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 Today’s Inktober is based on a true story. The first time I survived long enough to get a fire hound in Don’t Starve, it was killed by a spider off-screen, so I didn’t see it turn into flame. I had NO IDEA why the world was suddenly burning down around me.
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Today's Inktober is brought to you by dramatic lighting, probably the best outline I've ever drawn for one of the Last Corridor's pillars, and another attempt to do gradient shading without using a soft brush. It looks kind of like the shadows are melting down the pillar - not the effect I originally intended, but one I like all the same. I thought about adding the tile pattern to the floor, but I drew this late on Monday night and will have very little time for drawing on Tuesday, and I just didn't feel like it. Besides, in this context, I kind of like the clean, stark look of the unpatterned floor. I think the rest of Inktober will be done on a "when I want to and have time" basis - hence this picture being published in its own blog post instead of as part of a weekly compilation. Some days, it's been a great impetus for me to draw things I've wanted to draw for a while and hadn't gotten around to, but there have also been days when it's felt more like a very time-consuming obligation, and it's been holding me back from working on the stories that are dear to my heart. So, as my (ridiculously wise for her years) younger sister would say, it's time for me to "murder 'should'", and go with what feels right instead of "shoulding all over myself" with completely unnecessary obligations, haha.  As promised, here's the second round of Inktober art! Day Eight: Star Today's picture is a stranded starfish trying to make its way home. As with the previous one, this was drawn in pen while my sister and I were driving to a family reunion. It was inspired partly by the ongoing analogy in My Fugitive, whose protagonist based her mindset and values heavily on the story of a man who, upon finding thousands of starfish stranded on the beach, started throwing them into the sea. Another man saw him doing this and commented, "You know, it doesn't matter how many you throw; you'll never be able to save them all." The first man smiled at him, picked up another starfish, and tossed it into the ocean. "It mattered to that one." Day Nine: Precious Today's Inktober theme was "Precious", and what's more precious than a baby Asriel holding a plushie of one of his parents' oldest friends? I decided to do this drawing in marker, with a pencil sketch beneath. In retrospect, I should also have put a piece of cardboard beneath, haha; there was so much ink on the table. >_< I need to practice clothing folds more; these ones look all wrong to me. It is now my artistic duty to stare intently at wrinkled clothes! But hey, at least I know where I need to improve. Day 10: Flowing Today's Inktober drawing was inspired by the Willow Maid in this gorgeous song, and is brought to you by the HUGE FREAKING KUDOS I give to people who can draw in marker and not end up with a bunch of unwanted lines and colors overlapping in the wrong places. Sadly, I didn't have time to add a background before I had to run out the door - the whole thing was kind of a rush job - but when/if the mood strikes me, I might make a better version of this, probably digitally. I skipped day 11 to finish a page of Just Cause, but I plan to draw the concept I had for this day's image when I have more time. Day 12: Whale Given that today's Inktober prompt is "whale", it seemed irresistibly appropriate to use a technique I learned from the member of a whale watch crew. Day 13: Guarded I was planning to draw something dramatic, complex and touching for today's Inktober theme, but then I got let down twice in just a few hours, so here's this silly piece of TMI-ish vent art instead. I'll draw my other idea another day, when I have time to do it justice instead of having to rush out the door like I did after drawing this. Day 14: Clock The clock keeps turning backward, and Sans just wants it to stop. But the power to stop it will always be in someone else's hands. Day 15: Weak Today's Inktober is a quickly-drawn ode to my weak time management, the lack of an "undo" button on markers, the fact that I have a steadier hand while drawing digitally than traditionally, and my apparent capacity to forget the presence of collarbones and thus put the neck tendons in the wrong place when I'm distracted by my minor cheekbone disaster. :P On the upside, drawing traditionally DOES force me to tone down on the nitpicking, adapt to my mistakes instead of simply undoing them (the striped shirt hides the fact that one shoulder's line was in the wrong place), and finish the picture in a more reasonable amount of time than I would if I had an undo button to enable the perfectionism I'm working to overcome. It also gives me this chance to internally chuckle at the fact that the panel with the difficult perspective turned out better than the one in an easy pose, haha. Granted, I did the latter without a sketch, because I was deliberately trying to get this one done quickly so I'd have time to work on Just Cause. There are more Inktober entries coming, so stay tuned!
In the meantime, if you want to be the first to see my completed art, and to get exclusive access to works in progress, please consider supporting me on Patreon. If you want me to draw something specific for you, visit this page to get the pricing and details for my commissions. And if you want to get my art on your pillows, mugs, blankets, clothing and more, go here to see my physical merch. I took a little break from my Inktobering (which is now officially a word no matter what anyone says) so I could finish this page of Just Cause. I'll probably still draw today's Inktober prompt because I like the idea I have for it, but I decided it was time to hurry up and share these ominous hints about this story's future and past. :)  To support me as an artist, and to get exclusive access to the prose version of page 38 and other cool rewards, please consider becoming a patron on Patreon!
If you want me to draw something specific for you, check out my commissions page. And if you'd like to get my art on your pillows, mugs, blankets, furniture and more, take a look at my store on Society6! I'm participating in Inktober this month! Here are my first seven entries: Day One: Poisonous This is a scene from my novel, Catgirl Roommate, in which Nyla the catgirl was not allowed to steal Sam's mint because she'd already had hers, so she decided to take her mint-acquiring needs into her own hands... by chewing the lid off of Sam's mouthwash. It did not end well. For that matter, neither did drawing this picture; it didn't quite turn out the way I wanted it to. I guess that's what I get for trying to hand-draw something at print resolution. Photoshop hardcore SUCKS at drawing long, smooth lines without a pen tool, and I had to zoom in so far just to get a smooth line that I couldn't properly see what it would look like zoomed-out while I was drawing. I used the pen tool for some of the lines, but having to use it for almost ALL the lines really kills the fun, at least for me. I tried a couple of my other art programs, but they kept on failing at basic tasks until I got heartily sick of working on this picture, haha. At least day 2 turned out better; I drew that one at a more reasonable size. Day Two: Tranquil The characters in this one are Maxwell and the Ancient Guardian from Don't Starve. Spoilers ahead... Once you unlock Maxwell as a playable character, some of his lines indicate that he and the Guardian were once friends, but the Guardian has since been corrupted and driven mad by overexposure to nightmare fuel. Before they were permanently separated, I imagine those two took a great deal of comfort in each other's company. Maxwell was probably the first form of intelligent life the Guardian had encountered since his civilization was destroyed by the overuse of nightmare fuel, and the Guardian was probably the first for Maxwell since the day he lost Charlie. When examining an ancient obelisk, Maxwell comments that "I can't believe I've forgotten how to read this." I suspect the Guardian was the one who taught him how to read it, which makes the loss of that ability all the sadder, since it would mean his knowledge of that language was one of the few pieces he'd had left of his fallen friend. It's the tragic tale of a boy and his pompom rhinoceros, doomed to be separated. In this picture, a much younger Maxwell is enjoying some tranquil time with the Guardian, who is teaching him how to read the ancient stone mural in front of him. Day Three: Roasted Thanks to a plethora of prior commitments both inside and outside the house, I didn't have time to draw something with my graphic tablet before I had to get out the door. Once I had a few minutes to draw, I also lacked a pencil with which to make a sketch. As a result, today's Inktober entry was an adventure in quickly drawing with a pen while waiting in an apartment lobby, with no option to erase lines that didn't end up where I wanted them, and then taking a picture of it with my webcam. As with the first entry, the hapless hairball in this picture is Nyla, the titular character of Catgirl Roommate. When she isn't drinking mint mouthwash, she sometimes manages to set her own tail on fire. Day Four: Spell Inktober's kind of been holding up the production of the next page of Just Cause, so I decided it was time to kill two birds with one stone and use today's entry to do the lineart for one of the panels. Today's theme is "spell", so... Undyne's magic energy spears count as a spell, right? Day Five: Chicken C'mon, Woodie, don't be a chicken! Wigfrid just wants to spar with you. Seriously though, Don't Starve Together (the multiplayer version of Don't Starve) has some awesome quotes, especially when you read them in conjunction with each other. Wigfrid, examining a back scratcher: "Finally, a safe weapon with which to spar with my new allies!" Woodie, examining said back scratcher: "Wigfrid keeps using it to 'spar' with me and Lucy. We're afraid." I mean, let that sink in. Wigfrid is an actress who thinks she's a Valkyrie. She just wants to spar safely. And she's wielding a freaking back scratcher. And yet, the burly lumberjack AND HIS TALKING AX are afraid of her. Day Six: Drooling The monster towers over her, ready to impale her on its icy claws... and Wigfrid is already drooling over the small butcher's shop worth of meat she's about to carve out of this thing. This piece was very experimental in several ways: 1. Drawing in white on a black background. 2. Using the same color for both the outlines and the highlights, and trying not to give Wigfrid a mustache and beard in the process. 3. Using a 1 pixel brush for most of the picture, as opposed to my usual 2 or 3 pixels. Photoshop doesn't have very good anti-aliasing (the thing that stops lines from looking jagged) for 1 pixel brushes, so the lines were rougher than usual as a result. 4. Foregoing some of my usual artistic crutches, such as the Zoom In tool and the Pen tool. Once again, this resulted in rougher lines, but it was also more fun and hands-on, and it forced me to give myself some leeway not to make all the lines perfectly smooth. I think I'm going to do this more often in my side projects, though I'll stick with smooth lines for Just Cause. 5. Using widely-spaced lines for weaker shading as opposed to low-opacity brushes. This is an area where I definitely have room for improvement, since I have next to no experience with it, but it was interesting to stretch myself that way for this picture. Day Seven: Exhausted I had a family reunion today, so I ended up drawing today's and tomorrow's Inktober entries in pen, with no references and an unclear memory of what Wigfrid's sleeves look like, on the road to and from the gathering. Don't worry, I wasn't the driver. :P Today's entry is based on the BS I get up to when I'm playing as the uncompromisingly carnivorous Wigfrid in Don't Starve. My playstyle tends to fluctuate between meticulous, calculating caution and reckless bullheadedness, depending partly on how many resurrection methods I have prepared. (If you die with no resurrection methods in place, it's game over.) I was recently in the Ruins, which is the most dangerous area in the game, and I was mapping a biome with no food sources. I ran out of food, and instead of retreating to resupply, I continued running around until the area was fully mapped, I was actively losing health due to starvation, and I was reduced to using my healing supplies to counteract the health drain. Oh, and I was also being chased by a group of 6-8 Nightmarebeaks and Terrorbeaks, all of which move fast, hit hard, and can take a lot of punishment. I was so badly and constantly outnumbered that all I could do was keep running, heal whenever I got a bit of a lead, and try to get enough of a reprieve to get some food, climb the rope out of the cave, or SOMETHING. That resulted in me imagining the conversation Wigfrid would have with a campmate if she came limping home in that condition, still starving, half dead, and reduced to eating disinfectant to survive (because video game logic). If you like what you see, and you want more...There are more Inktober entries coming, so stay tuned!
In the meantime, if you want to be the first to see my completed art, and to get exclusive access to works in progress, please consider supporting me on Patreon. If you want me to draw something specific for you, visit this page to get the pricing and details for my commissions. And if you want to get my art on your pillows, mugs, blankets, clothing and more, go here to see my physical merch. The 9-panel work in progress for page 37 of Just Cause is available on my Patreon! Here's one of my favorite panels:  You can get access to the full WIP, and be the first to see the completed page, by supporting me for $1 or more on my Patreon. One author in the #Wattpad4 Twitter chat said "Writing is rewriting". Another replied, "This should be on a mug!" So this author made it happen.  The longest-ever page of Just Cause is done! Enjoy!  Bet'cha didn't see that coming.
*Evil grin* To support me as an artist, and to get exclusive access to the prose version of page 37 and other cool rewards, please consider becoming a patron on Patreon! P.S. I don’t normally make the white walls enclosing the battle or Frisk’s soul glow like this, but I figure the walls would probably glow if they were flaring up because someone was pressing against them. Frisk’s soul is casting more light than usual because they drew it outside their body themselves, which takes an extra expenditure of energy on their part. This page was an interesting exercise in translating two-dimensional game graphics into 3-D movement. Between that and the extra elements like blood and sweat to keep track of, multiple light sources, numerous moving components whose positions relative to the floor and pillars had to stay consistent, action shots, unusual angles and poses, and needing to keep the light direction consistent and remember all the shadows the people and objects were casting on each other, this was probably the most artistically challenging thing I’ve ever drawn. Sometimes it's fun to just doodle faces without worrying about making the lines perfectly smooth or trying to match the look of a specific character. To just put the lines on the screen, and adapt each new part of the face to complement what's already there. Which face is your favorite?  To support me as an artist, and to get exclusive access to works in progress and other cool rewards, please consider becoming a patron on Patreon!
Visit these links to get art commissions and physical merch. The 34-panel work-in-progress preview of page 36 of Just Cause is ready! Become a Patron for $1/month or more to get access. Here's a sneak peek at a few of the panels:  |
AuthorStephanie is the author of My Fugitive and several upcoming books. She enjoys connecting with her readers and building a community of fiction fans here on this blog. Archive
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