Environment ink studies

Today, I made some photo reference studies to improve my ink work and environmental skills. I got the pictures from Panoramio which is an amazing website where you can see locations with pictures anywere in the world. These are from Europe that I have saved from Panoramio a month ago, but I have no clue from which land they're from.

Claire by Pietro Antognioni

Awesome fanart by Pietro Antognioni! I love his take on Claire and how she casts a magic spell.
I highly recommend to check his amazing work:
pietroantognioni.blogspot.com
pietro-ant.deviantart.com

Which medium do you prefer when reading comics?

Since It seems to be impossible for this blog to add a working poll, then I have to do it by writing a blog.

So my question is; "Which medium do you prefer when reading comics?"

- normal sized book: the format of American comics or the larger French BD,
- pocket sized book: the format of Japanese manga,
- computer monitor: a 4:3 or 16:9 screen size,
- smartphone: Iphone, Android, etc.,
- tablet: iPad, Samsung galaxy, etc.

I'm a traditional comic book reader and I prefer to read in a pocket sized book, altough I prefer a normal sized book as well. The good thing of pockets is that they are small of size and thus you can carry them more easily with you when you are on a trip. It's also good for reading, giving your eye a main focus on reading the page as a whole at once and you don't read too long on one page.

I do read often on a computer monitor, however I can't take it for too long and it's not only for my eyes that are starting to get tired, but also my brain. It's just not as relaxing from reading a book because of the light from monitors. However, If you have a huge library of books and no space, storing them digitally is a good investment in the long run. You only need enough hard disk space and be sure to make a backup.

I have no experience with smartphones or tablets and I'm eager to test reading comics with these handhelds. I'm very interested to hear opinions of readers that prefer a smartphone or tablet to the above.

Claire by Coco

Zapupo 'guiding' Claire trough trouble
I got this funny and sadistic illustration from a friend of mine for my birthday. Thank you Coco!!

If you want to see more of her work, visit: http://dynastycoco.deviantart.com/

Meet Holly, the young witch

The young witch has a name: Holly
Best wishes for 2012!

Done with 2011

It's almost over...
I experienced 2011 as a strange year. There have been many natural disasters and a lot of political unrest, especially like in the Middle East, the economic recession and many well known people who have meant a lot for others lost their lives this year as well.

But how about myself?
As I look back on last year, the first thing I notice that everything has gone so quickly. Maybe too quickly. I had little happiness and I started to doubt what the hell I still can expect from life. It was nice that I've experimented with comics, but my technical drawing knowledge has barely improved. At least I'm glad that I'm getting better at working under deadlines and coping with stress.

Bottom Line: 2011 was almost hopeless for me and I am also glad it is almost over. On to 2012!

I just need a heroic 'Fuck yeah!' song to start the new year

Brain Farts #6

A small collection from my sketchbook.

Halloween!

This is an Halloween illustration featuring Claire. I think it's very appropriate for her.

Halloween is still a week ago, I'd like to wish all the people who are celibrating this horrorish holiday a very frightning evening!

Illustration preview

Here is a preview from an illustration that I'd like to share with you guys.
I don't think the theme is very hard to guess.

Character portraits

These are some character portraits that I had in mind for a long time (except for Claire and the Doctor) and needed to be drawn to give my mind some rest.

At the moment I have several ideas for the main story of Witch Cat and I'm thinking and scribbeling characters and scenes that I might use in a future story.

I don't want to tell much about it, since most parts from the story are just 'ideas', but here are some character portraits for those that are interested.

Also found a sketch of Claire and some knight dude from last holiday season.