Jennifer Melzer's Blog, page 5

Inktober Day 9: Swing

Also known as “Playdate”, today’s Inktober challenge came out far more mixed media than inky, but I’m not going to cry about it. I am actually really happy with the concept on this one and can’t wait to rework it so everything lines up properly.

I used a Tombow Mono 01 drawing pen and Tombow dualbrush pens to launch this playdate into outer space.

 

Inktober Day Eight: Frail

The word Frail brings to mind old bones, fragile newborns, skinny tree limbs wrapped in ice, and, of course, baby aliens hatching from their eggs.

For this little hatchling, I used Uniball signo gel pens, Sakura Gelly Roll pens, and Tombow dualbrush pens.

Inktober Day 7: Enchanted

It was my progeny who suggested a unicorn when I was wracking my brain in the car this morning, trying to think of what I could create for today’s prompt: Enchanted. Yes, yes, a unicorn. Good idea because unicorns are the actual best, and, honestly, what’s more enchanted than a unicorn (IN SPACE)?

I’m sort of in love with this one, you guys. Like, I’d marry it if marriage to art was an actual thing.

I used a Tombow Mono 01 drawing pen, Uni ball signo gel pens, Sakura Gelly Roll pens, and Tombow dualbrush pens to create this spacey unicorn with balloons.

NaNoWriMo 2019: The Plotting Continues

I’ve been an active participant in NaNoWriMo for over a decade now, but in truth I haven’t finished a novel in several years. Last year, I made it to just over 30,000 words before I lost steam, and I think part of the reason was because I hadn’t fully plotted everything out. I used to be able to write quite a good chunk without a firm plot in place, but these days my brain just doesn’t work that way anymore.

Starting October 1, I’ve been plotting between 2-4 chapters a day on the middle-grade novel I’m hoping to write this November, and the goal is to have the entire thing as mapped out as possible before it’s time to sit down and start writing no November 1.

One of the frustrating things about plotting is that I know it’s all slopping and a lot of what I’ve planned will get altered or washed out entirely once I start writing, but the thing I love is that as I do this, I’m learning so much about the characters I will be writing about, the world they live in, the events that shape their lives. It’s one of the greatest parts of writing for me, personally: the shaping of the world I want to spend time in.

I will post progress updates as I have them, and hopefully I will have a fully plotted novel, beginning to end, to dive into on November 1!

What’s your NaNoWriMo process like these days? You still pantsing your way through thirty days of madness, or are you taking a new approach and plotting? Have you abandoned the meticulous plotting you once allowed to lead you through the words in hopes that a more frivolous approach will get you through to the end? I want to hear about your process if you’re doing NaNoWriMo this year, and how it differs, if at all, from previous years you participated.

Inktober Day 6: Husky

I know there are other meanings to the word husky, and I probably could have tried my hand at those meanings instead, but ever since I was a husky mom to my beloved Loki boi, that word only really has one meaning to me. And recently, one of James’s co-workers adopted a beautiful black and white husky boi, so I thought it was only fitting I send huskies to space again in their burger boi ships.

Inktober Day 5: Build

Build, build, build and all that came to mind at first was buildings, architecture, hammers, nails, and then I started thinking about the one thing I’d like to build if I had even a little bit of know how on the subject: a robot! And I’d be so nice to it, too. I wouldn’t make it do my bidding or clean up after me because that’s how you get robot overlords, you know.

One of the things I have been really enjoying about Inktober is the challenge it poses, driving me to think outside the box and try new techniques I might not have even considered before. It’s been a lot of fun so far, and every day I get excited about what I’m going to create tomorrow.

I used a Tombow Mono 01 drawing pen and an Artist’s Loft 1.0 Illustration pen.

Inktober Day 4: Freeze

I thought about this particular prompt for several days leading up to it, and only just decided this morning to try my hand at a quick sketch of The Night King from Game of Thrones. I mean, really, who is more frozen than that, aside from that disney girl with the braids? I spent about an hour this morning scribbling this out, trying my hand at a few techniques I was interested to test out for the first time, and though it’s a little on the sloppy side, I’m not sad about how it came out.

I used a Tombow Mono 01 drawing pen and Tombow dualbrush pen 451  for the eyes.

Flashy Friday: Esmerelda’s Promise

The seven watched the child approach the ancient stone of a great-grandmother she’d only ever heard stories of. Spectral hands bound before them, they knew not what to expect, but they remembered Esmerelda’s promise. One day, her issue would arrive to set them free and the debt between them would be paid.


 


They’d waited for the girl to come, though they did not know how long. Time was meaningless, all moments blurring into each other from one to the next, but they got the impression it had been an age, maybe longer, since Esmerelda made her vow.


 


The girl knelt before the tilted stone, reached out with careful fingers and began plucking errant tangles of ivy away and casting them over her shoulder. They swept in closer to hear the words she muttered so quietly, but they couldn’t get near. There was a barrier around the girl, a protective boundary they were unable to cross.


 


“We will wait,” Esu Egha told the others. “We will wait until she speaks the words, and when we are free we’ll tear her apart.”


 


The others said nothing, their hollow gazes trained on their potential salvation. So long, they had waited, lifetime after lifetime, surely. Soon they would be free, and they would devour the girl. Oh yes, they would tear her apart.


 


“Thank you, Esmerelda Grandmother. Thank you for protecting us from the spirits generation after generation. We will honor your memory, always. We will never set the spirits free.”


 


Reaching into her pouch, she brought forth a small, wilted plant and laid it gently beside the stone. She took out a sickle and began carving in the dirt, digging deeper and deeper until she had a whole deep enough to submerge the roots. Replacing the dirt over them, the leaves hung in desperation. She poured water from her skin over the dirt, emptying the contents before drawing the string closed and pushing off her knees.


 


Standing, she looked around the cemetery, the spirits watching every move in desperate anticipation. Any moment, she would speak the words, set them free, and they would feast. Esmerelda made a promise, and her heirs were meant to fulfill it. She owed them, and they would claim their due.


 


But without even looking in their direction, the girl brushed off her skirts and began walking out of the cemetery. She never glanced their way, or even looked back, especially not when the enraged howls of the seven latched onto a bitter wind and clanged the iron gates in their fury.

Inktober Day Three: BAIT

I have always been fascinated by angler fish, intrigued by the idea of them luring their prey into a seemingly cozy space only to gobble them up, so when I saw the prompt for today, I already knew what I wanted to try.

And, of course, since it’s me, I had to put this fish in space, which, in truth is an even more terrifying concept if I think too hard about it. Unsuspecting ships drawn toward the light and possible safe haven out there among the lonely stars only to find themselves face to face with doom.

Something with that kind of patience, playing the long game… I imagine it’d be damn near impossible to get away.

I used a Tombow Mono 01 drawing pen, Uni ball signo gel pens, Sakura Gelly Roll pens, and Tombow dualbrush pens to create this spacey angler fish.

Inktober Day 2: MINDLESS

Inktober Day 2 presented something of a challenge when I started thinking about it. What was mindlessness to me, and how could I capture it artistically without words? There were plenty of obvious representations as I started thinking it through. Hollow faces missing their brains, absentminded activities, but in truth the thing I kept coming back to The Robot from the recent “Lost in Space” reboot. What is seemingly more mindless than a robot that has been programmed to carry out orders and can’t think for itself?

I tend to think of robots and artificial intelligence differently in most situations. I’m a sympathizer and don’t think of them as mindless, soulless creations. I like to imagine that somewhere between the 0s and 1s that make up their coding, there are soul strands weaving through the intelligent matrix of their designs.

I used a Tombow Mono 01 drawing pen, Uni ball signo gel pens, and Tombow dualbrush pens to create this Mindless robot.