b is for banner - flown high from a horse

Originally I was going to have 'b is for battle, quite bloody of course'.
For some mad reason I thought b is for banner might be better... which it's not, and it involves drawing horses, which is rubbish... and is actually a unicorn anyway.

So for a limited time only, 'b is for banner - flown high from a horse'

Colour test

There's a bit of ink bleed from the black , but not too bad. I reckon if I let it 'cure' a little before colouring I should be ok.

I'll probably go through and ink everything, scan it, then colour, so if it goes horribly wrong I can do some colouring in Photoshop.

More axes

Day off today for Adam's graduation so I'm milling around the house at a bit of a loose end as we've got to nip down to brighton shortly. Anyway I pencilled and inked up a dwarf and axe for 'a' is for axe. I'll see how the paper takes watercolour inks, and how fast the Coptic ciao markers are.

I'm guessing they'll bleed as soon as I go near them with ink. That said I accidentally spilt some of the black ink on my hands and it's stained them pretty well.

'a' is for axe

I've been at my Mum's for the weekend which has given me a chance to peruse my niece's extensive book collection. I have decided it is time to restart my illustration career. My first effort will be a book called 'a' is for axe.

I'm seeing dwarves, dragons and wizards... and if Anya's books are anyone to go by - princesses.

Open Badges - Bug Spotter

Over in the day job I'm working on Open Badges, a Mozilla thing, used to accredit informal learning and general usefulness.
The Open Badges use the metadata held in a .PNG to assert a credential, which is verified by the issuer (I think)
As a test I'm creating a set of badges for folk who submit bugs to me for our systems.
I'm probably going to have 3 levels of award, bug spotter, bug squasher and super spotter on something... Assuming I can get the Vagrant VM to start...

Inked (micron pigment pen on copier paper)

Coloured in Photoshop using web hues

...and stuck in a badge... not a very nice badge...

Help me Dr Zaius - Ten Ton Sketch Challenge - Planet of the apes

Because I'm lazy ... and know my limitations I thought it would much easier to draw the Simpsons "Planet of the apes " musical version of PotA for this weeks ten ton sketch challenge.
However it's not quite as simple as it appears. In fact a bit of a struggle to try and get the look right, and the inks flat enough. I emerge from this exercise with a renewed appreciation of the Simpsons animation team.
Anyway...
To recap the Ten ton rules mean NO DIGITAL manipulation.

So sketched with 0.5mm pentel P205 2B retractable pencil on A4 Deleter comic book paper (which is rubbish at holding watercolour ink)

Inked with 0.3mm and 0.5mm Micron pigment markers and COPIC CIAO brush tip pens...

Coloured with Dr Martens watercolour inks, highlights and lowlights with TRIA pantone markers and PITT pastel white pencil ...

and the real thing: