Sketch Diary: Brush pen inking of a poofy haired portrait (plus video)

Mmm brushpens! My favorite kind of pen to struggle with when I'm tired. So I do most of my drawing late at night, that's just when I'm able to make time right now. And the later it gets, the shakier my hands (and resolve) tend to get. But I was determined! By thunder, I was gonna brush ink the hell out of this drawing. I think it's... ok. Maybe I'll like it more after I color it.

Wanna watch me battle with sleep before your very eyes?! Help yourself:

5x speed

1x speed

with love - M

Sketch Diary: Inktober Day 26 - Freehand ink of Aragon

I love watching movies with great scores in the background while I draw and The Lord of the Rings always fits the bill for me. This was a freehand (no pre sketch in pencil or anything) drawing in ink using a brush pen of Aragon. It's a bit wonky lol and I didn't feel like inking in all of his hair... still fun though.

with love - M

Sketch Diary: Inktober Day 25 - Death fanart

Freehand ink brush pen of Death from Sandman by Neil Gaiman. I was looking at images of both death and the woman that Gaiman says Death was based on - Cinnamon. I changed the gaze and orientation of the face a bit from the references. Being done freehand, I was just running with the mistakes hah. I love how it turned out though. One of my favorite characters. A great comic - check it out if you haven't.

with love - M

Sketch Diary: Inktober Day 24 - Ergo Proxy fanart

A freehand brush pen drawing of a character from an anime I love - Ergo Proxy. Yeah I know, the face is wonky. Whatever. I still like it. Freehand is hard.

with love - M

Sketch Diary: Inktober Day 22 - Whispy hair and purple lips

So I've been watching a lot of Artwork by Christopher Cayco videos lately so I've been all about the freehand brush pen drawings. Be sure to check out his live drawings at least. It's like watching a wizard do magic on paper, to me anyway hah.

How it works is you need some kind of ink and brush - brush pens are definitely easier than using raw ink and brushes. Or at least cleaner and takes up less space. Cuz for raw ink you need the ink well, some kind of palette, some kind of towel, glass of water, brushes, and heavy duty paper. Anyway, you have your brush and ink and then you just draw! No pre-sketching in pencil. Just brush to paper and go. I haven't drawn in straight ink like that in ages and it was so freeing and fun and I felt like my wrist was opening up more. Super nice. Highly recommended.

with love - M

Sketch Diary: Inktober Day 9 - purple portrait

Note to self: don't play with brush pens when you're tired and don't feel like sitting upright to draw lol. What's funny is that I blamed the brush pen when I first inked this... like it was responsible for my shaky lines.

with love - M

Sketch Diary: Colored Calm Grace

Here's the original sketch. I zoned out and didn't scan it after inking it, oops. I used a brush pen for some of the lines but ultimately went back to my microns. I just need more control sometimes. The problem is me, not the brush pen haha. Also, was having a really hard time with the skin blending. Yeesh. What NOT to do.

with love - M

Sketch Diary: TBT - Pink haired girl

Thought the odd proportions are becoming more glaring as time rolls on, I still really like this. I had (have?) no clue what I was doing with my watercolors. No training, no practice - this WAS the practice hah. This piece taught me a lot. Still feels soft and warm to me and I feel happy when I look at it. Isn't that the point?

with love - M

Sketch Diary: TBT - Mermaid hair in a frame

Taking me back! I still get good feels from looking at this piece and remembering how cool I felt while painting it. They sketch alone, I thought, was pretty awesome for my skills at the time and then the actual execution of the colors was quite exhilarating. I think this was 2010 or there abouts. Maybe a good one to hold onto for an OC. I'm so bad at creating original characters... correction, I make them all the time but I very quickly move on to the next one. I should commit to one, at least.

So this was one of my 'just starting out' watercolor pieces. I had (and still have...) no clue what I was doing. I was just putting brush to paper and seeing what happened. Man... it's really making me miss doing watercolors. Just one more reason to get my craft/art/sewing/book/misc room cleaned up so I can get pack into these things again. I certainly don't have to have my art table to paint but it sure makes things easier and more enticing. It's almost there! Just a couple more big projects to finish and it'll be ready for war.

With love - M