I'm traveling through England ans Scotland for the next two weeks, and of course that meant I had to start a new travel sketchbook! I found it fitting that the first page shows the route I will be on.
#29 Breath of Fire 2 - My fanart drawn in ibis paint on iPad pro. I recently discovered this game on the Super Nintendo. I really like the artist’s concept artwork for BoF2. I wanted to draw a few of the characters and the logo in my style. Ryu is the main character, and I like Catwoman type characters, so I thought Katt looked fun to draw. Also, I drew the logo slightly different from the original. I don't like to draw every detail exact. As usual: [No Tracing] [No Ai] [No free form line tools for inking except for the perfect circles]
#26 Collection of unfinished doodles - The Brachiosaurus (from Joe & Mac) in the center was drawn tonight. The rest were drawn over the past few years and stored away in a folder because they are all unfinished. Everything was drawn digitally on magma.com with an iPad Pro. Other characters included are: The girl from stellar blade on right side (whatever her name is), Amy Rose, Chakan the Forever Man (bottom center), Toad & Bowsette, the Giga Mermaid (from Shantae), and Sonic the hedgehog - looking ridiculous because he is fun to draw as Sanic. Everything else is from imagination.
#24 Anime girl doodles - I think I drew this sometime last year 2025 - I just never bothered to upload it. Most of it was sketched on Magma.com and part of the inking process was finished in Ibis Paint, with only minor adjustments in photoshop. I do all my digital inking on an iPad pro, and I use those hollow aluminum capacitive styluses that you can get very cheap just about anywhere. I prefer them over the apple pencil because the apple pencil is too slippery and heavy. More uploads coming soon...
Dmitry Shostakovich (1906–1975)
Shostakovich’s contemporaries do not recall seeing him working, at least not in the traditional sense. The Russian composer was able to conceptualize a new work entirely in his head, and then write it down with extreme rapidity—if uninterrupted, he could average twenty or thirty pages of score a day, making virtually no corrections as he went.
But this feat was apparently preceded by hours or days of mental composition—during which he “appeared to be a man of great inner tensions,” the musicologist Alexei Ikonnikov observed, “with his continually moving, ‘speaking’ hands, which were never at rest.”
Shostakovich himself was afraid that perhaps he worked too fast. “I worry about the lightning speed with which I compose,” he confessed in a letter to a friend. Undoubtedly this is bad. One shouldn’t compose as quickly as I do. Composition is a serious process, and in the words of a ballerina friend of mine, “You can’t keep going at a gallop.” I compose with diabolical speed and can’t stop myself.… It is exhausting, rather unpleasant, and at the end of the day you lack any confidence in the result. But I can’t rid myself of the bad habit.
- From Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Currey
#dailyrituals #inktober #shostakovich @masoncurrey
I just finished the Calandra Lark. Here are some facts about this beautiful bird...
Appearance: It's a large lark, about 17.5-20 cm long, with a robust build, a heavy bill, and noticeable pale eyebrows
. Its plumage is mainly greyish-brown streaked above and white below, with large black patches on the breast sides.
Habitat: This species is found in open plains, steppes, pastures, and dry cereal cultivations. It's mainly resident in the west of its range but Russian populations migrate further south in winter.
Diet: Their main food source is seeds, but they also consume insects when nesting.
Behaviour: Calandra Larks are known to be gregarious outside the breeding season, often forming large flocks.
Song: Their song is considered musical and slower than the Skylark's. It has been historically popular as a cagebird.
Immanuel Kant (1724–1804)
Kant’s biography is unusually devoid of external events.
As Heinrich Heine wrote: The history of Kant’s life is difficult to describe. For he neither had a life nor a history.
In actual fact, as Manfred Kuehn argues in his 2001 biography, Kant’s life was not quite as abstract and passionless as Heine and others have supposed…. If he failed to live a more adventurous life, it was largely due to his health: the philosopher had a congenital skeletal defect that caused him to develop an abnormally small chest, which compressed his heart and lungs and contributed to a generally delicate constitution. In order to prolong his life with the condition—and in an effort to quell the mental anguish caused by his lifelong hypochondria—Kant adopted what he called “a certain uniformity in the way of living and in the matters about which I employ my mind.”
This routine was as follows: Kant rose at 5:00 A.M., after being woken by his longtime servant, a retired soldier under explicit orders not to let the master oversleep. Then he drank one or two cups of weak tea and smoked his pipe. According to Kuehn, “Kant had formulated the maxim for himself that he would smoke only one pipe, but it is reported that the bowls of his pipes increased considerably in size as the years went on.”
- From Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Currey
#dailyrituals #inktober #ImmanuelKant @masoncurrey
#22 [Hades (the game) 2024] - This would be considered fanart if I was a fan, but I have never played the game. I realize there is no Hades 3, this is just for pretend-fun. Since I don't know the story and characters of the game I decided to make up three of my own. [Sketched & inked everything using an iPad pro & magma software, drawn live, no ai.]
This one was for a friend of mine from highschool. She wanted me to change the dragon to black and white. I complied with her request, but I'm posting the original here. I think the classic red is best for the legendary creature.
Kat is one of my favourite models. She has the most beautiful faces, full of character. Even when sitting between poses, as featured here, she has the most commanding look.
This is a colour pencil artwork based on the likeness of British actress Madeline Smith. She starred in a James Bond film once, and a few Hammer Horror films. Many thanks for looking and hope you like it !
