This Forest is Full of Ghosts

So recently, I've been experimenting with a new method.  I had an idea a while ago which I couldn't execute.  My hands were tired and everything I tried fell apart.  I decided, one frustrating night at work, that my stagnation had to shift.  So I put things on hold.  I decided to work with ink.  I've always enjoyed the hell out of seeing ink.  My favorite artists and illustrators use ink almost exclusively, but I'd never really tried my hand at anything but basic line work.

And so, I put my watercolor and gouache away, telling myself I wasn't going to touch it again until I got a handle on a new medium.  And this is what happened-


My first attempt.  I focused on doing trees by applying ink to runnels of water.  When I had done it, I realized that it needed something, so I cheated and used gouache for the eye.  It turned out well, and I learned about silhouettes and how easily they look like trees.


My first attempt at covering things up.  The page initially had a very terrible drawing of a cottage, some experimental lines of ink put into water, an odd cone of smeared crap.  I managed to get all of these things covered and vanished and came up with a couple of trees covered in woodland folk.  Also first use of red ink for eyes, allowing me to avoid gouache all together.


At one point, I had done a sketch of a horse with an owl on its back.  I idly sketched the skeletons in there and forgot about it.  When the page came around, I decided to try combining a bit of watercolor with this ink thing.  Because my normal method here has developed in such a way that isn't conducive to watercolor (I tend to slather everything in thinned ink to create the fog, and watercolor would just dissolve), so I tried something else.  I painted some fixative solution onto it, a process that ruined a brush and hurt my eyes, and it worked.  In future, I plan on doing more of this, but I want to avoid the toxic eye pain that fixative induces.


I wanted to try to use red ink to depict glowing eyes.  It didn't work so well, but I sort of enjoy the effect that did get produced.


And this one, I enjoy a lot.  Another failed attempt at smoking red eyes.  But the idea that started this one off was "evil woodcutter" (which I can't say would vary so much from normal woodcutter) carried off.  I needed to make the axe clearer, so I tried to vary my water/ink mixture to vary tones, which worked.


More tone variation experiment.  I am trying to stay away from the line drawing method used on the stone here, but it's alright.


Tried to do an actual wood texture for the log they are on.  Also tried to show some kind of monstrous thing wandering in the mists, but failed.  If you look closely you might be able to see where.  But it's something I like, so I'm going to keep banging away at that one until I can do it right.


Prancing lambs.  That's a first for me.  The real success here for me is the roaring beast in the background, which I like quite a bit.


A further refinement of the background monsters thing, seen here as a continuation of the crowd of howling troglodytes worshiping a stone.  Success in a number of areas here.  I like this one.


This is the first one I consider a general fuckup.  I wanted to see if I could do something that was primarily background action.  I learned how not to do that.  I also learned that blood splatter has to be done a certain way.  I'm not sure which way that is, but it sure as hell isn't this one.  I can tell that the various figures are supposed to be watching the fight behind the tree line, but I don't think anyone else can.  More work is needed.

So that's the first 10.  I intend on filling this entire book with forest pictures.  I predict more attempts at combining watercolor and ink, more ululating stone-worshipers, more inscribed stones.  I'm also thinking about fashioning some kind of narrative out of these.  It could be interesting.  I'm just so lazy when it comes to actually writing.  I need to use some of this ridiculous vacation time to get the lead out and finish the other book project I've got on the slate.