For the Inktober prompt of Frail, I decided to ink draw a dry leaf. A dry leaf is very delicate and frail. It can scrumble very easily underfoot or in hand. I just imagined the crunching sound of dry leaves during autumn while I drew it.
I enjoyed drawing all the veins in the dry leaf. Like a glass mosaic or a spider web, the veining of the dry leaf can have both a pattern and great randomness.
I used a micron pen for this ink drawing. No cketch just straight to inking. Working on this took me back to my drawing classes in college when we did contour ink drawings of everyday items.
Enchanted Excalibur and The Lady of the Lake Ink Illustration by Ralph Contreras
Exploring Legends with Ink: The Enchanted Sword of Excalibur
I got a little behind on my inktober illustrations this year. Here’s the illustration for the prompt Enchanted. There are so many great ideas that come to mind with this prompt. I was inspired to draw the famous enchanted sword of Excalibur.
Growing up one of my favorite movies was the 1981 film Excalibur. I always remember the scene where the lady of the lake both gives and takes back Excalibur. So for this ink illustration, I wanted to draw that: Excalibur and a magical enchanted scene with the lady of the lake.
This year I’ve been both drawing a sketch first or going straight to inks. For this one, I did draw a sketch first. Then I went over the illustration with an ink pen. I wanted the illustration to be simple and clear. So I didn’t draw that much in the way of background or foreground. I added ripples to show her hand reaching through the water. I also put a spark of enchanted energy as the center point of the ink drawing.
Video of Ralph Contreras inking Illustration
I’m pleased with the way my ink illustration of Enchanted came out. I’ve also added a video of my inking it with a drawing pen.
From Captain America to Cosmic Horror: Diving into an Ink Wash Illustration
Here’s my Inktober illustration for the prompt “Freeze”. This one is kinda all over the place, lol. Approaching this illustration I knew I wanted to try the ink wash technique. I’ve seen so many great Inktober illustrations done with ink wash I knew I wanted to do one too. It’s a cool technique that adds different tones of grey by adding more or less water to the ink.
I’ve done a few ink-wash illustrations in the past. But for this illustration, I kinda feel like I lost myself in it. I tried to compensate by adding a solid black background and foreground. I added hatching with both thin and thick brush strokes.
The illustration was done with a pentel brush pen and a LePen Technical pen. For the subject of Freeze, I illustrated a figure frozen in ice and discovered by a mountain climber. I was trying to evoke a cosmic horror feel to the piece. like something out of At the Mountains of Madness being discovered in the ice, but I think it might actually look like Captain America when he frozen in ice.
The ink illustration is a bit of a mess, but I did have fun with it and the inking does have a lot of energy. So I feel like it’s a success in my inking progress.
Mindless Android Ink Illustration by Ralph Contreras
Mindless and Mighty: Inking an Android to Life for Inktober Day 2
Here’s my second inking for this year’s Inktober. The prompt was “Mindless”. I had a few ideas of what I could draw. A crazy person or maybe someone lobotomized. But I liked the idea of illustrating a robot or android with the top of its head coming off. Showing that there’s no traditional brain, just tubes, and wires.
Unlike my previous Inktober illustration, I did start with a pencil drawing instead of going straight to inks. Just to get a general idea of what I wanted the android to look like, I drew a quick sketch of the head. I inked over the pencil sketch with my new LePen Technical Drawing Pen I picked up at Blicks art store for this year’s Inktober. The pen gave nice control that let me ink with steady contour lines. I also tried to add some hatching and solid black areas to give the illustration some depth.
Video of Ralph Contreras inking Illustration
I had fun with this illustration and who doesn’t enjoy drawing robots? I also embedded a video of me doing the final inks of my “Mindless” Android.
