Draw Something, Dammit

[JM]

Dude, that in no way needs to be cleaned up at all. The colors look great, but the B&W version is rad all by itself! The image has to work in B&W first or color isn't going to do shit.

You really need to get some ink (i prefer yatsumoto sumi ink) and a brush. The messy style you did here would look great on a large sheet of paper! I'm not going to stop bugging you about this until I see some pictures of some ink pieces!

I'll be posting more new traditional stuff soon. After watching some tutorial videos I have realized that I've really had my head all wrong about using pen nibs for ink work. Ever since high school I have HATED working with a pen nib. This may have something to do with my teacher having no idea how to instruct us on what the worthwhile aspects of working with a nib were, and the fact the nibs supplied to us were old as shit and would have immediately bent if I were to have put any kind of serious pressure on it.

After seeing what you can really do with a nib I have taken it upon myself to become proficient with them. I feel like a fucking bonehead to have ignored one of the oldest and most important methods of applying my favorite medium. I am currently working on a surrealist girl who is half robot half bad psychedelic experience. I am going for serious visual overload on the detail and I'm doing it all with a dip nib! It has been really fun, and although I KNOW this thing will be a mess to look at from a distance, hopefully it will be rewarding viewed up close. I'm going to be out of visual motifs to use on this chick, keeping each little area fresh has been a real challenge. I'll post it up as soon as I'm done.

[YellerDog]

Dang man, thanks!

The thing with nibs is to never, EVER share them! HS art teachers are either retarded or hamstrung by tiny budgets. They adjust to the pressure your hand puts on 'em while you're breaking them in, and the second another human being draws with 'em, that's it game over man. I get a wild hair going every year that lasts about three weeks where I start inking stuff again, I totally feel the need to get serious with 'em.

Oh man drawing! So fun!

[JefmcC]

An artist I like, Zach Johnsen. This link goes directly to the "sketch" portion of his site.

http://www.zenvironments.com/sketch/

[YellerDog]

Noggin!

[JM]

Haha, the highlights on the eyes are just perfect.

[arjue]

I bought some Indian ink and a brush, any advice before i give it a go?

[JM]

Make sure your paper is a little thick, otherwise you will have a lot of bleed on the ink. Also, if you are using an india ink make sure it doesn't dry in the brush, and always clean the brush well when putting your stuff away. Use soap or shampoo and the brush will last a LOT longer. (India ink has shellac in it which eats at the brush over time.)

Getting some col-erase blue or orange pencils are nice. It helps to ink over something a different color than what you are laying down, and that stuff can be erased really easily with a kneaded eraser. They are made by prismacolor.

Keep a blank sheet of paper next to what you are working on so you can dip and then do a test stroke to make sure you didn't over or under load your brush.

Putting your ink in a smaller container that you can see into can also help. It is better for your brush if you aren't accidentally dipping it up to the metal all the time.

Get some big paper and experiment with a big brush and use your whole arm to get some really expressive stuff. The look of a long flowing ink line losing it's ink and getting all scratchy at the end is amazing.

Let your brush start to run dry then drag it for a drybrush techinique, this can be really neat looking. You can get better results doing drybrush on paper with a little more tooth BTW.

Next time you are picking up art supplies grab a nib holder and nibs (speedball makes a pack with two holders and a variety of sketching nibs that is great for starting out.) The nib can give you great line variation like a brush but is still able to ink very fine details with more control than a brush. The brush and nibs can be used hand in hand, no reason to pick one or the other.

Ummm, I'll post more as I think of them.

[cigsthecat]

Yeah to clean it use a bar of hand soap (newish) and press the brush into it and drag it, making little grooves in the soap. This is an easy way to get ink out of the base of the brush as long as you do it right after you finish using it.

I wouldn't worry about dipping the brush past the metal. I always did that (I don't see how you're realistically supposed to avoid this when inking with a small brush) and my brushes lasted just fine.

Oh and if you want really black ink, leave the bottle open for a day or so after you get it.

If you find that you aren't able to get clean enough lines out of it get a small 100% red sable brush.

[JefmcC]

Another skull doodle ...

[arjue]

Thanks guys, i'll give it a go soon. Its really awesome that I can come in here with my shitty, out of perspective drawings and get encouragement and advice by genuinely gifted artists.