Saturday, January 5, 2019

3 Years of Ink

Outside of digital art, I really enjoy pen and ink drawing. I usually make October Playlist official posts on this blog, so here are some of my favourite non-October pieces from 2016 - 2018:

2016
Left to right:
To Be Alive - Puppet
4ware - deadmau5
Tis the Season to be AUGHFHFHHFHFFF - Spor, Kill the Noise

Drawing in ink everyday was so fun in October that I attempted it again for December, only this time focusing on using colour. I only got to day 13... :'D

2017
Inspiration
(Inspired by the Juxtapoz x Superflat exhibit at the Vancouver Art Gallery)

I drew this shortly after seeing a Black Sun Empire x The Upbeats show at The Red Room. Favourite Vancouver venue with two of my favourite dnb artists made one heck of memorable night. 

Viewpoint - Mystic State, Lucy Kitchen
Under the Sunshine - Bensley
Thirsty - Ivy Lab

Under the Sunshine took almost a week to complete. I almost scrapped the piece multiple times because the infrared-like shading was causing my brain to explode but after a couple days the piece started to come together. The inspiration came from me feeling sassy walking on my way to work while listening to the tune.

2018
Medallion - Chee
Blowfish - Culprate, Skope
Full Hearts - Pegboard Nerds, Knife Party, Dion Timmer, (Monstercat)

Creating human characters with musical influences became a passion project of this year. I wanted to explore fashion takes on some of my favourite tunes:

Smog - Droptek, Vorso
Bandit - KUURO
Punks - The Upbeats

"The Bandit Girl", as the gray hoodie female character is nicknamed, first appeared on KUURO's single "Bandit". Since then I've drawn her a few more times:

Her monstrous hair is fun to draw :P Not sure if she'll ever get an official name...

The Punks boi, however, did get an official name because I ended up loving how his design turned out:

His name is Fangs. So far, all I know about him is that he loves dad jokes and puns.

Visor - Holly, Former
Death Don't Always Taste Good - Ivy Lab

Visor and the Ivy Lab girl (officially named Amber) are Fangs' close friends. Visor's dry sense of humour, incredible poker face, and intense preference for drinking beverages with silly straws go hand-in-hand with Fangs' jocular nature. The two of them together are a maelstrom of terrible jokes and obnoxious, nonsensical conversations.
Amber is the polar opposite of Fangs and Visor, being the serious, silent type. Fangs puts Amber's patience to the test but she actually finds him and Visor amusing enough to stick around and listen to. She's probably the only reason people take Fangs and Visor seriously.


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My brother, his fiancee, her sister, and I traveled to Japan at the end of August. The trip was incredible and filled with inspiration left and right!! One evening I decided to hang out in the lobby of our hotel and draw a few characters. This was the result.

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I wonder what kind of ideas will fill my sketchbook in 2019? :)

October Playlist 2018

Fifth year in a row doing an October Playlist! For the previous years go here: 2013 / 2014 / 2015 / 2016 / 2017 . I couldn't finish this year's list (my brain fried towards the end of the month), so I'm including the Pre-October piece and the sad blank page post on the last day. These can all be found on my Instagram:

Left to right:
[PRE-OCTOBER] The Sirens - Mefjus
Hideous - Clockvice
Sympathy Mutant - Former

Bitter - Halogenix
Shibuya Pet Store - The Upbeats & Noisia
Arrows - Icicle

Kraken - Knife Party
The X - Xilent
Raider - Numatic

XILLA! - MEMBA
Bricks Don't Roll - DJ Hazard
Half Makes Whole - Emperor

Muskox - Mefjus
Outsiders - Muzzy, Charlotte Haining
Crisis - Vorso

These Eyes - Signal
Midnight - Chee
For Sudden - Deft

Ember - Camo & Krooked
Innermost - Technimatic
Shadowing - Tinlicker

Standing on the Shoulders of Giants - Joe Ford
Raw Data - Eprom
Calculate - Ivy Lab

Deface - Razlom
Mordez Moi - Feed Me
Monsters - Teddy Killerz

Vantablack - Dirtyphonics, Sullivan King
Breakout - Noisestorm, Foreign Beggars
Shellshock - Noisia, Foreign Beggars

The Blank Page - Me not finishing on time

You can also listen to this playlist! (Missing Raider - Numatic)

Again, MASSIVE shoutout to all the incredible artists behind these tracks and to everyone who followed the playlist this year! <3