ART BLOG /

ORIGINALLY POSTED • 26TH OCTOBER 2018

Another one bites the dust; can’t believe we’re already into the final week of Inktober 2018 … feels like it’s only just started. Days 20 to 26 saw me turn some of my Inspirational Models into lilSOPHIE‘s, and it was probably the most fun I’ve had so far :)

Before we get into this weeks main topic of INK SKETCHING, here’s me size: A6 (9x14cm) drawings for Inktober 2018 Days 20 to 26 –

DAYS 20 TO 26

VIDEO GAME FAN ART

DAYS 20 TO 26

INSPIRATIONAL MODELS TURNED INTO lilSOPHiE’S

WHAT I LEARNT?

While I’m drawing, I take notes on my whiteboard, which is handy, because it means I can quickly get the thoughts of what I’m learning out of my head, while still focusing on the drawing. Here’s some of the notes I took during days 20 to 16 of Inktober 2018:

• 0.1 Fineliners Don’t Last Very Long
• Brush Pens give a nice Smooth Black without any Texture
• You Can’t Cover Texture with Ink
• Ink Sketching is very messy, but it does have more Energy to it
• Chisel Tip Pens are good for quick Ink Sketching, as they’re Firm, with Fat to Thin lines
• Being Mindful of the Direction of your Strokes creates a much nicer Realistic Hair effect
• I don’t Study Reference Photos enough
• Didn’t Feel like it on one day, but I still Showed up :)
• Too inconsistent with my lilSOPHIE‘s
• Really aware of Tangents, which is something Bert Dodson talks about in his Book Keys to Drawing
• You can Build up Hair in Layers using different sized Fineliners

As always, I can’t cover all these tings in a blog post, but I do talk about them all in this weeks video which you can find right about here :)

DRAWING YOUR OWN CHARACTER

I really do love drawing lilSOPHIE; like me, she’s still finding herself, and I’m still learning how to draw her … my drawings are so inconsistent at the moment.

Once Inktober’s completed, I’m going to join SVSLearn.com, and ask for help; SVS stands for Society of Visual Storytelling, and is a website founded by Jake Parker, who runs Inktober 2018, and the site has tons of courses, including one on understanding light and shadows. WOOHOO! I suck at that lol

SVSLearn also has a lively Art Community, so I’m going to signup and ask in the forums for help on how to improve my ability to draw a character consistently. “Draw lilSOPHIE more,” is what I think they’ll say :) As Lee Hammond said, “Repetition is the key to Learning, Practice is the key to Success.”

So I think I just have to keep drawing her over and over again until I can draw her with my eyes closed :) This weeks main topic though, is about how I found Sketching with Inks. It was something I said I’d try last week, and it was actually pretty interesting.

INK SKETCHING

Last week I spoke about how I was finding Inks to be a lot more Strict and not as Freeing as Pencils. I wanted to try and bring some Energy back into my Inks, so thought I’d try quick ink sketching my lilSOPHIE‘s, instead of pencils.

The goal was to have these sketchy ink drawings be the finished piece, but I soon realised NOPE! Ink Sketching is so Messy, at least when I do it lol After the first one, on day 20, I actually thought, no way am I doing that again, but when day 21 rolled around, I found myself trying it again; I’m so glad I did, because while they are super messy, I do feel like with a bit of work you could find a Balance between the Messy Energy and Detailed Lines.

I ended up using Ink Sketching more as like a Gesture session, a quick lil sketch just to get a feel for the pose before doing what I was doing before of a proper Pencil Sketch with Ink on top. In the video above, I compare each Inspirational Model‘s Ink Sketch with the finished Ink Drawing, and talk about them all in more detail, but for this blog post, here’s an image of all the ink sketches together –

As you can see … messy :) Thing is, I think they do achieve what I set out to do; it’s an Ink Drawing with more Energy; Ink Sketching may be messy, but it’s really fun!

On day 25 for instance, because I was just throwing the ink around, I randomly stumbled upon a heart shape in Dayana Crunks hair. I ended up putting this into the finished Ink Drawing. This is why I love the sketching phase, you’re so Carefree and not worried about making mistakes, that you end up creating really Sexy Lines and Shapes.

A benefit of sketching with Ink, is I think in time, because you can’t erase the lines, it will teach, almost forcing you, to be more wise with the lines you place down. I started reading a book called Figure Drawing Design and Invention, by Michael Hampton a few years ago. I remember finding it too advanced at the time, so I put it down, but one thing Michael said stuck with me. It was something along the lines of only place a line down if it needs to be there.

This means the only lines you want to capture and place down, are the important ones, the ones with meaning. Less is more! I’ve always struggled with this though, even though I know it’s a good thing to aim for, I tend to rush in too soon and try to find my main Gesture lines by throwing lines all over the paper lol

The unforgiving nature of Inking, might make Ink sketching a good way to practice the art of holding back and studying the actual pose before jumping into placing lines down.

I’m so glad I tried this lil Ink Sketching experiment, it was really interesting, but so bleeding messy lol

THE NEXT 7 DAYS?

Five. There’s only five days left of Inktober 2018 now … it’s gone so quick. I will admit, a teeny weeny part of me is excited to have a few days off lol Doing Art Challenges is so relentless. For these last five days though, I don’t know what to do. I was thinking about redrawing my day one drawings, to compare see if I’ve improved.

I might do that, but I’m going to do what I planned to do before Inktober 2018 started, and that is, draw lilSOPHIE cosplaying videogame characters :) That will be fun I think, so that’s what she’ll be doing this week lol but for the other more detailed drawings, I dunno.

Yes I do … I just had a thought hit me … Five Anime Characters! Woohoo! That sounds fun :) Both of these sound fun…I can’t wait to get started already lol See you next week for the final Inktober 2018 blog post :)