Sample illustrations from a travel sketchbook and postcard series, depicting beaches, landscapes, flora, and anthropomorphized locals as seen in Taiwan’s Penghu archipelago islands.
Loki from Thistil Mistil Kistil by Sarah Schanze (depleti)
I really like Loki’s design and outfit! It’s seriously among my favorite character designs just in general.
I wish there were more comics about Vikings and Norse mythology, let alone ones that strive for such historical accuracy (collecting from what’s known and what’s speculated). The style is quite unique, very shape and pattern based, and inspired by Norse art. There are some phenomenal scenic backgrounds! It reminds me a bit of The Secret of Kells. I do think this comic and its style would lend themselves quite well to an animated show!
Missed yesterday (oops), but back with more Inktober webcomic fanart.
Others: Namesake, Hotblood!, Monster Pulse / Bobwhite
Thea and Mimi of Girls with Slingshots by Danielle Corsetto (corsettofound)
GWS concluded a while back, but kind of rewinded and is currently updating regularly so new readers can jump in again (early strips are now in color!). I really enjoyed Thea and Mimi’s storyline, and glad they got so much screen time later in the story. Clarice’s story is definitely a runner-up though. Anyway, they’re adorable, Mimi’s a special kind of awesome, Thea brings out all the feels, I’ve always wanted to try Roller Derby (I was a total rollerblades kid), and couldn’t resist drawing Thea’s hotdog hat~
This drawing is actually rather small, so the line weight variation isn’t great but oh well.
More Inktober webcomic tributes!
Others: Namesake, Hotblood!
Bina and Ayo from Monster Pulse, and Ivy (with a bobwhite quail) from Bobwhite, both by Magnolia Porter (magnoliapearl).
These are the characters I most associate with from each cast. It really hits home to watch Bina’s inner struggles, caused by trying so hard to do the right thing and make the right and responsible decisions, while trying to see things from others’ perspective, yet still finding life just generally hard to understand and screw-ups impossible to avoid (but hey, we learn).
Bobwhite is a concluded comic, but it was still ongoing when I was in art college, so reading about a gang of art students “finding themselves” while being in one was pretty interesting. I always liked how casually paced it felt (fabulous and gradual character growth!), and particularly empathized with Ivy’s uncertainty and indecision about her abilities or goals, while still having a reluctant-yet-determined streak (despite generally just wanting to chillax). I kind of really admired her natural ability to “roll with it”, which is something I think I’ve since gotten better at (or at least being able to function without knowing exactly what’s going on).
ps. If anyone’s reading this, Bobwhite Monster Pulse crossover where are you? :p
Fred and Elaine from the webcomic Namesake, by Megan Lavey-Heaton (savvyliterate) and Isabelle Melançon (secondlina).
These two are pretty dang adorable (I’m really fond of Selva too though, might still want to do one of her too). Based on their designs from earlier in the story, even if I do love the later freedom of Fred’s dreads.
Back around SPX ’14, my first comic-centric convention, I left with a strong desire to do fanart of all my favorite webcomics (many of whom were at SPX, and where fabulous new finds got added to the list). I wanted to do a little something to show appreciation for these rockstar creators who give so many people something to look forward to each week, and just pour so much time, research, dedication, and skill into the craft and such committed projects :)
Things got busy and I didn’t progress beyond a few pencil sketches before moving on to other things, but given it’s Inktober and I’m feeling pretty “inkspired” (sorry), I’ve been revisiting these and doing a bunch of new ones.
I’ll be posting these webcomic features for the remainder of October, and try to cover as many of my top favorites as I can! (oh man I read too many)
Something to try and help deal with that odd settled/unsettled pensive feeling between fall and winter.
Honestly I’m not terribly looking forward to winter. It can certainly be amazing; beautiful, serene, fluffy, cozy, charming, quite relaxing... But in Cleveland winters can also amount to a 6 month variety of snow, heavy wet snow, frozen ice snow, slush, freeze, rain, gray skies, dangerous driving, and a fresh collection of megapotholes. I know Ohio’s not exactly the worst weather state (though I think we could win most unpredictable), but it’s still a crummy way to spend half the year. I just really, really start missing leaves. And trees. Sunlight. Camping ;|
On the plus side we do have a pretty gorgeous fall/autumn!
shoopart was kind enough to make me a hyena! Which are pretty high up there on the coolest animals list, just sayin'.
In return, here's a pufferfish! :D
This is the Little Pufferfish That Could because during this time my computer got mauled by faulty Microsoft updates, forcing me to color with markers which I need more practice with anyway.
Last weekend my friend and I made our first visit to SPX (Small Press Expo) in Bethesda, Maryland!
This is Rook and Asa of Hotblood! by Toril Orelsky (starlock), one of many new excellent discoveries/purchases. A western with centaurs and sunset color schemes, in just the loveliest style, full of moments and comfortable pacing. No idea how this wasn’t on my radar before now, but it’s very quickly jumped to being one of my new favorites.
More SPX ramblings under the cut~
After lots of waffling I was super psyched to go to SPX and had really no idea what to expect. It was fantastic.
The expo had an incredibly inviting, encouraging vibe. Just, excitement in the air! I got to hear and meet SO MANY PEOPLE who were super into the craft, and SO MANY of the awesome webcomic and internet art folks whose work I’ve been following for ages. I was a little overwhelmed and felt like a bit of a goober wandering up to everyone and sort of…nervously half-controlled gushing about how amazing they are, because the people who have that skill and dedication are seriously rockstars. It took a lot of self-control not to go too over budget, especially on new finds. I left feeling really inspired, and really REALLY wishing there were more hours in a day.
The first thing I did coming back was break open a new sketchbook, slap on the SPX sticker and start doodlin’ some of the comics whose creators were there. Rarely have I had such an urge to do so much fanart, haha!
Next con I plan to be 10x more prepared. Especially since I didn’t realize just printing and bringing samples of your comics to share was a thing.
(Side note - to anyone I exchanged info with at the tumblr meetup or who took a photo of my nametag, I’ve changed my tumblr handle for this account from blogliss to sketchliss. My other tumblr for portfolio work, tamiliss, is still the same, but this sketchblog is prolly the better one to follow ‘cause it’s more often updated and will reblog 'folio stuff anyway.)
Opened the floor to prompts from Facebook peeps to help get the juices flowing. Quick-paced stuff. From a dude who excels in being a fascinating combination of ultrasmart, ultragenuine (-ly nice), and ultrasilly: “Extreme Navel Gazing"
Opened the floor to prompts from Facebook peeps to help get the juices flowing. Quick-paced stuff (except cleaning those stick-people took longer than expected). From an awesome lady: "realistic dinosaurs chasing those stupid window sticker families"
Dragonslobber!
Basically my mental image of all babies - excessive uncontrollable drooling.
I like drawing spine-spikes, they're fun to do at different angles. I think I was outdoors when drawing this, hence plant-dragon. (Slight reminder that some of the things that go up here are sketchbook scans I feel like archiving from the past couple years.)
A bit overworked because crosshatching is relaxing.
I'd like to color this, but who knows when that might happen.
Hands-down one of my favorite animated movies, and certainly among my top Disney picks. Excellent animation, great music, good length/pace, and the theme hits home in a lot of ways.
ellievsbear
vaporwave
kianamaiart
germansingergirl
romaincrisis