Mixed Media Experimentation

I just started reading the book Werewolves by Alice Carr, the found journal of a girl documenting the weeks following the attack on her and her brother by wolves.  It's actually by a Paul Jessup and illustrated by Allyson Haller, (whose other work I'll go check out now.)  The writing's not bad, but it's not great. It just comes across a bit forced when trying to get plot details across while still trying to be a journal.  The art is what caught my eye.  It's mixed media with mostly charcoal and inkwash with some ballpoint pen and other mediums fixed in.  The style is also mixed, with doodles juxtaposed with realistic drawings of people.

Well, this got me wanted to do some traditional work, particular bunnies and werewolves, both of which show up in the book.  I've been mostly doing digital, so I figured an afternoon of smearing charcoal might be fun.  I found my charcoal pencils (sans the extra-soft) and all my inking supplies, but I think Oni still has my ink bottle and she's in Texas, so I found a Crayola watercolor set.

This is a bit different than what I'd originally envisioned.  I'm going to just consider this a sketch and do the version I wanted once I get a new bottle of black ink.  I really think I want to do some inkwash paintings, maybe even for class.  I'm fond of the Burton-esque tree though, I might have to incorporate it in a future piece.

Then, I was going to do a Dia de Los Muertos picture, but when I went looking for stock photos of a face, I came across a pose I liked by PoorSouls-stock.  It wasn't the pose so much as the subtle expression and messy hair, but I wanted to try a stylized version of it.  Here is a WiP.  This isn't finished.  I really need to figure out a way to clean up scanned in pencils to make nice lineart.  My sketchbook has yellowish paper so trying to get rid of blue lines results in a dirty mess.

This isn't finished, though I think I'll keep it mostly flat.

Then I tried playing with some filters and got this effect, which I think could be interesting.

None of these are done, just showing what I've been up to this afternoon (besides a few chores.)