Archie Lake Darling, ink & digital
I finished the black and white portion of this picture I’m working on, based on a photo of my dog at Lake Darling State Park in November of 2024. All but the sky is done with ink on paper, and I got a lot of satisfaction playing with various sizes and types of pen.
(I’ve been meaning to keep better track of how long these pieces take to make. The complete drawing - including the rough blue pencil sketch and all the inking - took 6 hours.)
Sky detail
After scanning this, I worked on my PC using the software GIMP to stitch it together (my scanner is only big enough for letter sized pages, so anything bigger needs to be scanned in parts), and adjust the levels. I then exported this nice, clean scan of my inks and imported into the Krita software on my Samsung tablet, where I digitally painted the sky and then applied a filter to give the sky that comic book/magazine/newspaper halftone effect. It’s hard to explain exactly why I really want this aesthetic, but I think part of it is that I love working with black ink, and when you’re working with just black, any grey tones have to be accomplished by patterns of black and white.
(This is where I stopped keeping such good track of the time spent on the project, but I estimate it was about 45 minutes scanning/stitching/adjusting, and then about an hour on the digital sky.)
I plan to do a digitally-colored version, as with a number of previous works, though - as always - the straight-up black and white version has a particular appeal to me. With the greater contrast, it’s like I feel all the textures so much more with my eyes.
A few years ago, I discovered a black and white indie comic from the 80s called The Puma Blues, which takes place in a near-future world where human civilization is crumbling, and the natural world is changing and adapting. It’s kind of a bleak story when you think about it, but also the contemplative pace and beautiful wildlife drawings made me fall in love with it, and it has had an influence on the way I draw nature.
A page from The Puma Blues #5, written by Stephen Murphy and drawn by Michael Zulli
Thanks for reading - or skimming - my newsletter. They won’t always be this long, but when I hit certain milestones in something I’m working on, I might find myself with a lot to say about the process.