Ink Sketches

Something different. Asides from watercolor, I sometimes doodle on notebooks that I could easily grab from my desk. One of these notebooks is a brown kraft notebook that I bought from Papemelroti. I use this an ink practice book on flower subjects. Sometimes straight from a pen, sometimes with pencil lines.

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I have a lot of ink pens actually. Most were from my college years that are still alive today. Some I bought from shopee, majority from seamiart. I wanted to try drawing with brush pens. The variety of lines that I could do with one pen intrigues me.

Really love the rose piece above. The three below are drawn with seamiart pens. The Chinese characters written are the pen sizes indicated in their covers.

That’s it for now! Time to photoshop again the remaining 2023 blog posts! ♥

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Inktober 2021 – Completed

I’ve been wondering on how should I present my inktober works last 2021. This is the second time that I’ve completed inktober. The last time was around 2017 – and look at the way that blog post was designed. I had Inggo do that part, and I really didn’t feel like doing that again. So I’ve compiled my works into 3s this time. The prompt for 2021 was #artoberflowers by @shealeenlouise. I researched for reference photos a month before and used her 2020 prompt before she posted a 2021 version. So my works are a mix of both. And again, another picture heavy post ahead!

Peony, Buttercup, Foxglove.

Peony – The first drawing showed how I was experimenting and planning on how I want to do this inktober. I used lines to form the folds of the petals, and I also tried out hatches and cross hatching for the shades of the petals. I’m not really fond of this piece, but it is a good reminder that this is what it looks like whenever I’m doing something again.

Buttercup – Inktober and October in general is another excuse to bring out my markers again. 

Foxglove – This is the drawing that shows I’m getting used to my inks again. More hatches and 0.05 goodness. I used my college unipin markers for this

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Above – Hellebore, Daffodil, Tulip | Below – Azalea, Primula, Sakura

Hellebore – With this piece, I’m experimenting on how I should render the petals. Should I focus on the petals? Shadows? What about contrast? Some things to think about when inking. 

Daffodil – The day that I made this piece was a good 0.05 thickness kind of day! From my hellebore work that showed the folds individually, this one showed the shadows of the folds for a softer look. I especially loved the lowest petal on the drawing.

Tulip – Pretty proud of this one! It took a lot of restraint to hatch shadows on the petals. Sometimes simplicity is the only thing that’s needed in a piece. ♥

Azalea – I didn’t write much on my instagram post about this one. I really liked the way I hatched the shadows on the petals, its similar to what I did on my daffodil drawing.

Primula – Getting tired of inking using unipins so I got out my freebie brush pen from @pennarr.ph when I ordered from them. I used it on the leaves and it made an amazing effect. 

 

Above – Anemone, Sunflower, Orchid | Below – Lilac, Forsythia, Crocus

Anemone – This was actually the first one I inked for inktober! I used my new brush pens creating the lineart and left it for a while to get started on the peony one. Pretty proud of the hatched petal folds! I was also practicing how to use my brush pens. I love the various line thickness that I can have with just one pen. Hatches are still 0.05 unipin and a lot of patience.

Sunflower – Also another happy piece! I used my brush pens for lineart, and the unipins for the hatch shadings.

Orchid – Feeling a bit guilty of not using my markers, I used them in this piece since I had the colors needed. Some warm greys, yellow, and green for a phalaenopsis orchid. Mental note that if I ever wanted to pursue markers in the future that I need to hoard more greens. In my IG note – I did this in markers because my hands were hurting from too much inking and hatching.

Lilac – This one took 3 days because we discovered Pokemon Unite lol. The start of distractions!

Forsythia – One of my attempts of lessening my hatches to help my hand recover. If you’ve noticed my works, I have a hard time doing minimal lines and go crazy on hatches. But sometimes simple is a bit better.

Crocus – I find it funny that after writing about wanting to help my hand recover, I went crazy with the hatches here. Oops.

Above – Magnolia, Hollyhock, Hyacinth | Below – Poppy, Iris, Dahlia

Magnolia – I would consider this one of my more simpler works lol. I really love the effect my brush pen did on this leaves. 

Hollyhock – But my heart is already set on intricate petal details. Because look at what I did on this! 

Hyacinth – Nothing much to say, even on IG. I wrote that I’m slowing down a bit – maybe due to work and IRL responsibilities? 

Poppy – Liking the subtle pure black shadows that I added after hatching everything. I feel that this is also one of the simpler ones.

Iris – In an attempt of lessening my hatches yet again, I used brush pens to create the line art and big hatches for shadows. Looks a bit messy but I like it a lot!

Dahlia – The petals with the streaky and spotty pattern was a challenge to ink this time! And I changed how I hatched the petals. Only in one direction but some parts are denser so it would imitate shadows. 

Above – Daisy, Rose, Fritillaria | Below – Hibiscus, Clematis, Begonia

Daisy and Rose – nothing much to say here except both were simple. I needed to rest my hands again.

Fritillaria – The reason for resting my hands was so I could go hatch crazy with this one. Who knew that there’s a flower that has this cute checkered pattern!? I love it.

Hibiscus – I was not really feeling this one when I was inking it. I found a really old marker pen and used it for shadows on some parts. After scanning and cleaning it up, I sorta like it?

Clematis – Hatch crazy again. I liked the left part of the petal where I made the shadow parts.

Begonia – I had this thought “Ballpens are INK too”. So I used my Titus pens for this.

Forget me not, Geranium, Pansy, Gardenia

Forgot me not – The REAL forget me not is blueish and fuzzy. Plumbago is mistaken as forget me not here in the Philippines and I could see why!

Geranium – I wanted to focus on the leaves. Its not really visible here, but I did pointism on the stems because someone was requesting it on Instagram lol

Pansy – This is similar to the way I hatched my dahlia piece. It felt a bit simpler to do!

Gardenia – One of my favorite flowers made with brush pens and unipins.

And that’s it! I learned a lot on this inktober run – my preferences, habits, and perseverance. I also learned that I love using brush pens! I bought some more as a reward to myself for completing this one lol. Looking at my IG page – it seems there’s not a lot left to talk about for now. We’ll see!

After poppies, from ink to gold

Continuing from my last post and artwork. Painting with gold paint reminded me of my previous ink and gold works. So I experimented with these next:

The poppy that started it all

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Flowy ink and gold accents. These were enough to satisfy my curiosity.

Colorful lotus with an ink background

Experimenting with the thought of “How about I make a colorful lotus as a focal point of a monochrome background?” And so I did! Its a bit messy, but I liked the finished outcome. I believe you don’t need to have second thoughts in your concepts and wants. Just make it. If you don’t like it, its okay! At least you’ve indulged in your curiosity and experiments. And you can always try again. ♥ 

Copying what I wrote in my Instagram posts:

Another experiment. I didn’t want to pursue my ink paintings anymore, but now I wanted to paint lotus flowers. My hand wasn’t in the mood to paint that day, and I hated that I didn’t sketched properly and even painted this freely. The next day, with fresh eyes and another look at the painting I thought “Hmm, this needs gold”. Now I sorta like the outcome? Hahaha.

The next day of experimenting, someone shared another gorgeous lotus photo in an FB group. And I couldn’t resist painting it! (that forgot to sketch lololol). I can’t seem to get the style that want – a balance of light with hints of color but very detailed in the petals. I know that I lack the patience to do it haha. In the beginning, I used to splatter white poster paint on my artworks to make up my lack of experience with the medium. This kind of reminds me of those days – except this time its with gold. I’m happy with the piece, but I hope I can achieve the style that I want in the future – just need more practice.

The last of my gold lotus experiments. This time I tried to achieve simpler colors and lines. I think it looks great! 

What comes next after all these experiments? Find out in the next post!