The Sword in the Stone (Daily Marker #207)

I've mentioned a few times my desire to do more thought out and detailed pieces. I haven't really done many of those since the end of the last Inktober. Much of the problem is due to time, both not much time in the evening to give to drawing and not taking much time to do the planning, studies, and other prep work. The gap between thought and action can be a bit big with me.

I was able to act on one of my intended illustration ideas: the Sword in the Stone. It's a pretty classic image for illustrations, so it was a challenge to try to create a slightly unique take on it. I did bug a friend of mine who is more versed in Arthurian legends for suggestions regarding the sword and whether to include the anvil or not. I hope I was able to give a slightly unique take on the anvil-sword combo by having the anvil wedged into the stone instead of just on top of it.

Since I was drawing this on the artist tiles, I started with one of my colored mechanical pencils for the rough sketch. I then inked it with a brown 0.1 Copic Multiliner. I attempted some hatching in the crevice shadows and on the sword pommel, the blade,  and end of the guard.

I then followed with the marker coloring. I began with the stone, using a blend various browns (Es in Copic labeling), starting with the darker colors and then going over with the lightest brown to have relatively soft blending. The crevice's shadow was colored in dark browns. I then worked on the brass/gold of the pommel and guard with a mix of yellows and yellow-reds. The blade was next and colored with mix of warm greys. The anvil was last, and started with some of the rust textures in browns before going over them with various cold greys, light to dark to reflect the changes in surfaces and fall into shadows. Last, I went over the picture with a white gel pen to add some highlights.

And that's it. The first of what I hope will be many more illustrations.

Daily Marker Challenge: 201-206, Lots of Knots

When I don't want to think too hard about what to draw, I will pick a pattern/theme and stick with it. This week that theme turned out to be Celtic knots and spirals. I first learned how to draw Celtic knots and spirals in high school, but they are are pretty technical and easy for me to forget how to do if I haven't done some in a while. Thankfully, I found my two books on drawing them, and largely drew upon Draw Your Own Celtic Designs by David James and Victor Gonzalez to refresh my skills. Thank goodness for compasses, guides, and rulers. I still freehand the final designs, but the skeletons of each was drawn with help. It makes things so much easier.