This was done on a heavy day. On days like this, I like to doodle whatever is inside my head to lighten things up. My therapy. Almost everything in here means something.
Today was a day to go crazy in my Moleskine and then continue it on my iPadPro. It was so much fun to just let my brain take me for a ride and was pure therapy on a day where a lot of crap was coming from many directions.
Congrats to anyone else who took part in inktober this year! I focused on combining witches inspired by different types of teas and I had so much fun! I’m conquering my irrational fear of side profiles and I think it’s working, I’ve been really liking side profiles lately and finding them easier to do. I experimented on this piece with adding freckles (they’re a feature in all of my inktober sketches but I haven’t liked how freckles have looked when I’ve dotted them in with a pen or brush) and uh, I guess it was kind of a success? Next time I’ll use my lighter shading colour for them, as I used the ink I use for my lines and it turned out really dark and concentrated, but I think they’re cute! (and I have ink sprays everywhere)
In the Finnish mythology killing of a bear was followed by a great feast in honour of the bear (peijaiset), where a substantial part of the celebrations consisted of convincing the bear's spirit that it had died accidentally and hadn't been murdered. Afterwards, the bear's skull was hung high upon a pine tree so its spirit could re-enter the heavens. The bones of the bear were then buried under the pine. Reference for this work is my old drawing of karhunkallopetäjä/bearskullpine in the Riisitunturi. Also practice sketch of bear skull and at last photo i took of pine.
Crosshatching was used to build up the shadows. It's probably my favourite drawing technique. Works best with pen and ink. This is the cover image for one of my children's picture books.
I was tired of carrying around a bunch of Microns. I want one or two refillable pens so I started with buying a new Lamy AL-Star Fountain Pen. I love it. I got the medium nib and am able to get a nice range of line width from it. This and maybe a fine nib and I'll be all set for a travel kit. This is the first page I drew with it.
