How to ink 2.0 Group Runthrough Week 2

[Geoff Anderson]

Hello, I'm still sorting out what daily practice with pen-flavored tools looks like. So far, rather than picking a specific set of exercises, I write down a few ideas that I remember like: ways to fill space with tone; types of consistency - solo line (weight) vs grouped lines (weight/spacing/length/direction) ; types of variation - solo line (length/weight/layered) vs group line (weight/spacing/length/direction), and then experiment in semi-directed, semi-freeform fashion.

I'd be curious to hear how you folks here choose what to practice from day to day!

[chrisaakins]

@Geoffrey-Anderson I am working on line consistency with a brush pen. Making it thin when I want it thin and being able to transition to a heavy weight in a seamless line. I also just want more fine motor control. I grew up on rapidograph pens and using a brush pen is a newer experience.

[xin li]

Keeping my inking excise interesting by copying my favorite characters. I am having a very inconsistent lines today, and I really miss the "undo" button.:smiling_face_with_open_mouth_closed_eyes: when coming to inking the facial feature.

Wish you guys have a happy drawing/painting day.

[braden H]

@Geoffrey-Anderson said in How to ink 2.0 Group Runthrough Week 2:

I'd be curious to hear how you folks here choose what to practice from day to day!

That's one of the reasons I'm participating in the group run-through is to add to my repertoire of daily exercises. I've been doing plain ol' straight lines with a few circles for a loooooong time now and though it's helped immensely over the years I need a bit more. It's already paying off

[braden H]

@xin-li said in How to ink 2.0 Group Runthrough Week 2:

I am having a very inconsistent lines today

I dunno, those look like some nice smooth curved lines to me.

Taking a lineless illustration and decoding it for ink is a great idea. I may do the same. It looks like it really helps to teach you how to suggest/imply those little plane changes and shapes.

Very cool

[braden H]

@burvantill said in How to ink 2.0 Group Runthrough Week 2:

but it was just auto parts for my husband

I mean really, who needs autoparts? :smiling_face_with_open_mouth_closed_eyes:

[demotlj]

Here’s my homework and here are my excuses! I am trying to do all of these exercises with a dip pen because the Luddite in me really wants to learn it but I discovered that dip pens don’t like copy paper so I had to trace the template onto Bristol board and because the template is so light I had to just make up a lot of it.

What I learned from this:

1. Dip pens require thicker paper
2. If I press too hard on a dip pen for a thicker line it blots.
3. I still need to practice long straight lines (see shadows)
4. The Tombow correction tape works well (Yay!)
5. I need to either learn how not to blot or how to soak up a blot.

Really good exercise!

[BichonBistro]

@Geoffrey-Anderson I am working on areas of most fine-motor difficulty drawing, using this inking course as a guide for daily practice. For me, the goals are to work toward consistent spacing, drawing anything that involves pressure without line “tremors”, trying to identify the sweet spot where things don’t completely break down but are just difficult enough to challenge moving forward.

[BichonBistro]

@xin-li great idea, love seeing how you translate these to ink!

[BichonBistro]

@Braden-Hallett easy for you to say

[BichonBistro]

@Erin-Cortese looks good to me! Varying line weight intentionally is not easy!

[BichonBistro]

Daily accountability, experimenting with which pen works best for intentional variation in line size: haven’t found one yet

[xin li]

@Geoffrey-Anderson I did both solo lines and group lines practice (very similar to stuff Jake showed in the inking video) for the week one, and now I am focus on taking some of these practices into inking an actual drawing. To make it simpler for myself, I do not come up with a new drawing everyday, just take one of my favorite characters done by other artists (in any medium), trace it, and start inking.

[braden H]

I'm trying to find a couple of inking gears beyond thickest and thinnest. Right now I have a car with gears 1 and 5. I need gears 2, 3 and 4 as well.

Also, really focussing on contour lines is really helping me to remember how basic shapes are suppose to be interacting with each other.

[burvantill]

@Braden-Hallett we do for sure! Our cars are slowly dying and his super power is the ability to fix them. Thank God.

[burvantill]

My pen is here!!! And a new sponge to replace the two my dog ate.
just sharing

[Heather Boyd]

@Braden-Hallett

I’m not taking this class but your becoming a fabulous teacher with everything so nicely scheduled out.

[BichonBistro]

@burvantill yay!

[chrisaakins]

Here is my updated practice. Today I remembered that I had a watercolor brush pen that you fill with water and I thought, "Hey, why not try it with ink?" It worked rather well at least until the brush gets too much ink and I either couldn't get fine lines or it just blopped all over the place. (Grammarly does not like the word "blopped". It is too a word! I can say what I want.) But I did really like the expressive lines I was able to get out of it.

@Braden-Hallett one of these days I will be able to do the alternating thick-thin lines like you do and them not look like I am having some sort of tremor while I work them. (By the time I do I may actually have a tremor from being 107 or something )

[BichonBistro]

@chrisaakins so good!