A Journey Into Painting Clarified My Drawings

I've been trying to do more with physical media for a long time now. It was something I discussed back on the first blog post I wrote here called The Color Problem back in March 2021.

But there have been a few things holding me back. For one, I really love making my dark fantasy art the way I've been doing it the past few years: beginning with a pencil drawing on Bristol, inking it with brushes and a crow quill pen, and then scanning it in and doing the color work in Photoshop. Two, I knew it would be challenging to switch to a new medium after years invested in particular workflow.

And three, I had to figure out what my new art style would look like. Would it essentially be the same thing, or would it be something completely different?

Well, I took a few rough steps forward, and the first thing I have to show for it is this humble little 6" x 6" painting on a wood panel. This began with a loose pencil sketch on the panel, then the acrylic painting, and then India ink over the top for the lines.

I had planned for this to be the beginning of a major creative shift for me, but incidentally, working on this painting actually gave me clarity on what I love about drawing.

I love the freedom and flexibility of drawing, particularly the ability to define small details. There's something about creating an image by making a series of dark lines on a white background that is simply magical to me, and I'm just not willing to leave that creatively.

So immediately after I created this I began doing some small drawings – originally as a guide to help me with my paintings, but soon purely for their own sake. And by the time I'm posting this it's clear that this detour into painting will be a very short one.

(Update: there ended up being six of those small drawings – you can see all of them here.)

I'll share more soon. Thanks as always for being here.

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I share process videos, sketches, and behind-the-scenes work as new pieces take shape. If you'd like to see the next stages of this world as they’re built, you can find me here:

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