Cantrip Gallery

Tag: strange kinfolk

  • Just The Heating Element

    Just The Heating Element

    I wanted to draw something a little witchy. More specifically I wanted deities for little things nobody thinks about.

    I read somewhere that the Egyptians had so many gods because they had a god for literally every object. I don’t know if that’s true. It did make me wonder what a god of cooking would be like.

    Then I started listing what cooking actually is. If ADHD is good for one thing, it’s making lists.

    You have to find the ingredients, and check the pantry, and chop the veggies, and boil the water, and bake the protein, and and and. So many steps. Who is doing all of that? I’m already tired just thinking about it.

    So she doesn’t do all of that. The kitchen witch is there for the heating part. The boiling, the cauldron, the stew, the soups. Her hair is fire because. It looks cool.

    If you can’t stand the heat, get out of her kitchen.

    She was the first one of these I ever drew, though I had no idea that was a thing I was doing. The next one was a little cutting guy, who has still not been posted because I have not found a way to make him not scary.

    Photo of the kitchen witch drawn on paper in black ink, with the flame hair, the heart in the pan and a red sash colored in.

    I was very concerned about the line work on this one. I spent a LOT of time inking it and did not relax until it was safely on the iPad, where a mistake stops being permanent.

    The original had a plain background. Then I put a border on it, spoons and whisks and garlic all the way around. Then I took the border off and made it red. Then I made one that looks almost exactly like the original with a slightly different background, and that’s the one I am printing. Three revisions to get back where I started.

    In my defense, Leonardo spent 16 years revising the Mona Lisa, so I’m counting this as a win.

  • Give Me A Hand

    Give Me A Hand

    I wanted to draw something that represented the sort of decay required for growth. A garden and graveyard are basically the same place with different PR teams.

    This is the drawing that made me stop choosing between paper and iPad and start mixing the two.

    Turns out you can do both. Who knew?

    But fr, I was far too proud of that hand to risk ruining it and adding more on paper. The entire process was born of vanity towards one excellent hand skeleton.

    So instead of pushing my luck, I photographed it on the iPad and kept going from there.

    I outlined the white parts in a thin orange pen so they’d stay untouched, then traced the outer border too. After that, it’s just drag-and-drop the black into the line, followed by a truly unreasonable amount of cleanup. Erasing ink-bleed, adding bits, taking bits away, nudging things until they feel right.

    Eventually, I decided to tempt fate and add a skull. I’m incredibly proud of that skull. Look at it. Doesn’t it feel skull-like? Doesn’t it give you Vibes?

    And then I added a lil’ background, some colors. badabing badaboom.

    Oh look! The shop is open! So you can find Decay here.