“Oh, monsters are scared,” said Lettie. “That’s why they’re monsters.” 

The Ocean at the End of the Lane is such a magical story. ✨🌊 

Print available now at the store!

Moleskine

Canson

These are my two favorite sketchbooks. I use the Moleskine for more practice, on-the-go sketches and the Canson is my favorite paper to really draw on, since it's mix media. 

Depending on what I bag I bring, I usually have both with me. 

Pocket Moleskine

I also love tiny pocket sketchbooks/notebooks for smaller bags or just to thumbnail or jot down quick ideas. This Alice in Wonderland one is my current favorite.

Pencil/Pen Cases:

Kate Spade

This is my favorite pencil case, because it's not only cute, but it lies flat and it's a decent size. I always have this with me.

Wild and Wolf

This is my larger pencil case for when I need to bring more supplies - different size pens, a small watercolor palette, brushes, etc.

I recommend always have two cases ready to go: a small one for every day use, and a bigger one for when you need more supplies. I leave certain products in each one so that I can grab them in a hurry and I always know what is in them.

Pens:

Micron

Oh, how I love these pens. We've talked about this a few times - because they are my ~go-to~ for inking. I adore them. These are in my small pencil case always. 

Pentel

Pentel brush pens are the best for thicker lines. They are also refillable. They require getting used to and a lot of control, but they are awesome and a have-to-have inker. 

Sakura

I always have a couple white gel pens in my bag. These are life saver if you need to put a highlight back in if you've over-inked. I also love them for highlighting toned paper.

Sharpie Extra Fine

I love Sharpies, especially for filling in large areas. These extra fine points are way thicker and release more ink than the Microns, but give you quite a bit of control. I always have a couple on hand.

Sharpie

I also always have regular Sharpies for covering large ink areas quickly.

BIC

I always have some ballpoint pens on me as well. I use them for my planner, for sketching, and for everything else. 

Pencils:

Faber-Castell

This is the perfect little to-go pencil set. These pencils are high quality and you want them in a range of lead softness. These include H's - B's with a nice variety. It even comes with an eraser and sharpener!

Prismacolor

These are the erasers I actually use. They are soft, don't rip paper, and when they get worn down, they're easy to cut or rip for a sharp edge again.

Faber-Castell

These are my other go-to erasers. Kneaded erasers are awesome because you can press them onto delicate paper and lift the pigment out without wearing down any of the paper texture. You also can clean them simply by pulling them apart like clay. It's an artist necessity.

X-acto Knife

A true artist knows that it's better to sharpen your pencils with an X-acto than just to use a sharpener. I keep this in my big pencil case, but if you're doing a lot of pencil work, I recommend it. You do it so you can expose more lead on the pencil, meaning cleaner drawing and faster work. Also, regular pencil sharpeners risk breaking the lead inside the pencil, meaning you'll constantly have to stop and resharpen. This can also happen from dropping your pencils, so treat them carefully. Watch how to sharpen pencils like an artist here. 

Prismacolor

I rarely bring color with me on the go (whoops) but if I do, I like Prismacolor pencils. They are soft, buttery, and blend really well. I like this little set for travel but they have some giant kits if you need a huge range of color.

Paint:

Winsor Newton

This is the cutest pocket-size watercolor set ever. I love this for quick, on the go watercolor work. It even comes with a tiny brush! Winsor Newton is my favorite brand for watercolor. Find my at-home setup here: Quentin Blake Inspired DIY Watercolor Palette

Aquash

These are to-go water brushes and they are awesome. Not only are they perfect for the watercolor kit above, you can also use them with your Pentel brushes to water down the ink. You just fill them with water and they have an easy to use brush tip.

That is pretty much it for what I carry on a regular basis. Happy drawing!

Nightmare Before Christmas Illustration by Tim Burton

Tim Burton uses a lot of ink and has a loose, sketchy style. This illustration is my inspiration for this piece. It's from the original Nightmare Before Christmas poem, that I highly recommend this version of. It's all illustrated by Burton himself and it's beautiful.

Amazon

Anyway, here is my illustration:

I went a ways darker with mine, but let me break down the process. This ink and watercolor, or you simulate it digitally.

Start with the basic sketch. I drew two hills in and kept the trees very stick-like. The branches in this illustration start super high on the tree. Make sure to thicken the base of the trees and get thinner as the branches go further out. It's like drawing the letter "Y" over and over.

I filled in the hills with loose, sketchy, broken lines. Make sure to follow the shape of the hill. Don't just go horizontal or vertical, contour your lines to the shape.

I added a silhouette in.

I switched to watercolor, loosely going around the sky with a light black wash, and I built on that for the hills. I kept the highlight towards the center of the hills and went darker on the way out.

I painted in the sky with a dark blue wash, again pushing the pigment to the outer edges and leaving the middle (where the moon will be) lighter.

I did this piece digitally, but you can accomplish the white line work with a white gel pen if you're painting traditionally. Outline the moon.

I filled in the moon with white. I'm using a watercolor brush in Photoshop, but to achieve this with real watercolor, you would either have had to have left the space empty of color, or go over it with white gouache or white acrylic.

I lightly dabbed in black watercolor to create craters in the moon.

I outlined the moon with white lines following a circular pattern. Again, you can do this with a white gel pen like this one, or digitally:

Amazon

I added white highlights to the silhouette, just where it faces the moon.

Done! 

John Tenniel

Alice in Wonderland

The complexity of Tenniel's work is achieved by many layers of the simple techniques I covered. It's all very delicate scribbles and crossing lines to indicate shadow.

I did this John Tenniel inspired illustration of a wolf in the forest. You can draw anything with this style, but Tenniel's technique works so well for natural backgrounds. 

Start by blocking in the basic shapes with pencil. I use circles to block the wolf's body and some scribbly lines for the trees, rocks, and grass. Keep it loose. You can erase these later, or leave them as they will likely be covered. 

Side note: Do you know the difference between your pencils? To achieve very light pressure like this, I recommend using an H pencil, such as 2H, 6H, etc. H means the lead is harder, so your lines are lighter. B means the lead is soft, so the lines are darker. The number indicates how hard or how soft. In example, an 8B is much darker (softer) than a 2B. A 6H is much lighter than a 2H. An HB, or F, are neutral pencils, just like a #2. I recommend getting a nice set of pencils (just to have on hand) in a range like these:

Faber-Castell Pencil Set

Anyway. I like to very loosely outline the major shapes. I inked this with Micron pens. Notice that I'm making lines contouring to the figure. I didn't just do a harsh outline all the way around the wolf, I blocked in the way his fur would grow. If you outline everything with a thick harsh line, it makes the image look very graphic. This is totally fine, if that is stylistically what you're going for. For this style, though, we want to keep the lines loose and organic. The fur lines go almost in a circle, surrounding the head. Towards the back legs/stomach, the fur starts falling down because of gravity. You can also find reference photos of wolves if you have no idea where to start!

I like starting with the background first. You always work left-right if you're right-handed, and right-left if you're left-handed. The reason is you don't want to smudge your work as you go through the scene. Here, I broke down the line work I did to achieve this look. I started with the tree and the surrounding brush. As you can see by the red lines, I alternate crosshatching and scribbling to add different texture. Do not forget your light source! In this image, the light is coming from above, (like from the sun), so the tree will be darker towards the bottom. Pay attention to texture. Because I did so much crosshatching on the tree, I scribbled in circles for the brush behind the tree. Something else to note here: the further an object is, the less saturated it looks. Meaning, the darker things usually appear to be more in front. So while my tree shadows are very, very dark, I put more space in between my lines for the brush behind the trees.

Continue working your way through the background. I leave the upper sections of the trees blank to account for light, and darker towards the bottom. Make sure you're not crosshatching in the exact same directions/scribbling the same way on every tree! Alternate your textures to add interest! 

Now let's start on the wolf. Remember to follow the guide we made earlier - the fur goes in loose circles around the head. I darkened the fur on his feet, back, and under his ears. Leave empty spaces to imply light hitting.

For the ground, we can get even looser. I did a lot of very quick grass-like scribbles, some crosshatching to imply shadow under the wolf, and a few more solid lines to look like rocks, holes in the ground, etc. Just scribble your grass in and darken some spots to show shadow. I did darker grass towards the very front, to the right of the wolf, and a little to the left.

Done! Hopefully this was helpful! Let me know how it turned out!