3 posts tagged “brush and ink”

Here are the sketches I mentioned in the previous post.

I took Aubrey's suggestion and decided to try charcoal. Unfortunately, there was no charcoal around, so I took an 8B graphite pencil and did a few doodles. I wanted to get an idea of the horse's anatomy before attempting it in brush and ink. I've decided to be a little honest and show you the trial drawings as well.

The first is one of my favourite horse positions, which I used to demarcate the three basic parts of the body (you can see the pencil lines clearly.) The second was merely some doodling to get a feel of the horse's shape and posture, and the last was to get an idea of how the neck and chest muscles would "knot up" when a horse rears.

 

Of course, it's easier said than done. When I finally attempted the inkbrush sketches, I floundered. Gaaah.

 

This was an attempt at a perspective (note the foreshortening of the front left leg) which turned out ... er ... not so correct. While I think I got the musculature and roundness right, the front legs have gone wrong somewhere. I like the way I captured the movement though - especially in the swishing tail.

The poor animal looks like he's on steroids!

 

I tried the rearing pose again. I didn't get the back legs quite right, maybe because I hadn't any space left at the bottom of the page.

 

 

At last. Something close to what I wanted.

 

The other versions:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And finally a random sketch, this time not so happy:

 

But the glumness belies some good news: one of my oldest internet friends (we go back three years!) was blessed with a baby girl on Saturday the 5th! We've met only twice or thrice, and I couldn't even attend his wedding in June last year. But I'll hopefully get to meet him and his wife and newborn this June! I'm so happy for him! Wheeee!

 

So I tried out some more stuff yesterday. But this time, I avoided the fountain pen completely.

Lauri was right - cats are harder to draw because of their fluidity. Even when they're still, their sinuous lines give the feeling of constant movement. So I decided to paint my favourite animal since childhood - the horse. Since the horse is such a large and powerful animal, and its structure and musculature smacks of solidity and sturdiness, I figured it would be easy to capture a horse that is not moving.

I've always believed that horses are the most beautiful creatures on earth. The very sight of a horse running with its mane trailing behind and hooves kicking up dust is enough to keep me on the edge of the seat, covered in goosebumps all over. (No  wonder I loved the film Seabiscuit.) When I want to feel invigorated or refreshed, all I have to do is visualise a jet black horse, untamed, unsaddled, galloping along a beach as the waves thrash against the shore and a strong breeze fans his mane and tail. It works.

Unfortunately, my rendition does not live up to my art-geekery.

 

 

Here's the darker version. I think the darker shading makes the horse look more statuesque,

but not necessarily alive. More like a granite sculpture.

 

Once I finished the sketch, I realised that a standing or still horse is best captured in a solid medium like pen, charcoal, or with more viscous paints such as oils or acrylics. I suppose the ink and brush would have worked better if the horse was in motion. It's not necessarily a rule of course - it's just that, to do justice to an animal as beautiful as a horse, it's better to use a medium that would complement the horse's action in the best possible way.

Bah humbug. The simple truth is, I need to work harder at my brush and ink rendering.

 

But on the bright side - I sketched another girl, and it turned out marvellous in comparison to the earlier one.

 

 

And the dark version:

 

 

 

I experimented with some more brush-and-ink techniques yesterday. I'm not a trained artist, and I used ordinary Sunlit Bond paper which made it hard to blend the strokes, but these two turned out reasonably okay. I did these from imagination, which is why they don't look real, and there are a couple of light strokes which are hard to see in the scanned image, though they're visible on the actual paper.

 

I used a #00 round brush to draw the outlines and filled them in with a # 6 round brush. The ink was ordinary black fountain pen ink, with varying degrees of dilution. I added a few definitions with a fountain pen containing the same ink.

 

 

I love how the folds of the girl's dress have turned out and I particularly like the way I've fleshed out her lips and upper left arm. However, I still need to work more on the lighting of her face, neck and hair, and I think the use of fountain pen to detail her eyes and nose bridge was a bad idea.

 

 

 

For the tabby, I used a #8 flat brush in addition to the #00 and the #6. I'm not happy with the overall appearance of the cat - the proportions have gone awry - but I still like the ambiguous brush strokes around the edges that give an idea of the fur's thickness. I also like the variation in the darkness of the markings, and the whiskers on the cat's right have turned out well. Again, I used a fountain pen for a few details, but, like the case of the girl, maybe that wasn't such a good idea.

 

I darkened these a bit on Photoshop to see how they look:

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think I need to get over my fear of using raw, loose brush strokes. My previous inkbrush sketches were much better, though I admit I was very emotionally involved in them when I did them, which may have made a difference.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These two are my favourites:

 

All said and done, I love sketching, especially with brush and ink. The fluidity of the medium is very liberating. I'd love to receive tips from any watercolour experts/ enthusiasts.