Tag: Zhang Ziyi

Art: inktober2021

I didn’t spend a lot of time on each drawing this year. I wasn’t exactly inspired either, so as a result there are only a handful which I really liked. But as usual, I enjoyed myself doing it!

All done on my small sketchbook Canson art book universal (format 14×21 cm), using a Pentel black brushpen, Kuretake fudegokochi black pen, Kuretake light grey Brush Writer in many cases, and in the cases of the last two, that same pen in Geranium Red.

Here’s a gallery of all of the drawings and the prompt list is at the bottom.

Black and grey ink drawing of a crystal and its shadow
Day 1 – Crystal
Black, blue and grey ink drawing of women in bathing suit posing at the beach
Day 2 – Suit
Black ink drawing of a diver next to a shipwrech
Day 3 – Vessel
Black ink drawing of the figure 4 filled with ornemental knots
Day 4 – Knot
Black ink drawing of the face of a woman partly covered by a raven
Day 5 – Raven
Black and grey drawing of a spirit standing on foliage
Day 6 – Spirit
Black and grey ink drawing of Zhang Ziyi in Memoirs of a Geisha dancing and holding a fan
Day 7 – Fan
Black and grey ink drawing of a boy sitting in front of a television
Day 8 – Watch
Black outline of Atlas carrying a large planet
Day 9 – Pressure
Black and grey ink drawing of a large cherry and its shadow and a hand about to grab it and the man it belongs to drawn in very simple outline
Day 10 – Pick
Black and grey ink drawing of lemons on a branch
Day 11 – Sour
Black ink drawing of a cat stuck between the two cushions of a sofa
Day 12 – Stuck
Black and grey ink drawing of a paper lantern attached to the beam under a series of tiled roofs decorated by dragons
Day 13 – Roof
Black and grey ink drawing of a series of watches
Day 14 – Tick
Black and grey ink drawing of the face of a soldier with closed eyes, wearing a helmet
Day 15 – Helmet
Black and grey ink drawing of a hand holding a compass which arrow points to 'NOPE!'. There is a nuclear explosion in the background.
Day 16 – Compass
Black and grey ink drawing of 5 metallic marbles dangling. One is separated from the other four.
Day 17 – Collide
Black and grey ink drawing of a fish-eye view at the sky, the moon and pine trees
Day 18 – Moon
Black and grey ink drawing showing an optical illusion of a building with stairs at the top where people go in an infinite loop
Day 19 – Loop
Black and grey ink drawing of a coconut sprouting and its shadow
Day 20 – Sprout
Black ink drawing of a fuzzy cat
Day 21 – Fuzzy
Black and grey ink drawing of an open rose
Day 22 – Open
Black and grey ink drawing of a hooded figure. There are series of zeros and ones in the background
Day 23 – Leak
Black ink drawing of five dinosaurs
Day 24 – Extinct
Black and grey ink drawing of a dalmatian dog
Day 25 – Splat
Black ink drawing of two hands nearly touching at the fingers
Day 26 – Connect
Black and grey ink drawing of a stick sparkling and the hand that holds it
Day 27 – Spark
Grey ink drawing of Snow White holding an apple
Day 28 – Crispy
Black and grey ink drawing of a female pirate wearing an eye-patch and carrying a parrot on her shoulder
Day 29 – Patch
Black, grey and red ink drawing of a dragon
Day 30 – Slither
Black and red ink drawing of the bottom of the face of a woman wearing lipstick, a shiny earring, and smoking. The rest of her face is hidden in the shadow of a hat
Day 31 – Risk
Inktober2021 prompt list
Inktober2021 prompt list

Drawvember 2020 days 26-30

This year for Drawvember, I compiled my own list of prompts, to ensure that I wasn’t going to use “not inspired” as an excuse for skipping days. Drawing actually brings me joy and satisfaction, and as it’s in rather short supply at this time of year for me, I have much at stake.

This series concludes this year’s Drawvember! I really really enjoyed myself. I was looking forward to it every day.

I also discovered that gouache is a favourite. I used to be terrified of it and of paint in general, but not too much anymore.

Day 26: “Lipstick”

Black and red ink drawing of a woman in a cocktail dress

My friend Amy made me discover René Gruau last week. I had seen some of his fashion illustrations and advertising work without knowing they were his. I love his style! His work reminds me of that which Toulouse Lautrec and Alfons Mucha did in their own time.

I used the reverse side of my Copic Drawing Pen fountain pen for extra thin lines, Geranium Red ink Brush Writer from Kuretake, black ink Pentel Brushpen, and I smudged very little amounts of Light Grey ink for shading.

Day 27: “Cliff”

Gouache painting of white cliffs by the sea

White cliffs by the sea.

Gouache paint from the Holbein Artists tubes I got in a Sketchbox: I mixed Prussian blue, leaf green, yellow ochre and used some titanium white watercolor.

I like it well enough but recognise it’s pretty awkward and not striking enough. Perhaps the tones aren’t pastel enough. And I am certain that the artbook paper isn’t thick enough (96g/m2 – 65 lb) for the watered down colours I used.

Day 28: “Pure”

Gouache painting of a geisha dancing with a fan in her hand.

Another favourite!

For “pure”, I wanted to draw a Maiko (apprentice geisha). This is from the 2005 movie with Zhang Ziyi “Memoirs of a Geisha” which tells the story of a 9 year-old girl sold by her poor family to a Kyoto geisha house, who in time becomes Sayuri, the beautiful and talented geisha, whose successful career is cut short by the outbreak of World War II.

For this drawing I wasn’t too sure which medium to use. After doing the pencil outline in my artbook, I drew it again on a scrap of paper using a Derwent sepia line maker with a bit of black and the geranium red and light grey Brush Writers from Kuretake. It didn’t work.

I chose gouache paint instead: yellow ochre, burnt sienna, ivory black from Holbein Artists, and some titanium white opaque watercolor. It took me 75 minutes (for a drawing that is only the size of my palm!)

Day 29: “Elf”

Pencil drawing of the face of Cate Blanchett as Galadriel

This is a pencil drawing of Cate Blanchett as Galadriel, the Elven Queen from the movie Lord of the Rings.

It took me over 2 hours (the drawing isn’t bigger than my palm).

Portrait are really hard. Getting someone’s features is difficult for me. It just barely looks like her but I couldn’t find what to change to make it better.

Day 30: “Tower”

Alcohol markers drawing on tracing paper of Carl’s house from the movie “Up”, surrounded by towering buildings.

This is an alcohol markers drawing on tracing paper of Carl’s house from the movie “Up”, surrounded by towering buildings.

I went way out of my comfort zone for this last day of Drawvember! This medium requires specific paper as alcohol ink bleeds a lot, and my artbook is of regular paper. I follow someone named Mutoni on Instagram and he uses tracing paper. It looks way easier when he does it!

Today I learned that the ink does not penetrate in the paper. Therefore when I wanted to darken the tones or blend colours by adding layers, I discovered that the new layer somewhat overwrites the existing colour. So the tones aren’t at all like they are supposed to be because I didn’t have the specific colours I needed.

One thing turned out well however: I thought the ink might not dry very well and I didn’t want my fingers to smudge it once I was going to glue the sheet to my artbook page, so I was clever enough to draw on the back side of the paper and then flip it to apply think black lines and white. I spent a lot more time on this little piece than I anticipated.