Gawain with Níassa

A5-sized drawing in a Moleskine sketchbook, using colour pencils from a variety of brands (and some of which I have owned for most of my life).

Every time I work with colour pencils, I find I enjoy the medium very, very much. But it takes such an inordinate amount of time to get a good result with it! I spent most of one weekend working on this and continued working on it for almost every day of last week. There is no end of layers in this small drawing. At least I am really glad with how it came out... :-)

Níassa, it will be clear, is not a girl. It is Gawain's Pictish-forged sword.

Shaggy Cloak

It's Dark Ages fashion: the multi-coloured shaggy cloak for posh Irish gentlemen... ;-)

Last page of my mini-Moleskine: Gawain!

Gawain, for once with a beard :). A knight without a beard is like - well, say, me without shoes. Because knights say things like, "By my beard!" Therefore they need to have beards.

Gawain remains the most difficult character to draw right. This is sad because he's also my main character, but kind of normal because I want him to be perfectly like the Gawain in my head, and perfection is by definition hard to reach. *sigh*

Happy St Patrick's Day!

Gawain

 

Cloaked

Peek-a-boo!

Gawain Project: a small break...

Life and work interfered too much this past week. No comic today, I'm afraid... But next week you'll meet someone special :).

For today, have my finalised character design for little Gawain.

Check in next Saturday for the continuation of the story!

Gawain Project: Sunrise, Chapter 1: Brothers & Sisters 40-42

I'm really sorry about the lack of update last week. If all had gone as planned, I would have posted early, but as it turned out, I had more work to do than I anticipated, so I didn't get round to assembling a post. Today we return to our regular programme.

What went before:

We have caught a glimpse of the relationship between Gawain and his brother Agravain. The two boys don't exactly get along and pick fights with each other. Their mother interferes, not without a snide remark about the boys' Irish ancestry.

1-3 - 4-6 - 7-9 - 10-12 - 13-15 - 16-18 - 19-21 - 22-24 - 25-27 - 28-30 - 31-33 - 34-36 - 37-39

 

Next week: you get to see more of King Lot and his gorgeous red hair ;-).

YES!!

We're getting there! As usual, things take time to fall into place, but I have reached the point where I know I am on the right track :).

Two things: I have sorted out my hero's character design, and I have sorted out the style I want for my story. The picture below demonstrates both. Okay, it also demonstrates my trademark wonky perspective, but guess what: I'm fine with it.

So here is young Gawain, sporting a very Irish costume consisting of leine (tunic), ionar (vest) with belt, and brog (shoes). He has a round Irish shield with his traditional five-pointed star emblem and a long sword with a simple design. The ionar counts as protective gear - it is made of leather and quite strong, but much lighter than chainmail.

The picture was painted on hot-pressed Arches paper. I like this paper because it's so very smooth, but at the same time it is more difficult to work with than rougher paper types. especially for washes. So although I'm happy with how this turned out, I will probably be using cold-pressed paper for the comic because it's just a little bit less tricky.

I guess I will be inking after all. This was inked with dark brown Faber-Castell PITT pens - one Small, one Brush - and I like these so much that I can just envision doing the whole comic with them. Despite the fact that they run out of ink disgustingly soon and are not cheap at all around here (as opposed to in the States! which is so unfair!). But I'm very happy with the lines they get me. This combination of clean line art and watercolour turns out to be the thing I have been looking for all this time. Even if it's time-consuming, I'm going to have to go with it. This is my pet project; I haven't got a publishing deal or deadlines, so I'm thinking I'm free to make the comic I want :)...

Heh. You know, this picture really makes me feel good!

The Test

Next experiment: simple and almost flat colours. There isn't a grey shade in sight - how often does that happen in my watercolours? I tried to forget most of the colour theories I have been pouring over recently and just paint. I did start off with layers of yellow wash before adding the other colours, so hopefully the image looks more unified than the last one :).

And look: it's not a portrait! It's an illustration! ;P Considering that I started this without any preliminary sketches (I just wanted an image to colour), I think the drawing is not too bad. I tried to stylise and to prioritise readability, doing my best to take Walt Stanchfield's lessons to heart.

PS: it's called "The Test" because it illustrates an episode in which Gawain completes his training and his teacher Conchobarre subjects him to the admission tests of the Fianna. That is why his hair is braided. Of course, to optimise the storytelling in this one, you should also see a few pursuers in the distance :).

CONCRIT = VERY WELCOME.

A small colour pencil sketch

I am swamped with work, so naturally I am experiencing an overpowering urge to DRAW. It is always like that: when I have time, I have no inspiration, and when I don't have time, all I want to do is work on the comic. What can I do? Here and there, I try to squeeze a small drawing in. This sketch is one. I treated myself to a new pocket Moleskine for my birthday and did this as an opener. The colours are brighter in reality, but colour pencils don't scan particularly well :/.

The second version has some Photoshop tweaking and I added a texture ("Psychosomatic", courtesy of Princess_of_Darkness). I find that I like the combination of colour pencils with this particular texture. Maybe I can do something with that in the design of the Gawain website...

I don't know if it is at all obvious, but I am trying out for a slightly different style - a more stylised one. I have tried to draw a little more realistically after having been told that one glance at my drawings suggests that my story is targeted towards children. But this increased realism, combined with my inks, doesn't please me at all. The story I have in mind is more poetic and expressive and dreamy than realistic. Sharp inks and attempts at realism don't suit it. So now I'm looking for a simpler drawing style, pencils instead of inks, and light touches of colour (I'm thinking watercolour, possibly with some colour pencils). This will take some experiment - I need to find out whether I can get the sort of effect that I am looking for, and whether the idea is at all realistic. I will keep you posted :-).

Say Hi to Gawain

Because once in a while, he actually comes out looking more or less the way he should look. Now for a nice colour scheme...

No, seriously: why on earth is it so difficult to draw my main character properly?! *sigh*



This was drawn with mechanical pencils in a Moleskine sketchbook. (I am liking the combination of Moleskine and pencils more and more.) It took several hours. (Don't ask.) No reference used. (Bad habits die hard.) Finally, the sketch was slightly pimped in Photoshop. (No cleaning; just added texture and some highlights.)

So there.

My first digital painting...

Used my tiny new Wacom tablet to do a 'pastel'. It looks more like paint to me, but it was fun :-).

And at that holy tide

"And if the wars were unwelcome, the winter was worse,
When the cold clear rains rushed from the clouds
And froze before they could fall to the frosty earth.
Near slain by the sleet he sleeps in his irons
More nights than enough, among naked rocks,
Where clattering from the crest the cold stream ran
And hung in hard icicles high overhead.
Thus in peril and pain and predicaments dire
He rides across country till Christmas Eve,
our knight.
And at that holy tide
He prays with all his might
That Mary may be his guide
Till a dwelling comes in sight."

From: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Part 2 (translation by Marie Borroff, 1967)

I'm trying. But clearly I still have a loooong way to go. Why is colour such a difficult matter to me? Painting this was so very hard. And in my head the colours looked better :/.

Watercolour sketch: young Gawain

Yesterday evening I was pottering around with my watercolours. I 'potter around' much more often than applying myself seriously - mostly because, though I love watercolour, it also makes me nervous, and I have to overcome my fear before I can paint something 'for real'. It is just so easy to ruin a picture if you have as little skill with watercolour as I have :/. And yet it's fun!

What I was actually supposed to be doing is to paint Christmas cards. Trouble is, I haven't got a design yet that I like enough and can replicate a dozen of times. So instead I started to mess around. That is when I decided to do a little try-out for Gawain. It's very frustrating: he's the hero of my comic (even though at this point in the narrative he hasn't been born yet), but I have such trouble getting him to look right. One thing that annoys the hell out of me is that I never manage to colour his hair properly. Gawain has glorious red hair, and it's sort of important. Now, I used to start from a basis of cadmium red because I reasoned that real red hair looks a bit orange-y. But it always looked awful on poor Gawain, and it was also pretty difficult to combine with greens and blues. It was garish. Now, I'm pretty sure that much of the failure is due to my own ineptitude at mixing colours. But, well, there's no one but me to do this, so... In my experiment of yesterday, I started from a basis of crimson with some raw sienna. I have never seen anyone with this hair colour, but it gets the point across and it is easy to combine. I like the result - even though there is, as usual, lots of other stuff wrong with the picture :s.

For the record*:
- I used very cheap watercolour paper - 175 g/m² and with a texture like ordinary drawing paper. Not pretty. I wouldn't use this for a 'good' drawing, but it serves for a sketch.
- The drawing itself was done in lilac watersoluble pencil (Caran d'Ache Classicolor). This was fun and I think I'll do it again. The unnecessary lines just dissolved with water (I draw very lightly) and I was able to do some corrections while painting, most notably on the nose and mouth.
- The paint is Winsor & Newton and some Cotman. I mixed it on the page, because sketching serves as an excuse for the most awful laziness. It's a miracle the skin tones turned out as reasonable as they did XD. Colours used: raw sienna, Winsor yellow, Alizarin crimson, permanent carmine, permanent mauve (my new favourite! it's such a great colour for mixing), cerulean blue, Winsor blue, Winsor green. (You can tell by all the Winsor colours that I bought them all together in a box, I guess :P.)

*I need to keep notes, because otherwise I forget how I got a certain colour/effect, which is stupid.

I made a complete mess of the shadows, the nose and the placement of the eyes. So, um, suggestions for improvements are always welcome :-).

Ballpoint pen studies

Have some sketchies :-).

I usen't to like drawing with ballpoint pens, but if I have paper that is smooth enough, I enjoy it.

Gawain & Ragnell

Remember my Gawain and Ragnell sketches? I finally completed the inks yesterday, just in time for the contest. I did intend to add colour, but there was no time - I would have had to copy the drawing onto watercolour paper, ink it and paint it. Now that there would be no colour to draw the attention away from the lines, I gave the inks my all.

Does this work on its own, though? It's very pale; I guess it would have been stronger with some blacks. Only, as I did originally intend it for colouring, I didn't reckon with any blacks, and adding them as an afterthought would have looked messy.

Hm.

(Click for a large view.)

An idea in development: Gawain and Ragnell

Take 1:



Take 2:



Take 3:



Take 4:



... and counting :).

So far, I like the fourth one best, but I'm not happy with how Gawain's legs look, plus I think Ragnell should reach out a bit more - right now it almost looks as though Gawain is holding her hand against her will. On to the next attempt...

This is for a contest at deviantART. All concrit is appreciated!

Kundry and Co.

I finished Der Rote Ritter. Eine Geschichte von Parzivâl (Adolf Muschg, Suhrkamp 1993) this week. I'm glad that I made it, but sad that it's over. It's a great, great novel and I only wish I could ever create a work like that. *sigh*

I'm always trying to recommend the book to people, but unfortunately it does not seem to have been translated. So unless you know enough German to read a 992-page Swiss novel, I guess you will just have to take my word for how good it is :-).

Anyway - my task now is to shake off Muschg's version of Gawain's adventures at the Castle of Maidens and to formulate my own. It is funny how I feel more or less obliged to stick to Chrétien and Wolfram's accounts of the Grail adventure. I have to remind myself that I can really deal with it any way I want. Best of all, Chrétien's story breaks off just as Gawain has survived the ordeal of the Bed of Wonders, so I can really take it anywhere from there. I can introduce Morgana in the tale if I like. I can make of the duel with Guiromelant/Gramovlanz whatever I like. It's like fanfic, but better. Hah!

Now, one effect Muschg has had on my (poor) storytelling brain is seriously to rekindle my interest in the character of Orgelûse (Chrétien's Orgueilleuse de Logres) - the lady I call Kundry (because to my mind Orgueilleuse isn't a proper name but an epithet). I have been drawing quite a bit of Kundry as a consequence.

When Gawain first sees her, she is sitting by a well under an elm tree, looking at herself in a mirror. Gawain falls in love with her on the spot. And she looks through him. Oh, she's wonderfully snarky! - In any case, I would like to do a nice picture of her in watercolour, and I have made a few quick sketches that I rather like. It will take more effort before I can turn them into a painting, but...

The version above is the first that I did; in reality it's even smaller. It was drawn with a ballpoint pen, and so is the one below:

(Click to view a larger version.)

This is another typical example of my very wrong way of going about pictures :-). I start drawing the character, and then I start to worry about their surroundings. I think the normal thing would be to draw the place where the character is supposed to be sitting, think out the composition, and then place the character in the surroundings. Me, I really only care about the character, so I finish it entirely, and then stop because I suspect I am going to ruin the picture by my ineptness at drawing surroundings :/. So she's not sitting on anything. Ah well.

I have much, much more, but no time right now to comment on it, and as they are all sketchy pictures, they need some text. So: more soon.