to draw a dang forest. The most difficult stuff is the stuff in the mid-ground. It’s not close enough that I want to draw every little detail, but it’s not far away enough that I can just create a big mass and call it leaves.

I’m using a brush pen for all of this. The brush creates beautiful lines, but it requires more page turning to get the right angle. You also have to wait for it to dry, and oddly enough it puts more strain on my hand than using a micron. I think that because it does not have a rigid tip, I have to use my hand more for stability, and thus: hand-strain.

"I know Kung-Fu!"

That joke* is funny if you know the story.

*joke courtesy of Annie Dayton

If you watched this artcast the other day, you probably saw me working on this a bit. Anyway, here’s some of the ink work I’ve done for page 1 of Rainmagic. I’ve got the majority of pages 2 and 3 inked as well, but I want o finish them up a bit more before I post them. Still have to add in word bubbles and the title. I’ll probably also do some touch up. The figure in the mid-ground isn’t showing up enough (see if you can spot her!).

Man I gotta say I’m really digging working with the brush. Maybe its because its a brush pen, and I never have to dip it, but doing these things has been the most fun I’ve had in a while.

Yup. More GRRM.

Hmmm, I hope no one notices this one…

Sketches for yesterday and today, both with a slight George R.R. Martin influence on them.
The first sketch is playing around with some dry-brushing (because I was having a hard time getting the ink to flow in the brush pen) the second sketch is a tree with a face (I got the ink to start flowing).

Still trying to use more blacks. I’ve found that my brush pen needs to be dipped in water every once and a while to keep the ink flowing.

I’m a bit late to the game, but I thought I’d join in Jake Parker’s Inktober experience. Especially now that Green Monk is off to the printers, I no longer have an excuse to not. Here’s today inkperience: