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2020-10-31 'sup, my peeps? Happy Halloween! :D In case y'all is wonderin', I finished chapter five of my latest Hailey's Follies book (Ghosts of Glory High) a couple Sundays ago (2020-10-18). I would have got to work writing an article about this for Witty News. However, I randomly decided I should draw a new cover for the book. The first one I drew is okay(ish). But-- no. This is not it. It's just not it. lol. I've been bustin' ass to craft something more fitting of the project I am creating (and a better use of my talents). And-- I spent the last two weeks creating it! :o First, I had to develop a technique that I like. And, I immediately decided I had to draw something with plain, old Bic ball point pens. Not only is this something I've always wanted to do. But, I knew I could capture the *realism* that I was looking for. Having used Bic pens to draw really kick ass projects in the past (mainly, thanks to their pressure variability), I knew this was the way I wanted to go. Additionally (out of sheer curiosity), I decided to use only the four traditional colors for my project (black, blue, red, and green). For future projects, I might not go this route. But, this is the technique I settled on for Ghosts of Glory High's *official* cover. The method is pretty simple. And, does not take a whole lot of time to complete. Given what I have drawn over the past couple of weeks, I'd say this technique works quite well! The way it works is-- I started by collecting images from magazines (images of real people, to help me illustrate the realism I wanted to capture). Once I had enough images to create all the parts of the image I wanted to draw in Bic, I started by crafting a master using a mechanical pencil. I drew (as much as I could) from a single image. Then, I picked out clothes to dress the person in (also from images in magazines). And then, I had to fit the outfit to the body I drew. And-- totally doable! Kinda weird. :\ Next, I laid the graphite master on a light box. And then, I fixed a blank sheet of copy paper on top with pieces of masking tape on all four corners (drafters do the same thing when they work on a drawing). Then, I copied graphite lines with Bic. I cross-hatched the resulting copy. And (finally), I cross-hatched some color on top. Naturally, I decided to draw a sample before I committed to drawing this monstrosity. So first, I created a picture of Wednesday (from Insanely Witty Stupidity's Hailey's Follies series). I *did* struggle with cross-hatching her skin. I used a Bic ball point so I could take advantage of its fantastic pressure sensitivity. And then-- I stupidly cross-hatched Wednesday's face wayyy too dark. But, I made it work. And, the sample was good enough that I knew I could use the technique to draw the cover I wanted! :D And (finally), here is the result. I started it Monday (2020-10-26). And, I finished it just in time for Halloween (2020-10-31). If only *all* my projects could go so smoothly! I'll be starting chapter six (of ten) next week. I'm going to outline it like I did chapter five. That worked out really well. I was able to write the entire chapter in three weeks. And (so far), it's the longest one I've written for Ghosts of Glory High. Outlining it before trying to write really helped things along. I hope to be writing a new article about chapter six very soon. Stay tuned. |
| Random Fact: Slackware (a GNU/Linux system maintained under an emphasis of function over form) is the official operating system used to host Insanely Witty Stupidity. Many packages are compiled using various Slackware systems for the purpose of developing the site. And, Insanely Witty Stupidity happily shares those precompiled packages with its users (because-- people may find them useful). |
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