In which our hero draws her family

Family Sketches 1

So I realised the other day that, although I make mostly autobio comics, they mostly star me. Which meeeans that I really need to learn who to draw my brother (my co-star in this GN) and my parents (the most supportive supporting cast you could hope for). So that’s what I’ve been doing. 

Family Skecthes 2

I've been working from photos as well as memory. 

Family Sketches 3

I kept trying to put off doing these sketches (particularly weird poses and full bodies) as I find them really daunting but when I finished a sketch it was soooo satisfying. I'm glad that I'm finally getting into the swing of them. 

Sometimes the Sketches didn't turn out as well as I hoped they would. But that's a great way to learn what not to try and do next time.

 

I've been trying to draw more realistically at first and then use the proportions and poses and turn them more cartoon-y.

Trying out variations of my style to see what would work for the book. 

I've also been trying to start thinking about backgrounds and sense of place for all the stories I'm writing about. So below is my first attempt at doing a full photo. 

This is just an adorable photo of me and my childhood buddy Maria. I thought You'd like to see how fashionable I've always been.  xx

Tools of the trade

Uni-Pin Fineliners // I've loved Uni-Pins for a very long time. Cracking open a fresh pen and putting nib to paper for the first time is wonderful feeling. The work so smooth and clean and create that simple line I crave for my work. The illustration above is all done with Uni-Pins. 

Staedtler Mars Plastic Pen Eraser // I first saw these nifty devices in my early years of high school when I started using my allowance on things (mostly stationery) other than candy. It was also my "I want to be a spy" phase, so anything that didn't look like the thing it actually was was cool in my book. Turned out they were radical to use and the perfect travel eraser. The smaller eraser head meant that you can more accurately pin point the spots you want to erase. 

Pentel White Out // I've always loved using Pentel white out. I use to use the thinner handled white out pens, they were perfect for my weird drawing grip, unfortunately they stopped making them. I still don't love using white in my work and really only use it sparingly on my journal comics and never for my planned out comics (I fix everything on photoshop instead). 

Rembrandt Light Blue Pencil // These guys have saved my comics soul. I never you to pencil (lead or blues) but my main man, Owen, convinced me to give it a go and see how I liked it. I started using blue to pencil out my comics for before and boy howdy did my work improve. I had to search around for a little while to find the right pencil that worked with my fineliners but after trying out the Rembrandt Light Blue Pencil, I knew I found my favourite blue friend. 

Copic Markers // These dudes are still pretty new to my pencil case arsenal, so I'm still really figuring out how to use them. But I do love to using them for my journal comics (see Week One) when I care less about what the end product looks like as they are comics just for me. They give this wonderful boost of life to the colour to page. I'll let you know when I learn some tricks about these tricky textas. 

Last but not least is the:

Blackwing Peal Lead Pencil // This guy is the newest member of the family. A recommendation from the ever charming Mr. Campbell Whyte. I've been using him to write notes, sketches out ideas, pencil some pages. I still love my blue pencil for most of my comics work but this sharp customer (works best when sharp) is a handy guy when a blue lead just won't cut it. The Blackwing Pearl will not be leaving my side any time soon. Also the replaceable eraser at the end is sick.

Keep Drawin' friends!

xx