Fine Art Paintings

FINDING FREEDOM in Pen and Ink #6 of 9 (cont’d)

§ February 12th, 2010 § Filed under Art, Pen and Ink, Pen and Ink / Watercolor, Tips and Techniques § 2 Comments

TRY A NEW APPROACH TO THIS EASY-TO-USE MEDIUM THAT ALLOWS YOU TO CHANGE YOUR COMPOSITIONS AS YOU WORK.

By Ron Colgrove

Building light and shadow

When inking in your drawing, pay close attention to the highlight and shadow shapes you indicated in your initial sketch. Treat the objects surrounding the light areas with special care so there’s a clear transition between highlights and objects. For example, if a wall is peeking through an opening in a tree, deliberately render the leaves surrounding the open area to look more realistic. When inking in the shadows, hold the pen almost vertically and lightly outline the overall shadow shapes with a fine line. Then fill in the shapes with vertical strokes. By doing this, the texture of the surface beneath the shadow shows through and causes the shadow to appear somewhat transparent. This is more interesting than having a completely black cast shadow.

A Simple Approach Demonstration Item #4 of 5

DEVELOPING SHAPES AND SHADOWS. I continued to
develop the pen and ink drawing, putting in more branches and leaves in front of the house, plus a small tree in front of the door. I invented panes of glass in the door to add more contrast to this area. Then I started to indicate cast shadows under the rooflines and from the trees, using only vertical lines and I put the darkest darks in the foliage by filling in alternating white spaces in the shadows. This gave the drawing a realistic shadow pattern of lights and darks.