Experimenting through doodles

A step-by-step of a Wulfrun doodle

Fen & Ster, Wulfrun

Happy new year!

I like to get a new post to paid subscribers on the first of every month, but New Years Day being New Years Day, January’s post is a smidge late. But hey! It’s here! And hopefully its arrived in your inbox during the calm and quiet of returning to the old routine, taking a breather from the chaos of the holidays.

Now it’s time to wrap ourselves in blankets, pour hot tea or coffee, and dive back into our creative projects - or start brand new ones!

Speaking of new projects - the Wulfrun ebook is becoming ever-more ambitious, complicated by me, myself and I because I am a glutton for punishment. But hey, if I’m going to bring this book to readers all by myself, I want it to be special and extra.

So I’m trying to illustrate it. I want the illustrations to be old looking, like the original illustrations of a Dickens novel. And also not like that at all. But without steel plates, or any knowledge about the making of old book illustrations in general, I’m not entirely sure how to achieve the effect I’m searching for. I’m thinking about turning to ink. I have lots of ink. I love doodling with ink. And writing with it too. So it stands to reason that making bigger illustrations using ink would be a lot of fun.

But whatever the medium, it has to suit the story.

I think ink could work well for the old-timey, fairy tale mystery vibes of Wulfrun, I just need to sort out the best way to tackle it - will washes be too busy? Should the ink be black? Or is there a better colour for this? Should I stick to just line art, maybe try crosshatching for shading? And that’s even before considering character design and background and the specifics of the story.

It’s overwhelming to think about. Especially since no one is making me do this but me….

Nevertheless! When a project is overwhelming, I try to find the easiest way in. And that usually means doing what I know how to do, simplest.

So I broke out my tablet and did a digital Wulfrun doodle. Just to get the digitalness out of my system. I was hoping seeing something that doesn’t work for the project will help me better distill what WILL work. And while it didn’t quite help me clarify how I will tackle ink drawings for an ebook, it did help me get more clarity on how I will draw the characters.

And I am very excited to see where this goes.