Leaf Ghost #163

A foggy day inspires a foggy ghost. Grey background and Copic Ice Ocean / Cool Shadow (one of my favorite color combos) for the leaf.

Leaf Ghost #162

Festive holiday hues courtesy of sumi-e watercolors.

Leaf Ghost #161

At least now we know how “The Cask of Amontillado” ends.

It’s followed by “Alone,” a relatively short poem that fit entirely on the page with plenty of room to spare for the beginning of “The Tell-Tale Heart.”

Unusually, I found a few minutes to work later in the day, so it was already well on to dusk when I finished. I kinda liked working in the dark with only the desk lamp on.

Also at this point I’ve determined that this combination of red and black works best with broader leaves that allow for more of a balance between the colors.

Leaf Ghost #160

After nearly three years of working on the Leaf Ghost series, I’m feeling ready to expand things a bit. With that in mind, this one’s mostly a color study for something bigger next year. Thus the unfinished look.

It’s interesting how the metallics (Valejo Bronze and Silver) look different depending on how the light hits them.

Leaf Ghost #159

It appears to work reasonably well to do the dark squares on a dry surface and dilute the paint with wet-on-wet application for the light squares. The grey and blue work well together, too.

Leaf Ghost #158

This is the second Poe ghost for which I ran out of space with just a sentence or two to go in the story. Weird.

Leaf Ghost #157

When I ran ink tests for Winsor & Newton Nut Brown and Peat Brown, they looked like they’d be different enough to use at equal saturations. But when I actually started drawing, it swiftly became apparent that they were too close together in hue. So I spaced the lines a bit more on the lighter squares.