Leaf Ghost #208

Okay, now Poe’s just drawing it out. Like he’s being paid by the word. Honestly, this guy is rarely at his best when he thinks he’s being funny.

Leaf Ghost #207

I do the sketches for leaf ghosts in Fresco, which is Adobe’s tablet-based offshoot of Photoshop. My routine is to create the file for the next ghost by copying the last one. In this case #206 was almost so far back in the “Recents” list that I couldn’t find it. That’s in part because I’ve been using Fresco/Photoshop to prepare graphics for the Web Design class I’m teaching starting next week (thus generating a bunch of non-ghost files), and in part because all that prep work has kept me away from the ghost drawing board for an unusually long time.

It’s been awhile since I did a Copic ghost, so this one’s the result of an experiment. As I’ve noted in several past entries, I’ve gotten frustrated with Copic markers running dry, especially the ones that I’ve recently refilled. I’d read in several sources that this problem can be avoided by storing the pens horizontally rather than vertically. This suggestion made no sense to me, as I tend to work with the brush tip and thus I figured that storing them vertically with the brush tip down would allow the ink to flow most easily on the end I’m using.

Out of frustration, I ordered a horizontal storage rack just to see if the new angle would work or not. And I have to admit that it did. All five pens flowed from beginning to end, staying fairly even throughout. Though I may just have lucked out with my pen choice, I’m optimistic that the new storage solution is indeed better.

For the record, the ink colors are V09 Violet, V04 Lilac, YR24 Pale Sepia, YR61 Spring Orange, and N8 Neutral Gray 8.