Print Day in May #2

Here is the second installment of my gelli prints from Print Day in May!

Print Day in May! #1

May 2nd was Print Day in May, but I’m just getting around to posting some of the prints that I have made since recently acquiring a gelatin printing kit from my aunt, who is very passionate about the craft. I have to say, it’s been a lot of fun just playing around with the printing process, experimenting, and letting go of my critical brain more than I usually am able to.  I’m going to be posting some of my little experiments since getting the printing kit in a series of posts for Print Day in May, and here is the first!

Meet Agatha

This is my new cat, Agatha Christie! But I usually just call her Aggie. She is my quarantine companion. Her tongue permanently sticks out due to some sort of deformation of the jaw, but she’s happy and healthy!

Night Sky on a Wacom Tablet

I got a new little Wacom tablet for Christmas, so I decided to try it out by following a tutorial that came with a bundled program called Clip Studio Paint Pro. My thanks to JTian over there, as this is essentially an attempt to copy what they did while learning how to use the tablet and the program. I’m totally new to digital painting, so the tutorial was helpful.

Paragliders and Hang Gliders

Last year, I visited the Morningside Flight Park in Charlestown, New Hampshire and went on a tandem hang gliding flight. It was amazing! I highly recommend it if that kind of thing is up your alley. I started this sketch at that time after the flight while I watched people learning how to hang glide and paraglide, but I never finished it until recently.

Inktober: Ring

I think my posts for Inktober are going to be a bit delayed depending on my access to a scanner, but here is my drawing/painting for the first prompt: Ring. I decided to try a quick drawing of Saturn, which turned into a painting, but it’s done entirely in black ink (with a bit of white ink for the moons of Saturn).

I used small drawing pad of mine that was not well suited for the wet ink wash I did. I also used Winsor and Newton’s black Indian ink and some Higgins white ink.

Paint first, outline later

This was something new and scary for me! I was watching a video of someone doing some freehand painting, some of which they added black outlines and details to after the fact. After my character design attempt from yesterday where, while I did a pencil drawing first, I then painted first before adding the outline, I thought I might want to try some freehand painting.

An attempt at character design

So, while I want to improve at drawing “real” things – people, animals, nature, architecture, etc – my main interest in art has been in animation, comics, and illustration. A lot of that requires me to draw from my imagination and create my own designs.  Drawing from a reference photo and trying to replicate it in a drawing is “safe” for me – but creating characters is quite scary.

New Sakura Koi Watercolor Set & Some Lettering Practice

It’s always fun to get new art supplies! Some friends of mine gave me a Sakura Koi watercolor set (the travel-sized one with 12 colors), along with the water brush that came with it – I’ve never used one of those before. It’s super cute. Thanks, friends!

Watercolor portrait of a man

I tried another portrait last night and tried the black ink outline approach. I outlined the initial drawing with Higgins Black Magic Ink and a liner brush, then painted it using my Pelikan watercolors as well as a tiny bit of Higgins white ink as well.