Portland Mercury - Houses Not Handcuffs

Here is a new black and white illustration I did for this week's Portland Mercury. I did the line work with a nib and speedball ink, then filled in the rest of the blacks and did a wash with a sumi brush and sumi ink.

Full article here...

Sketchbook - chase

This is a sketchbook sketch that I decided to try some ink experiments on. Not the greatest composition ever, but this was mostly about trying out inking with a nib again. So I used a nib, I believe a Hunt 99, and inked the sketch. I made an effort to ink most of the sketchy lines to give it some texture. The line looks much better than the marker pens (micron, pitt pen, etc.) I usually use. It's nice to be able to get the fine line, but with a little variation in the line weight. I guess that's the point.. I went back after the nib ink was dry and filled in blacks with a sumi brush. Then I went back with watered down ink and did some grays. I like how the slightly rough blacks work with the linework. I like the texture to the grays too, that comes from doing it with a brush rather than Photoshop.. The good thing about Photoshop though is the "undo" command.. but then you don't get cool organic textures and other 'happy accidents'.