Busy busy busy...

For every mark I make with a brush, I have to make about 20 on a piece of test paper. When I do dry brush, it's more than that. Here's what my trashcan looks like after a week of inking...



Pay no attention to my dirty floor. Years of built up graphite and other miscellaneous messes have not been kind. Even when I mop this stuff just doesn't come up! The amount of paper I use in general is kind of embarrassing. I go through a ton of bond paper, watercolor paper and bristol board. I'm sure I've murdered a small forest. I have no excuses for this. If I could get a digital tool that could duplicate the look of a thoroughly abused and worn crappy brush, I'd switch to a tablet in a second. I have about a dozen beaten up brushes that do the job. There's nothing like a cheap, ink incrusted craft brush to get great dry brush effects! At least I recycle.

So I'm in the process of coloring three pieces now, and I just finished coloring three others, but I won't be posting any of this stuff for a good while. I've got an SCBWI illustrator's conference on the 10th, and I want to get as much new work as I can done by then.