The Old Inn – Ink

This week I made a simple drawing of a Old Inn. It was a study of a drawing by Ink Rebellion on YouTube. He drew a Pirate Tavern. Here is his video…

I began in pencil and then went on to an ink outline like this…

Once I had my outline I then filled in some warm and cool greys with alcohol-based brush markers.

Here’s the final picture…

While this was a fun little project it did show me a way that I might start to improve my ink drawing. I think I need to stop drawing in outlines and draw everything as shadows and light. I suspect that this is easier said than done. Still, it gives me something to think about!

Snowy FIeld – Ink with Digital Colour

This week’s art is a drawing of a snowy field…

Once I had laid down the ink I then played around with it in Photoshop and added some colour…

Personally I prefer the plain ink drawing. Which do you like best?

Lemon Tetra – Ink

Lemon Tetra by Waugsberg CC BY 2.5

This week I drew a Lemon Tetra in ink. I drew it at an art group I go to and didn’t get a chance to photograph any process shots.

Lemon Tetra (Hyphessobrycon pulchripinnis) are really beautiful fish which can look almost flourecent yellow/green in the right light. They are easy to keep from a fishkeeping perspective and fairly calm with other community fish.

Here is some beautiful video of them…

By Tanks For Watching

And here’s my drawing…

Rocky Shore – Ink

This week’s art is a small, simple sketch of a rocky shoreline. I wanted to see if I could convey the shapes of the rocks with relatively few lines. So I went for only three tonal levels – pure black, pure white and one hatched tone. Here’s a closer look at the final drawing…

Jumping Spider – Ink

This week I drew a quick little sketch of a jumping spider. Rather than put him centre-frame I drew him off to the right to give him some space to jump!

Here’s a bigger version of the same image…

Robin – Ink

This week’s art is a simple ink drawing of a robin…

Recently I’ve been thinking more about the placement of my artwork on the page. So rather than going with the more standard central placement I pushed my little robin off to the right so that he was looking into some space on the left. It’s a small thing but I really like it.

Mallard – Digital Painting

Hello again! I must apologise for being late back from my break. I managed to catch a chest infection. I am still in bed but in much better shape now and able to blog from here! For this week I worked on completing a digital painting of a Mallard which I started a long time ago.

The approach I took with this painting was very similar to the way I approach traditional art. I basically blocked in and then refined sections of the painting.

I began with a simple drawing which acted as a kind of map for the piece…

Next I began blocking in the reflections in the water…

I refined those reflections a little and then blocked in the reflection of the duck…

Then I blocked in the duck itself…

Next I worked some more detail into the general reflections in the water. I found this quite tricky but also really expressive to do…

I then refined the reflection of the duck’s head and shoulders…

Next I went on to the reflection of the duck’s back…

Once that was done I completed the back and started on the detail of the actual duck, beak first. This was really enjoyable to do!

Next I worked on the details of the duck’s head and shoulders…

Finally I worked on the duck’s back and was finished…

Overall I really enjoyed making this picture. I certainly learned a lot about relfections!

Predator – Line and Wash – Part 1 of 2

I really love owls! I think my love for them goes back to a summer evening in Cambridgeshire many years ago. It was the time of day when everything is golden. I was sitting on the edge of a field when a barn owl started hunting. She flew slowly and completely silently – it was magical. She hunted for a good 10 minutes. I was spellbound. It felt like she had to be some kind of holy spirit animal rather than just a regular flesh and blood bird. Ever since then I have loved owls.

I began this particular drawing with a quick sketch…

I developed it…

Then I inked it…

Here is the final ink drawing…

My next job will be to paint a watercolour wash over the top. I think I will have to play around with some colour digitally before I can do this since I haven’t really got my ideas clear enough yet.

Walrus – Charcoal

I drew a female Pacific Walrus this week. Working with charcoal again was fun. I find these animals to be oddly noble, lumbering Gods of the sea.

Pacific Walrus Male By Joel Garlich-Miller, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Public Domain)

I worked a bit more with different textures in this portrait…