Portrait of a Wizard with Birds

 

"I am Usidore!

 Wizard of the 12th Realm of Ephysiyies,

Master of Light and Shadow,

Manipulator of Magical Delights,

Devourer of Chaos,

Champion of the Great Halls of Terr’akkas.

The elves know me as Fi’ang Yalok.

The dwarves know me as Zoenen Hoogstandjes.

And I am also known in the Northeast as Gaismunēnas Meistar..."
-Usidore the Blue; Hello from the Magic Tavern

 

 This was the last painting of 2021. I named it "Portrait of a Wizard with Birds" and it was made with watercolour and gouache on paper. 

This piece was inspired by Usidore the Blue a wizard played by Matt Young on the podcast named Hello from the Magic Tavern. Usidore himself has a twitter account in which he interact with fans and said this about the painting:

HOW DID I NOT SPOT THEE AS THOU PAINTED US!?

That... MADE MY DAY! It was an incredible experience to have a character react to something I created! Godspeed to the people at that podcast!

Unicorn Adventurer

 

"The secrets of this forest
The ride of unicorns
Are treasures of these valleys
Where freedom has its throne"
-Rhapsody's Forest Of Unicorns

October Inks 2021 I

XIV Beware the Alocasia Bush! 10cm x 10cm
XIII Witch Cat 11cm x 11cm
XII Box of Semi-Toxic assorted Mushrooms on sale! 5cm x 5cm
XI "Ah, there she goes!..." 13cm x 18cm
X Caravan Camel 14cm x 15cm
IX Powerful Penguin 11cm x 8cm
VIII Monstrous Manticore 10cm x 11cm
VII Number 1 Witch 8cm x 8cm
VI -Can you let me out? 19cm x 12.9cm
V "Shelley's Ozymandias" 10cm x 12cm
IV A Witch Strolls 15.3cm x 15.3cm
III Pumpkin Scream in the Dead of Night 22cm x 11cm
II Incongruous Echinoderms 5cm x 12,5cm
 I Wondrous Caterpillar  11cm x 12,5cm

Female Dwarfs

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bimoji Fude Pen 美文字筆ぺん

I got two of the Bimoji pens by Kuretake in a manga specialized website. Before I bought them I looked online and found very little useful information about the pens. So I decided to make a review with , possibly, what they don't tell you about the pens.

The name of the product is: 

美文字筆ぺん Bimoji Fude Pen (Brush Pen for writing beautiful characters)

They are sold with 5 different brush tips as seen in the official website. 

4 of them are felt tips and one of them is made of synthetic bristles. I got the finest felt tip and the bristles one. Here they are against the light:

Placing them against the light you can see the ink reservoir. Note that the one in the right has way more ink than the one in the left. The right one is the brush tip and the other is the felt EF[extra fine]. They came like that!

Since they were purchased brand new in a very reputable shop I don't think that the left one came used up. What I reckon is: given the brush pen higher flow of ink it stands to reason that it would require more of it. Otherwise users would certainly complain of it running out too fast. But the EF has such a fine and economic use of ink that the minuscule amount would make for a comparable lifespan.

Most online reviews I have seen said that there is no distinction  in design between the pens. Well... There is! Note that they have different writing in the middle. It goes like so:

In green it is written 美文字筆ぺん [Bimoji Fude Pen], then space, then the specific tip also in green.

In my case they are 極細 [Extra Fine] on the left one; and 毛筆中字 ['Medium size brush'] on the right one.

lastly they have in red 呉竹精昇堂製 [Made by Kuretake]. 

Surely they seem quite identical. I think kuretake makes them in special colours although they may be more elusive to find in the west. Here are some beautiful variants in Japan.

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS and OBSERVATIONS:

1. On the top left you can see that there is two types of packaging. One have the information printed in the plastic the other has a transparent plastic with a paper inside. I don't know if the medium brush always comes in the paper package {In the official Japanese site it is the only one with the paper package}; Or if the plastic style is a new model and the paper one was an older model still in stock. I say that for the plastic one seems nicer.
2. On the top right: In the package there is some stuff written like 手にやさしい持ちやすいグリップ付き！！ [With easy to use grip!!]. In the back you find the line width it can make, but as any artist or calligraphy writer knows it vastly depends on the paper quality.
3. Left bottom: The difference between the tips on my models.
4. Right bottom: They also have strings to further simulate the traditional Chinese/Japanese calligraphy brushes. Those can be useful.
5. After it is dry. The ink IS water resistant and works well with watercolour.
6. Don't store these pens in a non ventilated box! Those "easy to use" grips will get sticky and slimy. Mine came in such state. It isn't a big deal, just clean them. But if you can avoid the clammy feel, I'd recommend it.
7. These Aren't refillable or rechargeable. Although I heard of people attempting to refill it.
   
   

Thanks for reading!

(originally written  25th of October 2019)

Troll designs

 Illustrations for the Muspelhell book.

Ofur and Bimbur

 

 

"The council all knew of Ofur Asni - the monstrous eight-legged mule, rumored to be birthed by Sleipnir's Second Cousin, Heipnir."

-Drew Cochran

More of my illustrations for MUSPELHELL. Firstly we have Ofur, or as I call it: "An awesome opportunity to draw an 8-legged donkey!". I adorned it with some apparel that would fit the aesthetic of the dwarven characters and would be necessary to help haul the mighty iron door. 

And for Bimbur the goal was to make him more adorable than metal. So I had a few different ideas before I decided on this one (as you can see at the end of this post). The symbol on his clothes are the "safe travel bind rune".

Both Ofur and Bimbur are very important characters in the game, and I'm glad I got to work with them.

About the process: