Think Before You Ink Part 4 0f 9

FIGURE WORK PART 1

I’ll start with the woman in the lower left corner, Samantha Argent, since she’s small and easy to ink. That will warm me up for the rest of the piece. Also, if you have a new nib fresh out of the box, it helps to break it in. It will loosen up and become more flexible as you go.

I use the same approach on each figure. I ink the biggest contour lines first on the gun, outlining the eye, the lips, chin, etc. Only when all my contour lines are inked do I begin to feather and do gradations. I check my line weights as I go and if I don’t like a line, I sculpt it by going over it again. For some reason, I always do the hair last. Probably because now the nib and my hand are warmed up and I can throw long sweeping lines with confidence. I ink the hair the same way, thick black areas and lines first, thin detail lines last. You’ll get into a rhythm and have fun with it.

Every line you put down should mean something, don’t put down lines if you don’t know what they mean. Notice I implied some circuitry and tech in the gun. Notice the seams on the fingers of her glove.