Tuesday, July 28, 2015

East of the Girl West of the Bear 3


This is more images from the same book. I've gone for fully rectangle images without paper showing through. The other ones had different shaped edges, because illuminated manuscripts would often just be ornimentation without any backing color or image. But it is difficult erasing pencil instead of painting over it; it just gets gummed up in the sandier paint.

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Diver & Mermaid

I started this painting in 2013. I left it unfinished for a long while. I'm not sure exactly why, but I think it is because I was using a large watercolor paper pad cover as a backing board, and when I painted it the board went all bobbly. After that I bought a proper panel board for painting and this one was left there. I noticed it and thought I could finish it in a day so I did! It's a painting based on a sketch, found earlier in this blog, where a guy in an old timey diving suit is improbably jamming music with a mermaid under the water. She does have one tit showing, but I don't think it's too risqué. Although, she is enjoying playing that old timey woodwind very much. Anyhow, enjoy.

Saturday, July 4, 2015

New Fonts!

I created two fonts for the book. I couldn't find a font that was quite right. Usually the spacing in each font, even ones based on illuminated manuscripts, are too large and modern to look similar to originated illuminated manuscripts. The kerning and spacing is particularly hard to get correct, and there are probably a few errors still remaining. But the result is still pretty good. I made this by writing on paper with a calligraphy pen. Then I scanned them in. Once in digital form, I used Inkscape to trace the bitmap image and turn them into vector shapes. Then I used Birdfont to turn the vector shapes into a font! Voila! C'est me font neveaux! I don't know how to speak French.

Thursday, July 2, 2015

East of the Girl West of the Bear 2


Here are more images I made for the East of the Moon West of the Sun book. On the Heron image, something strange happened. I was using a neon-orange paint in the sky and water to mix and the scanner was unable to pick up the color! It just came out as off-white. The Heron's sky should look a little more like dusk. I might be able to adjust the image digitally to look more like the original.