I made this entire drawing to showcase this fellow’s on-trend leopard print backpack.

Of course, it is also a technical exercise on multiple levels. First of all, it is the drawing without any black ink line I said I might ultimately challenge myself with last month.

Second, it is an exercise in defying the classic light and dark value principle that lights come forward and darks recede.

And third, it is a chance to try and get some of the value rather than line based effects I’ve been working on with the pastel drawings in an ink drawing. I am very pleased with it.

It looks a bit like a sepia ink wash drawing. It was definitely influenced by seeing the ink wash drawings of comics artist Nicola Scott on Instagram.

I’ve also been making little white pencil drawings on black paper.

Just for fun, as a way to see what happens with my brain when drawing in reverse. When I get home I add a bit of white conte crayon to punch up the contrast.

And here’s another sepia tone marker drawing, from the top deck of the M29.

I did most of this one a week before the one at the top, and you can see I had a quantum leap of understanding of about using tonal marker values between the two.

But they have the same date of signature, because they were both finished at home this week.

I am trying to stick to ink mostly for a bit, both to see how the insights I got from the pastels transfer over and because the pastel drawings take so much finishing work at home.

I’d rather get the drawings mostly or totally done on site and on the u-bahn home. I don’t like having work to finish lying around the house.

I’d rather be working on all my mixed media multidisciplinary crazy insect stuff at home if I don’t have a model to paint!

I’ve never been interested in the process of drawing itself, for its own sake. That is purely work to me.

I’m interested in how drawing allows me to capture real people and tell their stories.

More unterwegs here:

September 2017

July bonus round

July