Samurai

This is ‘Speed III‘ by Jung Shan, who, as far as I understand, draws digitally and then adds actual ink brush strokes :
Reference artwork in black and white: a focused-looking warrior with a long flying ponytail, feet wide apart, wields a sword. There are movement strokes.

I sketched the samurai on a Moleskin watercolor book (21×13 cm):
Rough pencil sketch in a wide watercolour drawing book. My pencil is seen on the table.

I used a Pentel brushpen for the black strokes and cold grey Faber-Castell brushpens for the rest:
Inking with a black Pentel brushpen and cold grey Faber-Castell brushpens for the rest of the clothes, face and ponytail.

Then I erased the pencil marks, cut diagonally one of my cheap brushes, prepared a lamp black wash, took a deep breath and stroke:
Large black ink strokes. the brush is visible on the side resting on the porcelain palette. I trimmed it diagonally.

Reproduction of Moebius’ ‘Le garage hermétique de Jerry Cornelius’

I discovered Moebius rather recently. Stéphane raved about him, Virginie was a fan. So when she suggested we all meet in Toulon at the occasion of an exhibit of Moebius’ work, it was a done deal. I was fascinated. All these intricate and thin lines giving life to surrealistic worlds, people and creatures!

From one book, I asked Stéphane to choose a few images he liked and this page was my favourite. ‘Le garage hermétique de Jerry Cornelius’:
Reference illustration. A flying character dressed in black with a bald head looks down from above at a city under attack from anti-matter magma rays

I sketched a rather precise version in pencil on an A4 white sheet:
Rather precise pencil sketch on white paper

Using a Pentel Brushpen, I started inking the straight lines (and later the flying figure as well as the black area around the title at the top):
Inking in black of the rays

The rest of the outline I did with a 0.05 mm Uni-ball pin pen:
Inking finished and pencil erased

Tada! Gift ready and framed. The resulting drawing was 16×21 cm:
Final piece framed in natural wood. My hand is holding the frame and my left thumb is visible.

#inktober 2017 days 26-31

[Inktober: 31 days 31 drawings, following a prompt list.]

Voilà, Inktober 2017 is over. I really enjoyed doing it this year again and will probably do it next year. I was not inspired every day but most days I was. I’m quite proud of most the drawings I made and I hope you liked them as well. (Interestingly some of those I didn’t particularly like were liked/favourited more than I anticipated, and by the same token, a few of those I found outstanding didn’t garner a lot of popularity.)

Day 26: ‘Squeak’. Black and white ink drawing of a cat playing with a mouse, against a circular background of red watercolour.

Day 27: ‘Climb’. Black and grey ink drawing of the silhouette of a woman rock-climbing.

Day 28: ‘Fall’. Grey India ink soft brush pen, black ink pin pen and black ink brush pen drawing of a man falling from a skyscraper. For this one, I had to hold a soft brush pen in each hand so that the dark and light greys would blend better. I don’t know how others do it.

Day 29: ‘United’. Grey India ink soft brush pen, black ink pin pen and black ink brush pen drawing of two carps, forming a circle.

Day 30: ‘Found’. Grey India ink soft brush pens and black ink pin pen drawing of a foundry and tiny people. I made a typo in the theme on the drawing, oh well.

Day 31: ‘Mask’. Black ink pin pen and white Posca pen drawing of a man holding a mask.

Inktober prompt list:
Inktober prompt list

#inktober 2017 days 21-25

[Inktober: 31 days 31 drawings, following a prompt list]

Day 21: ‘furious’. Black ink brush pen drawing of a roaring gorilla.

Day 22: ‘trail’. Black ink pin pen drawing of a dirt path winding next to a tree and what in hindsight looks like a pile of poo but was meant to resemble a pile of rocks.

Day 23: ‘juicy’. Grey India ink brush pen drawing of a dripping slice of orange and the word ‘juicy’ underneath.

Day 24: ‘blind’. Black ink pin pen, grey India ink brush pen and black ink brush pen drawing of feet walking forward, following a white cane.

Day 25: ‘ship’. Black ink pin pen, grey India ink brush pen and black ink brush pen drawing of a lopsided ship stranded in the sand on the shore.

Inktober prompt list:
Inktober prompt list