How to Ink Group Runthrough Week 4

TessaW

@Susan-Marks In my experience the 3 biggest things that have helped me with light and shadow in a bigger scene are :

Learning perspective and breaking down objects into simple 3D shapes. This helps you organize and simplify the information you are working with in your mind. Large complex scenes and compositions can be broken down, shadow shapes and light angles make a lot more sense when you understand how to visualize things in perspective.
Still life studies, drawings from life, observational analysis about the world around me when I don't have any art materials on hand. To me still life studies hold a lot of answers that can be applied to full picture compositions. Painting a picture of a house plant, a bird house, and my kid's doll is transferable knowledge to bigger scenes from my imagination. Do enough of these, and you have a resource bank in your head about how light and shadow falls on different groupings of objects, different shapes, different materials, and different lighting conditions. Whenever I find myself overwhelmed with how to portray or light a larger picture, I miniaturize it in my mind, and visualize it as sort of a still life. It makes it a lot more manageable.
Making your own simple reference- Learning how to make simple reference, light it, and photograph it for specific pieces helps a ton! Use stand-ins for characters and objects with things you have around the house, grab a lamp or two to light the scene, take some photos, and you suddenly have a lot of your questions answered. Not only do you get information for the specific piece you are working on at the moment, it adds up in your visual knowledge bank for pieces in the future.

DaveLeekArt

The weekend got away from me due to spending time with family but I’m back it fresh and ready to go today! Here’s a quick little warm up with Pentel Brush Pen. Felt great today.

DaveLeekArt

@Erin-Cortese I think this work looks fantastic. No more negative self talk! I love the concept of leading with your weakness and facing the ugly. I also JUST had a conversation with my wife about how most disappointments in life arise from unmet expectations. Therefore, lose the expectations and life is just better all around... especially for artists looking to improve:)

Erin.Cortese

@demotlj @Bricz-Art Thanks guys, and I couldn't agree more about the expectations! As much as my post sounds negative, it is actually a positive step in the right direction for me. I kind of feel relieved.

I am coming to illustration from a pretty extensive background in graphic design, which has caused me quite a few psychological hurdles - high expectations that I am not able to meet, an eye for design that far exceeds my ability in illustration, and an anxiety about starting later in life that has made me impatient and caused me to goof up the whole process.

Now I have given myself permission to create things that would normally make me cringe, and share it with the world....hooray!

**Disclaimer I will herein continue to complain profusely about the whole process, as I can only ask so much of myself.

xin li

Today's practice.
I think I finally reach to the point that I may need to switch to a watercolor sketchbook for the practice. There is a reason why people don't work with ink wash on copy paper. :smiling_face_with_open_mouth:

xin li

@Erin-Cortese I totally relate to what you are saying.

chrisaakins

So now I am researching deer mice and drawing them. I used a ball point pen. I kinda like the texture you can get. Do you think it could be a legit ink form for illustrations? Here is a sample:

demotlj

@chrisaakins I think they look fabulous and you should keep doing whatever you are doing.

Jorge Valentin

There are two books I would like to recommend for more exercises like these.

"Framed Drawing Techniques" by Marcos Mateu-Mestre. This book I recently purchased at Lightbox Expo and got to see Marcos do a demo it was amazing, it was mindblowing just how confident the man is when he places a line
"Rendering in Pen and Ink" by Arthur L. Guptill. This one shows more of the old master's approach to inking and has a lot of great tips on the basics and for more advanced techniques. Also has a great variety of ink styles and samples of different masters back in the day.

Can't wait to see you guys work on inktober.

Whitney Simms

Ahhhhh. I was wondering why grayscales weren’t part of the hatching and mark making stage. I just needed to catch up. But I love some good gray scales! Great job guys

burvantill

@chrisaakins these are great . I see ball point pen art ALLL the time in Instagram. There’s a woman that does these fantastic trees. I can’t remember her name but it doesn’t matter. If you’re feeling it, do it.

burvantill

I applied a 2 step scale to a drawing from a coloring book. Precious Moments.

xin li

Finally painted something with ink wash on a proper water color paper. I messed up one piece of paper, I can do it again
It is very interesting to paint loose. I felt I have very little control on the strokes I make, but one thing that has guided me to proceed with the painting was to think about value and local tones. So this is definitely within this week's practice goal.

Susan Marks

@TessaW Thanks for those awesome ideas. I've done some "miniatures" or stand-ins for a couple of things--but never really for a whole scene. I can tell you've put a lot of thought and energy into this--alas for no magic wand.

Susan Marks

@chrisaakins I agree with @demotlj -any tool that gives you the effect that you're going for is the right tool. I think you deer mice look great.

demotlj

@Jorge-Valentin said in How to Ink Group Runthrough Week 4:

Framed Drawing Techniques

I second the Guptil book. It does go heavily into old style pen and ink rendering for architectural designs etc. but the methodology was very helpful.

braden H

@xin-li said in How to Ink Group Runthrough Week 4:

Finally painted something with ink wash

That is so cool! The last time I tried using inkwash I just failed UTTERLY. I may have to try again. Last time I bought some cheap reloadable watercolour brushes and they just didn't work. I'm thinkin' an actual brush and some pots of premixed ink may work better for me this time around

braden H

@burvantill said in How to Ink Group Runthrough Week 4:

I applied a 2 step scale to a drawing from a coloring book.

Neat choice for the hatching method! Definitely makes a really neat texture for the darker tone

braden H

@Jorge-Valentin said in How to Ink Group Runthrough Week 4:

There are two books I would like to recommend for more exercises like these.

I'll have to check those out! Thanks for the recommendations!

@chrisaakins said in How to Ink Group Runthrough Week 4:

Do you think it could be a legit ink form for illustrations?

Yes.

Yes is could :smiling_face_with_open_mouth_smiling_eyes:

I think it looks pretty awesome. The more I look at others work and explore the basics of inking the more I realize the tools really don't matter. The right tool is the right tool for you

braden H

@Susan-Marks said in How to Ink Group Runthrough Week 4:

But then it comes to light and shadow in a full picture or composition, I get lost.

Sometimes I'll put a mark (or big patch of colour) on the edge of my paper to represent where the light's coming from. Or an arrow. Really, anything to remind myself that 'light be comin' from here, yarr'.

Though I'm slowly putting 'light' lower and lower on the list of priorities when it comes to inking Contour line and whether an object is closer or further away is what I'm thinkin' of first right now.