Inktober 2017

Mei Asakawa, cleaning her beloved camera, kicks off my Inktober set. Got a lotta ringrust to dust off to get back into drawing more. Perhaps it'll help my advent calendar efforts to start early. XD Somehow her hair looks different though....

October 2

I decided to do a loose pen rendering of Yoko, just going with the flow of the swirling hair, with no pencil underdrawing. Just a little white pen for punch up, but straight brush pen. A little challenging but nice to do. I like drawings with a lot of swirling hair, because they have a sense of chaotic but orderly movement.

October 3

I liked yesterday's looseness so I tried again with something more than hair. I've never really drawn out the Legion or parts of it manifesting around Henri, because scary isn't really my strength so I went with vague creepy shapes. I kinda like it. The cool blue really looks pretty, and suits him, though his image color is technically green.

October 4

I wanted to do some hatched shading for Alestor, but it was a smaller sketch than I anticipated, and I only have fineliners in red, blue, black and pink, so the other colors like brown, gray and flesh tone were marker. All in all, its nice, but I'm gonna take another stab at it on another day with perhaps a tighter, closer shot, or with another character with different colors. The flask is a lil wonk too. XD

October 5

I did today's image based on an old excerpt from Creepy & Crawly, where Henri and Alestor start their traveling with each other after Henri is rescued from his hometown Oak Hill. The shadows aren't done as well as I wanted, but its not bad for the mood. I did only one bit in green--Henri's eye color--just as a minor detail. Its not bad, all things considered. Its not often I draw Alestor without his hat on, so he looks a little different XD. I do like how oversized his jacket looks.

October 6

A happy little ghosts picture with a chibi Mei. Its kinda cute....I'd like this on a coffee mug or drinking glass XD. Her eyes are huge! Also, another no pencil drawing, so the ink sketchiness was intentional. I was curious if I could render Mei in pen without sketching first.

October 7

I was out most the day, then tried to do halloween decorations. In a full day like that, it was hard to get something more ambitious out but Mei always delivers when I need to scratch that sketchy itch. I had worked on the ballpoint pen sketch on and off today, so this worked out. Its a sort or take on a collage I did with an old instant photo that didn't turn out; same position and phrase but slightly different idea, which was to just go for it without an under drawing (sensing a theme here). XD

October 8

Decided to try a shadow study, looking for some samples in my reference folders. I hadn't drawn Leo yet, so I chose him. The high contrast was a neat look.

October 9

Today's was a challenge since I've been also restoring a lot of the art from the last 6 years of the halloween countdown, and lost a lot of ground today to an article that had a whopping 90 pics to reinsert. @_@ But somehow this one came to me quickly. A straight pen sketch of a 90s era camcorder (I think a Grundig), with some copic tone, then ghostly hands enveloping it. Its tied to Henri's backstory, when he used to live at an orphanage with his twin brother, and the camcorder was one of the only "toys" they had to play with. The camcorder and the video tapes play a central role in Henri's story, which change visuals as the story plays out. I like to imagine the hands are his brother's, Toby's, but it's left to other's interpretation. The proportions are a little off but its not bad for a no undersketch drawing.

October 10

Another story related image, since today was another older piece from the Creepy & Crawly archives, most notably Ransom Creep's introduction to the series. Ransom is the other half of the offices of Creepy and Crawly, operating the West/English branch (since Alestor has "moved" the other half to Mei's residence in the East/Japan), has his own set of members (a vampire huntress, a homunculus, and a ghost/spirit expert), and is generally the easiest to see where the Devil May Cry influence comes into play with himself and Alestor (DMC was Alestor's original source material in addition to Lovecraft). They appear as sort of twins, though they're not remotely related (Alestor was born just before the fall of Rome, Ransom was born during the Dark Age). This is a rarer image where Alestor doesn't come out on top (heh), as Ransom usually is the one who's under Alestor's thumb, but I do like the contrast. Crafty as Alestor is, he's of course not always top dog. XD

October 11

Work has me swamped, so this one was under the wire and loose and simple. I have a bunch of brush pens in different colors so I used my favorite color today, and my favorite character. Mei is probably going to show up a LOT in the Inktober sets because she's easy for me to draw. I've prolly drawn her thousands of times since her creation, and she'd changed very little since her first incarnation as my Fatal Frame inspired character. When I need a quick sketch of a girl, Mei is usually the first to be drawn or chosen (and I'm hard pressed to think of another of my original characters that comes close to being so automatically drawn; Rya Li St. John is probably a distant second). When it comes to guys I can draw easily, I can count them on one hand XD (Bass is probably the ONLY one I draw so often, and its a fraction of Mei's frequency). I guess cute lolis are my bread and butter. In any case, this is a rough newer kinda style side route; I'm only partially pleased with it and will revisit it before the month's up.

October 12

Another crack at some shading work. I'm not very good at shadows and stuff but its good to learn. Took another stab at Leo. I don't draw him often; in fact, of the core cast, I probably draw him the least. I'm working towards learning how to draw muscular guys, so its good practice. Leo's more of a sci-fi horror kind of character, your typical Marine but with more the speed of Gordon Freeman or Isaac Clark in terms of reactions. I wouldn't say Leo isn't typical of an action hero, he totally is. I just suck in exhibiting that XD That and its hard to reconcile a figure who's a staunch paranormal skeptic when he works in that field and is Catholic (season, though, prolly only does Easter Mass if there's a church randomly by. Maybe XD). Still, he's the comic relief half the time, and essential to the dark things that can happen in series.

October 13

Outside of my comfort level. @_@ Inklings are not my speed yet, but I'm trying to get the rhythm of it. So here's the cast as inklings. I was only able to do "natural" hair colors for Alestor and Henri, so I chose image colors for Mei and Leo, and purple for Yoko cuz black hair. In terms of weapons, Alestor has the N-Zap cuz its close to his signature gun, Mei with a custom colored Brella because LOOKIT HER ITS CUTE, Leo with Dualies cuz that mofo would dual wield, Yoko with a Charger cuz she covers the team, and Henri with a Roller cuz a boy like him would waste a team if he could.I went with highlight contrast and thick lines, but I have to say, this was damn hard to do WHILE playing Splatfest (go team werewolves XD). I might have to take another run at this another time. It was fun.

October 14

Here's a character who hasn't appeared yet; James was a later addition to the cast, spending a bit of time with the main cast before he was transferred to Ransom's group as their spirit medium. James has a more unique mediumship ability, able to pull souls to him, or expel them back, though its a more taxing ability than Mei's "standard" exorcism. James is a sort of main/secondary character that eventually becomes a main character in the series' sequel future series, Creepy & Crawly: Next, where he appears as semi-husband to Mei and Henri (its a complicated but loving family XD). James is also a musician, which is why I went with a simple image with earbud cords, and a lil ickle ghostie. The hair got a little away from me this time. XD

October 15

Showing some love for Yuuchirou Kiriyama, my homage character to Choushiro from Fatal Frame 4. As Arkham's right hand man (the Miskatonik students call him the "butler" XD), he's responsible for keeping the library tidy, and keeping Arkham and some of the other ritual professors alive. The freelance Daemon is a lefty for the flashlight (an analogue ability for camera exorcism), and a righty for the gun, and has superb mind-reading ability through his specialty Resonant Psychometry (think of it as wikipedia-like link jumping only with memories and information of peoples' minds within a specific proximity). This one really came out nice. I'm really happy with it, the shadows feel good, the background's a mite chaotic but it also feels pretty good, the pose has a nice rhythm. This was basically a mike drop when I finished. XD I should listen to Jim Lee drawing more often!

October 16

This one was done kinda late night; the curtain folds aren't very good, but that's ok, it tells me its time to practice fabric folds XD. Its a nice isolated image of Henri, which is a typical Henri image. Being the vessel for the Legion isn't always OP massacres or weird reality warping; sometimes its trying to sort out the chaos in your head from the real thoughts you have deep down. Henri would normally be a very lonely kid if it wasn't for the rest of the cast, especially Alestor and Mei.

October 17

Par for course for these two. XD DAMMIT ALESTOR. Just wanted to flex my comic skills. The poses are a lil wonky but this was really fun. XD

October 18

I did a collage aged Yuna Asaka, from Decon's series Barballows Estate. Yuna appears in C&C as a cameo/side character, who attends Miskatonik, pursuing a parapsychology major under Professor Arkham. She's currently studying Henri's many files as the Legion vessel, but it gives her an excuse to hang about Arkham's library, reading about every paranormal subject she can. She has a similar exorcism style to Mei, using cameras, though she's much more adept at digital than analogue.

October 19

Another side character sketch based on today's countdown excerpt (man, its like turning into some sorta Creepy & Crawly anniversary except not these days XD). Harold Peter Arkham is a professor at University of Massachusetts Miskatonik, first appearing in episodes 5-7, and becoming a major side character as the series goes on. He's responsible for keeping a library with a section of forbidden books, chronicling Henri (and later James' abilities) and the Legion in a huge glut of material called "Files for Patient H", and not only treating Henri and his brother Toby before the tragic events that destroyed their hometown, but also took care of him in the following years before Alestor did. He's like a kindly old grandpa...if grandpa was dealing in serious supernatural/paranormal shit on the side. Our original concept was for him to look like an older/elderly Timothy Dalton, but I'm not that awesome. XD Still, he looks pretty refined and cool, which is what I wanted. I'm not that great at drawing old men yet. He's one of my favorite side characters in the C&C universe, next to Kiriyama, Ransom and Yuna.

October 20

This one was really fun to do. Large blocks of color, a silhouette style. Of course its Mei, because she's easy to draw, and she looks good in her image color of pink. I nearly forgot the higanbana pattern on her skirt though. XD Has anyone ever played the DS game Feel the Magic? That's what this kinda reminds me of.

October 21

Today's Yoko is more high contrast, quick cheesecake. Prolly shoulda done some more skin showing but XD. Its been a bit since I've done nudies. Yoko's always perfect for sexy pics.

October 22

Took another stab at the ultra chibi style from the 11th, with a bold outline and bolder colors. I like Mei's little half turn pose, and the lil flying ghosties. Had some problems with my copic marker bleeding with the flesh tone. Weirdly, it seemed like a lot of ink was coming through the pen randomly.

October 23

This one has been kinda stewing in my head awhile. Its based on a photo I once saw, and I liked the image of a boy chilling in a tree. Originally, I was going to have the tree be solid and black, but I really liked the delicate and varied line shapes that came out so I kept them and made the tree more like a sumi-e painting. It makes him stand out a little more. I really like the feeling of this one.

October 24

In a rush today since the giant C&C article ended up ballooning exponentially. @_@ This is another idea I've been stewing, which was to try that subtle technique of rain hitting objects and making that soft halo effect. I went with a blue ink because it evokes rain much better, and used softer lines with the only other coloring being the pink blush. The concept is ai ai gasa, or "love love/together umbrella"; in japan this is more akin to carving a heart in a tree with your initials. Its got that kind of romantic feeling. Its really cute.

October 25

I was gonna draw Alestor, then I went to go see Night of the Living Dead's Rifftrax rebroadcast, and I got zombies on the braaaaain. XD SO I drew Leo. Most of my time was spent staring at the inked drawing and not knowing what to put on the damn shirt. XD I ended up in picking a "bandname" that I stole from Cinematic Titanic (Alien Factor). Its so a band Leo would listen to.

October 26

Not super 100% happy with it, but the pose was difficult, and some of the folds were a challenge. Men crossing their legs is kinda hard to draw, and the proportions are a bit off when I inked in, but overall, it was a good challenge. Alestor still looks pretty pimp so that's all good.

October 27

Mario Odyssey came out today and OMG SUGAR SKULL PEOPLE. Tostarena is like my dream world to live in, even if its hot as hell. :3 Since I have to represent my heritage, I drew one of the lil skull guys as a sugar skull for Mei. I want one of these guys for my house. Make it happen Nintendo, take my money and lemme have a plushie. :3

October 28

Alestor's a dick. XD This is probably my favorite so far, though the light play is a little rough, but it gets the idea across pretty good. I saw the same gag in another manga and took my own spin on it. It turned out pretty well, with the red ink saved for last.

October 29

I saw a pic where half the pic was one color, and the other was black with high contrast, so I tried it, but it was taxing on the black pens. XD I need a couple black copics. Not too bad, but its certainly rough.

October 30

Another Henri image I'd been thinking of. I had seen a similar image somewhere of someone hugging a skeleton, so I took a crack at it. Skeletons are hard @_@. Its probably an image I'll use again when I finish Henri's backstory episode with his brother Toby, since its really evocative of Henri's grip on his misremembered past.

October 31

We're already at the end of October, and man did it feel like it flew by. @_@ But I was glad I stuck the landings for the most part of the month. I really felt a lot of my mojo come back, which is good because I felt I needed longer to warm up for last year's advent calendar. This year I feel pretty ready for it. For this drawing, I used the general placement for one of the first crew sketch of the cast, as seen in the original sketches posted in the inspiration article. I changed the poses to something a little more dynamic and evocative to their established characters, though I may go for a more one for one reproduction later on. I used different pen thicknesses for different depth and size. I'm fairly happy with it, and pleased it came together, though it was getting late and my hand was getting shaky and careless. Thanks for sticking with me for my first Inktober! It was a blast!