I've been doing some scene illustrations from Diana Wynne Jones' wonderful Charmed Life for my black and white portfolio, and wanted to do some practice with my grey ecoline before putting brush to paper on a more complete and complicated linework (I'm always slightly freaked out by the properties of ecoline, and feel the need to practice with them if I haven't used them for a while, in case I have forgotten something vital and thus mess everything up irretrievably.) I've been doing some character sketches in my sketchbook while out and about, so I worked one of them up into an ink and ecoline sketch. So here is Millie, Chrestomanci's wife:
They were ushered in front of a plump lady with a mild face. She had a gorgeous lace dress on – Gwendolen's eyes swept up and down it with considerable awe – but otherwise she was one of the most ordinary ladies they had ever seen.
I didn't see any mention of her having a pet cat in the book itself, but my hazy recollection of one of the other books in the series tells me that she had a lot to do with cats when she was young, she she does carry the cat Fiddle at one point in Charmed Life. Anyway, I need cat practice.
I gave the whole thing a digital teal wash so I could use it for Colour Collective on Twitter. If I'd had teal ecoline I could have done it in colour initially, but I'm not even sure there is such a thing as teal ecoline... I don't have any, anyway! I have a basic set of Ecoline, and some extra grey, as I usually use it for greyscale images only.
And here's a sneak peek at the linework for the finished piece I'm about to paint. This photo was taken a few days ago, when I hadn't finished the inking, but overall it's a more interesting picture, being an actual illustration, than the above straight character portrait.
Pentel Brush Pen and Copic Multiliners with Cold Grey Ecoline and Copic Opaque White in a Moleskine Watercolour Sketchbook.
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