This is a sketch I finished yesterday, to practice making stone textures in pen. I feel like I somewhat succeeded, but I still need to practice illustrating depth. For example: that sculpture of the goddess is supposed to be sitting in a recess in the wall. I don’t feel like I did a good enough job of showing how deep the recess is. It could be fixed with tones, though, probably.
Oh, let me explain what this sketch is showing:
Jamie Roberts, the figure in the foreground, is approaching the entrance to the abandoned temple/city of Kinyaht. Kinyaht is entirely underground except for the entrance, which is covered in sculptures of the Goddess.
In their mythology, the Goddess created the World, and when people and creatures die, they return to an otherworld called The Way. In this mythology, the easiest way to get to The Way is through caves and going underground, so some people got together and built Kinyaht, an underground temple.
By the time Jamie and her friends find this temple entrance, though, it’s revealed that no one has been in Kinyaht for over 500 years…
I’m looking forward to developing this environment further, and practicing more backgrounds, landscapes, and environments. It’s something I want to get better at.
Thank you for reading! I’ll see you tomorrow with a new post.
There’s no review today (I’ll have a new review for Review Day Tuesday next week).
Instead, I wanted to give you an update on my Superhero Ladies series of sketches.
I already wrote post after post about them, even one featuring Malarkey Maddie, a superheroine sketched for the series.
Well the good news is, there are now 31 sketches done, which is more than enough for the eBook!
I still have to spot check quite a few of them, but I can show you some of the finished ladies in the series.
And here are some snapshots from my camera of some of the looser, sketchier ones.
This one was actually named by one of my Twitter peeps. Thanks, @JN_Monk!
That last one is a trans girl because I realized towards the tail end of this project, “Crap! I could have incorporated more trans girls in this line up!” I’ll see if I can muster up at least one or two more, because I want this collection of characters to be diverse and inclusive, just like ladies IRL.
Although that reminds me of how I was going to add at least a few magical girls in this line up, as well, but in the end I really only got one. Oops.
The next step with this series is to make a sketch or two more, touch them all up, and then format them into an eBook so y’all can get a copy of this awesome collection for yourself!
Well, I originally said they would be printed and ready by January 31st. I’ve been talking to the folks who will print the book (who are the same folks that printed the book edition of Validation), and I have pretty much everything together.
However, I’m fixing some formatting errors before I send the book off to print. I want this book to look its best, darnit!
But that means the book won’t be available on January 31st.
The latest the book will hit the market is February 13th (and yes, that IS a Friday the 13th. No, I’m not superstitious about it).
You can still pre-order a copy, so I can reserve a book JUST FOR YOU from the printer (because I like you, reader, and you are awesome). It’s $10, and that price includes shipping.
As I wrote before, for the month of January, I’m drawing one new superhero lady every day. Once the month is up, I’ll be compiling the sketches into an eBook.
Today I want to show you one of my favorite ones I’ve done so far.
Her name is Malarkey Maddie.
Malarkey Maddie!
I loosely based her on a fan I met at Phoenix Comicon, who wore a shirt saying something like “Crush the Patriarchy!” My response was, “Down with the Patriarchy! Up with the Malarkey!”
Malarkey stayed floating around in my head for a while until this sketch series happened. Then I thought back on that fan and that phrase, and went, “What if a superhero lady incorporated that into their superhero name?”
And Malarkey Maddie became a superhero.
She may not fight against the Patriarchy, since it’s an abstract concept and not a person. So she has yet to get an arch nemesis.
She IS, however, super strong and has the ability to fly.
She doesn’t have a story yet, but she’ll be mentioned in other stories I’m working on. Maybe she’s the favorite superhero of Charlie from Charlie & Clow? Or Tracy’s favorite comic book hero?
Who knows what the future will hold for Malarkey Maddie?
If you have any ideas, I would love to read them in comments.
This post is coming to you in 5 Parts, so let’s get right to it!
Part 1. If you did not see it yet, I finally posted something on the Women Warriors Project. You can check that out here.
Part 2. My awesome friend Chloe sent me volumes 1 and 2 of The Heroic Legend of Arslan and I am SUPER EXCITED, because we both mutually love Hiromu Arakawa and it’s great to see her work on other manga.
Chloe also sent me some fanart a classmate of hers made, which also looks fabulous.
I’m going to write and post a review of volume 1 this upcoming Tuesday, reviving a feature I introduced last year, “Review Day Tuesday.”
Speaking of recurring segments on the blog, that brings me to,
Part 3. Favorite Artist Friday!
I’m going to rename this feature “Featured Artist Friday,” so it’s not just my favorite artists being featured.
Featured Artist Friday is going to feature lots of different types of artists. So expect to see comics artists, painters, mixed media artists, sculptors, or just people I find while I flip through my stack of business cards I’ve accumulated over the years from conventions.
Speaking of art, though,
Part 4. New Mini-Comics!
I made and finished a new mini-comic recently called “Duck for Dinner.” It’s a short little autobiographical story.
Duck for Dinner… the mini-comic!
It’ll be up for sale on Storenvy soon.
If you would like a digital copy of the comic for, say, $0.99 (US Currency) please leave a note in the comments. I’ve been thinking of offering short 99 cent digital comics for sale through Gumroad, but let me know what you think?
Speaking of Storenvy, though, that leads me to,
Part 5: Crafting Stuff!
So I had a ton of excess paper and decide to bind some new books (because bookbinding is one of my new hobbies). I used a new technique I found the other day called the Slot-&-Tab method, which requires no thread or gluing.
Hand Made Books!
The thing is, I don’t have a use for these (although I’m keeping the grid paper book), so I’m thinking of selling them as filler notebooks or something on Storenvy. If you’re interested in getting one of these, drop a comment below.
And if you would like to see a tutorial, let me know about that, too, in the comments.
So what other things am I crafting?
Well, I have some T-shirts I don’t wear anymore…
These shirts either don’t fit me or are just too bland.
I’m going to repurpose these into tote bags. Because tote bags are awesome, and you can totes (HA) use them in lieu of plastic bags when you shop, which is my favorite thing to do.
I’m not confident enough in my sewing skills to consider selling the finished totes, though, so it may be a while before I offer any for sale.
That’s all for today, but come back tomorrow, when I talk about a new artist for Feature Artist Friday!
