5 INK Tips to Improve Your Pen Drawings!

[Music] hello and welcome to today's Sketchbook [Music] session in this video I'm going to touch on the importance of drawing in Black Ink and how it's helped me improve throughout time here are some of the materials for today so I'm going to share some tips with you you can find useful while we fill a Sketchbook page together and feel free to grab yours and draw along to some going in with black ink can feel a bit daunting at first but what can help and what I highly recommend is just getting a scrap paper and playing with your supplies get to know them and give yourself permission to play I prepared a few of my favorite brush pens little liners a bit thicker and thinner but today I'm most curious to use the brush pen but hey who knows let's see where the Sketchbook session takes us [Music] before beginning my hand just dances around the paper trying to visualize where to place the Mark I find that drawing straight with ink really forces you to slow down and take it easy yep uh no pencil today just going straight in with some ink and I want to share this process with you to maybe inspire you to give it a try whether you have or haven't since I found and learned that over the years it has really helped boost some confidence and improve my overall skills and just thought process when creating and especially with that first sketch breaking into the blank page you've got to be bold confident trust yourself and Trust the process when you make a mark you can't really go back you can't really erase you pretty much have to draw with great intention and yes although it may feel pressures some it's actually a great confidence booster the constraint that you can't really erase that you can't really go back really allows you to trust yourself and the marks you make I personally love pen and ink and I love a good classic black and white sketch I love studying master etchings and sketches and always try to find something new that I can try or maybe improve in my drawing so today I really want to get the proportions correct and create a bit more contrast which we'll talk about throughout the video and just generally more intentional marks [Music] when beginning a sketch and especially a portrait I usually start with the eyes or the head and I build my way out but in this sketch I thought what if I tried to approach it from the shoulder and then build my way towards the face and the eyes and the other features so is there a rule or or right way quote unquote to start I think it's really what works best for you and it's always fun to experiment and kind of try new things but really depending on the medium and intention you set for the day can help you determine the process and steps you take for your [Music] sketches [Music] Upon finishing the first sketch and beginning the others I immediately was reminded of the concept of less is more sometimes we think we have to put as many marks as possible render away but I've learned the complete opposite slowing down and simplifying which takes a bit more willpower than it seems can actually improve your sketches and bring more sophistication to them besides our eyes actually do most of the work on filling in the information on its own what personally helps me is also thinking about the negative space of my reference and then I can pick and choose which shapes I want to make which lines I want to make and most most importantly consciously things that I want to choose to leave out so ask yourself and think about it how can I simplify the [Music] sketch this video was kindly sponsored by Squarespace the all-in-one platform where you you can build your website your portfolio and even manage your shop I love their award-winning templates that make everything seamless and beautifully displayed and when I was uploading one of my new fine art prints all I had to do was to drag and drop the images I've got some closeups of the print itself and thanks to the versatile template I think it looks lovely on the site I'm constantly finding new ways that I can redesign the website so that it can be seamless and super user friendly but after using this platform for years I can highly recommend you give it a try by going to squarespace.com and when you're ready to launch go to squarespace.com jarp for 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain now let's discuss contrast contrast can be found when you look at something in relation to another for example when we think of contrast for Black Ink we can think about the white Space versus the black space or to simplify dark versus light there can also be contrast in in shape in color angles but for this video just to talk about the contrast in black and white visually as you can see the certain sections that are fully shaded in dark our eyes kind of go there first and it creates a visual contrast for the image you can also Imagine the filter or the edit on your phone where you can slide the slider a bit more to create more contrast and it kind of punches out the photo so how can we push the contrast and create more contrasts in our sketches first think about your focal point and where you want the eyes to go first remember not to be afraid to include those areas with super dark blacks shade it all in and don't be afraid just be weary of the lighting and take it slowly and build up your values as you go and just as important it is to push the Shadows it's also important to think about the highlights ahead of time and leave them out to be blank for this drawing the girl 's hair was nice and dark and I wanted to create a light coming straight forward and her eyes just gleaming up and creating a contrast in the composition with her expression she's got a bit of a surprise expression sticking her tongue out and I just wanted to create a different Rhythm and something different for the Sketchbook page remember that the darker the section the eyes are being drawn more to that part and then we have something called the midtones and to create midtones it brings me to my last tip which we can create by using line variation for this last sketch I really looked at the overall composition so I was thinking to have the last sketch facing towards the other figures and I'm constantly evaluating balance with shape with contrast so here I'm starting off with very light lines just to show you how certain light lines and the way we vary our lines can communicate different language and in our [Music] [Music] [Music] drawing so let's discuss the light lines that are used in the glasses our attention goes more towards the shadow section because they're thicker they're Bolder and more delicate lines with the glasses create a bit more of a delicate language the darker we draw the lines and the closer we put them together will give us a darker value and the lighter we draw the lines and the more spaced out they are will give us a lighter [Music] value [Music] I like to incorporate all of the process and tips slowing down being confident and also using line variation contrast when creating my black and white sketches also elements like balance composition shapes it all comes into play and it's just an explosion of things that you think about but a beautiful moment when drawing and creating [Music] personally although I'm working in my Sketchbook and I'm drawing in pen and ink visually I still like to think of both pages and the Sketchbook spread as a hole I'm constantly stepping back looking at it from a distance and also thinking about where I can add a little bit more darks and for me personally it's a little more difficult because I get a little nervous getting things to be super dark I know I can't go back but I think here I've been really trying to push that concept and trying to push the contrast with this page after finishing my drawings I always like to go back and touch up the whole page Al together this feels like it really wraps it up so I switched to a really thin liner and kind of get that midtone in and then I also added this really dark thicker pen to push those blacks and I feel like that really really unified it and also a tiny Touch of dry brush for a little bit more [Music] variation and one of the feelings after getting lost in a beautiful creative session is the feeling of loving what you just created and being proud of yourself [Music]

Channel: Jess Karp

Views: 157,940

Keywords: pen and ink, ink drawing, how to draw, sketchbook session, sketchbook, sketching, how to paint, how to sketch, how to ink, ink cross hatching, inking, pen draw

Id: 1K4K5_HGgUk

Length: 11min 37sec (697 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 24 2024