Thursday 25 September 2014

Bad inking and B Sides

Firstly, sorry for the poor quality of the scan, but I left it as is because I wanted you to see as much detail as possible.

I did the drawing on the left first.  Very light blue pencil, and then I wrecked it with the black ink.  See?!  That's why I HATE inking stuff!  Except on a Cintiq which I am really starting to like after installing a new driver.  Them Wacom people are great, what with their products and customer service that actually responds and follows up, they're GRRRREAT!!! But back to the drawing...

I did these both in my sketchbook and when I could see the inking was going south, I decided to redraw the image on the back of the same sheet.  So I inked only what I needed, then turned over the page and blue penciled the inked lines then cleaned it up with my favorite purple pencil.

I think it worked out pretty well.  I have one problem and my Christine has a different one, so her's first:  She doesn't like how the guy leaning against the tree has his feet placed.  She says it looks like he's tied to the tree with his feet hanging.  Good point, I can see that.

I have a problem with the scale of the people.  It looks to me that if they all stood side by side, the tree people would be much bigger.  I think if I'd tapered the tree more in the middle, and/or added more ground detail to suggest more relief in the landscape, and/or drawn the ground people slightly bigger, everyone would have looked more in the same scale.

5 comments:

  1. James,

    Yep, your inking really sucked. Nice that we live in a world where we get second chances -- 'cause your new pencil drawing is great.

    I have no problem with the guy's feet, but I agree with you that there's a scale problem. You could probably fix it by tapering the tree trunk. I know, I know, tree trunks are fatter at the bottom and everything but - who cares?! - just taper it and your drawing will be flawless.

    Proof positive that it's flawless? How many drawings can be flipped and still look right? Yours looks perfect, either way!

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  2. Err... thanks!

    You've touched on something I meant to mention... Another reason why I thought flipping the drawing would be better - it makes a better, slightly more unsettling composition what with the tree people looking from right to left.

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  3. That's funny - I get a different read on it.

    In your new composition, traditionally reading an image left to right, I see the people down on the ground and then I look up to the people in the tree. I'm "with" the people on the ground and I go "uh, oh.."

    In your original composition, I see the people in the tree first and so I'm "with" them. I think "will they catch those guys?".

    That's the way I see it, anyhow.

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    1. Interesting... I see your point and hadn't thought of the order in which you see the figures and how that might align you to them. I wanted the viewer to be "on the side" of the guys in the trees.

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  4. Well... they do look like a nice coupl'a guys...

    The thing you've brought to light with these drawings is the most frustrating thing of all -- rough pencil sketches SO MUCH LIFE! And it's almost impossible to recreate that with a finished/inked drawing.

    Bah -- I hate that!

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Thanks for your input!