Tag: hatching

InkTober 2018 – Done!

This was my 4th InkTober. Last year I did ink wash portraits and I really learned a lot, but I also spend a grotesque amount of time on it. Although I loved doing the ink washes, and the end result, I really didn’t enjoy doing the underdrawings. I was doing them with grids and was spending more time fine tuning them, then I did on the ink washes. It felt like copying, not drawing, which I in essence it is. Using a grid can be great when the likeness have to be spot on, like a family portrait, but for me it became a bad habit I didn’t enjoy and I almost haven’t drawn since December.

So it was time for change; I still wanted to do portraits but without the grid and faster, trying not to be too fussy about likeness;

-Block in in pencil, ink with fountain pen
-Draw fast
-No grids, only tool for measuring is my pencil
-Shade with hatching trying to use as few strokes as possible

I quickly switched to finelines because the fountain pen was skipping a lot when drawing on top of the pencil in my very cheap 20x20cm sketchbook. Time wise it was a disaster again this year but I did loose the bad habit using a grid when doing the underdrawings. Blocking in instead of doing a more or less a finished contour drawing as an underdrawing and hatching with as few lines as possible where a limited success. I did get a little faster and the hatching a bit lighter and looser but not much. But all that said, I do like the style with the blue underdrawing and ink that developed over the month.

I just picked up a book about drawing portraits hoping that the method it uses can help me further, but I probably need professional help to fix this so I’ll also start looking for portrait drawing classes with live models.

My usual ramblings/comments to the daily drawings are under the gallery.

Continue reading “InkTober 2018 – Done!”

InkTober 2016 – Done

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InkTober is over. I did it, 31 drawings in 31 days. You might actually say I drew over 100 drawings, because almost all the drawings where drawn and erased several times before I got started on the ink.
In Denmark children hang their dummies in trees, when it’s time to give up the habit. Maybe it’s time for me to hang my eraser in a tree. I probably won’t like the result in the beginning, but I should be able to make 3 times as many drawings in the same time and that will definitely help my drawing.
The fairies leave children a gift as thanks. Does that apply to grownups with erasers too??

Here is all the drawings for InkTober 2016:

InkTober 2016 – Part 2.

Inkler Fish
Still doing my daily InkTober drawings. My son often complains about me only drawing what I see and to little from fantasy. So here is an inkler fish, an inklefant and a “knæk cancer” ninja especially for him. He was also very fond of the snake from Aalborg Zoo. He told me (3 times) what kind of snake it was, but I forgot…

A lot of ink ran through my Lamy fountain pens for the drawings. I also got to try the Preppy pens from Platinum. They are not as good as a Lamy Safari, but at £2,33 they are fantastic. The’ve definitely earned their place in my drawing kit. I’m especially happy with the extra fine which has a thinner line than Lamy’s extra fine.

Picasso fanart

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I wanted to practice drawing form and since I’m very fond of some of Picasso’s ink drawing from his 1928 sketchbooks (Carnet Paris and Carnet Dinard) I decided to do some drawings inspired by them. A kind of Picasso fanart if you like.

I didn’t wanted to spend too much time on it, so I set a few limitations for myself; a quick underdrawing, and apart from that only using a Lamy Safari Extra Fine. No backgrounds only a little shadow to place the figures on the ground. A6 format in the form of an accordion sketchbook made from an A2 sheet of paper. I’ve used these little sketchbooks before for 15-in-a-day drawings, but this time it took me 2 weeks to finish the 15 drawings…

If you want to see the 2 Picasso’s sketchbooks I can highly recommend the book “Pablo Picasso on the Path to Sculpture”. It’s hard to find – and therefor often expensive – but try the library. In Denmark you can order it at any library. If you live in Essex you might be out of luck though; I bought their “withdrawn” copy.

Have a look at Marc Taro Holmes “How to make an accordion sketchbook” on his site, if you want to make one.

Summer drawings

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Anna Anchers (out) house in Skagen

Managed to keep up the daily drawing all summer – or rather 7 drawings a week, there were a fair few catch up days with more than one drawing. No theme, just a weird mixture of drawings.

Mostly used a very cheap sketchbook which has a big drawback; it can’t take even a light wash of watercolour. Some of the “urban sketching” drawings could really have done with a splash of colour. Need to find some sketchbooks with smooth white paper good for fountain pen, pencil and watercolour.