redfreebluehope

[redfreebluehope]

Inspired by an old painting of Beowolf facing off against Grendel's mother, this particular drawing is starting to make me question whether or not I'm actually better with the greyscale markers, rather than straight up black and white.

I'll have to start copying old black and white etchings from the days before photography was widespread. So many fun art things to do, so little time!

#inktober #inktober52 #swamp #inktober52swamp #lizardfolk #fantasyart #art #penandink #drawing #nonbinary #nonbinaryartist

[redfreebluehope]

Zoo

This is probably my favorite drawing of the challenge so far! I've been obsessed with Shapeshifters, especially werewolves, for as long as I can remember, and I couldn't pass up an opportunity to draw a seriously badass looking werewolf for this prompt. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

On another note, I'm falling farther behind on new drawings because of my current gig. I'm trying to stay positive, but I'm kind of annoyed at the drop in my quality art time. We'll see how the rest of this week goes. I'm going to have to make the most of every minute I can.

#inktober #inktober52 #zoo #inktober52zoo #shapeshifter #werewolf #art #penandink #drawing #nonbinary #nonbinaryartist

[redfreebluehope]

I remember thinking when I stayed this piece that I really just wanted to draw the male form (even though most of these characters I'm drawing for Inktober are meant to be a little ambiguous, or non-conforming, or generally nonbinary), so I stuck with the typical image of Aqurius with his water pot.

I had the idea of using masking liquid to paint the stars so I could just go over the background with black ink. I used my fingers to rub the masking liquid off, but unfortunately that also rubbed off some of the ink and turned that part of the background a lighter shade of black. In a layer piece I found out that I could work on pulling these up one by one without damaging the background, so lesson learned!

This is another example of a piece that I thought was pretty goofy looking when I finished it, but I really love it now! I still need to spend more time just drawing the human figure, especially the face... I think I'm slowly getting better with bodies, but my faces are still very basic... ASD ftw air? 😆

#inktober52 #inktober #inktober52aquarius #aquarius #penandink #penandinkdrawing #drawing #art #zodiac #astrology #nonbinaryartist #nonbinary

[redfreebluehope]

So, even though I'm only two weeks behind on my drawings, I'm months behind on posting the finished pieces. I'm gonna have to push past my anxiety and just throw everything out there!

This is for week three prompt: Tick Tock. A vampire with a pocket watch. Now your assignment is to write an article on the themes ;)

This picture honestly took way longer than I though it would because I ended up with so many unfamiliar elements, such as the different textures of the materials in the throne and the outfit. I had to play around lot of guessing games with how to depict the play of shadows and light from the candles on all the elements from the foreground to the background.

I can still tell that getting the contrast right is my weakness. But I also feel like I need to practice drawing everything (not just human figures, but also furniture, fixtures, plants, etc. I read a Yoshitaka Amano biography where he said he threw himself into drawing anything and everything when he was a kid. I wish I could just draw all day long. That would be heaven!

#inktober52 #inktober #inktober52ticktock #penandink #penandinkdrawing #drawing #art #vampire #vampireart ##nonbinaryartist #nonbinary

[redfreebluehope]

So, I'm getting caught up on my Inktober 52 drawings, but still falling farther and farther behind on sharing them 😅

This is my entry for "Shrimp," the second weeks prompt. I was totally stumped at first, trying to think of something clever to do with the word, when I thought of my campaign setting and realized that a giant mantis shrimp would make a powerful mount for a sea elf! I definitely feel in love with the idea, and I was excited with all the attention that mantis shrimps are receiving online, especially since I really only learned that they are a thing after that water logged episode of Dadadan!

The thing about peacock mantis shrimps is that they are really colorful... so trying to transfer that to greyscale was quite a challenge. I'm rather happy with how the shrimp mount itself turned out. I found myself exercising my creative muscles trying to translate the images I could find of peacock mantis shrimps online into the pose I wanted for my shrimp. I simplified some parts and invented boundaries to bring the form to life in my setting.

On the other hand, I'm still having trouble with humanoid figures. And I'm embarrassed to admit that I've really forgotten a lot of the shading techniques that used to just come intuitively to me.  I know I just need to practice, and I'm staying positive. All in good time. That's what doing this challenge is about, reminding me how much I love drawing, how much it makes me feel like myself, and how I can blend it with my storytelling to get my thoughts and ideas out there.

Any advice or suggestions are always welcome! Thanks for taking a look at my art 🎨

#inktober52 #inktobershrimp #shrimp #drawing #inkdrawing #fantasyart #ttrpgart #peacockmantisshrimp #mantisshrimp #seaelf #art  #nonbinaryartist

[redfreebluehope]

The emotional damage this screenshot inflicted on me. From Rayla being the physically furthest away from Callum only to rush forward to be the one to catch him, her being the only one to approach him when Aaravos first takes him over before he’s treated like a puppet, her couple but pointed singular gasps of alarm, and finally the amount of fear she shows on her face directly to Aaravos while she holds Callum in her arms, afraid he’s going to do another terrible thing to him. Soren is mad, Ezran still looks fearfully confused by the whole affair, but Rayla looks completely petrified. “Moonshadow elves aren’t supposed to show fear, ever,” to an enemy no less, and yet

[redfreebluehope]

Quick update: outlines for the apples are complete. Onto the Evil Eyes. #abstractart #abstractpainting #acyrlicpainting #acryliconcanvas #workinprogress #lion #evileyeart #evileye #goldenacrylics https://www.instagram.com/p/ClFtnb1O8Av/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[redfreebluehope]

Once upon a time, I had a friend over and they saw my scattered art materials on the table and exclaimed "Artists use tracing paper?!" 🤯 Yes. Artists use tracing paper. If I already drew/ sketched it once, hand drawn work accomplished! 🌟 If I need a copy, I'm tracing and transferring it. Same thing with these dot paintings. Some of the mandalas and triangles I've made I can do without a guide (I only need to mark the pupil of the Evil eye 👁 to get started). But these apples 🍎 are irregular and I had to spend three days marking them and transferring them to the background. I'm making good progress this week! 😇 I should try mini blogging my progress with organizing myself in case anyone else with similar struggles might benefit from my anecdotes. #abstractart #abstractpainting #acyrlicpainting #acryliconcanvas #workinprogress #tracing #design #evileye #evileyeart #goldenacrylics https://www.instagram.com/p/CkygsjSuYr8/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[redfreebluehope]

"Ego" sent me on a nostalgia trip thinking about my first D&D game. My new friend group in high school introduced me to Dungeons & Dragons 3.0 (before this I was in severe denial of the fact that I was definitely a nerd 🤓🦄🧝‍♂️). The DM thrust the Players Handbook at me and said to read through the classes and pick the one that fit me best. After careful reading I decided Paladin was definitely my calling 😇 But apparently it was an evil campaign and that wasn't going to fly (I do not recommend evil campaigns btw, they always end with everyone turning on each other because "My character is evil! I'm just playing the character" 😈 This my my attempt at drawing and inking the paladin from the original 3.0 Handbook, originally created by David Martin (If I'm reading the signature correctly). It didn't turn out quite as well as I had intended, but overall it's better than I thought it would be when I pulled out the Zig Light Gray Pen and started playing with it. This piece is a mish mash, i outlined everything with the Zig Mangaka 01 (gotta do a comparison with Sakura macron sometime), then some shadows with Kuretake Bimoji Fude pen, some light shading with the Zig Art and Graphic Twin Light Gray, and finally back to the mangaka 01 for some hatching. #inktober #inktoberprompts #inktober2022 #ego #dnd #d&d #dungeonsanddragons #dnd3e #3e #paladin #hero #fantasyart #warrior #inking #inkdrawing #wizardsofthecoast #kuretake #zigcartoonist #sakuragellyroll #illustration #artistsoninstagram https://www.instagram.com/p/CkPNSs1r9Bv/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[redfreebluehope]

Finishing just under the wire today! 🕦 When thinking about "temptation" yesterday as I was strategizing my remaining Inktober prompts I'd already planned one sexy 🍑 illustration so my mind leaned towards decadent desserts 🍰 You think finding a suitable image would have been easy, but I think I easily spent more time researching cake and Japanese desserts than any other inktober image so far! Next time I'm at Belle's Bread I'm buying a piece of everything and taking professional reference photos 😆📸 I used my Zig Cartoonist no.22 brush pen for the plate, my Kuretake Mannen Mouhitsu fountain pen for the icing and strawberries, and my Kuretake Bimoji Fude pen for the cake. My goal was to make the icing dark and shiny with very little shading (thus avoiding spending an inordinate amount of time trying to make it look "real" and instead implying through the glossy texture of the ink the decadence of the chocolate). I looked up tutorials for drawing cake texture, but couldn't find any satisfying advice, so I had to make up my own technique and I'm glad to say it turned out as well as I had hoped! 💖 Ever since I was an undergrad I've been working on quieting that negative voice in the back of my mind that over critiques every artistic choice and endeavor that I make. Every artist I've ever known struggles with their own internal critic and I have to say, it's really good for your self esteem and your art process to tame this voice and rejoice in work you can produce. This image darker than I envisioned it, but I've fallen in love with it none the less, and I'm rather proud of how it turned out and what I've learned while making it. 😁💗🎆 #inktober #inktoberprompts #inktober2022 #tempting #temptingcakes #chocolatecake #chocolatecoveredstrawberries #dessertporn #inking #illustration #inkdrawing #kuretake #zigcartoonist #artistsoninstagram https://www.instagram.com/p/CkKcSrwuYpv/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[redfreebluehope]

I finished this a couple of days ago (and would have finished it sooner) but I recieved some bad news last week and have been rather melancholy since. I ended up sulking quite a bit and avoiding all the good habits I've been working on lately. I'm slowly pulling myself out of my stupor and just have to remind myself that it's okay to have big feelings and that I have time to work through my problems and make things better. The first thing I thought of when I saw the "Salty " prompt for Inktober was the Salty websight/newsletter that I follow on Instagram. In their own words, Salty is the "newsletter passing the mic directly to women, trans, and nonbinary people to tell their own stories in their own voices." Please take a look at their page @salty.world and sign up for their newsletter at https://saltyworld.net So, I took a look through their recent posts thinking I would make an illustration based off of one of their articles. Once I found the perfect one (a post on October 4th) I looked through images of drag queens until I stumbled upon this gem of a photo and decided it was perfect. Of course, it took me significantly longer to make than I thought it would, despite the basic composition. At first, I couldn't get the proportions of the body quite right, then I couldn't stick with one style of shading, and ultimately I made the decision to draw nearly every hair individually. Which looks fantastic! But also took an insane amount of patience and time (if you think my dot paintings take patience, it might surprise you to hear that this drawing took even more 🤣) #inktober #inktoberprompts #inktober2022 #salty #saltyworld #dragqueen #queer #lgbt #lgbtq #lgbtq🌈 #nonbinaryartist #queerartist #inkdrawing #inking #illustration #artistsoninstagram https://www.instagram.com/p/CkJph2IPZsg/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[redfreebluehope]

I swear, I finished this one last week, but just haven't gotten around to posting it. 😅 The prompt was "Kind" and once again I kinda blanked, but started thinking of synonyms and thought of bodhisattvas and that led to Kannon (Buddist diety of Compassion). So, in my attempt to avoid an image that would take hours I zeroed in on a picture of a Sho Kannon (holding a lotus bud in one hand and an open palm for the other) that's just the head. But of course I couldn't bring myself to leave out the headpiece so it took just as long as any of the others 😂 I discovered that my fancy Kuretake fountain brush pen is a lighter black than the Zig cartoonist brush pen no.22. You might be able to tell if you compare the brow of the crown with the heavily shadowed areas around it. Maybe i should post some reviews of the pens and brushes I've been playing with, it's been a blast 🧨 #inktober #inktoberprompts #inktober2022 #kind #kannon #avalokitesvara #shokannon #buddhism #inkdrawing #inking #illustration #artistsoninstagram https://www.instagram.com/p/Cj34vm3rPr3/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[redfreebluehope]

Preliminary sketch for today's inktober prompt "Match". I have to get ready for my day job soon, so I figured I'd post my work in progress and finish up late tonight. I'm borrowing an illustration from _Revolutionary Girl Utena_, with Utena on the right, but I'm replacing Anthy with Oscar from _The Rose of Versailles_ All my sketching practice these last few months is paying off. I feel pretty good about this one 😁 Also, I recommend reading the manga for _The Rose of Versailles_ instead of watching the anime. #inktober #inktober2022 #match #workinprogress #sketch #sketchbook #utena #revolutionarygirlutena #roseofversailles #oscardejarjayes https://www.instagram.com/p/Cjdll9Vu5bN/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[redfreebluehope]

Added clouds to the psychedelic mushroom piece 🌬☁️ At first I was a little disappointed that the Molotow white paint wasn't more opaque (I ended up putting two coats on the stars 🌟), but I do love the look of the swirling paint on the clouds. Really shows the artists 🎨 hand! Now i have to decide if i want to put two coats on the clouds 🤔 #abstractart #psychedelic #mushrooms #psychadelicart #spraypaintart #spraypaint #graffitiart #montanaspraypaint #workinprogress #rainbow #molotowmarkers https://www.instagram.com/p/CjYfIySuG2E/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[redfreebluehope]

Update on my advertising in my studio window. At first, I thought the size of the prints (one was printed in landscape, the other portrait) were about the same, but the landscape cut off the bottom edge and i had to flip the image and print the bottom again. In the end the difference is notable from the outside. But I'll take care of that by having these professionally printed next time. Also, I didn't really think about how the lamp post would impede the view of anyone looking at my window while waiting on a red light to continue down Columbia St. People on Center St should be able to see it just fine, though 😁 Still need to find time to cut out the stencils for the dragon and the unicorn, though 🦄🐲 #artstudio #studiolife #problemsolving https://www.instagram.com/p/CjQkTvJOrzq/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[redfreebluehope]

A quick post before I get ready for my day job. Drawing with paint pens is so soothing! I gotta dream up some more illustrations to bring to life. Right now, it's stars and clouds for my psychedelic mushrooms 🍄 🎆🦄 #abstractart #psychedelic #mushrooms #psychadelicart #spraypaintart #montanaspraypaint #molotowmarkers #workinprogress https://www.instagram.com/p/CjLwlB9u54J/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[redfreebluehope]

A close up of the (procreate sketch) background for my latest painting (which has knocked my painting of Lady Justice to the back burner again) _The Phrase is: “One bad apple SPOILS THE BUNCH”_ (I may fiddle with punctuation on the title again later). I’m using the evil eye motif from _Stand and Deliver_ mixed with a new rotten apple pattern. More on that and the rest of the subject matter to come. #art #artwork #abstractart #digitalart #digitalsketch #procreate #policebrutality #stoppolicebrutality #politicalart https://www.instagram.com/p/CjGLkAbu3kM/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=