Today’s sketch: Krampus!
I drew this back in 2017 to play with shadows and composition.
Now this is available on my shop – $10, free shipping during September!
Check it out at kelcidcrawford.storenvy.com.
This is part of a celebration I’m doing called Sketchtember. Everyday this month I’ll post a new sketch for sale on Storenvy. Each sketch will be $10 (with free shipping). So support an indie artist and the post office!
The Woman of the Woods is a character I created for Rosetta and the Swan, my retelling of Swan Lake. (The version I’m working on is set around a fictional equivalent of the Baltic Sea. Also it’s the prince who is turned into a swan).
In my retelling of the story, the Woman of the Woods is one of many countless wise women who reside in The Woods. The Woods themselves are enormous and ancient. The people who live in Rosetta’s kingdom know of ONE Woman of the Woods – the one pictured above. She is hardly ever seen in her human form. Usually she is only spotted as a bear.
However, this particular Woman of the Woods has close ties to the royal family. And it’s she who blesses Rosetta with the ability to talk to animals.
All of this is to say…she’s available as a hi-resolution download. Check it out either on Patreon or Ko-Fi (she’s available for download on both platforms).
Thank you for reading!
You. Are. Awesome.
If you’re a fan of Neil Gaiman’s book, American Gods, like I am, then you know why this piece is called “I Am The Land.” If you haven’t read the book (or read the comic, or seen the TV show) yet, you should fix that. Like, ASAP.
American Gods is one of those books that shook me when I first read it. Every time I re-read it, I discover something new about it. It’s dream-like and jarring yet also grounded (in the sense that the god characters act like people and not like high-concept “I am above petty emotions” personalities. Zack Snyder should learn a thing or two from this book).
One of the recurring characters in American Gods is a man with a buffalo head. He doesn’t outright murder anyone in the book. However, when I got the idea for this piece of art, I finished a section of the comic book adaptation of the novel – specifically, the section about Vikings landing in Canada and killing a Native American, and then the Natives killing every Viking in retaliation. Yes, the account is fiction, but there’s an element of truth to it, to the idea that America is a land stained in blood.
That’s why I made this piece.
This was drawn with my trusty mechanical pencil and Pentel Brush Sign Pen, with colors by my Copic markers. The background color was done with a Kuretake Zig Clean Color FB brush pen. It’s dying out a little though, so I’ll need to replace it soon.
Soon this will be a print measuring 11×17 inches. When it’s in the shop, I’ll announce it on the email newsletter first. It’s going to be a limited print run, though, so because of that, it’ll be a little more than just $10.
Thank you for reading!
You. Are. Awesome.
“Hold on a second,” you might be thinking. “You just had a KickStarter campaign, and you’re running another one so soon?”
Yes – the previous KickStarter was to get funding for Validation buttons, to have something for sale at conventions. That KickStarter ran in June for a week and raised just a little over $800 (holy banana pants!). Since that campaign was so short, the rewards were not super hard to fulfill. In fact, all the rewards for the backers are taken care of for that campaign.
I like to make sure loose ends are tied up before moving to the next KickStarter, thank you.
So, with previous campaigns taken care of, I’ve launched a new one: Witches: The Sketchbook is looking for $500 to get its first print-run going.
Witches: The Sketchbook is a compilation of sketches I made during Inktober, featuring nothing but witches. Why? Well, in promotional posts on KickStarter I say “because I love witches” and leave it at that. But there’s a little more to it than that.
The reason I drew witches is not just out of a fascination for them, but because as a Pagan person, I like seeing witches of all stripes and backgrounds. There’s not much representation of witches, Wiccas, neo-pagans, or the other branches of Paganism in art unless they’re super-sexy or the Macbeth variety of wrinkled cautionary witches.
I wanted to see something different – witches rooted in the old Gaelic traditions, witches of African descent, witches that could spring from old lore, modern-day witches, and witches of other backgrounds. And my method is usually, “Huh. I can’t seem to find anything like that. Time to draw it myself!”
There was also the desire to have a book of character designs and concept art, because I love those types of books and wanted to make one of my own. And a book of witch concepts is a good place to start, I think.
The KickStarter is still running – in fact, it has 11 days left in the campaign and ends on November 21st. Check it out and see what you would like. (Also there’s a ton of original sketches left to claim and they’re priced reasonably well, so be sure to get those before they run out).
If you can pledge, that’s fantastic! If you’re broke, please share the link with your friends. Every bit helps.
That’s all for now. Thank you for reading!
You. Are. Awesome.
Today’s Feature is on a lovely artist I first met at Swarm Con, Lea Faske. She’s currently a student at the Savannah College of Art and Design, and she’s made quite a few comics already, including a short comic for the anthology Game Boss: The Final Form.
I got to ask her a few questions about her art and inspirations, and the answers are highlighted below.
Your portfolio is impressive, and has concept art, comics, and illustrations. Do you prefer one outlet over another? Does your work in one area, like illustration, influence you in another area, like comics? Or do you keep the practices separate?
It’s hard for me to distinguish which outlet I enjoy best, since they all satisfy different creative needs. I guess one way of putting it is I tend to look at all of them as separate components to a larger idea. Usually, in my personal work, every piece is linked to a story. The concept art establishes a firm look for the idea, then the illustrations pull out the emotions, and then the comics tell the full story. It’s like they go hand in hand. (I guess that answers if one area influences another, haha.) In all, the story is the priority, so comics might have an upper hand on the other outlets, even though I’ve only ever started making comics within the past two years.
I saw on your website you draw inspiration from fantasy. Do you find over time that you are still inspired by the genre? Has your enthusiasm for it grown, lessened, or stayed the same? Are you also inspired by other genres? How?
Fantasy is such a broad term. I would say that I’ve always been a little disenchanted with high-fantasy (dragons, medieval settings, fairies, elves, wizards, etc.); on the other hand, original fantasy, with new worlds and rules that don’t apply in real life, is where I find my niche. Nothing inspires me more than a concept that twists the rules in a way I’ve never considered before (slyly winks at Neil Gaiman’s Ocean at the End of the Lane). Final Fantasy, for instance, has its own unique voice in the genre. That’s the kind of fantasy I draw inspiration from: new, unique ideas. Usually, though, when I apply fantasy to my own work, it leans more towards low-fantasy. Aside from that, I can find myself inspired by any genre, as long as the storytelling is strong.
I also saw on your Tumblr that you’re planning a new webcomic. Is this true? What can you tell us about it?
Yes! I am planning a new webcomic. The script is already written, but I’ve recently had a few ideas, so I’ll need to revise a little before I just throw the pages to the internet wolves. It has a set ending, so if everything goes as planned, I’m looking at anywhere between 1-2 years of updates before ultimately collecting the pages into a novel.
As far as what I can tell you without spoilers, the story is called “Neauva.” It starts at the end of the universe, where the mind/soul of a 13-year-old girl clings to her last physical atom and tries everything she can to escape the black hole that seeks to devour her.
You can also find her work on her website.
Thanks for reading!
