Actual Watercolor

 
After trying out the markers, I opted to go ahead and just get an actual watercolor kit. Aaaand... I kinda hate it. Watercolor is an enchanting medium when done right, but this is one of those cases where I am so far behind on the fundamentals, I can't even begin to get anything to come out halfway right.

Watercolor is a very unforgiving medium, to be fair. With acrylic and oils, you can ultimately still paint over mistakes if you really have to, especially in darker spots, but watercolor, like ink, is a "once it's down, you're committed", so you really need to know ahead of time what you're trying to do. This is not a "fuck around and figure it out" type of medium. You also need to be patient with this medium, not just manipulating the flow of the water, but also knowing when and at what point to let the paint dry before continuing to work on it.

Which I knew going in, of course, but that doesn't make it any less frustrating. I suppose it certainly doesn't help that I never actually learned how to paint well in the first place.  Plus, even after getting paper specifically designed for watercolor, I was not expecting so much "grit" to keep getting built up as I painted, and I wasn't even brushing hard on the surface.

Obviously, it's one of those things I just need a lot of practice at, but to be honest, much like using the dip pen, I don't particularly care enough about mastering analogue art in this way to dedicate myself to it steadily. Frankly, my initial attempts were outright infuriating, and while I've cooled off some, my continued toe-dipping into analogue is honestly just making me appreciate digital that much more.

Vamp Hunter

   

 
I still have this pack of colored pencils from 35 years ago, so as I try out different analogue mediums, I thought I'd give 'em a try again! I used to be fairly decent with colored pencils; I like how you can stretch your color options by using different pressure and layering tricks. But after this, it's not something I feel compelled to keep trying at. Funny enough, I notice a couple pencils aren't even the same brand. I must have replenished missing or used up colors from other packs. :B

As I was taking pics with my iPad, I decided to go ahead and do a digital version, too, because I figured it would make an interesting comparison. Certainly, you can see where I was able to make some adjustments to fix the "art typos" I had to commit to in analogue. (I am constantly making the head disproportionate to the body in my drawings, and I don't know why. It's just one of those visual misreads I can't seem to shake.)

Markers

Decided to buy some watercolor markers on whim today. Watercolor is a style I've gotten a little enchanted with, but I haven't gotten around to committing to yet. I figure these markers wouldn't really be the same thing, but close enough to try out some analogue coloring. As with ink, its a lot less forgiving than digital! Even more so with markers and actual watercolor paints, you basically can't erase or cover up mistakes at all. There wasn't a "flesh tone" color in the pack, so I had to compromise just not filling out the pale skin, and using pink for shading. Inking was done with a micron pen. 

 

Dip Pen/Calligraphy Pen

 

Dip pens and fountain pens are a tool I was wholly unfamiliar with using, but after watching some comics and manga artists use them for inking, I had the urge to try it myself. I know the G-Pen is the popular manga inker, and was what I initially looked for, but figuring I wouldn't do this very often, I just bought the cheapest pen/ink bottle set I found, which was a basic calligraphy set. I'm not sure what size rating it actually is, but I figured it was close enough.

It is a very tricky tool to use. Not only do you have to constantly be careful not to spill or dribble unwanted ink, the very structure of the nibs mean you have to really take into account the position and pressures applied onto the paper, as well as the type of you paper you are using. Unlike ballpoint, the needle-sharp tip will dig into the paper, so you have to draw in more of a "dragging" motion, as a pushing motion will cause the tip to bury into the paper. You can also end up "stuttering" the tip across the page, causing splatter and line breaks if the tip catches at a certain angle.

You have to be very mindful of pressure, not only to not damage the paper or the tip, but to try and control the line width. Except, very often, the ink's viscosity can also work against you, causing a line to simply not appear, or for the ink to suddenly blob out thicker than intended. Depending on the paper used, fine fibers of paper can also get stuck on the tip, and suddenly, lines are coming out thicker like from a brush as a little wet ball gets formed on the tip. I suppose you could use this to your advantage if you knew what you were doing, but I doubt its a recommended technique. Overall, you need to keep your tools clean and in proper shape, and make sure your ink is flowing properly. And there are also different sizes and shapes of nibs, which I didn't try, so that may also change things.

I'm sure it also helps if you already know how to draw, and do things like hatch-shading and variable-line shading, which I obviously am still shit at. And, of course, there's no undo button or zooming features with pen and paper. Nonetheless, it's been a fun exercise to try! Messy as it can be, there is a certain extra layer of zen to using analogue tools, and the fountain pen in particular feels like you are gently carving the image out of the paper.

While I still want to stick mainly to digital art, I kind of want to also try inking with a brush, and even doing watercolor, which I can never seem to find a truly good match for in digital.

Fire Rat

 

Quick sketch at work.

Angel Tops

Went good ol' fashion pencil-and-paper, with all the messy fuck ups that entails. The real point of the exercise was to actually try doing some inking, which I attempted with a micron pen. Can't say I'm too pleased with the results, honestly. I can make pencil lines dark enough to carry themselves on a scanner/photo, so the inking doesn't actually make it stand out that much more than it already does. I feel like it flattens the line work moreso than helps it. I tried to do a little bit of shading via thickening certain lines in the inking stage, but that's something I need more practice on. That said, I don't think the micron is particularly good for this task. Potentially messier as it may be, I think I would like to actually try inking with a brush or a fountain pen, and see how that feels.

Mammoth Knight

 

Paper towels from work are the new sketchpads. :B

Snake + Woman

Mechanical pencil on sketchpad. Lots of erasing. Why doesn't real life come with an undo button?

Also, this is the third time I've done a sketch with a lady at rest with an animal in the image. I wonder if this is a new theme.

Ballpoint on Paper

Turns out I can still do physical art, too, on occasion! These were done on the quick at work during my lunchbreaks, using the paper and pen that was available to use. This was something I used to do towards the latter end of when I was still drawing occasionally years ago.

The interesting challenge of ballpoint is that there's no erasing mistakes; any lines you screw up, you need to either accept the jank of it and keep going, or, optimally, find a way to incorporate the mistake into the piece, adapting your work as you go. It also forces you to accept the layout you started with, or start over from scratch. Likewise, your typical cheap ballpoint pen (Papermate in this case) is a somewhat sub-optimal drawing implement compared to a pencil or ink brush, so it forces you to really learn how to control the tool properly for proper line thickness and shading.