Landscape/figure drawing with rat on it.

[Socar MYLES]

I said I'd come and post here, so I am.

http://www.rattysghost.com/images/rainn2.jpg

http://www.rattysghost.com/images/rainn2detail.jpg

http://www.rattysghost.com/images/rainn2detail2.jpg

This is my contribution to next year's RAINN calendar. I did another one before, but I had the wrong dimensions, so I had to do it again. (Old version: http://www.rattysghost.com/images/rainn.jpg). The new version is better. That almost never happens. Redos usually suck.

Possibly useful information:

Ink: Winsor & Newton peat brown and black (mixed together to make a "warm" black).
Paper: Canson mi-teintes, in Sand.
Pen: I have no idea. Whatever you can get for eighty-five cents from Curry's.
Scanner: Awful. Sorry.

[El Dodo]

Very well detailed and balanced, I really like it :teeth: . It would look great with some watercolor or similar coloring.

[angel of light]

I agree, this would look marvelous i think with water colour. pics cool without it though.

[CaptainInsano]

:^^;: Wow! Color it and you got something really tight!

[thebluepuppy]

lol... you crazy old lady ... your site has been down for like months...?....nice stuff. cool to see that your posting here! :wink:

[el norteno]

beautiful line work

[Blitz]

Oh my god
SOCAR
you know..I tried emailing you a couple of days ago but it wouldnt go through.
Man its awesome to see your art again and you still kicken about the web.

This image is great. Lots of detail to get into.
Did you go right to it with the pen or did you start with a pencil?

[jeromoo]

Wow, its a great ink drawing!! I like both versions! Reminds me a bit of Brian Froud minus the colours. May I ask how long did you take to finish it?

[Socar MYLES]

Thanks for the nice replies, guys. :)

jeromoo - I can't remember exactly how long it took. I'd estimate about 4 full workdays to finish the original version (which is 12" x 16"), and 3 to finish the new one, which is a bit smaller (12" x 9"). There were quite a few preliminary sketches involved, though, so the whole time wasn't spent on the final products.

Blitz - Yeah, I seem to be having e-mail problems lately. I don't know why. My host doesn't know why either. It's starting to piss me off. Sorry about that. Anyhow, glad you like the drawing! I used a pencil first for the general lines, although I didn't bother drawing in all the tiny details in advance.

el norteno - Thanks! :)

thebluepuppy - Yeah, I know. As soon as my health improves, I'll put my site back up.

ParkerD, angel of light, El Dodo - Glad you like it. Colouring it wouldn't be practical at this point, though--it's done in water soluble inks, so putting paint over it would smudge and ruin the lines. Besides, it was intended as a drawing, not a painting.

[Danilo]

Great, I like it a lot <3

[Kress]

I adore this kind of work. 70's might have been more culminative than we think.
Have you ever seen Wizards?

[DernierCri]

color color color color !!!
I both of them are awesome, but I like the one with the wrong dimensions better. anyway don't mind my :blahblah:

[Meren]

What a beautiful drawing!
And those inks are very precise. I like it a lot the way it is.

[Jason Manley]

very very nicely done. no crit from me...just kudos.


j

[P E N Ricklund]

Great :D

All those tiny details... <3
Will you highlight it like you did with the first rainn you did?

[Kaoki]

beautiful linework socar.
very elegant as always



ps. who is "roger"? :)

[jdinx]

wow this is GREAT work! a little of the magic that beatrix potter and arthur rackham had in their line work. beautifully done.

jD

[Socar MYLES]

jdinx - I'm a big Rackham fan--I only hope to aspire to that standard some day. I like a lot of those older illustrators, as well as masters like Durer and da Vinci. All those guys had a certain confidence in their work, which is impossible to fake.

Kaoki - Thanks very much. As for Roger, you wouldn't know him. He's not an artist, or anything. He's just one of nature's colossal flub-ups. Like if a platypus had feet like a goat, or something. Yikes.

Pencilator - Thanks. I'm not adding any highlights, because I'm out of white at the moment. I planned for that, though. I think it can survive without it.

Jason Manley - Thanks very much. Crits are great (especially when your sales suck as hard as mine do--there's got to be a good reason for that!), but praise is nice as well.

Meren - Thank you! It's funny...for ages, I was working on loosening up, and now I'm working on getting everything back in place again. Ha, ha.

DernierCri - Ha, ha--does nobody like b/w any more? Glad you like them anyway, though. :)

Kress - Wizards? What...Wizards of the Coast? I'm sorry. I don't think I am familiar with this. Is it a book? Now, I'm curious.

Danilo - Thanks very much! :)

[Jogle]

Awesome piece,beautifully detailed and great job on the composition. You may want to try using Ebay to get yourself a good rapidograph pen set. I won a set for under $22 and that includes shipping costs (at least $60-80 in most art stores).

[Pavel Sokov]

fucking intense detail and composition!
ur great with nature life such as flowers and trees.. amazing stuff man.

[se7en_]

Excellent details, composition and line work. Post some more..

[dogfood]

So happy to see you posting here. One of my favorite aspects of this is just how strong the elements around the perimeter are, then the delicate foray into the center. You'll normally find the focal point along the strength, but it's wonderful how the contrast between the strong line work and the delicate flowing tendrils gives the negative space so much importance.

Sweet.

[glikster]

this is beautiful. Just... wow. What everyone said...
I'm in love....

[S.C. Watson]

I love this type of stuff. Your pen work is excellent - this piece reminds me very much of something from the Craftsmen/Art Deco era, almost like a greeting card (that's not meant to diminish the piece at all).

While the piece is pen and ink on colored paper, it would still be fun to see if you could scan it and do some light color washes over it photoshop, but certainly not necessary.

I love the rat :tihi:

Cheers,
~Shane