Stuck 4 hours at the train station yesterday, so I drew this entire world freehand with just a ballpoint pen. No pre-sketch, no plan, the story just appeared.
Full story on my blog: https://www.davidrevoy.com/article1134/the-matchbox-kingdom
@davidrevoy Really awesome! The lizard's head looks kind of crocodily, is it wearing a mask 🙂
@aurochs Thank you! Oh yes, all design came from visual memory, no reference, and also from a lot of randomness due to the process of 'direct drawing' ; once a line is on the paper, it's final. Maybe the head of the lizard was an attempt at a unsuccessful head of mouse. 😆
@davidrevoy Are all those lines the same width or are you able to vary the line thickness with a ballpoint pen?
@scvalex That's all lines I could do with the Bic "Round Stic M" one of the photo: depending the speed, angle and pressure of my hand. I also take advantage of 'ink blobs', that I smear with my fingers to darken the paper.
It has in final a very large variety of effect and line weight. I love this tool.
FR version below;
omg omg omg ! You did it again !
Last time, you drew Pepper paddling in the wrong direction on her bark.
And now you try to convince us that such 6-sided dice exist ?
EN version over;
omg omg omg ! Tu as recommencé !
La dernière fois, tu as dessiné Pepper qui ramait à l'envers sur sa barque.
Et maintenant tu essaies de nous faire croire que de tels dés à six faces existent ?
@Mindiell Haha, I was sure the dice had something wrong, when I drew it; I thought that the relation between how the number are appearing are probably standard, but I didn't wanted to search on my phone for a ref (to economize the phone battery, the delay of train was going +20min every 10 min, and I really felt like I would need all battery to find hotel, call relatives, etc... later).
So, I went for a 6 (2026) a 3 (March) and 1... because easier? 😆
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@davidrevoy I love the piece, but that die on the right side of the page is really bothering me. On dice, ⚀ and ⚅ are always on opposite sides, with only the very rarest exceptions.
@mjd Thank you! Oh yes, when I drew that dice, I had a hesitation: I was sure some simple rules were at play. Good to know about the 1 and 6 opposed: they never can appear on the same picture.
I could check that on my phone, but I was really in a situation where I preferred to keep the battery in case I had to book another train, hotel for the night, call relatives, get info, etc...
@gmic Thank you! Oh I'm sure if you hack the security system of the Montpelier Saint Roch train station, find a surveillance camera near the "Paul" baker, you'll find me drawing their. 😆 The data exists!
@davidrevoy @mjd The standard with cubic dice, FWIW, is that opposite sides always add up to 7. So 1 and 6, 2 and 5, and 3 and 4 are opposed.
@wordshaper @mjd Thank you! Yes, I just read it in another comment and my head just went 🤯 That's a very cool fundamental to understand. Next time, I'll be able to draw dice from imagination more accurately thanks to this!
@davidrevoy that's so cool!! And also one of the great things about ballpoint. It can have a dry almost scratchy quality to thin strokes that is almost like a pencil
@hwll Exactly, for a long time, I was impressed by them about the "I can't erase" part of the ink. But if I abstract it and just think I'm holding a pencil, then it works.
@peha 🤣 🤣
🤔 Actually, there is really something to do here, a fantasy novel a bit in the same vein as Little Nightmare, and Alice in Wonderland around a lonely fairy.
I'll note it somewhere.
@davidrevoy you'll better keep this note on top of your list, closed to your eyes if you don't want to fell my wrath!!!😂
☕
@davidrevoy wow. Can I get stuck with you in the elevator next time this happens to me?
@jtr 🤣 Not sure I can be relax enough inside an elevator to draw like that!
A train station, yes, full of passenger stuck and with the "next info in 15minutes" left really a special moment in space/time. It's sort of easy to navigate with an access to the toilets and cheap food. Part of the comfort of waiting there for an undefined amount of time. Also, sunny and soft weather in Montpelier yesterday, it helped at staying positive and just sketch and enjoy.
@davidrevoy This is lovely, but it makes me wonder if fairies are ever able to sleep on their backs...
@lhauser 
Thank you. And good point. I now wonder what is a ideal bed for a fairy. Especially if they are two. Does this mean a couple of fairy can't spoon to go to sleep? That's sort of sad 🤔
@davidrevoy I love that the Fediverse looks at a enchanting scene of a mice army, complete with bottle cap shields and lizard/bird mounts, surrounding a sleeping fairy...
...and immediately jumps to "That six-sided die in the corner seems unrealistic." :)
@windigo 🤣 🤣 🤣 Exactly! I can't imagine what would happen if I drew an imaginary big keyboard with a fictional keyboard layout from memory.
@davidrevoy So nice! A friend of mine (who gives me pencils) always says that the ideas are already in those pencils. All you have to do is draw it out.
Wow! This is such a vibe! Between stellar alt text and the story in the picture, I am obsessed. 🧚♂️🐁
@davidrevoy
Thank you!
@davidrevoy “what’s your prompt?!??
- 4 hours with a pen and my brain”
beautiful drawing 
@davidrevoy Nice ! Some of the mice remind me of « La famille Souris » by Kazuo Iwamura. All my childhood !
But it seems that there is a problem with your « AI only » text at the end. There is no banana involved…
@amic Thank you! I'll check La famille Souris, thanks for pointing it.
Ha, right, banana peels probably can help the process of strengthening the paper. I'll check what I can do for the next one!
@davidrevoy
Beautiful...
My immediate thought upon seeing this, before I even noticed the fairy... was M.C. Escher... both the lizard and the completely filled section of mice, and the black-and-white hatched style... and maybe even the framing with a pen and binder clip...
"Reptiles" "butterfly tessellation 1950" "Drawing Hands" etc.
@poleguy Thank you! I had a book of Escher's work when I was a teenager, and I spent long long hours to get lost in his drawings.
I also loved all engraving work (Paul Gustave Doré’s Engravings of Dante’s
Divine Comedy!) or more anime: the way Kishiro (Battle Alita Angel, first books) used to crosshatch a lot too.
