Featured Creature: I Struggle Against Fate

This piece was done in an experimental style I developed when I worked at Kinko's.  I began using it when I discovered that bright yellow generally doesn't photocopy well or at all.  Specifically, I'm talking about neon yellow, but a bright yellow sharpie will do the trick.

I use the yellow to do the sketching and underdrawing, much like using nonphoto blue for pencilling comics. The first time I drew with this method, I used a black sharpie on top of the yellow and it became a weird green that did not copy evenly.  The process of copying operates on levels of contrast so I thought I would go for greatest constrast with color and used the purple sharpie over the yellow.  It worked like a charm.

The finished drawings done in this method have a strange electric visual with the contrasting colors, but as you can see, they copy to solid black nicely.  When I was drawing this piece, I only had a fine point purple sharpie with me so I finished off the large fill areas with the wide point black sharpie I had with me.  Luckily it didn't cross over any heavy yellow and reproduced okay.

I have several drawings I created with this process that have a very different feel to them due to the change of process.  There is a comfort of movement and a confidence not present in my other works.  I find that I feel more free in the foundation portion of the drawing because the yellow generally won't show in reproduction.  This is actually the second piece in this style since I began doing the weekly Featured Creature.  The first was Autumn Winds. 

This piece is my reaction to the ever decreasing circle of possibility around me over the past two years.  Lately it has really felt like the universe is out to get me.  November was one energy draining crisis after another.  I'm exhausted and angry and feeling hopeless and from what I can see the storms not letting up anytime soon.  This image is pretty much how I feel at the moment.  On a stylistic note, I didn't much care for the curly bits as soon as I added them.  It seemed like a good idea within the moment, but as soon as I started in on them, I didn't like them.  Luckily, Photoshop is forgiving of such sins.

 
{Sharpie with tones added in Adobe Photoshop}