And here's some of the margin-drawing I've been doing in the first pen and ink book I bought (and mentioned in the last post)...
I actually bought the books this last July, but work was in full on crazy mode at the time, and didn't slow down enough for me to pay much attention to them until recently.
Basically, I'm still feeling pretty nervous about my ability and such,
wanting to move along fairly slowly. And besides, this is the back to basics kind of stuff I was also talking about wanting/needing to do in the last post, as well.
Like I said, limited at this point to margin doodles and recreating practice exercises next to Dunn's examples--stuff more suited to the actual exercises workbook I have. I'll move into that next, I think.
These are mostly from the book's second chapter, titled "Strokes."
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| Following the man's instructions and "doodling here..." |
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| Building is Dunn's, weird creepy clown-giant is mine. It didn't start as a weird creepy clown-giant, it was just a free-form scribble that turned into a weird creepy clown-giant... |
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| I just added a few of my own pens and brushes into Dunn's already existing illustration, here... |
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| And my (terribly rough looking) feather, added to his much more smoothly rendered ones. (I am beginning, after all.) |
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| Added a pen and ink bottle here, with varying results... |
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| And a scribble-y pen here. |
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| Basic strokes exercises, here--mine on the left. |
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| Patterns. Dunn's examples are the twelve precisely spaced ones--three rows of four. These kind of fucked with my head. Trying to reproduce them, I mean. |
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| Dunn's stuff on the left, mine on the right. |
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| Having a go at approximating his hat and eye. |
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| As well as his shaving brush. |
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| Another exercise, on various purposes of strokes, I think. My attempts on the left. |
And that's it so far. Having gone through his actual-book's chapter on strokes, I think I'll move over to his workbook and do the stroke exercises in that, next.
I'm struck, looking at these, regarding something I've noticed about myself before: I don't like to slow down and really see/reproduce what I'm seeing. I get bored or... something... and start making quick and sloppy marks, just to finish the damn thing and move on. That'll need to change, if I'm working in pen and ink.
Slowing down, thinking before I place my pen, sticking with something until it feels done. All good things for me to work toward...
