Master & Apprentice Page 0048 - 24-11-2016

This new method works pretty well, don't you think? It was fun, though, more difficult. I'll continue to use this style. The face practice is paying off, but I still need to find out how to put coloured light on people...

I feel like I am getting better every page.

Interlude

There won't be a comic page today, because I really wanted to finish a chapter of the book I am working on before the weekend and also need to think about the comic plot a little more before going on. I want it to become a bit coherent now, since it's not intro stuff anymore.

However here's Kyriel sitting on a rock reading a good book. Maybe the one I am writing.

Skyrim Practice 1

I decided to practice faces while playing one of my favourite games. I drew them in that exact order and I think it's already paying off. Will post that Tolfdir in large on deviantart.

Thoughts on a distant Back Tattoo Part 1

For many years, now, my wish for a badass back tattoo has been going on and off. First it was a gothic cross I wanted, then wings, then a cross again. Something like that and with months or years in between. Never got serious there...

However, this wish rekindled soon after we moved to Berlin a year ago. You see, there is a tattoo parlour just three doors away from our new home and we walk past it everytime we go out food hunting. It reminded me of that reoccuring need. Now, I am seriously thinking about getting one! And I am excited! Errm... yes, it's a big thing for me...

So, I am still thinking about the design, of course. Since I am an artist myself I want this to be very me.

Cross and wings are pretty much off the table. Instead I got stuck on this whole magic/alchemy circle thing. I might be shit at designing this though. Take a look at my ideas. What do you think? I wanted to add precious things to me into it like ink and quill, vampires, the moon, poisonous flowers, skyrim thief guild symbols and... well, see for yourself. I think I am something like a thief-witch or witch-thief... I'd love to get some advice on this.

Master & Apprentice Page 0047 - 10-11-2016

Wow. I did a lot of smudging on this one. Small things only and I managed to fix them all neatly, but oh my. Today is a weird day. I'm spraying water everywhere, the brush jumped right out of my hand and nearly got into my tea cup (which was half a meter away!) and I totally forgot about a step in my usual comic-drawing-process. Still worked I guess. Maybe I'll make the next page a bit experimental and leave out just another step. Normally I start by sketching out the page on a separate sheet, then copy it over to the watercolour paper with pencils on my light table, then ink it and colour it. I forgot the copy with penicl part and inked it right there. Maybe I don't even need to ink it and it will still look nice? Should I try that?

Please support me via patreon if you like this comic! The link is on the left...

A weird Pirate

This is a very old sketch of mine, though, it befits what I'd like to tell.

Since yesterday I've been feeling a little down and lonely. I remembered things from the past that I thought must have changed completely, but haven't. So this is a little sequel to my last post.

This, again, happened years ago. I was doing some RP with my sister on Ragnarok online and that was a lot of fun. We had so many characters to play at once with so much stuff happening, that I hardly had time to focus on anything else. I still have the logs and plan to someday write it all out. But that's not the point. One time, when I got bored and my sister didn't have time or didn't want to play, browsed around an RP-Forum we sometimes used, that made it easy to put the conversations in a nice format, and looked for other people's stories I could join.

I stumbled over a pirate themed RP thing with little rules and I was sure I could handle it. So I quickly came up with a character (I chose a quiet man, don't remember more) and since everybody had some overly amazing anime portraits for their chars, I didn't feel out of place to pick the standard portrait of the assassin class of RO as mine. And I jumped in.

First up I had to prove myself to become part of the crew. I literally had to kill someone. So I did that. Quickly. I started with a distraction and finished the 'fight' against a captive without difficulties. I thought this would befit a pirate that has to just go kill that guy, that is obviously not skilled or armed. Well, they pretty much hated that. Duh! I am always the weird one and who likes the weird one? Well, my husband obviously, but otherwise... I don't know. I don't remember well, but I think the other players tried to 'fix' my 'wrongdoings' and then I left. In my opinion, a good story can fit in any character. Further in the backstory will be told over time and explain why they are there and why they did this or that. Or am I wrong?

Somehow I am always excluded at one point. I feel like I don't really fit in anywhere... but I don't want to be someone I am not...

Now, I kind of feel weird for writing this... Well...

About that sketch. That's a vampire, a really old one, 'The Alchemist'. But I will tell you about this one when I feel more confident. He's very important to me. I thought it would be cool to make him a pirate captain, but that's probably not going to be canon. Maybe a spin-off.

Master & Apprentice Page 0046 - 03-11-2016

Sigh... I commited the awful mistake of trying to advertise this comic on the gaiaonline forums. I should have known! After submitting a short thread and a few hours of waiting all I got were 3 downvotes and no comments at all. Normally I always got fast reactions back then ('then' being something like 5 years ago). A weird itch made me look up a thread from back then about a different comic - something like a first try at such - and noticed how weird the replys were. Harsh and not really understanding what was going on in my story, but analysing in every detail. Sure, it wasn't very good and the intro was lacking, but not as misunderstandable as it seemed from those comments. I just looked it up!

So... I logged off and vow not to enter that place again. I am confident that the story that I am telling is something around a 'good' or even 'pretty good' and maybe someday I'll get some feedback that is honest, but not ignorant and hateful.

Enjoy :)

Glowing Flowers

Since it's nearly Halloween I planned to decorate a little bit. The perfect opportunity for some itty bitty crafty crafty~

I bought some transparent paper in several colours and decided it should be something orange and green. Simply sticking pieces of paper on a glass jar to make a colourful lantern was ruled out, when I noticed I didn't have any black. And I didn't want to do pumpkins - too mainstream. But I had this little thing sitting on my keyboard: a dried hop cone.

I wish I could do a row of tiny lanterns that are each a crafted hop cone, glowing with a soothing green light, because that's what I tried to do. However, making those incredibly small leaves and sticking each of them onto the tiny diode of the chain of lights or just another still small construct, turned out to be the kind of work I didn't want to do. ;) Though, lighting up the cone itself looked cool! (see first picture)

I then googled a bit for origami, because I didn't have my own book with instructions around, and tumbled over something else that looked nice. These flowers that are kind of similar to the balloon origami. They are called harebells. Turns out they were just what I was looking for!

Master & Apprentice Page 0045 - 27-10-2016

Halloween-themed tights!

Haaah~ Best day of the year, isn't it? The only day people bahave normally and they think I do, too.

It's probably almost like Chistmas for me. I was a teen when my parents tried to do something interesting for us (my two sisters and me). We kept the lights out all evening, sitting only in candlelight, and I remember it being nice and warm and we had delicious food and snacks. I remember being very hyped, even though we didn't do anything special. That's a bit like Christmas should be, right? Christmas was never like that for me. Since then I always tried to induce something similar, get my family into a festive mood and be happy toghether. Never worked.

So, the first time I had to celebrate it alone (2012, midweek) I was broken. Now, I couldn't even try! I was hyped for Halloween anyway, waiting for the comfortable dark atmosphere to arrive. That way I ended up a bit desperate. Long story short: I planned out a party just for me (My little Pony FIM s1e25 'Party of One' comes to mind).

It wasn't that bad. I had prepared snacks I've always wanted to eat, turned on 13th Street, which was showing scary movies all night, and played Minecraft all night until I was too frightend and tired.

It was amazing.

The following years I did all that with my boyfriend (now husband) and what I did on that day alone became somewhat of a tradition ('cept for the movies).

The mighty Dragon

About a week ago this annoying fly had declared our living room it's home. It's favourite activity seems to be to fly past our ceiling lamp really closely, casting a giant shadow of itself right there on the wall above my screens. Everytime I would wince and think yet another dragon needs to be slain! Just like I always do in Skyrim. It really taught me to watch out whenever I see a large shadow ANYWHERE. Even in other games. Dragon Age: Inquisition comes to mind. That even has dragons that fly over you. So those reflexes were at least good for something! /thumbs up

At some point the fly would just sit on my screen, clean it's legs and watch me play Stardew Valley. We accepted it as out new pet and called it Alduin <3

Aduin the Fly.