How to ink group run through week 5

[ArtofAleksey]

@burvantill have you used pen or brush on cardstock? Curious to know if it tears up the paper at all

[demotlj]

I was working on this month's contest and I got really stuck on the color study so I decided to try putting some of this inking practice to work on the piece. It's not easy to apply all of the different gradient hatching for local color and shadows and form and I think I still need more darks. I'd love to hear your critiques on the inking based on what we have been learning. (This is digital technical pen in Procreate.)

[ArtofAleksey]

@demotlj looks great. I think doing just ink might work too. I like how you kept the details vague for the background. The one thing all those lines in the background are doing though is taking some focus away from the characters. I would put nice thick lines around the main characters you want us to see and it should do the trick. It has a really nice older cartoon/ book illustration style to it.

[demotlj]

@Aleksey I think you are right about the background feeling distracting. I'm going to look at some old illustrations and see what they did. Maybe they didn't vary the line direction as much as I did.

[ArtofAleksey]

@demotlj i like the right side. I think the darker left side is fine if the characters popped out more.

[burvantill]

@Aleksey Not on card stock, yet. I’m planning on using my brush pen even though this is a contest project and I may EF it up. I figure, why am I practicing if I’m not going to actually use it, right?

[MOO]

Wish I would have started this with all of you! Not great wifi for viewing her right now. Keep up the good work! I'll just look at your progress and it will help me when I take pen to paper, maybe

[burvantill]

I went a different route today. I just couldn’t get those poor little Zebulon Six marmots out of my head. I think I’m done practicing straight lines for a long time.
This was fun, but I chickened out and didn’t use my brush pen.

[chrisaakins]

Here is some real practice. And the Marmot Pontificus Potentatus Supreme denouncing you all.

[chrisaakins]

@burvantill that's hilarious. I didn't even see your post and I drew the other marmots. Hahaha!

[burvantill]

@chrisaakins

[ArtofAleksey]

@chrisaakins i want to see some heretic mammals.

[demotlj]

This thread is so educational. Not only am I learning inking but I now know what a marmot is -- I had to look it up because we don't have marmots here in the northeast US. Of course, the marmots of Zebulon Six may be a slightly different species but at least, if they invade New York, I will now be able to identify them.

[xin li]

I find it gets a bit easier to paint with ink after this month's practice. But using this technique in working on actual illustration(a concret concept for something specific) is still difficult for me. I was thinking about the climate change strike in my mind, and my painting ended up here.
I was not aware of this before: there is a gap between grasping the technique and using the technique learned in the actual illustration. It is like trying to do matchmaking - I got to come up with a concept that fits the actual project, and also fits with the technique I want to apply. Do you guys feel this way sometimes?

[braden H]

@demotlj said in How to ink group run through week 5:

It's not easy to apply all of the different gradient hatching for local color and shadows and form

It really is like a juggling routine! Some day it'll internalize, but I know it's gonne take a lot more practice from me

Also, nice work! I love all the book titles (watership down must be a dark history for them :smiling_face_with_open_mouth_closed_eyes: )

@Marsha-Kay-Ottum-Owen said in How to ink group run through week 5:

I'll just look at your progress and it will help me when I take pen to paper, maybe

It'll all be here once you're ready to start

@burvantill said in How to ink group run through week 5:

I think I’m done practicing straight lines for a long time.

Those are some damn fine straight lines! (I wouldn't have wanted to use a brush pen for them either!)

@chrisaakins said in How to ink group run through week 5:

And the Marmot Pontificus Potentatus Supreme denouncing you all

HERESY!!! :smiling_face_with_open_mouth_closed_eyes: :smiling_face_with_open_mouth_closed_eyes:

@Aleksey said in How to ink group run through week 5:

@chrisaakins i want to see some heretic mammals.

I'm gonna have to do some of my own

@demotlj said in How to ink group run through week 5:

Not only am I learning inking but I now know what a marmot is

If you're ever out west during the summer you'll see them sunning themselves out on the concrete road dividers

@xin-li said in How to ink group run through week 5:

there is a gap between grasping the technique and using the technique learned in the actual illustration

I feel this way all the time. There is absolutely a period where you understand/comprehend the skill, but can't actually use it (I understand that green means go, red means stop and the wheel steers the vehicle but if I've never actually driven before I sure can't parallel park!)

[braden H]

Work continues!

[burvantill]

MY HAND IS CRAMPING UP!
I’m trying to be sooo careful that I’m gripping the brush pen like a lifeline.
My project has become my homework.

Oh, I also discovered that the contest that this is for us NOT a blind judging. That’s a whole other contest. Too many projects on my table, I got them mixed up. So I can share this. Head slap

[DaveLeekArt]

@xin-li beautiful work

[Susan Marks]

@demotlj Laurie-I think the drawing, composition and inking look great. I love the image! And I agree with your intuition, is that it would benefit from some darker and very dark areas. When I squint at it with my eyes the way I did with the gradient strips--on a 6 point scale, you'd have 1, and quite a bit of 2 and 3, and a tiny bit of 4--and lots of room for 5's and 6's to b added. Make sense? I've seen @Braden-Hallett share in other threads his process of "value studies"--maybe if you did a really simple draw over and divide into only 3 values, that might point yo to where to put the darkest darks?

[Susan Marks]

@burvantill Well done--and i would have poked my eyes out LONG before I got all of those straight lines--either straight or done!