gsweazel

[gsweazel]

Inspired by the st basil's cathedral in moscow

[gsweazel]

i ended up coloring it lol

[gsweazel]

to everyone reblogging with ‘redwall’ - I had never heard of it but thank you for introducing it to me!!! I am obsessed omg how cute!

he’s prepping for battle

[gsweazel]

Hello! Do you sell any prints or stickers of your art?

not currently! this is something I would be interested in if there is any demand for it though, so please let me know if you would be interested!!! (it would be july before anything happens because it would be wayyyy too stressful doing this at uni - hence why I have no new art to post)

also thank you so much for expressing an interest!! <3

[gsweazel]

i thrifted this sketchbook that has grey paper, it's wonderful for colored pencil!

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hey! *rotoscopes your fool*

[gsweazel]

your work is so beautiful!! can you share a little bit about your process when working with gouache and india ink?

thank you so much! and of course I can!!!

it’s a long one…details below!

I use gouache just because it’s what I have to hand, but watercolour would work well, if not better.

I start with a sketch, then a wash of the blue, covering the whole page - it can be messy because most of it will be covered with the black ink. at this point I like to go over the shapes with the blue just to vaguely define the forms.

I like to start with the darkest areas! usually this is around the studs, or the ‘seams’ (if there are technical names pls let me know 🙏). I try not to focus on one area too much at once just to keep everything proportional and remind myself of the overall form! India ink is fab because it dries so quickly, and as far as I’m aware it doesn’t lift once dried, so I can go over the fine details to add reflections and shading! when I do the shading, I treat the ink like watercolour - I dilute it heavily, going from light to dark. you can always add more pigment later!

I always forget to take photos as I go along, but hopefully this kind of illustrates what I’m yapping about

I was very silly and forgot to take my brushes with me to uni… buuuut from memory, I think it’s a ‘round’ brush? it can carry a lot of ink but tapers to a very fine point at the end, allowing for the teeny tiny details on the armour, as well as the larger washes of pigment. this is a4 paper for scale (I think that’s around 8.5 x 11 inches!) I use a bigger round brush for bigger areas! I also loosely sketch out the details in pencil before painting but the drawing is usually more ambitious than what I can realistically achieve at this scale - the squiggly lines were the hardest! I tended to depart from the reference at this point and make up some organic shapes. basically the smaller scale means it’s no biggie if you do make a mistake!

I use bristol paper - super smooth surface that holds the ink really well!

it’s a little different for my first knight though (below)! still started with the blue gouache wash, but I used fine liner pen. I think it’s either 0.5 or 0.3 - leaning towards the latter just because of the smaller details! this is a less forgiving medium imo, but super satisfying. I used black gouache to fill in the background for this one - I didn’t have any inks at this point. I’m working on a5 paper here in a moleskine notebook, so it wasn’t really meant to be damp.

also I am still bad at taking photos of my art - but I am getting better! I scanned the painting, then adjusted the shadows (just using the photos app). literally the only edit is turning ‘shadows’ down to -100, but you can see how much of a difference this makes! I’m including this because it’s always so disheartening when the camera doesn’t pick up the artwork properly. something I struggle with when using ink is getting an even surface with large areas of undiluted black, which is why I tend to adjust the contrast. if anyone has any tips on this I would appreciate it!

apologies for the very long post - if there’s anything else I can clarify please let me know!! I’m quite new to tumblr so sorry if the formatting of this post is a little off.

unfortunately I have just gone back to university, so it will probably be a while before I have some art to post - I also left all my art supplies at home… whoops! maybe this is a chance to improve my digital art!!

and thank you so so much for all the notes on my previous post! I read every tag on reblogs and they always make my day <3

[gsweazel]

a new knight :)))

blue gouache wash and black India ink

[gsweazel]

seeing ur art on my dash makes me happy :))

this made my day, thank you <3

[gsweazel]

he’s prepping for battle

[gsweazel]

Created for my upcoming book Ergo Cosmos! A free chapter is available; if you are curious, just let me know.

"The swordsmanship schools of Bas and the other Mercurian capitals of the Twilight Belt have never produced a finer fighter than Felicissima, daughter of the Grandmaster Felice. And there are no better schools in the Solar System."

[gsweazel]

details details inky details

[gsweazel]

another knight! ref is from pinterest

I’m back at uni now so I won’t be posting much over the next 9 hellish weeks :)))

also thank you for all the love on the last post!!

[gsweazel]

still bad at taking photos of my art whoops

[gsweazel]

I think the most natural continuation of yeehawgust is something to do with knights and armour but I’m not sure why … maybe horses?

don’t love how this turned out but it was fun to draw!

[gsweazel]

attack on nothegarden on artfight!

[gsweazel]

Birthday gift great blue heron, watercolor and ink.