The Sleeper's Den

If you follow me on Facebook or Tumblr, you have already seen this, but if not: Gawain and Ragnell watercolour! With which I am actually happy! I hope there is more where that came from. I'm brooding on a cover for The Darkest Hour, incidentally, but I don't seem to be getting anywhere.

...Drawing this made me feel like getting an enormous, new box of colour pencils (this was drawn with various odds and ends - some of these pencils I have had since nursery school!). AND it reminded me just what a control freak I am. I suppose that may not go down well at art school ;-).

I enrolled, by the way. Classes will start in September. I'm already excited!

I haven't been terribly active on the Net lately because - well, we're finally having summer weather! So I have mostly been sitting outside to draw or read or just be lazy.

I know it is hard to believe, but I am actually working on the continuation of the Gawain Comic. I am 13 pages into it, in fact, but I want a few more before I start posting again. It's actually quite difficult to work on the story the way I did before - my train journey is shorter now by some 20 minutes, the commuters are more numerous (so that I don't always get a seat with a table, which makes drawing rather impossible) and it seems like the track is less smooth too, though the latter may be my imagination :p.

Anyway: the comic will post again soon now. In the meantime, have a little portrait of Gawain.



I drew this picture, looked at it and asked myself: "how many creators do you know who draw their main character really badly? You are the exception that confirms the rule D:!" Because I'm really never happy with how he comes out :/. In the meantime, however, I think he's not too bad. He's kind of cute.

I haven't been drawing a lot - no, what am I saying? I have been drawing a lot while waiting for my ASoIaF books to come in, only I haven't any finished pictures to show for it. They're all sketches. But I did do one small painting of Gawain, on the last page of my A5 watercolour Moleskine. (I've bought a new one in the meantime; I'm an addict.)

I'm working on a few larger pictures at the moment, and because I'm not a particularly adept artist, they take some time. There's always something that doesn't quite work, and I don't want to do the definitive drawings until I've figured out how to correct (or, at worst, hide) the flaws. I'm pretty taken with the concepts though, so I'm trying to be patient with myself.

As far as ASoIaF is concerned, I have in the meantime reached page 403 of A Clash of Kings and find that my loyalties still lie firmly with House Stark. I miss Ned, partly because there are really so few decent people around. There's Sam Tarly and Jon Snow, and Catelyn, I guess, though I don't like her very much, a few more Starks, and there's Tyrion when he feels like it. Fortunately, the (unspeakably) bad guys don't turn me off the book, even though the decent people have a hard time of it. I love the chapters from Tyrion Lannister's perspective and really like him as a character, despite the fact that he's very much a Lannister, and I find Littlefinger and Varys a highly entertaining duo. I don't care much for Daenerys and I absolutely can't stand Theon Greyjoy - I hope his cool sister teaches him a lesson. I want to see more of Brienne, even if I wish she wouldn't be (seem?) so besotted with Renly. And I hope that Arya and Sansa will make it home...

*reads on*

I guess I'm exploring all sorts of future storylines because I'm still stuck on the present one :p. It's mostly because I need some action scenes with fighting and I haven't a clue on how to picture it in a way that makes Arthur and his men look like, you know, competent warriors. Maybe I should just throw in some messy doodles and get on with the story instead of being fussed about a fight :/.

Anyhoo - today's picture. This is about a year from where we are now in the comic... Little Gawain looks more serious than usual because of ... stuff that has happened in the meantime.



Still "Moleskineing" and loving it :-).

Well... He's complete! Now for some clothes.

( It's Gawain! )

( Look at me! )

A while ago, I mentioned that I was working on a secret project as a part of my Gawain Project. Well, this is it...

Little Gawain is an ABJD or Asian Ball-Jointed Doll. These dolls are completely customisable, which allowed me to create a little Gawain without having to sculpt him myself. (I have tried sculpting my own dolls before, but my attempts met with very little success :p.) I really couldn't resist... Besides giving my characters life on the page, I have long wanted to have doll versions of them too :). When I saw this little man from Dollzone, I just knew he'd make a perfect little Gawain.

I have made his clothes, shoes and belt myself. It has been great fun!



Comic update:
The next part of the comic have been scripted. I'm going to look the script over again because it seems rather wordy... All the characters are in place now, so we'll soon enter a phase full of action (seriously! action! in my comic!).

Painted on Indian Khadi paper. The texture is very different from that of the watercolour paper I am used to. I don't think I have ever achieved a more subtle and transparent skin tone. Gradients are neat too. For large surfaces I would have needed a whole lot of water, I think - I did not find it that easy to 'push' paint around on this paper.

I'm absurdly excited about this picture. ( Want to know why? )