Leaf Ghost #175

Yet another snow day provides time for yet another leaf ghost.

This one continues techniques tested in #172. While that one didn’t have enough water, this one had a bit too much. Perhaps next time I’ll find a happy medium.

I used hot press illustration board this time, which worked much better than the Bristol board from #172. If nothing else, it was thick enough that slicing the masking film didn’t cut all the way through. Plus the water didn’t warp it at all.

The ink is new too: Shikiori Yamadori “Copper Pheasant.”

Leaf Ghost #174

Like #169, the ink here just kinda turned into a puddle of squish. Either the tan sketchbook paper isn’t as absorbent as I thought, or the technique just isn’t working.

Leaf Ghost #173

In case anyone’s interested about what goes into a Poe ghost, they’re created by alternating between pens with different line widths (0.7mm in blue, 0.35mm in grey) and different ink colors (red with tape on the ends, black without).

The text for this ghost must have been the set-up episode that runs when it isn’t sweeps month. The major event on this page is the nameless narrator tripping and almost falling into a hole.

Leaf Ghost #172

A few ghosts ago I got some unexpected results from ink on mixed media paper. Since then I’ve been playing around with ways to apply water to an inked surface. Today I decided to try another drawing based on what I found.

Working on bristol board, I created the same chessboard pattern as #169. Then I masked off the non-leaf part and sprayed the surface with a mist of water.

Results were mixed but suggest future potential. I used a brand of masking film I’d never tried before, and I found it difficult to cut. Maybe my knife wasn’t as sharp as it should have been, but I found it impossible to slice the film without cutting through the board underneath. Also my experiments suggested that a light spray of water would more than do the trick. Here I think I should have used a bit more.

Try try again.

Leaf Ghost #171

I couldn’t resist the invitation to add an old Mel Brooks joke to Poe’s text. You’ll find it in the second row starting at the end of the first line.

This is also the first time I’ve done two Poe ghosts in a row. They’re easy to do a row at a time, which means I can draw part of one and then come back to it the next time I have a spare minute (or spare 20 minutes or so, which is how long rows typically take). So even when I don’t have enough free time to do another kind from start to finish, I can keep a Poe ghost going.

Leaf Ghost #170

“The Pit and the Pendulum” continues.

The experiment here is the inclusion of a few holes, replicating the leaf in the source photo. The biggest one is at the intersection of rows two and three, column three. But there are some others here and there.

Leaf Ghost #169

Based on some of the ink experiments I did last week, I tried something new: drawing the background complete with two pen angles and no leaf at all (except in the faint pencil sketch below the ink). Then I used a brush to apply water to the ink where the leaf should be.

The result was not what I expected. I thought the water would spread the ink ever so slightly, as it did in last week’s experiments. But the tests were done on sketch paper, which tends to absorb ink. And this ghost was done on mixed media paper, where the ink tends to dry on the surface rather than seeping in. So when I added water, it was like painting directly with the color rather than just spreading it around a little.

I”m not dissatisfied with this. It looks more interesting in person than it does in the photo (I know I say that a lot in this blog, but it’s true). And it suggests avenues for further exploration.

Leaf Ghost #168

What a mess! This is the most out-of control Copic Ghost I’ve ever done.

Three of the marker colors – B29 Ultramarine, YR24 Pale Sepia and YR61 Spring Orange – were refills. Ultramarine went onto the paper just fine but left a lot of extra ink. So when I started applying the Sepia, it re-liquified the blue and smeared it along the edges.

Which was a birthday present compared to the orange. I must have overfilled the marker, because when I applied nib to paper the ink came gushing out all over the place. The results are clearly visible in the drawing.

Coincidentally enough, the B05 Process Blue marker I used for the lighter background squares ran dry midway through (despite my firm belief that it was relatively new and had barely been used). And of course the B06 Peacock Blue I tried to use as a sub was bone dry, with B14 Light Blue not faring much better.

Looks like I need to order more refills. And be more careful when adding them to the markers.

Leaf Ghost #167

Here’s a first in the Poe Ghost series: a story – “The Tell Tale Heart” ended neatly at the end of a row.

And then “Annabel Lee” nearly did the same.

Side note: I’ve been using “Crane Quill” and “Summer Night Bonfire” Shikiori inks for most of this series. I like them so much that earlier this week I bought some more colors from the set. I’ll stick with what I’m already using for Poe ghosts, but I’m looking forward to trying the other inks out on other drawings.

Leaf Ghost #166

Normally I wouldn’t use the same medium and technique twice in a row. But I was curious about some variations. I switched to W&N Blue rather than black, and I used the longer Speedball 513 nib rather than the 512 from last time.

I also wanted to keep practicing with the new pen angle. Still not perfect, but better than last time.

Leaf Ghost #165

I’m currently reading Arthur Leighton Guptill’s Rendering in Pen and Ink, and I’ve decided to actually do the lessons as I’m going. One of the first things the book covers is how to vary line width by changing the angle of the pen and the pressure on the tip.

Employing some of my new knowledge, I did this whole ghost using a single pen and one color of ink. Though I clearly need additional practice with the unfamiliar pen angle (the darker squares), the new approach has potential.

Leaf Ghost #164

Here’s a first: a leaf ghost started in one year and finished in another.

I began work on this one shortly after I finished #163. Most ghosts get done in a single session, but pieces for the Poe series can take two or three days to complete. Still, I figured I’d have time to complete it before New Years Eve. Well, things got busy and I’m just now getting around to the final two rows.