Sketch Card March 9 -- Solomon Kane

So, I complained a fair bit about the rough paper in the sample pack yesterday and here's the first card I did on one of the pieces. I believe this one is supposedly a canvas texture on a very thin sheet. I was initially looking forward to working with this as it reminded me of some rough textured DC paper I was able to play with back in the early 90s. That paper took dip pen very well.

This not so much. I ended up finishing it with a brush and some un-thickened Higgins Eternal ink. I don't think I've ever experienced such a thin ink out of the bottle. It's now sitting, open, on a shelf in my studio and will likely do so for many weeks before I consider using it again.

I let the paper get to me while working and I think it shows. I "lost" the other sheet of canvas textured paper. While the other REH characters this week are also on rough surfaces, all turned better in my opinion.

Robert E Howard

I've been a fanatic for Robert E. Howard's characters ever since I read the Berkley edition of Red Nails way back when.

My perrenial favourite is Conan -- at his best when he's essentially an amoral freebooter or rogue rampaging through the edges of what passed for civilization in Howard's Hyborean age -- but Solomon Kane and Kull have their own unique appeal.

Kane, the grim Puritan, stalking the evils of the African continent in the name of God and avenging murdered pagans, how could I not love the character!

I understand there's a movie in the works and I think Dark Horse is brewing a Solomon Kane comic for later in the year, so it looks like a good time to be a fan of Howard and the character.