Ink comparison

I had a notion years ago that it might be instructive to compare different methods of inking the same picture as a sort of tutorial. I never did make a tutorial, but on a whim I drew the comparison pictures a few days ago.

The top row is all fineliners, and compares three different choices a person might make about where to place their thick and thin lines. The bottom row is comparing water-soluble ink, a metal dip pen and a paintbrush.

I've never met another artist who uses water-soluble ink the way I do, does anyone know of any others? I'd like to see how other people do it.

Inktober 2019: day 23 - Pentel pocket brush and ink wash (G-pen for the strings)

Here’s another character we haven’t met before, although you may have seen his eye if you’ve been here a while. Jothan is a courtesan at the palace of the Dai Empress, with music among his specialist skills. His people never show their open mouths, so he wears a veil if he’s been asked to sing as well as play.

(The harp design isn’t final, I think it should be a bit less symmetrical.)

Inktober 2019: day 21 - ink and water

She knows she’s supposed to use matches to light the fires.

This is another character who hasn’t really appeared before. You might see her again before the month is over.

Inktober 2019: day 20 - mapping pen

It’s not clear to anyone why Coda attracts so many butterflies.

I went for something simple again because I’m tabling at London MCM this weekend and I’m starting to panic a little bit!

Inktober 2019: day 19 - brush inking and coloured ink

If they fall down without time to prepare, they don’t come out right.

Inktober 2019: day 17 - Pentel pocket brush and felt tips

His whispers blend right in with your own thoughts, until you can’t tell the difference.

Inktober 2019: days 14 & 15 - ink and water

“Those thus blessed shall ye know by a stain of blood that cleareth not, neither by water nor by milk.”

Something very exciting has been happening this Inktober! I’ve had Meilee and Lin since I was a teenager, but I could never get a bead on who they are or what their story is. Now all of a sudden I’m learning a lot about them! I normally try hard not to do the same thing two days in a row, but I didn’t know about their port wine stains until a couple of days ago, so I drew these two back to back so I could post them as a pair.

Inktober 2019: day 13 - brush inking and ink wash

A character we haven’t really met before! This is ‘Sapling’, the Dai Empress, in extremely casual clothes. This might even be something like pyjamas. She rules a vast empire that spans more than half a galaxy.

I normally try not to use the same inking method two days in a row, but carrying bottles of ink to and from work was making me nervous so I thought I’d better do all the brush inking at the weekend. I did use different brushes though!

Inktober 2019: day 10 - G-pen

Sweetpea is trying on a new hat, but I don’t think it’s going to stay on over his hair. Maybe he’ll have better luck once the other ear frill drops.

I promise I drew this on the day, I just ran out of time and/or energy to scan it! I keep coming up with ideas that I know will take too long, but then I can’t bring myself to go with a weaker idea so I end up having to finish it at night. I know Sweetpea well enough that I didn't have to think too hard about this one, but there is a certain irreducible length of time it takes to do all that cross-hatching.

(If you know your nuts and seeds you can work out how big he is by that hat.)

Inktober 2019: day 8 - fineliners

If you tell her to wait, she’ll wait.

I was going to shade this with grey pens, but I decided on a whim to try doing just clean line art instead. I’m quite pleased with it?

Inktober 2019: day 5 - dip pen and liquid ink

Isaac doesn't always know how to pass the time at night

I had the idea for this one a few days ago, but had to save it for the weekend because I knew I wouldn't have enough time on a workday. In hindsight I could have pushed the lighting even more, maybe I'll give it another go later in the month.

This is also a turnip pen instead of my normal mapping pen. I've been having trouble finding replacement mapping nibs (although I've finally tracked down some that I like) so I've built up a small collection of alternatives.

Inktober 2019: day 1 - ink and water

Spider often 'falls asleep' in lessons, but he isn't always sleeping.

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It's finally time for my favourite art challenge of the year, Inktober! I've started doing cover pages in my sketchbooks since last year, so I did one in preparation yesterday. I also go a full-time job since last Inktober, so this year will be a real test of my skills. I'll have to do each piece in the 90 minutes I can squeeze in before work, how is this going to turn out?

I'm never sure if people know what I mean by 'ink and water' - it's a drawing in water-soluble ink which I then move around with water. I've never tried to do it on only part of the picture before, how does it look?

Inktober 2018 : Happy Hallowe'en!

Happy Hallowe’en! The Mirror Twins are looking for some new friends, if you’d like to join them.

No Tabitha this year! I had so many Tabitha pictures that I recently made them into a set of postcards, so I thought it was time to try something different. I don’t think I’ve ever tried ink wash over hatching like this before, so maybe this will be my next Hallowe’en tradition?

Inktober 2018 : Day 30 - ink and water

Among the places you may find Isaac: mausoleums.

This one was more of a test to show Isaac’s wing shadows bending around a wall, so it’s a bit messy. I might try to work it up into a full painting some other time.

Inktober 2018 : Day 29 - Pentel Pocket Brush

As Hallowe’en approaches it gets harder for Leilus to hide his unnatural features, but in this age of contacts, acrylics and prosthetic makeup he can still hide in plain sight if he chooses his outings carefully.

This was originally going to have spot colour, but I ended up having to do it at work where I didn’t have any of my coloured pens, so it became a game of ‘how much flat black can I put on this before it becomes an unreadable mess’. The answer was 'quite a lot'!

Inktober 2018 : Day 28 - fineliners and grey pen

Here’s a Sweetpea to match Coriander from day 3! I normally try to avoid doing so many dolly style pictures in a row, but I was too tired for anything more complicated. MCM has insane opening hours these days, it even opens at 9am on the Sunday! Opening before 10 o'clock on a Sunday is just unnatural.

Inktober 2018 : Day 27 - Pentel Pocket Brush and ink wash

One more for the ‘girls looking straight at the camera’ set! It was hard inking the Mirror Girl with such a thick pen, but it was one of the only ones I hadn’t used yet for this set.

You can tell I was at MCM this weekend because all the pictures become extremely simple.

Inktober 2018 : Day 26 - fineliners and grey pens

Poppet and her friends have dressed up as koroks for Hallowe'en!

Inktober 2018 : Day 25 - ink and water

Augury is the practice of divining the future from the flight of birds.

I have still been doing these, I’ve just been away from my scanner again! I don’t think I’ve ever been this busy during Inktober, I can count on one hand the number of full days off I’ve had this month. I’ve had to scrap some really nice ideas because I just didn’t have enough time to get them done.

Inktober 2018 : Day 24 - Pentel Pocket Brush and ink wash

I felt too sick to come up with an interesting composition so I went for broke on the hair. On the plus side, I haven't been happy with how I draw Nat's hair for years and I'm really pleased with it in this one, so I've made progress!