The Dragon Flower of Milk and Honey

It’s been a while since my last PaintLog. I just didn’t feel motivated enough in the last week and whenever I tried, other obligations kicked in and well – if something that is supposed to be fun feels like duty … take a break.

Tbh, there wasn’t a lot of art so far in October. Not that I was able to share, I mean. The past three weeks I was working on an entry to the Arcryla City Midnight Gala that takes place next Friday evening / Saturday morning. As usual, our entries are supposed to be revealed during the showcase. It’s going to be a Halloween event with costumes and all. So stay tuned!

What I was able to share were the second and third Inktober piece, keeping up adding prompts to the Heartbroken Goddess. As mentioned before, I was working on the Halloween piece and after finishing this, I just wanted to do some low-key just for fun piece. Therefore, I again went back to Eusthy.

However, I will not do an elaborated description and explanations into the drawing process of these pieces this time, but I’ll leave it with short thoughts and comments.

Heartbroken Goddess:
White Flower + Dragon Skull

The continuation of Kalisamiii’s Inktober challenge. As mentioned before, I added the next two prompts.

While the Flower actually was a new-drawn piece, I already prepared the Dragon Skull when creating the basic painting. Admittedly, I was a little bit lazy and it perhaps wasn’t the initial purpose of the prompt, but I still was tempted to try it this way.

Arrivals:
Milk & Honey

This Arrivals comic was actually one of the first I came up with. Originally, I intended to make it the second episode, but somehow, the other attempts to crawl onto land were fitting better into order.

Meet Silvie the silverfish-like apterygota (again). This time, she got a bigger role. Most fun, of course, was to think of the plot twist with the point in the end.

The Goddess Next Door

Digital painting made with an ink brush in dark blueish black and light colours: A young woman holding a heart with a darkened area inside in front of herself; she has white short hair, framing her face, the head is lowered, the eyes are closed, tears can be seen; no visible clothes but the heart and the hand covering her breast and shadows around her covering arms and lower body, tiny gleaming stars in the darkness and in the foreground.

Neighbours – Heartbroken Goddess: Love

October has arrived and with it several Inktober challenges. Ever since I started digital drawing seriously, I participated. Last year I did the Linktober challenge and I thought to take part again this year. However, I was without inspiration, I wasn’t in the mood and I probably won’t have the time to do daily drawings, so I skipped.

Instead I found inspiration in another (a weekly challenge) that I will present you below.

Before doing this, you also will find episode 2 of my primeval fish comic, this time dealing with its neighbours – and some old friends.

Neighbours

Last week I started the Arrivals comic series. Right from the beginning I had some comic ideas in my mind (and I still have). The initial ideas often sounded funnier in my head than the actual carrying out.

Not only that I had to find different words for „neighbours“, „friend“, „fellows“ etc., originally the comic lacked a real final punch line. There even wasn’t Lil’Scor raspberrying on the table in this point of time and Eusthy just would say something like „Perhaps I should crawl back into the sea“.

Then the picture of the extra panel popped up in my mind. Because Eusthy’s mood didn’t get damped until panel 4, I had to draw a panel different to the one originally intended to get him crawl back into the sea.

Enter Eusthwo:

If you look close, you also will see that I now added the names of my animal protagonists and as for the sea creatures … all but for the guy in the right bottom corner were in my mind right from the beginning. Initially I thought of some kind of big jellyfish, but I wanted to have something typical devonian.

Therefore, I roamed paintings of the devonian seas. Since I already draw a fish, I didn’t want to draw another one like an early shark, but finally, I found those … devonian sea things with those petal like arms and included it into the comic.

Heartbroken Goddess: Love

As explained above, this year I got inspired by a weekly Inktober challenge. This year it’s Kalisamiii’s Heartbroken Goddess prompt list.

So far I did the „basis“ painting with this week’s prompt „Love“. I plan to add the other prompts in the course of the next week, so the painting will change step by step.

As usual, I drew the inktober painting with „inky“ brushes and in inky colours. This time, I started with a blue tone. After „finishing“ the heart, I did the outlines of the hands but then switched to the body (body, head + hair) of the goddess herself.

Because I only had a vague image of her in my mind, I started with my usual non-inky brushes to get the lines right. Only when those seemed right, I started the inky brush on a new layer. Initially, I imagined her pose / the perspective a little bit different but the good thing with something this new, I can adjust it as I go along and this way I liked it even better.

I drew the heart with a hatching and as I now started „colouring“ the body and the head, I wanted to do likewise, but processing showed that the hatching would be too rough. However, I noticed two things. About the first one I will tell you in a few weeks (it has something to do with one of the other prompts), the second thing was the colour of the hair. Originally, I planned her to be dark haired but then I noticed how well the white hair suits her.

Finally, as I went to render her, I switched from the initial blue to a bluish black tone. Furthermore, I changed the center of the heart to black, indicating the broken and therefore darkened heart.

Before I could colour in the hands, I had to draw their lines anew. I resized them to better fit to the body and I mirrored the right hand before drawing the body to get be able to adjust it correctly. Now I had to fix this so they would look naturally.

Regarding the arms, I admittedly cheated a little bit. Since I planned to get them hidden in the shadows, I went lazy and didn’t do them at all. Apropos shadows, the stars in them were another last-minute idea and even more to put some of them into the foreground with a more intense blur than the ones in the rest of the shadows.

To go where no Eusthenopteron (V2.0) has gone before

First!

After the last weeks‘ fully colored and fully rendered paintings I wanted to do something simple. Luckily, just two weeks ago an idea popped up in my mind that I thought I could do in not time (of course it took me another week …).

Because it didn’t really fit into one of the other pages and because I plan to do more of them, I added another subpage to my website:

Arrivals

First!

I don’t know how I exactly came up with this idea, I think I saw an artwork with a fish and only a few days ago I read one of the comics going around on Instagram.

In my head this comic changed a few times before I did the final version. Furthermore, I wasn’t sure about if doing this comic first or another one (that presumably now will become the second).

Until panel 4, this comic initially was the same in every version. However, I originally just wanted to drop the „EUSTHENOPTERON!“ shout in the end of the comic in panel 4, not showing any other fish. I was struggling with showing it in an extra panel, though, asking „You called?“. I thought this would’ve been a rather lame joke, tought. Therefore I almost skipped it.

In this point of time I still had to look up the name of the fish that first crawled onto land but as I did so, I learned that the only fish with a suitable name and a suitable shape nowadays is considered to have lived strictly aquatic.

Therefore, I thought of Eusthwo answering Eusthy in panel for by adding „thingy“ to his claim being the first Eusthenopteron on land and Eusthy reoeating a resigned „thingy“, accompanyed by the explanatory text in the last panel.

Still, I noticed that this joke won’t work, if you don’t know about the things only explained in the last panel. But a joke that’s explained afterwards isn’t a joke anymore. Therefore, I deleted the „thingy“ thing but only dropping the „EUSTHENOPTERON!“ shout wouldn’t work either (although I initially thought otherwise).

So, I sortof combined both ideas, exchanging the „Your called?“ for a „Hey! What’s up?“ and rubbing Eusthy inte its nose that he technically isn’t even an Eusthenopteron able to walk on land. To be honest … Eusthwo initially said „Hi!“. Since Silvi, the silverfish in panel 3, already greeted with this word, I had to think of something else. This again took me some time because it should be quite collogial and quick to say.

I hope you’ll enjoy this comic as I enjoyed drawing it:

Bridging the Pain(t)

Bridging the Pain(t)

Good news and bad news. The good news are, I am on vacation now. So, I’ve got a lot of time just to sit down and to get my art shit done. The bad news are, although I actually was working on some new art the past week, there is nothing finished that I can show you (yet).

On the Arcryla City Discord server, a fifth prompt has been announced that simply goes like:

Finish all the (general) prompts that you didn’t finish yet and they will be shown during the next showcase.

So, you still have to stay patient. However, to fill the gap for tody I thought of giving you some insights into my artist workflow, the steps it takes to create a finished painting. At least the way, I’m doing it.

Bridging the Pain(t)

As hinted in the introduction the following steps are the steps I usually go. Others may do it otherwise and this is okay, I am most comfortable and it worked out best this way for me.

The Painting

I only seldom keep track of my wip process. I just forget too often to save the single steps and when I try to activate the automatical tracker CSP provides, my Pc goes into the knees. So wip videos of mine are very rare.

Luckily, there was one artwork I saved step by step. Therefore it is an excellent shot to go with this one, the Arcane sort of The Owl House fanart crossover painting „Dressing Up“.

Pre-step: Sketching

I rarely do this step, although I do it more often recently than I did it in the past. Most times I start with the lineart (see next stept). I do this step when I’m abroad from Pc (this also including lying in bed and being to lazy to being up again). I thought I did this with this painting too but it seems I only did it on my tablet in CSP. This would make sense since as I started the painting, I just bought the tablet and tried out some things. It also seems like I only sketched Vi – Cait already being finished, but for our purposes it will suffice.

You easily can see how terrible my sketches are and that in the beginning I had another pose for Vi in mind than I actually switched to. Those sketches are only crutches for my thoughts, I look on this messy lines, I don’t even recognize something in them but those lines are leading my thoughts back to the painting I had in mind. And they can lead mit fingers when the actual painting process starts.

1) Lineart

Often I start with drawing the lines. I once read that digital artists like to start drawing them in bright, saturated colors. With Autodesk Sketchbook this wasn’t possible since I never saw a feature to swap the colors once the lines were finished. CSP though has a whole one button function to do this. It actually was one of the reason I switched the graphic software.

And, well, it turned out, it really is very helpful to get the lineart right. I now easily can color separate parts in any separate color I want. Another helpful function are the vector layers. Until the beginning of this year I usually forgot to paint on them but after keeping them in mind, it helps a lot when it comes to resizing parts (or the whole) of the lineart. Whereas normal layers just enlarge the lines and this way also make them thicker, vector layers keep the width and still enlarge what has to be enlarged.

Although I try to draw the lines as straight and tidy as possible, there also may be parts which weren’t that easy to draw, so the lines got blurry and there were flying fragments around. There is a trick to fix this too: Change opacitiy of the blurry lines‘ layer and add a new layer above. Now you can trace the once blurry lines into some new, fresh, tidy ones.

Last but not least, I would like to point out that, once the lines are tidy and finished, I often color all of them with the same saturated color, so I can switch to other parts of the painting and do the same again.

At least, this I did with this artwork. In the meantime I started working simultaneously at the lineart of more than one objects (including parts of the background).

2) Basic Colors

As you could say the lineart is the flesh, the basic colors are the skin.

You often may hear, you should stay with a small color palette and, well, I’d second that. In CSP you can build and save different color palettes to different purposes. Nowadays I mainly stick with one big which colors have turned out to work nicely togeter. But of course I also have a color palette for Arcane fanart that I composed as I drew an earlier fanart piece.

However, the main reason I use a narrowed color palette is that I normally use a separate layer for any different color and body/clothes/whatever part while coloring the respective lines in a darker tone of the underlying basic color. So, I try to keep their numbers low – if only to reduce work (it still could get somewhat out of hands, I have to admit).

3) Rendering

Now there are flesh and skin, they have to come to life. Rendering (adding shading and lighting) makes a big difference to plain basic colors.

Shadows and highligts give depth to a painting. I also use this step to add structures were structures are required to make ouf of a plain brown area a leather armor or a metal surface (depending on the lighting). Or decorate with blood, dust, dirt (you name it). Since I learned how to manage clipping layers, they very well do the trick. They are layers between the lineart layer and the basic color layer to which they are clipped. Or in my case rather folders.

Theoreticall you could do everything on just one clipping layer (and sometimes I do), but I still keep the different shadings (hard vs. soft) and in particular the lighting and the highligts separated to be able to change things later if necessary. The shading again is done with a darker tone of the same basic color, the lighting and highlighting with a lighter one. The greatest part is done by a soft airbrush but I also use a waterly like brush for the highlights too to add some shine.

This step is the one with the greatest change regarding the output but it’s also the most repetitive one since it consists of several smaller steps which are alway the same for every part and every area of the painting. Therefore it’s the most time consuming one and the one I like the least.

4) Post-Production

The above-mentioned steps are done for every figure and object in the painting, the painting has living flesh and skin. Now I’m going to style it a little bit.

I call this step the post-production since I usually now would add some more effects like a blur effect, motion blur, glitter and flares, reflections, mist, diffuse backgrounds or whatever comes to my mind to give the painting a last makeover. Adding my signature and my logo also is part of this step (if I don’t want to share the wip sooner along the way) as well the text said in a comic like this one.

For this painting, indeed the post-production consistes of the background, the background shadows and the text:

Editing the background and resizing the canvas to get both as paintings of their own likeweise counts under this step (although I did this with Cait as soon as she was finished and so I did with Vi).

Fight to the End

A Mayoral Fight

Sometimes, I’m allowed to take a little time off and to do other things apart from my job and my artist’s ambitions. Last weekend was this kind of weekend, so this PaintLog comes with delay – but with a healthy delay.

Plus, it isn’t as if there was nothing going on on the art’s level the past week. The fourth of the main challenges of the Arcryla City Summer Fantasy Festival has been created, submitted and shown. So, here it comes:

A Mayoral Fight

This time, the premise was that our OC that had been stranded in the Fantasy AU realm wished to talk to „Mayor Alexander“, he surely would be able to help you getting back to your steampunk world. But in this realm it is Mage Knight Alexander and our OC’s were dragged into an arena fight facing him, the most powerful knight in the whole kingdom.

This situation had to be put into a dynamic comic or manga („just 1-2 pages“) but without a conclusion of the fight since that is planned as topic for a 5th main challenge. So, sorry folks, it ends with a cliffhanger.

Initially, I actually planned to do „just 2 pages“ but soon I noticed that these won’t suffice. The cover page, for a start, indeed only worked as cover page – no distractions by other panels.

Secondly, the story I had in mind just needed the space. Crissy should learn how to fight the mayor by coincidence, yes, but then she should use what she’d learned by coincidence, so she actually succeeds by using her own brain and mechanic’s skills.

To show this, some extra panels were needed. And then, there is Paula of course (I’ll come back to her later), she too took some extra panels. So, in the end it boiled down to four pages.

However, I didn’t went for a full color four page comic. The cover page is the only fully rendered one. I just didn’t had the time (and the patience) and the black&white style with spare colored parts worked out nicely. Initially, the angled white bars made it easier for me to paint them (I hadn’t to bother with right angles) but this way they also added a nice dynamic to the comic.

As for the fight … Crissy is no fighter. In the fantasy AU realm she owns an arm-mounted crossbow but she is no use in direct confrontation. Therefore, I had to think of something to give her an unexpected advantage – enter the fireworks cannons.

I wasn’t sure about gunpowder in the fantasy realm, so I went for some magic stuff loaded in cannon-like contraptions at the edge of the arena to celebrate whoever (supposedly the mayor) wins the battle in the end. They of course are triggered by fire and so by the magic fireballs the Mayor throws at Crissy.

Crissy running around headless at the beginning of the comic was one of the first pictures that came to my mind. Paula commenting this while sitting in the audience and eating some nuts, was the result of some fun talk in the Arcryla City general chat. This also led to the idea that she comes to help in the end.

Topless Mayor is a recurring theme. Last year, it also came up as fun talk in the Arcryla City chats and my entry to the Mayor’s prompt only could hint at his abs. This time, now, I had the opportunity to go all in.

I gave him a „Mayic Amor“ (of course, you spotted the pun?) and with this a saiyajin-like appearance, inspired by the the calamity forms of the trio in the show Amphibia – those themselves inspired by animes like Dragonball, obviousy. Yes, I exaggerated – a lot! – but I don’t regret it, it is the whole point when creating a comic and it was the most fun.

Crissy shooting his tophat not only shows that his magic powers lay in this hat. I also wanted to make use of this crossbow I gave Crissy in the beginning of the festival but often didn’t even care to draw when depicting her.

Then, there is Vannie. She is one of the Arcryla City council members. In the storyline of the Fantasy Festival, she drags Crissy into the arena. Therefore, I dragged her in my comic as cameo appearance, keeping guard at the door. And if you look close you will spot several items from previous Fantasy Festival entries fixed to Sparrow’s saddle: bags with nuts, a wine bottle, a mangogo, a plush water bear. Don’t ask how she got them …

A last remark to the title „A Mayoral Fight“. This of course is a reminiscence of my last year’s Mayor entry „A Mayoral Wind“:

Digital painting, comic style, the background slightly blurred: The Mayor of Arcryla City wearing a light shirt, a belt, brown pants and gloves, standing in the middle of a wind gust which drives petal through the air, blows off his tophat and lifts his shirt so you can see the abs. He is trying to catch the hat, a violet and a green tent in the background, a light blue afternoon sky with clouds

Welcome to Arcryla City

🇩🇪 Nach der Veröffentlichung des letzten PaintLogs stellte ich überrascht fest, dass dieses hier der inzwischen fünfzigste Blog ist. Fast ein Jahr lang, bis auf wenige Ausnahmen nahezu ununterbrochen, schreibe ich hier bereits Woche für Woche meine Gedanken über meine Kreativprozess nieder und präsentiere euch die Ergebnisse dessen.

War die Seite anfangs vor allem dazu gedacht, meine Zeichnungen zentral zu sammeln und der Blog dazu, die jeweils aktuellen Teile der Cedrakon-Geschichte zu präsentieren, hat er sich inzwischen zu einer Art ~~Tage~~Wochenbuch entwickelt, das regelmäßig ein Resümee der zurückliegenden Woche zieht. Dies ist manchmal ein wenig stressig, zumal ich es seit einiger Zeit auch auf Englisch schreibe, es hilft mir dennoch sehr, meine Gedanken und Kreativprozesse zu sortieren.

Großer Dank gilt hierbei natürlich auch euch Lesern und all jenen, die es in Zukunft werden wollen!

🇬🇧 After publidhing the last PaintLog I realised that this one now is the 50th of its kind. Almost a year, with few exceptions week after week I am writing down my thoughts redgarding my creativity process and showing them to you.

In the beginning the website was thought to be a central collection of all of my paintings and the Blog to present the newest parts of the Cedrakon (🇩🇪) tale. Now it’s something like a ~~diar~~weekaly drawing regularly a résumé of the past week. Sometimes, this is a little bit of stressful (thinking of the English version I am writing nowadays, too) but it helps a lot to sort my thoughts and my creativity process.

Many thanks to all of you readers and such ones who would like to become one in the future!

Letzte Woche ist aber auch der Pride Month zu Ende gegangen. Abschied genommen habe ich mit einem kosmischen Pärchen, das ich bereits vor einiger Zeit gezeichnet und hier auch bereits vorgestellt habe. Abgesehen davon wird auf dieser Seite Pride immer willkommen sein und sich selbstverständlich auch in meinen Zeichnungen immer wieder wiederfinden

Dafür kann ich an anderer Stelle sagen: Endlich kann ich sie zeigen! Seit einigen Monaten bin ich auf einem Discord-Server für zeichnerisch aktive Leute – Arcryla City. Dort hat sich bereits eine sehr hilfsbereite und auf unterstützende Bubble zusammengefunden. Gegenwärtig findet dort ein kleines Sommerfestival mit Prompts, Spielabenden etc. statt.

Es gibt acht allgemeine Prompts und zweiwöchentliche Prompt-Aufgaben, deren Ergebnisse am Ende der jeweiligen zwei Wochen in einem Showcase vorgestellt werden. Gestern fand das erste dieser Showcases statt. Aufgabe war, ein*en Persona für die (fiktive) Steampunk-Stadt Acryla City zu zeichnen (und vorzustellen). Diese musste nicht unbedingt Ähnlichkeit mit mir im realen Leben haben (ein Glück!). Er*sie musste allerdings ins Steampunk-Thema passen.

Ich entschied mich deshalb, eine Steampunk-Mechanikerin zu entwerfen:

Last week the Pride Month ended. I said farewell with a cosmic couple (🇩🇪) I already painted and presented here some time ago. Besides, Pride always will be welcome on this website and you will find it in my painting every so often.

Concerning another topic I am happy that I finally can announc her: Some month ago I joined a Discord server for painting based artists – Arcryla City – with a very helpful and supportive Bubble. At the moment we are celebrating a summer festival with prompts, game nights etc.

There are eight general prompts and biweekly prompt challenges which’s results at the end of the respective two weeks will be presented in a showcase. The past two weeks‘ challenge was to draw (and to present) a persona for the (fictional) steampunk city Arcryla City. This persona didn’t have to have similarities with me in real life (luckily!). Still, he*she has to fit in the steampunk theme.

Therefore I decided to design a steampunk mechanic (🇩🇪) :

Kürzlich habe ich mir noch einmal einige Episoden The Owl House (TOH) zu Gemüte geführt (genauer: Jene Episoden der ersten Staffel, die für das Verhältnis zwischen Luz und Amity entscheidend sind). In Verbindung mit der vor zwei Wochen gelaufenen zweiten Episode der zweiten Staffel kam mir die Idee zu meinem ersten The-Owl-House-Comic (🇬🇧) … und noch bevor diese Zeilen online gehen konnten, nach Sichtung von Episode 4 der zweiten Staffel zu einem weiteren.

Da sich dadurch die Quantität meiner TOH-Fanart weiter erhöht hat, habe ich dieser Serie nun auch eine eigene Unterseite in der English Corner (🇬🇧) gewidmet und die bisherigen Bilder von der Fanart-Seite dorthin verschoben.

Some days ago I rewatched some episodes of The Owl House, (TOH; more specific: The ones of the first season which are important for the relation between Luz and Amity). In connection with the second episode of the second season which aired two weeks ago I got the idea of my first The Owl House Comic … and even before these lines went online after watching the 4th episode of season 2 to another one.

Since the number of TOH fanart increased a lot, I took it from the Fanart (🇩🇪) page and built an own page in The English Corner (🇬🇧) .

Nicht unterschlagen werden soll zudem, dass ich letzten Sonntag erneut an der Sonntagsaufgabe „Ich Gebe Auf“ teilgenommen habe. Diesmal ging es darum, die Künstlerin des Twitter-Accounts „Erzaehlmirnix“ bzw. ihre bekannte Paint-Figur zu zeichnen. Da diese Aufgabe von dritter Seite vorgeschlagen worden war und nicht wie üblich von „Krieg und Freitag“, wollte ich diesen bzw. seine bekannte Strichfigur nich so einfach aus der Sache herauslassen:

Last but not least I again participated in the Sunday challenge „Ich Gebe Auf“ (🇩🇪). This time the challenge was to draw the artist „Erzaehlmirnix“ resp. her famous MS Paint figure. This time the challenge was suggested by a third party, not as usual by the artist „Krieg und Freitag“ but I still wanted to took him a part of it:

To boldly to draw …

🇩🇪 Heute kann ich euch an dieser Stelle leider nicht viel Neues bieten. Grund ist diesmal jedoch, so paradox das zuerst einmal erscheinen mag, dass ich mir kürzlich ein neues Grafikprogramm, Clip Studio Paint (CSP), zugelegt habe, das es bis vor Kurzem im Sale gab. Dieses habe ich erst einmal meinen persönlichen Bedürfnissen anpassen und mich damit vertraut machen müssen.

Inzwischen habe ich alle von Sketchbook gewohnten und lieb gewonnenen Funktionen gefunden und darüber hinaus so einige mehr, die ich gar nicht mehr missen möchte. Man kann fast jede Funktion mit einem Shortcut belegen, ganz besonders genieße ich ja die Möglichkeit, die Pinselgröße mit einem einzigen Tastendruck zu ändern und das ich nun (ebenfalls durch einen einzigen Tastendruck) die Farbe auf einer Ebene vollständig durch eine andere ersetzen kann. Das war schrecklich in Autodesk: Wenn ich mit einer Farbe nicht zufrieden war, musste ich komplett neu drüberpinseln/füllen. Ebenso soll es ein Gitternetz für das perspektivische Zeichnen geben, das ich allerdings erst noch ausprobieren muss.

Von beiden Funktionen habe ich früher bereits in Zeichentutorials gelesen und war immer sehr neidisch, dass das möglich sein soll. Schon alleine deshalb bereue ich den Kauf nicht. Es gibt noch weitere Funktionen, die CSP drauf hat und die sehr praktisch sind oder sehr vielversprechend und derzeit sitze ich bereits an einer Zeichnung, die ich allerdings erst nächste Woche zeigen kann.

Dafür kann ich euch aber meinen ersten Gehversuch mit CSP zeigen, eine Skizze die während meiner ersten Versuche des Austestens entstand. Auch diese werde ich in Zukunft noch weiter mit Leben (und Farbe) füllen:

🇬🇧 Today, there isn’t much news. Reason being this time, as paradoxal this may sound, that I recently got a no grafi app, Clip Studio Paint (CSP), which was on sale. I had to costumize and to get used to it during the last week.

Now I found all the beloved features which I knew from Sketchbook and a lot more which I never want to miss again. Almost every feature can be given a shortcut, in particular I’m enjoying resizing the brush size by simple pressing one key and that I can exchange (likewise with just one shortcut) the color of one layer for another one. In Sketchbook it was terrible: When I wasn’t satisfied with one colour I had to paint over it again. I also saw the option to use a perspective grid which I still have to try out, though.

I saw both options in drawing tutorials already and was quite jelous that with other programmes this is possible. So, I don’t regret to have bought CSP. There are other features, too, which are very handy or promising and at the moment I am already drawing my next painting. However, I can only show it to you next week.

Instead, you can see my very first try with CSP, a sketch I did while trying out the software the firt time. I will fill it further with life (and colour) in the future:

Daneben habe ich in der letzten Woche im Rahmen des Pride Month meine OCs für den (für die ferne Zukunft geplanten) Comic „Jack’Hill’n’Haid“ noch einmal auf Instagram vorgestellt und die beiden Hauptfiguren mit Texttafeln versehen:

Beside this I again presented my OCs of the (planned for the far future) „Jack’Hill’n’Haid“ Comic as contribution to the Pride Month on Instagram and added description sheets to both main characters.

Cover painting comic style, digital painting: Dr. Jacky Hill (white woman, red hair, rectangular glasses, white tank top, blue shorts) and Dr. Eliza Hill (woman of colour, round glasses, white polo shirt, white trousers, taking off a doctor's coat) in front of a Lesbian Pride Flag, the background being a night skyline with several skyscrapers, on the night sky a full moon.

Digital Painting, comic style, bright background: On the left a woman in white tanktop, jeans shorts and sneakers. She is wearing a namebadge ("Dr. Jekyll" and rectangled glasses, her hair is read and at chin level. She is watching a test tube with bubbling purple foam. On the right a shadow of a musculare female figure with shark fins, the left arm raised as background to a pink coloured text with background information: "Dr. Jacqueline Kiefer-Hill (né Kiefer), called „Jacky Hill“, a biochemist who came from Germany as an exchange student to gain her Ph.D. At university she met doctoral candidate of the Medical Sciences Eliza Hill, now Dr. Eliza Kiefer-Hill, fell in love with her, married her – and stayed. She loves her wife and she loves bad punes and play on words. She also loves to watch movies, going to the theatre whenever possible. Though, she usually skips her maiden name since English speakers never get it right. Still, she never gets tired to tell her wive, that „Kiefer“ is the German word for „Jaws“. Jacky now is working at BigPharma Labs (BPL), a big research institute in the heart of the city. Her main research project is wrapped around the topic of defeating diseases like cancer by using the DNA of sharks. She is very focussed on this goal but after one evening in the labs which she doesn’t remember at all, she sometimes doesn’t feel the same as before …"

Happy Pride Month

🇩🇪 Juni ist Pride Month. Auch ich habe mich entschlossen, weiter aus mir herauszugehen und meine (Pan-)Sexualität zumindest im Internet als ebenso selbstverständlich vorauszusetzen, wie Heteronormativität es seit Jahrhunderten für sich beansprucht.

Es sollte nicht betont werden müssen, doch ich erwähne es explizit, dass auf diesen Seiten selbstverständlich auch alle unabhängig davon, wen sie lieben, welchem Geschlecht oder welchen Geschlechtern sie angehören oder wenn ob sie keinem angehören oder als welche*s sie sich definieren oder noch in der Findungsphase sind, willkommen sind!

Zur Feier des Pride Months werde ich diesen Monat durch meine OCs gehen und das Spotlight auf den einen oder andere LGTB*-Aspekt lenken. Beginnen werde ich mit dem Bild der beiden Sumpf-Tale-Meerjungfrauen, die auch schon meinen Pride-Month-Gruß auf Instagram und Twitter geziert haben. Deren Story war, so denke ich, bereits im Mermay 2020 offensichtlich und so braucht es keiner weiteren Worte: Alles Gute zur Verlobung!

🇬🇧 June is Pride Month. So, me too, I chose to come out and to take my (Pan)Sexuality for granted the same way as heteronormativity has done for itself in centuries.

It should not has to be emphasized but I am mentioning it explicitely: On this website every body is welcome, of course, regardless who they love, which gender or non-gendert hey are or defining themselves or still are in the phase of finding out!

To celebrate Pride Month I will look over my OCs(🇩🇪) and draw the spotlight on the one or another LGTB* aspect, beginning with the two swamp mermaids who already graced my Pride Month greetings on Instagram and Twitter. Their story already was obvious in Mermay 2020(🇩🇪). So, I’ll make it short: Congratulations to engagement!

Digitalzeichnung, Comicstil, dunkles Blau auf beigem Grund: Mermay 2020, Tag 17, Encounter + Swamp - Ein Sumpf, links und rechts festerer Grund mit je einem Baum, rechts sitzt eine Meerjungfrau mit nass, wie Wasserpflanzen, herabhängenden Haaren und einem aalähnlichen Fischschwanz, sie hält eine Seerosenblute in der Hand und schaut nach links zu einem weiblichen Wesen, das eine Mischung zwischen Mensch und Fisch ist, Kiemenbögen an Kopf und Hals sowie an den Ellenbogen angedeutete Schwimmflossen und eine Rückflosse besitzt, die Fischfrau hat große, schwarze, ovale Augen und auf ihrer Hand einen weißen Schmetterling, den sie gerade in Richtung der Meerjungfrau losfliegen lässt

Dies war jedoch nicht meine einzige kreative Arbeit diese Woche. Ein Gutes hat das Ende des Mermays: Ich finde wieder Zeit für andere Untaten!

So habe ich letzten Sonntag wieder an einem IchGebeAuf teilgenommen. Leider ist mein zeichnerischers Fokus letzthin ein wenig von dieser Challenge abgerückt und es ist erst der zweite Beitrag in diesem Jahr. Es war aber sehr verlockend zu zeichnen, welche Poster in meinem Jugendzimmer an der Wand hingen und welche Songs ich gehört (und mitgesungen) habe:

Still, this wasn’t my only creative work this week. If there is one good thing of the end of the Mermay it is that there is time for other shenanigans.

So, I participated in IchGebeAuf(🇩🇪) again. My creative focus slipped away from this changelles some time ago, it’s only the second entry this year. Still, it was tempting to paint which posters hung on the walls of my youth‘ room and which songs I listened to (and sang)*:

*A line of the Pokérap in the German version which translates to: „At least 150 or more to see! To be a Pokémon Master is my destiny!“

Cedrakon gehört natürlich ebenfalls zu den Projekten, die ich nun wieder weiterführen kann. Eigentlich schon während des Mermays, dennoch als kleine Aufwärmübung, habe ich nunmehr die nächsten beiden Seiten des zugehörigen Comics fertiggestellt und werde in aller Kürze auch das Hauptwerk weiterführen.

Of course, Cedrakon(🇩🇪) also is one of those projects I am going to continue now. Actually done during the Mermay nevertheless some kind of a warm-up I finished the next two pages of the Cedrakon-Comic and will continue with the main work in no time.

Denn: Auch das letzte Projekt, das ich mir für Mai, spätesten Anfang Juni, vorgenommen hatte, habe ich inzwischen vollendet. „Saharia – Goddess of the Desert“ – Mein Beitrag für einen Wettbewerb, der von der School of Games auf Instagram ausgeschrieben wurde. Anhand eines Moodboards, das bestimmte Farben, Begriffe und Gegenstände zeigt, ist ein Charakter zu erstellen. Ich rechne nicht damit, irgendwas zu gewinnen, aber es war eine spannende Herausforderung.

Reason being: The last project I planned for May, the beginning of June at the latest, is finished now. „Saharia – Goddess of the Desert“ – My entry to a contest provided by the School Games on Instagram. Following a moodboard which gives you colours, prompt words and items you are going to create a character. I don’t think I’ll win anything but it was an exciting challenge.

Mermay voraus!

Leider komme ich mit Cedrakon schleppender voran, als ich es gehofft hatte, zumal sich ja nun auch bereits der Mermay ankündigt und ich hier bereits in Vorarbeit gehe (hierzu weiter unten mehr). Dennoch will ich mein Versprechen von letzter Woche einlösen und euch mein „drittes Comicprojekt“ (eigentlich ist es das erste und eigentlich sind es bislang nur zwei, eins ist ja schon abgeschlossen) vorstellen:

Bilder 2 und 3 der Cedrakon-Geschichte als englischsprachiger Comic zusammengestellt

Bilder 3 und 4 der Cedrakon-Geschichte als englischsprachiger Comic zusammengestellt

Während ich an der weiteren Übersetzung der Cedrakon-Story saß, fiel mir letzte Woche genanntes Programm zur Erstellung von Comics in die Hände. Eigentlich zuerst nur zur Probe stoppelte ich ein paar Bilder zusammen und versah sie mit Sprechblasen. Im nächsten Moment (err … verteil über zwei Wochen oder so, um genau zu sein und nach der einen oder anderen Änderung) hatte ich die ersten paar Seiten eines Cedrakon-Comics vor mir. Sobald ich die Zeit finde wird er hier wie anderswo auch veröffentlicht. Ihr werdet also rechtzeitig davon erfahren!

Auch die zweite Frage von letzter Woche werde ich nun aufklären (sofern ihr nicht ohnehin bereits Dank Patreon Bescheid wisst), darum hier erneut eine mehr oder weniger spoilerbehaftete Sneak:

Digitalzeichnung, Comicstil, Designkonzept eines Tieres auf hellem Grund: Eine Mischung aus den Dinosauriern Velociraptor und Archaeopteryx (Urvogel) im Sprung, rot-blau-violett schimmernde Federn aufgestellt und ausgebreitet, die Sichelklauen bereit zum Zuschlagen

Instagram watete diese Woche erneut mit einer DTIYS-Challenge auf, die ich diesmal sogar am selben Tag noch fertig bekommen habe. Mit diesen Challenges ist es (leider) so eine Sache. Täglich sehe ich so einige sehr schöne DTIYS und manche beginne ich auch. Wenn ich sie aber nicht am selben Tag fertigstelle … stelle ich sie nie fertig. Zugleich war es eine Gelegenheit, einmal auf die Uhr zu schauen, wie lange ich für solch ein Bild tatsächlich brauchte. Dieses hier hat genau sechs Stunden gedauert. Um 17 Uhr rum hatte ich es begonnen, um 23 Uhr war es fertig:

Digitalzeichnung, Comicstil vor einem dunkelrot gefüllten Kreis auf einem roten/pinken Hintergrund: Eine Frau mit langem, dunkelblau schimmerndem Haar, mit einem Pappbecher in der rechten Hand posierend, mit der linken Hand das V-Zeichen machend. Sie trägt ein rotes, bauchfreies Oberteil mit dünnen Trägern (schwarz, weiße Punkte darauf) und einen roten Rock, der in ihrer Bewegung mitschwingt. Die Kleidung ist ebenso von schwarzem Band mit weißen Punkten eingerahmt und ebensolche Bänder laufen an ihren Armen entlang und um ihren Hals. Unter jedem Auge ist je ein pinker Punkt, sie trägt pinken Lidschatten und pinken Nagellack. Auf ihrem Kopf sitzen zwei blau-grün leuchtende Hörner. Das Leuchten spiegelt sich in ihren Haaren wider.

Den Originalbeitrag findet ihr hier.

Auch das Glas voll Ideen hatte mich diese Woche wieder auf eine Idee gebracht. Godzilla wurde gezogen! Zusammen mit „Zahnbürste“. Das war insofern interessant, als dass ich nicht nur irgendwann selber einen Godzilla-Vorschlag für die Challenge eingereicht hatte, sondern dass wir an dem Tag ebenfalls eine gemeinsame Godzilla-Sichtung mit Austausch über Twitter geplant hatten. Für meine englischsprachige Bubble habe ich zudem auch noch eine englische Version kreiert:

Digitalzeichnung, einfacher Comicstil: Godzilla nach links im Bild gewandt, jedoch nach rechts schauend, statt Rückenplatten hat er Zahnbürstenbürsten auf dem rücken, auf den Schwanzbürsten ist Zahnpasta zu erkennen, er steckt diese King Kong, der hinter ihm steht in den Mund, sodass es schäumt. Vor einem verwaschenen grünblauen Grund, Text: Friss Colgate, Affengesicht!

Digital painting, simple comic style: Godzilla facing left in the picture, head pointing to the right. He's got toothbrush brushes instead of backplates, the brushes on the tail are covered with toothpaste. He is putting the tail with the toothpaste in the mouth of King Kong so it is foaming. In front of a washy blue-green background, Text: Eat toothpaste, monkey face!

Außerdem gibt es Neues zum Mermay. Inzwischen habe ich eine Promptliste gefunden (Instagram, Twitter) und befinde mich nun in der Vorbereitung. Das erste Bild ist sogar schon fertig. Aber nicht zu neugierig sein: Veröffentlicht wird es selbstverständlich erst am 01. Mai!

Trotz aller frühzeitigen Vorbereitung merke ich, dass ich mich mit den Bildern zum Mermay 2021 ranhalten muss. Deshalb überlege ich, die Cedrakon-Pause für Mai, die ich ohnehin geplant hatte, vorzuziehen. Was hoffentlich gleichzeitig heißen wird, dass ich auch vor Ende Mai aus selbiger wieder zurückkehren kann. Aber wie so oft kann ich nichts versprechen oder wenn ich es verspreche, wird es doch anders kommen …

Zumindest schreitet meine kleine Reihe auf Instagram mit dem Rückblick auf die vorherigen Mermays weiter voran. Diese Woche waren die kleine Seehexe und die Begegnung im Sumpf dran:

Texttafel: Old Pictures in New Posts - Part 11: - Mermaid's Edition - ( See them all on: https://zumkritzeleck.com/mermay/ ) The Little Sea Witch Since May is coming and I am already working on my #Mermay2021, I'll continue with my reposts of paintings from previous Mermays. A witch apprentice, a staff and nobody around to keep an eye on her - what possibly could go wrong? She doesn't have got a name yet (any suggestions are welcome) but she already has got the self-confidence of a real sea witch. Her upper body resembles a manta ray, the hat is a squid and the staff itself is a belemnite holding a pearl. Of course, there also is a starfish amulette attached to the choker the manta's head fins form. All in all adding up to a famous quote. Again, I like how the hands and arms turned out, though the storm and the lightning created by the staff could've been done better. Although I already found a prompt list for this year's Mermay, I still have to think of which prompt she will fit best (if I'm going to draw her again at all).

Digitalzeichnung, Comicstil, monochrom Dunkelblau, heller Hintergrund: Eine junge Meerjungfrau mit dem Oberkörper über der Wasseroberfläche, sie hat kurzes, schwarzes Haar und hält einen Stab in die Luft, der aus einem Belemniten besteht, der eine große, leuchtende Perle hält. Licht und Blitze laufen an ihm entlang und er feuert einen großen Blitz in die Luft. Die Augen der Meerjungfrau leuchten weiß, auf ihrem Kopf hat sie als Hut einen Tintenfisch mit Haut zwischen den Armen. Auf ihrem Rücken sind mantarochenartige Flossen wie ein Umhang und dessen Kopfflossen formen ein schwarzes Halsband um ihren Hals. An diesem befestigt ist ein schwarzer Seestern. See und Himmel sind stürmisch, Regen und Blitze füllen die Luft. Text auf Englisch: Concerning Great Powers and Great Responsibilities.

(Instagram-Link)

Texttafel: Old Pictures in New Posts - Part 12: - Mermaid's Edition - ( See them all on: https://zumkritzeleck.com/mermay/ ) Tales from the Swamp A painting I am particular fond of. You may have seen it already in my "Best of 2020" post or on my website. They both doesn't have got names (yet), so they are going under "Swamp Maid" and "Fish Girl" or "Amphibian Maid". Again, I wanted to show friends who are very different. Well ... more than friends, actually. The deep looks they are exchanging are intended. Fish Girl is sending a butterfly to Swam Maid and Swamp Maid offers her a water lily's blossom. Swamp maid has the tail of an electric eel and swamp plant's like hair, Fish Girl is inspired by the creature from the movie "Creature from the Black Lagoon". They both are half fish half woman but in different shapes. I like how "swampy" Swamp Maid actually turned out and I hope with Fish Girl I found the balance between clearly being a "Creature of the Swamp" and yet friendly enough to give the painting a peaceful, harmonic touch. Since I am already working on the #Mermay2021, I definitely can tell that they will reapper in 2021.

(Instagram-Link)