#briarwitch

[lithiumbot]

In the dark and quiet, nothing else exists but the words on the page.

[lithiumbot]

Working on a winter drawing, and thought this would be a good opportunity to talk a bit about how I approach color.

After inking, I start out by working in greyscale value, picking greys to show how light or dark a thing is in comparison to its surroundings.

For an old-timey feel, I’ll drop in a sepia overlay, all one color, which will take its values from the grey underneath it.

This also works for regular coloring. Set an overlay layer, pick a general color and flat-fill areas. I can pick individual colors but I often don’t have to. For instance, in the third drawing, Cecily's lips, cheeks and skin are all the same flat color fill, but the value underneath has made the darker areas pinker. Same thing for the scarf, its just one color of purple on the overlay.

I handle shadows and highlights in grey as well, and then color-shift them, but that’s a post for another time. Oh, and I haven’t even gotten into coloring the line art. 

Stay warm!

(I think this is the first time I’ve posted a drawing of her in color. Since I usually only draw her for Inktober, she tends to live in a monochrome world.)

[lithiumbot]

I am far from home, but I’m putting aside time each day for drawing.

I thought people might be interested in seeing the sketch for the previous drawing. I’m just sketching with mechanical pencil on printer paper, then I took a photo with my tablet and inked it in Krita. Krita is a pretty good substitute for Photoshop, at least for just drawing. Good default brushes. 

[lithiumbot]

The Briarwood is so named for the dense thicket of thorns that surround it, a uniquely tenacious and hardy species of thorny vine that makes the forest all but impassable. Even if one were to find some way through the bramble, the wood itself is rumored to contain horrors. Travelers who pass by the forest tell stories of shadows moving between the trees, tall and inhuman shapes glimpsed in the perpetual gloom.   Remnants of ruined stone arches at the borders of the forest hint that the area was once a city of some significance, though these fragments are degraded and worn past the point of identifiability. There are some who believe the ruins could conceal ancient secrets and lost knowledge, but the ever-present thorns have rebuffed any attempt at exploration. Over time, interest in the region has waned, and stories of the Briarwood have come to be regarded as merely tall tales, holding little of interest to anyone but overly imaginative scholars.

[lithiumbot]

And so another inktober draws to a close. It was a lot of work, and a lot of late nights, but its one of my favorite times of the year. Thanks to all of you who stuck with me!

Read from the beginning!

[lithiumbot]

Back safe in her cottage, Cecily slumped in her armchair and kicked off her boots. Had it really only been a day since she was last home? It felt like so much longer. There was still so much to do, but maybe she would rest for a moment.

Just for one moment.

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[lithiumbot]

Cecily loved bookstores. She loved the smell of old books, and she loved searching through the stacks of dusty tomes for hidden treasures. It was worth the long walk through the dangerous forest for a chance to visit the bookstore. As the only source of books in town, the store also functioned as the towns de facto library, though it had a much stricter lending policy.

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[lithiumbot]

Cecily was familiar with the entity she called ‘The Gardener.’ It spent all its time tending to the flower gardens in its territory, while everything else around the gardens had fallen to ruin. Each custodian was unique, but they all followed the same basic plan. They were usually around eight to twelve feet tall, their limbs of twisted wood hidden under mouldering rags, while moss and vines rooted in their hollow and exposed surfaces. Their most notable feature was the animal skull that formed their head. Despite their off-putting appearance, woodland creatures often flock around or perch on the creatures. This is not an indication of safety. Avoid.

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