Frankenstein’s Monster

Last week’s Art Journal Adventure prompt was to use black and white with one colour.  By coincidence, my Art Snacks box had just arrived and it contained a black fineline pen and a green alcohol marker.  I, therefore, decided I could combine the challenges while giving myself the additional challenge of working on a narrow piece of paper.  A childhood spent watching classic monster movies means I have a Pavlovian response to black and green.  The combination always makes me think of Frankenstein’s Monster.  I, therefore, set about drawing the Karloff version of the Creature in the narrow space of the paper.  I was very happy with the ink illustration but then worried I would wreck it when adding the green.  I have never been much good at “colouring in” plus I have never used an alcohol based marker before.  I rubbed some of the marker on a piece of wax paper so that I could dilute it with water and brush it on as a light wash first.  That then gave me the confidence to go in directly with the marker to create darker green areas.  I am pretty pleased with how the illustration turned out.  I had envisaged using it as a tip-in for my art journal but two of my kids want it as a bookmark so I guess that’s its destiny.