Yesterday I had the random thought that I was doing some sort of elemental cycle with these ballpoint sketches; the first being Water, the second Air. I almost did something fiery last night, but did (ostensibly) Earth instead, which left Fire for today:
Click to Enlarge.
I ended up using two pens for this; I started it at work and stole a pen from a table there (I put it back), then finished it at home with one of my own, which created a few differences in tone, but I’m probably the only person who cares/notices that. In keeping with the other three, I kept the orientation vertical but had the odd idea of a long-necked firebreather, hence the slightly wonky and cramped neck.
Also, I wouldn’t normally draw translucent fire like that, but the jet of flame ended up being a bit crooked so it took up more space on the body than I planned, overlapping things I’d already drawn, so translucent it is.
Partway through I had the realization that I was drawing a self-sufficient Zippleback, which may or may not have influenced my decision to put a smallish, round head at the end of its neck. I took pains to get away from that though, and put lips on it, but then decided that fangs wouldn’t work, and changed to lampreylike inner teeth instead, which I actually like a lot.
Yay for pens!
I imagine the pens are letting us see details in your work that might have been obscured by a pencil’s decreasing sharpness (however slowly) or smudges. Of course I’ve seen you use that softness to great effect, but man – the pen sketches are really fantastic. I love being able to see tiny sharp details you’re obviously thinking very carefully about. :)
You’re probably more than a little right- I usually get very up close and personal when doing detailed stuff, but with the pens I can practically crawl all over the page with less worry about smudging it with my hands. :p