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Daily Drawing! (Patreon)

Published:
2020-02-07 19:28:11
Imported:
2026-09
Tags:

Content

After listening to Dan Berry's most recent Q&A (which features not one but TWO questions by moi, fulla swears, woops), I put a terrifying note inside my daily sketchbook.

Drawing straight to inks is VERY SCARY to me. I have no natural sense of proportion or composition, so I need to pencil things out, then pencil them further, then pencil them a second and third time and THEN ink them. 

Well, Dan draws straight to inks and it all looks great (so does Lucy Knisley, they both are total magicians to me). So I asked him how he does it, and he made the point that nobody knows what your drawing was SUPPOSED to look like, so you need to get over the fear that people will be able to tell. Fair.

I immediately decided I should draw straight to inks for my daily drawings from now on! 

So, I avoided my daily drawing sketchbook all day.

After a few hours I broke out the big hardcover "sketchbook" I used for marker studies last year (it's actually the blank-paged proof for my GWS collections), poured some waterproof ink, and got a brush I kinda like, and started freehand inking some of the characters from the book. They're not perfect! But they're recognizable, and they're also Not Bad. #imperfection2020

Today instead of my usual daily drawing, I updated my facial features handouts for the annual Girl Scout comics-making workshop I teach, which I'm leaving for in a few hours. I really like how they turned out!! But I did them digitally, so I'm still avoiding my No Pencils rule (undo = pencils). I'll get back to the practice when I'm back home.

I'll be sharing those facial features handouts with my $3 patrons in a minute, but here's a sneak peek. :)

It's a bunch of examples and tips for how to draw face shapes, eyes, mouths, noses, and hair. Hope you like it!

Files

Comments

Amy Crook

I've done some No Pencils stuff but, honestly, I just like my results more with pencils first. It's like my brain gets a rehearsal before the performance.

Andy Ihnatko

My own version of this is "No matter what you do, your drawing is going to kind of stink. And you're not going to post any of this stuff. So who cares? Just draw." Which, at _my_ level, is a super-helpful mindset. Come to think of it, it had its genesis back when I had golfing buddies. I was getting uptight and then I thought "Wait. This is a public golf course, not the Masters tournament, and nobody cares about your score. If the point of coming out here is to have _fun_..." And so, I would toss my ball from a poor lie and hit from the fairway. It sped up the game (which the retirees who were always behind us appreciated) and it actually improved my skills because, wow...I WAS STAYING LOOSE INSTEAD OF GETTING UPTIGHT! So: while "Wow, I really suck at this" can be corrosive if taken to ugly extremes, it can also be liberating. More fun = I'll do this more frequently = I'll get better at it.

Monica Gallagher

Drawing without sketching first, EEEEEEEEE D:

Phillip Ginn

I think (hope) you'll find drawing directly in ink both fun and helpful. I love sketching/drawing directly in ink. A while back, I also started doing live figure studies directly in ink and it's not only fun, I think it's a great way to teach yourself things. Or, at least, enhance skills you already have. You already know that inking in and of itself takes a lot of confidence. Doing a sketch or full drawing directly in ink really enhances that confidence. Doing any referenced study in ink is also a great way to train yourself to figure out what essentials to look for - *especially* when doing quick poses (gotta put down the essentials of the pose in 30 seconds/1 minutes/2 minutes/10 minutes). Have fun!

dcorsetto

You know, I was doing caricatures last night (always straight to inks!) and I realized that after awhile of doing it, it gets way easier! You have to act - in person - like you're a flipping genius when you turn the page around for the subject to see, because if you point out the flaws, they won't be as excited about their caricature... and eventually, you might even convince yourself that even YOU like your art. Anyway I need to just do it more, and maybe on a white board so I can't feel too bad about it if the art is terrible!

Monica Gallagher

That's such a good point! It's almost all about your perception of what other people will think of it -- I have to remind myself it's okay NOT to share things publicly, or even just that it's okay to be unhappy with my final result, if I learned something from it!

Meisterj

Those straight to ink sketches look great. I only do that on bell point but I then treat it like pencil I can't erase because people won't care about shape guides on sketches. Maybe on my next day off I'll try sketching done or my characters in ink and see how they come out

dcorsetto

Yeah, ballpoint is my favorite pencil! ;) I always think it's funny when people are like "HOLY SHIT YOU DID THAT WITH A BALLPOINT?!" because it's practically cheating, but they have no idea because they just think of ballpoint pens as tools for receipt signatures. ;) Join my no-pencil challenge!! #imperfection2020

Meisterj

I think one of the best exercises I had in college was not erasing. For half the semester in my first drawing class we had to power through and ignore errant marks as we did still lifes and landscapes. When I get the chance to do ink sketches (out at least ink pen if I don't use a brush/nib) I'll tag you

Katie McMahon

Wow, that sounds like a really valuable (and scary!) exercise. I'm also in the penciling-forever-before-inking camp, and I really want to work on inking with more confidence. This sounds like a good place to start! Thank you for sharing ^_^