Saturday, January 15, 2011

Lessons From the Pen - Interpretation

Drawing in black and white is a special kind of art.

Without all the wonderful grays you can produce with a pencil, making a drawing with 1 color is hard.  At least, it's hard for me.  Maybe it's not for you.

But you can learn some great stuff by working in ink.

One particular lesson I've been learning is that you don't copy an image in ink the same way you do with a pencil.

I was recently asked to draw a portrait of 2 kids.  I decided to work in ink instead of pencil, because I wanted to improve my black and white composition skills.  After a few tries at drawing the kids, I realized something that was tripping me up.  I was trying to copy all of the shading in the photograph with my pen.  That's no problem with a pencil, because you can produce any shade of gray.  But, when you're limited to one color, you have to think of ways to mimic textures and shading without hatching everything.  In other words, to make art with black requires a different interpretation of your subject.  An interpretation that takes advantage of what the pen offers.


Here is what I came up with after several failed tries.  I had previously tried to draw too much - to copy every detail in the image.  By the time I reached this point, I realized that I needed to focus on good looking lines, rather than trying to copy everything.  I was more selective in my interpretation.

If you decide to draw with ink, remember that you can't reproduce everything in nature with one color.  You will achieve better results if you focus on textures and lines that look good in ink.  It's all about interpretation.

With the pen,  make odd shapes.  Use double lines.  Have as much variety of line as possible.

Don't be a slave to your photos.

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