Crumpled paper in pen and ink

Not too much to say about this one. I was using it as a line/contour exercise, and I did it with a brush pen to keep myself from worrying about adding shading or anything like that.

Sometimes it's just gotta be about the lines or you get bogged down.

Or at least I do.

Torn in pen and ink

This week's Illustration Friday prompt is mail. I had doodled something completely different for mail and decided part way through posting it that it was way too fussy and I didn't like it.

So I went minimal instead.

Maybe too minimal? Ah well, it's still easily recognisable as an envelope, in any case (and it's given me an urge to spend time drawing crumpled paper, for whatever reason. I'm in the mood for lines today, I guess).

Pitt pen in my small moleskine.

Funnel Web in acrylic

Yeah. I don't paint.

Not terribly obvious, is it?

And should I explain it? Well, if anyone out there knows what a Grass Spider is, that'll help. And the title might as well, now that I've said spider.



Yeah. I don't paint for a reason.

Hand Axe in pen and ink

This week's Illustration Friday prompt is prehistoric, and this is a palaeolithic stone hand axe. It's loosely (very loosely) cribbed from a picture, since I don't happen to have a palaeolithic stone hand axe just lying around. Funny how that works...

Anyway. Hand axes were considered to be fairly basic tools since they didn't need nearly the skill to make that, say, a spear point would need, but they were apparently pretty important multi-use tools. And even if they didn't need fine skills to create, when you consider that every facet is the result of hard, stone-on-stone bashing work, I still think that they're pretty remarkable. And, as I just found out, when you start drawing one the contours can become fairly fascinating. I think maybe I'm going to have to try my hand at an obsidian arrowhead next.

This was done in my moleskine with 01 and 05 sepia Microns.

Ballotin in pen and ink and soluble graphite

This week's Illustration Friday prompt is savour. I wanted to make sure that I did something for IF this week because I've skipped a couple, but savour? Didn't really do it for me. Too specific, maybe. I like prompts that can take me in weird directions, I guess.

Anyway, in keeping with the upcoming season (and to keep from missing yet another week) I decided to go with savouring the anticipation and give you an unopened ballotin. Gotta love the promise of those things. You hope it's going to be chocolate inside and if it is you know it'll be the good stuff. Maybe if you're lucky you'll even recognise the colour of the box (I can practically spot the copper-coloured offerings of my favourite chocolaterie from a mile away. And that's even with me being so nearsighted...) and know what to look forward to. Even if you don't, a shiny ballotin tied with curling ribbon is almost always something to look forward to.

This was a pretty quick sketch and the camera's flash has washed out some of the graphite shading, but I think it still gives the idea.

MORE "ART"!!!!!!!!!!

Do caps and exclamation points make it any more exciting, the ol' mixed media mess book?

No, I didn't think so.

Don't worry, I'm fully aware of how ridiculous the whole thing is. It's still fun, though.

Wrappers in pen and ink

This week's Illustration Friday prompt is afterwards. I think that for a lot of us this is a pretty familiar afterwards left behind by Halloween.

Thought I'd play around with contours a bit today. Sometimes it's just nice to look at the lines and not worry too much about the actual object, I think.

And yes, of course I had to eat the mini candy bars. I needed a subject, after all.