In its most elementary form, a pen and ink drawing is stark black
marks against a white surface. No dilution of color, no shades of gray. But
artists who've spent time inking their way across a page know that drawing with
ink can actually be an incredibly subtle and finessed endeavor if you use ink
drawing techniques that allow for a slow build up of dark areas for value contrast,
and if you are open to the idea of how to draw using line in varied ways.
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At the Beach by Charles Gibson, pen-and-ink drawing, 1901.
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In our latest free eBook,
Pen and Ink Drawing Techniques from Artist Daily: Drawing with Ink to
Create Art with Strong Contrast and Surprising Subtlety, you'll find the
ink drawing practices of artists past and present that show you how these
effects are achieved.
For example, Honore Daumier and Charles Gibson both worked
with ink drawings throughout their respective careers, but they used the energy
of line very differently. Gibson kept his lines uniform in direction in a way
that injected a liveliness into his work. His style became part of the hallmark
of ink illustration in early twentieth-century America. Daumier, in a more
traditional European approach, used line for both tone and contour in a way
that can be traced back to Renaissance masters like Raphael. These two
approaches to drawing with pen strokes are still alive and well in the here and
now.
Contemporary ink artists like David Beynon Pena and Neil
McMillan have taken what their pen and ink predecessors have taught them,
utilizing the practice as a skill honing endeavor on the part of Pena, with an
emphasis on making preparatory ink sketches for his oil paintings. McMillan
pursues drawings that are less graphic in feel, though he too finds that
working with ink has enhanced his ability to paint--mostly in getting confident
in working with a fluid medium.
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Grant's Lion by Melissa Tubbs,
pen-and-ink drawing, 12 x 7. |
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Artist Melissa Tubbs create drawings that are dense and rich
with ink yet are made with delicate lines and are subtle with gradation. She
builds up layers of line section by section, always changing direction so her
parallel lines transform into hatched and crosshatched marks.
There are so many pen and ink drawing lessons to
be gleaned by looking at the history of the practice and how current
practitioners are adding their own influences. In Pen and Ink Drawing Techniques from Artist Daily: Drawing with Ink to
Create Art with Strong Contrast and Surprising Subtlety you'll find ink
drawings from the past and present and the insights on the artists who created
them. Download now!
