Inkwurk II - In Living Colour

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It has been yet another productive day of inking Miss Kinash's wonderful sketches. Today I woke up at a decent hour, began an inking project, finished the one to the right, and was also added to the link list by Toxiferous Designs. A link to the blog will henceforth be located to the left, in the blogroll. Click it, you know you want to.

After inking the first sketch of Olivia, I recalled that I had started inking this some months ago and had not finished it for some reason. This is because I did not have the organizational skills I have nowadays. Against all logic and reason, I had everything on one layer. This was before I realized that having fills on an individual layer was a lot easier and better looking than having adjusted strokes lurking just below the surface.

As for the question of Olivia's colour theme, Miss Kinash mentioned that she has "imagined her in sages and oranges a couple times." With this in mind I stuck with the dark blue linework, and went with a light brown with red-orange trim. This is because Olivia is in a more 'conservative' outfit than her usual flapper fare, so I imagine that when she is planning on going out, her clothing brightens up substantially.
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Veni, Vidi, Vincent

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The title does not make any sense, but neither does this day. I made friends with Dr. Malison, got the last of my fillings done, was featured in a journal by a 14-year-old, and also had a tooth pulled. All in all, a fairly productive day despite only completing one drawing. I thought the journal feature was really sweet, and any free advertisement is good advertisement.

At the right is Vincent, and he's not a very nice man. Each of the characters has an individual characteristic which is exaggerated. With Olivia it is her eyelashes and curlicue hair. With Vincent it is his very distinctive upper lip, which is sometimes mistaken for a mustache, especially when I draw it. He is also missing his left hand, but we all know that already.

I do not draw him often enough.
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Inkwurk

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After getting all that practice in with my digital portraits, or "iDents" as my mom calls them, I tried inking one of Miss Kinash's sketches. I think it turned out pretty well, but final judgment is reserved for Briana. I did not colour in the clothing like I usually do because I am not sure what Olivia's colour theme is, or if she even has one.

I played around a bit with special strokes laid along paths, to try and recreate the long beaded necklaces without having to resort to individually "stringing" circles onto a path. I think I may be able to eventually create a stroke that can go from small to large circles, kind of like how I sometimes create textures, but I have not figured it out yet.

Either way, I have been collecting up sketches that have to do with the comic project for a while now, and am going to digitally ink and compile them into character sheets or something of the like.
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Character Development

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Not too long ago, I posted a sketch of a character that I am in the process of refining. Since I am trying to keep up with my self-imposed rule of one piece of artwork a day, I went ahead and applied what I learned from my ongoing portrait project to this sketch. What you see at the right is the result of a "quick" inking and application of flat colours. He looks almost sad in comparison to the original sketch, but I'm still content with it.

That's Bernard, and I have not decided on a last name for him yet, if I do decide to give him one. His skin isn't just gray due to the background of this picture. I have been toying around with the idea of Bernard having some sort of circulatory problem from living and working in high altitudes, which makes his skin appear blueish-gray rather than ruddy.

The insignia on his hat is a possible idea for what the Yukon Confederate flag may look like. Seeing as how the Yukons are a British based society, I borrowed a proposed version of the Union Jack from the 1700's, and replaced the Welsh Dragon in the center with a heraldic raven. In the real world, the common raven is the official bird of the Yukon territory.
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The Cat Piano

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Had a wonderful time hanging out with my friends Anique and Briana yesterday. I can't say that we accomplished any grand tasks, but we did eat sandwiches and watch The Cat Piano. It reminds me a great deal of Lackadaisy Cats, both stylistically and thematically, but the two are naturally very different.

Anique helped me flesh out the design for one of my characters, Bernard, who is a gentleman that hails from the Yukon Confederacy and is the Captain of the St. Elmo's Fire. I explained the character and an overview of what he looked like to Anique, and she did a rough sketch which I worked off of to create the sketch at the right.

Thanks again, Anique!
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