Category Archives: Copic Markers

The Cute Marches On, Robots & Monsters in Ink

www.theslumberingherd.com

Clocktower Sentinel, and Lance and Boo Boo
Each 2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics.

So, January was supposed to be painting month. But then cute atcs happened and when you get on a roll, you really ought to honor the roll. I am sure there is an education joke there but I am up past my bedtime. :D

I have often said as long as I am making new art, it’s ok if it’s not exactly the art I planned. And I stick by that. Particularly when being productive! It’s a bit of a bummer about the painting but I suspect the cute might make the jump to acrylics in February.

Tim and Madge
Each 2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics

Tag and As Yet Unnamed Beast
Each 2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics, pencil

Thanks for dropping in! Hello to Paint Party Friday! Tons of progress pics in the slideshow!

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Big Eye Monsters, Pen and Ink

It started during this past weekend’s drawing marathon over at illustratedatcs.com, with this fellow. His name is Dag.

Dag
2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics, fine liners, gel pen

My new favorite art card was described as a “cute monster on a birthday napkin” – which he totally is, and a “prehistoric my little pony” – which he also totally is. (Both comments from my Facebook page. Which is where I post lots of art. Just sayin.)

And then I went on a cute monster bender, as follows:

Reg and Oji
Each 2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics, fine liners, gel pen

Joon and Diz
Each 2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics, fine liners, gel pen

Thanks for stopping by! I hope to get back to acrylics but I like to think that as long as I’m drawing new things I’m on the right track. :)

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Pilar and Santos, a Tale of Love with Tequila Corks

Pilar and Santos 1

Pilar and Santos 2 

Pilar and Santos 3

Pilar and Santos 4

As mentioned in the previous post, I was challenged to do some Day of the Dead imagery on Patrón corks. These are the result (more than a year later)!

These may get hair/hats/accessories, but I felt the need to post them as is! I need to seal them with something. AnnD of Wonderstrange has suggested Krylon, so I may get some of that.

Thanks for dropping in!

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Girl with Small Elephant. On Her Head. Colored Pencils.

Shelly & Elly
2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics, pen, colored pencil

Ah, finally finished something! She was darker skinned but I seem to like using a lot of white pencil at the end. I’m also a bit scared of darker colors over worry that problems would be harder to correct. There should probably be darker shadows here but I’ll work on that for the next one.

I’ve started this 5″ x 7″ Basset hound. I don’t know why I keep going over the eyes so much in pencil when it’s supposed to get color over it. And then sometimes I think I should do a pencil drawing as a finished product. Currently undecided!

Bassett in progress
5″ x 7″ pencil

Reference photo: Basset.

Thanks for dropping in! Hello to Paint Party Friday, which I have not joined in ages!

Also, is anyone doing 30 Paintings in 30 Days in January? I was a little skeptical about the more involved sign-ups, but it looks like you will still add your own link each day in addition to your photo. I couldn’t manage it during September, but last January I did it, and it was a terrific experience that I highly recommend. Maybe I’ll dig out some of those January 2014 images for my next post. :)

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Legend of the Sleeping Kitten

Legend of the Sleeping Kitten
4″ x 6″ pen and ink, Copic markers

This was actually the first of the secret santa bunch, which includes the sleeping tiger and sleeping dragon previously posted. The Legend of the Sleeping Kitten turned into a sort of universal foundation tale with slightly different details in different parts of the world. Hence: a kitten, a tiger, a dragon. It is my intention to write a book in 2015. Perhaps their stories will be in it!

Here are a couple sketches done using my new fancy Luxo magnifying light.

Steampunk Hornbill and Elvish Snow Queen, in progress
Each 2.5″ x 3.5″ pencil, ink

Thanks for dropping in! I’ve had some blog issues recently so am slow to post. The holidays are always a strange time, aren’t they?

Also, you MUST WATCH THIS cute and hilarious (and short!) thing. I would not steer you wrong.

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Sleeping Dragon in Mushroom Field

Sleeping Dragon, 4″ x 6″
Copics, colored pencils, pens

It’s another experiment with colored pencils, both Polychromos and Prismacolors. I was going to outline the dragon in white but worried about wrecking things! I do wish I had shaded the ground beneath him, and a bit more under the mushrooms, but alas, it is in the mail! This was my last secret santa art gift for the year. I am glad to be done; it is a little stressful.

Daydream and Queen Willa
Each 2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics, fine liners, gel pen

Here are a couple recent art cards. Lots of similar color in all three, including two of my favorite Copic colors: V04-Lilac and BG10-Cool Shadow, and my favorite Staedtler Triplus fine liner, magenta. You got favorites? Are they secret?

Thanks for dropping in!

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Prismacolor Pencils, Back in Action

Legend of the Sleeping Tiger
5″ x 7″ Prismacolor pencils, Copics, Staedtler Triplus fineliners, Signo gel pen

Let me first say I still have my set of Prismacolor pencils from high school circa *cough* 1987. I was a big fan back then, but as you may recall, I abandoned the art for a couple decades (not recommended). I have since read (somewhere?) that the Prismacolor brand has gone downhill due to new owners, but I can neither confirm nor deny this item.

The tiger was done in new Prismacolors, because I bought a handful of warm bright colors (and b&w) for an experiment a couple months ago before digging through moving boxes for my old (battered) set. I think the color is quite nice, though I will confirm my black tip broke off shortly after being sharpened. Hmm.

I left the sketch alone for a while because I really liked it and didn’t want to mess with it! But I was inspired in part by meeting Diana Harlan Stein this weekend at Windycon and I finished this Sunday night after it ended. More about how that went next time. :)

Thanks for dropping in! I hope to get back to a regular schedule, and visit folks back properly, soon.

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Halloween Continues, Tiny Ink Art

First, a quick note about the hacking that happened October 25th. Most of my images for the past two months are no longer on the site. So, I have to decide how much I’m going to replace. Probably main pics but not progress pics. It’s just so time consuming. And I have a really good password now. And I’ll make more. :)

I thought I’d post some more of the Halloween ACEOs from last weekend’s Halloween making.

Six for Halloween
Each 2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics, fine liners, gel pen

At the bottom left, a Pumpkin Drone beside a Pumpkin Crone. And then the Zombie Bride Calavera mash-up!

And then there is the witch made at the request for another of a previous witch. Sisters! Of different orders, certainly.

The Witch Aricela, and The Witch Josabeth
Each 2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics, fine liners, gel pen

The Witch Aricela is flying even now to The Netherlands. And the Witch Josabeth, to the UK. (Both traded for other Halloween art). It’s cool! Thanks so much for dropping in!

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Tiny Halloween Art. Early. In Ink.

So here it is more than ten days since my last post. Here is what I have been doing: Doodling Halloween art cards and watching (or listening to, mainly) Project Runway Australia (available on YouTube)! My day job has been totally draining. Also, I should eat more broccoli.

Anyway! Here are some of those tiny Halloween thingers I mentioned!

Halloween Themed ATCs
Each 2.5″ x 3.5″ pen and ink, Copic markers, gel pen

At the top left is Glum Nevin. Whether glum because he’s been forced to wear a demon suit, or because he is a young demon who has just been told he must empty the dishwasher, I do not know.

Hello to Paint Party Friday! And thanks for dropping in!

p.s. I got hacked Oct 25! I had to take the progress photos gallery down because all the images were deleted. Alas!

More for Inktober, with a Princess in a Bottle

My goodness, post every day did I say? No, that’s not possible, it turns out! However, I HAVE been managing lots of little ink projects as Inktober continues to continue!

Uli With Familiars, and Mausoleum for Mona
Each 2.5″ x 3.5″ pen and ink

Actual black and white and also some grayscale – these are noteworthy details as you don’t generally see either around these parts. Perhaps that will change. Perhaps a “Grayscales Project”. Ugh, but no time right now. Will put on back burner. :)

The Princess in the Bottle
2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics

The Princess in the Bottle

Once there was an evil queen who loved nothing but jewels. It is said her heart was a hard, tiny diamond. They say she caused the riding accident that took the life of the king as punishment for impregnating her with their only child, a daughter. When the baby was born, the queen was repulsed by its soft helplessness, and without so much as giving it a name, she sent it away to live with a childless crone living in the dusty hills.

Unbeknownst to many, the crone was a witch,. She named the child Marta and taught her everything she knew,  all the while filling her with tales of her mother’s greed and evil nature. When the child was thirteen, she set out with a pale amber bottle she had prepared for her mother.

When Marta arrived at the castle, she found the queen a sad, lonely wreck of a woman surrounded by her jewels, who could not even keep a hound for more than a week before it ran away into the forest. She admired her daughter’s beauty, and wished some for herself. Marta agreed she could have some, so she added a few words to those she had prepared, making her mother young again, as young as Marta herself, before capturing her in the amber bottle, and sealing the lid with a waxy resin she’d made from boiling her own hair.

Marta invited the crone to live with her in the castle. They threw open the heavy curtains for the first time in years, and tamed all the half-wild hounds that roamed the forest.

None of the hounds would go near the room that housed the amber bottle, the one with the sad, tiny princess who was once an evil queen.

(c) The Slumbering Herd, 2014

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Thanks for dropping in! And super late hello to Paint Party Friday. :)