Rocky Marker High

October's here which can only mean a couple of things:

1. It's cooling down enough that my puppy now has the energy of a dozen suns.

2. Halloween is coming which means my house is now covered in half finished projects and my head filled with half thought ideas.

3. I'M GOING INSANE BECAUSE THERE'S NO WAY I CAN GET IT ALL DONE IN TIME!

But no one wants to see half idea thoughts scattered across a kitchen table, kitchen floor, tool shed and spare bedroom.

Instead today I wanted to share my latest artistic branch out into something new and exciting and other things ending in "ing."

In the old days when I had a random idea for a cartoon/drawing I used to sketch it out in pencil go back over in pen then scan it to add color digitally. Which works out pretty nice sometimes thanks to the undo button and all but was far more time consuming than if I just did it manually. Plus I like the control I get better with my hand than the mouse.

So after seeing a set that were 70% off I got myself 12 professional markers. But how best to break them in and get a feel for the new medium?

Why making free stuff for people, of course! People love free things right? And what better way to hide the fact that you don't have a clue what you're doing than by giving it away. Thus was born my Super Special Follow Friday on Twitter.

I took some of my Twitter friends names and created a drawing for them which I then colored with my new shiny, strange fumed markers.

In the end I managed 25 before the week was up, at about a half hour or so per drawing I think that's pretty good. I learned quite a bit about what will and what won't work and how much I miss being able to add white instead of simple not covering it up.

After the Jump I'll put all 25 of the drawings (see if you can guess which was my first) but to tide you over here's something I finished last night I call "What Chickens Dream Of."

Markers are fun, and maybe the next time I attempt something this crazy I should do it in a better ventilated area.