Tarale Draws!

More practice with an iPad. It is getting a little easier to get...

Sat, 18 May 2013 12:32:52 +0930

More practice with an iPad. It is getting a little easier to get the lines where I want them.

Still trying to get the hang of drawing on an iPad. I think I am...

Thu, 09 May 2013 21:28:00 +0930

Still trying to get the hang of drawing on an iPad. I think I am starting to get a feel for it, but I use the undo function a lot.

Detail is tricky. Zooming helps but I am so derp that I accidentally a line instead of a zoom and then LOOK AT THAT MORE UNDO BUTTON

Trying to get the hang of sketching on an iPad. This is my first...

Thu, 02 May 2013 21:05:00 +0930

Trying to get the hang of sketching on an iPad. This is my first serious attempt now I’ve drawn multicoloured squiggles in half a dozen iPad apps to try to get a feel for things. Drawing on an iPad is weird.

Drawn with a Jot Touch 4 on an iPad.
Jon Snow from Game of Thrones.

Black and white pens on cardboard. I think my pens are a bit...

Sun, 14 Apr 2013 17:14:36 +0930

Black and white pens on cardboard. I think my pens are a bit dry. Long time no draw! I am a bit rusty, but it feels good to draw something again. :)

How the fuck do people paint with their fingers on an...

Sat, 30 Mar 2013 16:02:24 +1030

How the fuck do people paint with their fingers on an iPad?!?!?

Also, I’m hoping to be back in the next 2–3 weeks and get back to drawing some things again. I’ve not been well (SSRI discontinuation) but I hope that will pass in that time.

Getting started in calligraphy

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 17:36:31 +1030

seblester:

Rather a lot of people have been asking about tools and how to get started in calligraphy. This post is an amalgam of information I’ve posted before on Facebook, Tumblr and elsewhere online.

Firstly I can recommend some good books. ‘Foundations of Calligraphy’ by Sheila Waters and ‘The Calligrapher’s Handbook’ by Heather Child. ‘The Speedball Textbook’ is also a good and inexpensive source of inspiration and instruction for beginners.

Choosing calligraphy tools is a very subjective business. It all amounts to personal preferences and circumstances. If you go to a specialist calligraphy supplier they are unlikely to sell bad tools but they may sell tools that don’t suit you for one reason or another. For example a very good calligraphy tutor recommended nibs that didn’t suit me because I’m relatively heavy handed.

I think the tools listed below would suit most people wanting to give calligraphy a try. They reflect my personal needs as someone who does a lot of calligraphy away from my desk in cafes, libraries, on trains, in parks. They’re a trade off between practicality and performance. I can’t sit in Caffè Nero with a goose quill and a pot of ink I made myself to a medieval recipe. People would think I was a lunatic.

‘Manuscript’ brand calligraphy fountain pens are cheap, widely available and convenient. I started with those and still use them today. Pilot Parallel Pens are great fun and easy to use. They’re also easy to carry around and don’t clog easily or need constant cleaning or refilling like traditional metal nibs. The main trade off is a slight loss of crispness, which becomes more pronounced the smaller the nibs get. Mitchell Copperplate pens are a great starting point for everyone asking about pointed pen calligraphy because they’re not too sharp and so don’t get stuck in paper as easily as finer nibs. I’d recommend trying a variety of nibs though and finding out what works for you. As I say it is a subjective business and other calligraphers would probably recommend completely different pens. As you progress you’ll want to experiment and find your own path, but I think these tools are a good starting point and I still use them all today.

I don’t often reblog things to my art blog, but for those of you who are following my calligraphy and would like to have a go yourself, the information above is great.

I also recommend the Pilot Parallel pens—they’re lovely. :)

you have the most BEAUTIFUL handwriting/ calligraphy I've ever seen (aside from printer stuff, but that's not as astounding as your amazing skill ;) just it's so PRETTY! I wanted to let you know you have OFFICIALLY convinced me to reconsider that calligraphy class I had crossed off my class list, because honestly it TOTES seems worth it. So thank you for instilling this inspiration in me once more. Have a beautiful day! :)

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 11:00:28 +1030

Oh wow! Thank you! You’re so sweet, and I’m glad my stuff inspires you!

Let me know how the class is, please! I’ve not been able to find one locally so I’ve been teaching myself from books and online resources, but I’d love to go to a class one day! Good luck with it! It’s a lot of fun, but requires a lot of practice and patience… but there’s something so relaxing about putting some music on and getting pen to paper. :) I hope you enjoy it!

I got the finished Feferi drawing scanned sooner than I thought...

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 08:39:00 +1030

I got the finished Feferi drawing scanned sooner than I thought I would!

You can see the process sketches here.

Coloured pencils, Pilot Hi-Tec-C, and Kuretake Real Brush pen.

EDIT: crisper quality scan now available.

Instagrammed Process of a colour pencil drawing of Feferi....

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 04:00:00 +1030

Rough Sketch

Starting to refine the sketch

More sketching

Starting to ink

Finished first lot of inking

Oh god why did I pick coloured pencils? I forgot how haaard they aaare

More coloured pencil

More colouring

Final coloured drawing, inked again with brush pen.

Instagrammed Process of a colour pencil drawing of Feferi. I’ll hopefully have this scanned in by this time tomorrow. :)

Colour pencil, brush pen, fineliner/hi-tec-c.

EDIT: Scanned version.

I am not good animate gif.

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 22:12:19 +1030

I am not good animate gif.

And free-to use (under Creative Commons) vector of my brush pen...

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 18:05:00 +1030

And free-to use (under Creative Commons) vector of my brush pen writing of “Grimdark”.

The EPS is available on my deviantART page.

Very simple vector-colouring of the earlier Grimdark Rose...

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 15:58:00 +1030

Very simple vector-colouring of the earlier Grimdark Rose drawing. I am still learning this stuff.

EDIT: Illustrator EPS downloadable from my deviantART page. Feel free to use it under the Creative Commons license.

This might be interesting… semi-transparent png for Nurie! I...

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 20:47:00 +1030

This might be interesting… semi-transparent png for Nurie! I wonder if it will work properly…

EDIT: Oooh I can drag Nurie off the dashhhhhhhh haha

TERRIBLE OLD ART APPRECIATION POST! Various old artwork of mine...

Sat, 16 Feb 2013 11:54:00 +1030

Hahaha oh god your bangs, Aerith, why?

"Sailor Asuka" from Evangelion, I don't know the even what. Uh, late 90's.

Rei. I don't know, again, I think late 90's.

Meryl from Metal Gear Solid. This was definitely around the time the game was released... when was that again?

AHahahahaha oh god this is shithouse. Hi Nanaki, I'm sorry I couldn't draw you very well!

Some of my earliest digital art right here. Ugh.

I'M ANGRY FOR NO FUCKING REASON

So I went through this phase with Painter in around 2003 and did a lot of this stuff.

derp vash

I DON'T KNOW HOW HANDS WORK

TERRIBLE OLD ART APPRECIATION POST!

Various old artwork of mine from uhhhhhhhhhhh old. I’ve been going through my file backups to try to find stuff/back up my current project, and found all my old stuff.

The datestamps on most of these seem to have reset to 2003, but I know some of these are a LOT older than that.

Quick doodling between commission work: scanned version of the...

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 09:24:00 +1030

Quick doodling between commission work: scanned version of the Grimdark Rose brush pen drawing. Inked with Kuretake Real Brush brush pen, and greys are copic marker.

More brush pen shenanigans. I’ll scan this later, but bed...

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 22:09:00 +1030

More brush pen shenanigans. I’ll scan this later, but bed time now.

Photo

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 14:36:06 +1030

positivelyporrim: So this started as coloring in the lines and...

Sat, 09 Feb 2013 15:45:17 +1030

positivelyporrim:

So this started as coloring in the lines and then spiraled out of my control and now I’m just stabbing at it until things pop out ok

Lines originally by Tarale, used with the artist’s permission.

Oh wow! Someone’s colouring my drawing! Looking good, I hope you manage to finish it! :)

Brushpen-inked doodle of Calliope (Callie Ohpeee). Drew the...

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 11:51:27 +1030

Brushpen-inked doodle of Calliope (Callie Ohpeee). Drew the sketch a few weeks back now, but wanted to test some stuff with the brush pen, see if I can get detail with it as well as thicker lines.

It is a bit tricky to work with (will take practice) but yes, it looks like I can get both detail and thick lines with it.

Also, I am on a bit of a hiatus at the moment due to a number of things, so there may not be many updates for a while.

Brush pen doodle. A lovely lady I know online! Hi Nurie! I think...

Fri, 18 Jan 2013 12:55:26 +1030

Brush pen doodle. A lovely lady I know online! Hi Nurie! I think the brush pen is better suited to larger drawings.