A few years ago I created a little character, digitally, called “Lil Miss Death.” I loved her, but wasn’t sure what to do with her. So now I’ve returned to her, but with my latest pen & moleskine obsession. I’m going to try drawing her some more from time to time. I adore her to death (pun intended).

A little over a week ago I posted five of my Screaming Animal illos, which were inspired by a little Twitter meme a cartoonist started. Well, turns out drawing screaming animals is addicting! So here are five more!

It all started on Twitter.

I have a twitter account, which you can find right here, and just a few days ago one of the people I follow changed their avatar to a screaming bunny and posted about it with the trending topic #screamingrabbitavatar. I was instantly intrigued when I saw others were following suit. I wanted in. So I drew my own Screaming bunny and put it up.

When some friends saw it they started to suggest some other screaming animals for fun which started my obsession. I had to draw more and more screaming animals!

Why are they screaming? Why not? It’s just too much fun! And I can’t promise that I’ll stop here. I’m sure I’ll come up with more of them soon!

I love Facebook. I really do. It’s helped me get back in touch with people in a way I never would have been able to before - especially considering I live thousands of miles away from most of them. I’m so thankful I’m able to have the contact through facebook that I do with my sisters and my niece. It allows me to keep track of their lives, filling that hole in my heart that comes with living so far from those you love.

But it’s also gotten me back in touch with some old high school friends who are so worth keeping in touch with. One being my friend, Diba. We’ve been friends since middle school. I think, however, that we got closer AFTER high school ended. And then, of course, I had to pick up and move to Sweden. Bah! Shame, because she’s the type of person you want to have as a friend forever. But, anyway, I’m back in touch with her on FB, which is so great! She’ll be visiting me though (as soon as I give her the go ahead), and that’s going to be AWESOME. I can’t wait to see her! And she just recently asked me to draw a cartoon version of her. So I used my time this evening to do just that, which you can see above.

Fortunately, she loves it! Which is a huge relief. I always get nervous when I’m going to draw likenesses of people. Usually, though, it tends to work out.

There is some illustration work near the end of this post, I just wanted to talk about something first…

You all know how I’m a digital artist first and foremost. I don’t really do much that isn’t digital. It’s just where I’m most comfortable. It’s where I got my start and what I’m most familiar with. And of course it’s so easy to drown yourself in familiarity.

Not that I haven’t ever drawn on paper. It’s just extremely rare since I find it entirely intimidating. Maybe drawing with pencil isn’t so scary, but when it comes to the inking, it frightens the heck outta me. I don’t have the steadiest hand, and I panic and make mistakes. I know that mistakes are good and you learn from them. I guess that’s my biggest and probably most irrational fear - that I WON’T get better and I’ll find out that I’m just a big phony and can’t actually do any of this.

Some years ago I drew a series of faeries on paper in pencil. I used Victoria Secret models as my models for the “bodies.” I was really pleased with them. I scanned them and put them up on “Elfwood,” a fantasy-art site. I got a lot of slack for not inking them, but I never dared to ink them for fear of ruining my beauties. I think I HAVE to scan them in and put them up later this week just so you can see.

Everyone’s going to be yelling “but you just HAVE to PRACTICE” at me and I know they’re right. I’m just a big ‘ole chicken.

That being said, I have decided I really want to give it a go this summer. I wish I could take an art class to learn pencil and inking techniques, but it’s not feasible right now. But I’m going to look into it for the spring.

Man I wish that I had figured out what I really wanted to do when I went to college, and did a graphic design degree instead of a Comp Sci one. *sigh*

Anyway, before I go on and show what I’ve been working on, I have a question for the other artists out there. What kind of pen do you use to ink? I need to know what specific TYPES of pens you use, since brand names mean nothing (since I probably don’t have the same brands here), and also because I haven’t a clue. Felt tips? markers? I have no idea!! And what is this “Indian ink” I read about?

Okay, onto the fun bit. So I decided to do a little fun sketch on paper in pencil and do the rest digitally, just to see what I could do. So here’s the original drawing scanned in:

Once I scanned it in I decided to do some “digital inking” in photoshop. I’ve never done this before. I draw everything directly in illustrator. I decided to give it a two-toned style (if that’s what you’d call it…)

I had a lot of trouble figuring out what to do with the eyes on that one. I think it’s obvious, because they look odd. Anyway, then I decided to do it in color:

The coloring really isn’t anything new for me, since I do that often. Not to mention the coloring is fairly simple too. But it was fun to color something I originally drew on paper.

I like it for the fact that it was the first time I tried something like this. What I don’t like is that the lines just aren’t smooth enough. I know a lot of people who use this methon and their lines are slick as anything. I’m wondering if maybe I should have scanned in the image to a much bigger resolution than I did (it was already big, but still…), so that when I inked it and shrunk it down, it would have come out smoother.

Now I just wish I could do that kind of inking on paper.

created completely in Photoshop

I did the illustration in color, which I think turned out pretty cool, but then I started to play around with it. And when I got to the one above I just stopped and thought “This is it!” It makes me think of the Wizard of Oz, when the tornado was coming to get Dorothy’s house.

I’ve always been intensely fascinated by tornadoes. So much that they have been popping into my dreams quite often for as long as I can remember. The most recent one was 2 nights ago. In that particular dream I it was approaching me on my walk to the subway, and the sky was a bright pink and purple. And I remember running around trying to gather up everyone I loved. I don’t quite remember what happens after, though. Anyway, that’s why I decided to do this illo.

I’ve never seen one in real life. I’m from New Jersey and we don’t have them there. It happens, but very rarely. And here, in Sweden, even less so. I am grateful for that, they are very frightening! But I really would love to see one… from a safe distance of course In the meantime, I can watch extremely cool videos of them, like this one. I realize they cause terrible destruction and ruin lives, of course. But you can’t deny that nature is sometimes most captivating to watch (from afar) when it’s at its most destructive.