This A4 pen and ink drawing was a commission, one of two rewards which I drew for support of the Pozible crowd-funding stage of Kinds of Blue (the other was Peter Pan themed). You can view it at a larger size here.
This is based on one of my (many) favourite Robert Frost poems: “Into my own“.
This A4 pen and ink drawing was a commission, one of the rewards for support of the Pozible crowd-funding stage of Kinds of Blue. The central figure is a young relative of Bec Jee.
In other news: I am still writing! Kelly Link and Gavin Grant (of Small Beer Press) have been in town, so I have had some wonderful opportunities to talk about books and art and… everything with them, and to take Kelly on what was probably a hair-raising tour of the streets on either side of Wynnum Road (it moves around a lot). On the weekend I went to Kelly’s short-story workshop, “Magic for Beginners”, which was fun and informative, solved a number of difficulties I’ve had and gave me a long list of new ideas (more on this later, if I draw my current plan for this week’s Illustration Friday). In addition, I received some very useful feedback from Kelly on an airship story and Angela Slatter on a steampunk cafe story, so my brain is buzzing pleasantly. Good editing lies ahead!
This instalment of the Dalek Game is for The Sandman Vol. 1: Preludes and Nocturnes, by Neil Gaiman and illustrated by Mike Dringenberg, Sam Kieth and Malcolm Jones III. I don’t recall any grand pianos in it but am willing to be corrected. Teresa Nielsen Hayden did a wonderful reread of the first issue on Tor.com here: Re-reading Sandman: Issue #1, “The Sleep of the Just”.
While I was at work yesterday, the Dalek Game and #dalekbooks seem to have taken on a separate existence. Thank you to those who have posted and commented and followed – I am working back through my inbox!
Prints: Several people have asked about buying prints. I would love to be able to sell them, but want to do the right thing, so I have written to the BBC and Arts Law to find out what that is. If I get a positive answer, I will not stay silent.
And in other news: Kinds of Blue, an anthology of comics by my friends (I did the art for two) has been launched and is available to buy online! The YA steampunk anthology Steampunk! (with my first comic “Finishing School”) is available online and in stores – I will post a bit more about this soon. Friends and I went to see Monstrous Regiment at the Arts Theatre yesterday – their Pratchett play is an annual tradition, and this year’s Sergeant Jackrum is worth the price of entry alone. Today I am staying in and drawing Daleks.
I think this is the last of my recent projects to be completed. Not the last to be posted, but I may have managed to clear the decks in time for November. This project was the artwork for two comics in Kinds of Blue, an anthology of 14 short (5 page) comics on the theme of depression. It was originated by friends in Sydney and is currently looking for a home, but all the art is now finished!
This view from a city street is one of my favourite images from “Nihilo” – a very powerful piece and therefore not one I would recommend reading as many times as I did while doing (and fixing and changing) the art and lettering for it. I came late to “Nihilo” and the idea for the treatment came with the script. It was to be heavily based on altered photos. In the end, I drew it all in a Vector program (a fiddly and frustrating experience, but light on computer memory and I learned a great deal). Some panels were freehand, some loosely based on supplied photo reference.
This is a preliminary rough, with texture added because the style reminded me of stencil graffiti. The final art kept the same style but smooth and untextured. I still like this piece.
The other, and first, comic in this anthology for which I drew was “Knitting Therapy” – about knitting as a means of coping with depression:
I drew this one with blue pencil, then scanned and cleaned up the line work and added colour and texture digitally. It made HUGE files. For comparison, all the artwork for “Nihilo” exists in a single 1.53MB SVG file (it was easier to make changes and colours consistent across pages that way). A single page of “Knitting Therapy”, with all its layers flattened, is a 41MB PSD file (apples and oranges, I know, but it nearly did my computer in).
I will put up more details as they become available.
Kathleen Jennings 