As I’ve said in the previous two blogs, ink is not my forte. Tempted as I was to just go with digital ink this year, I wanted to push myself a bit and see if I could produce anything I was happy with in real ink for Inktober. These were two I was particularly pleased with.
“Ring” is one that I think looks unfinished but like it might be worth finishing digitally. It looks like it has the potential to be something quite beautiful with some more work. I’d especially like to work a lot more on the girl’s eyes. I am pleased with it for what it is though, especially the falcon’s face and the patterns. There is something very soothing about making the same marks over and over.
“Frail” really made me smile, because I honestly expected to screw it up and instead it turned out pretty much as I had in mind. So cute! Look at that grumpy little face! Awww. Again though, I would be very tempted to detail it up digitally. What can I say? Digital art satisfies me in a way that traditional art just doesn’t. Maybe because mistakes aren’t the end of the world.
I’ve tended to post only my best work to this blog. Would you like to see more sketches, rough work and work in progress from me? Do you enjoy showing your sketches on your blog? Let me know in the comments and post me a link so I can see your work.
Janice Duke Illustration 
I cant draw anything so what i am seeing here is pure beauty. Keep them comming. No matter what…
Thank you! I will 😊
Good for you for pushing yourself into real ink! It is definitely a challenge when you’re used to having Ctrl-z and move tools. Both of these are so interesting. That gold is so beautiful! And his grumpy little face!! I really like how your art has depth to it, with the dark fading into swirls and eggs in the background giving the idea for a scene. It’s so subtle and simple but works!
I love seeing sketches and works in progress more than finished works, but probably because I’m an artist myself. You have no idea how long I thought that everyone just sat down and drew a pretty much completed work from the beginning! I’m still trying to figure out what to do with my blog so I don’t post much of the rough stuff there, but I did post the initial sketch with a lot of my Inktober posts on Instagram @hellohollydesign
Cheers! Yes, definitely a challenge for exactly why you say, but an interesting and fun one for what I managed. One thing I learned for next time is keep it simple! I usually like to go big and complicated, take my time and experiment with lots of options, which just doesn’t work with the limits of this. So I definitely learned a bit more discipline and to go back to basics some, like with subtle simple implying of background rather than worrying about any detail.
It is interesting how artists seem to like seeing other artists work in progress! I’ve been very surprised at the positive response to showing what I have previously considered to be “bad looking” doodles and WIPs, because a lot of the time they are purely functional to me and I don’t expect anyone else to get anything from them and really feel that I should hide them until I’ve made something more polished. I know exactly what you mean about thinking everyone just sat down and created a whole work from scratch! It can make things really quite frustrating to feel you should be doing that, when it is so much better to be playful and not worry too much about the end result, if there is one. I’ve been enjoying your posts on Instagram in part because they have that playful feel. Seems like you enjoyed Inktober!
These are both excellent! I’m a sucker for any piece of art that includes a peregrine but despite that I think the little dragon is actually my favourite, there’s so much character to his face!
Cheers! I adore peregrine, so I am a sucker for painting them into things. But yes, the baby dragon is just so squeee!