Art Thread

[DoNotDelete]

The head's too big; Try reducing it in size by about a third.

First rule with making something seem more bulky/hulky is to make the head smaller - the same rule applies to drawing giant mecha.

The veins aren't quite right - they feel a bit too long/spread out - they look more like cables than veins.

Instead of having them run the entire length of an arm or leg try restricting them to just the forearm or the upper arm - also have more branches coming off of them and make them more 'squiggly' than straight.

Other than that it's looking good; I'd advise having another look at some reference of the Hulk or look up some bodybuilder photos for the veins - and read up on some Hulk-drawing theory in regard to the proportion of the head in relation to the body (there should also be some pointers about making the limbs thick and short if you look in the right place).

[YCobb]

Gotcha. I knew something was keeping him from seeming properly large and I knew the head was a bit too big, but I hadn't made the connection.

I'm planning on giving it another go when I get more pens, so I'll take this all into account then.

EDIT: Nothing to show just yet, but I got some brushes to hae a go at brush inking. So far, my ink seems to be more watery than I'd like it to be. I'm using plain old Speedball black ink; is it normal for ink to be a bit light? Do I just fix this with adjustments when I scan the image? Or should I go looking for a darker ink?

[Dire]

Is it the large filled areas that seem too watery? Or even just line work?

I usually use india ink I dunno what speedball is like but on large areas it always ends up washed out. The only ink I've ever known to not do that is chinese calligraphy ink. Beautiful stuff.

[YCobb]

Even on small areas with the tip of the brush, unless I go slowly or layer it on, both of which cause a lot of bleed. Wide, filled areas are almost better, because they can only bleed on te edges.

Maybe I'll look into some better calligraphy ink; mine definitely isn't cutting it.

[Dire]

Oh, the bleeding actually sounds more like a problem with the paper actually. Or maybe both paper and ink.

If you have to layer it on there would definitely be bleed on normal paper.

[YCobb]

Can you recommend any specific papers, then?

I have a bit of watercolor material lying around, but one time I used a regular micron pen on it and it bled like hell, so I don't expect that would be much better.

[TheStranger]

The pros use bristol board which almost never bleed, but personally, I use a high quality printing paper by a brand called 4CC, its the best paper Ive ever used. It looks like this

[Riku]

Is that a region-specific brand, though? because if it is, blocks of paper are so heavy that the shipping costs would be a nightmare

[TheStranger]

I dont think so, the text on the containers are in English, not Swedish

[Dire]

Could be from the UK though.

@YCobb: What paper you get depends on how serious you are about using the ink. I'd suggest cartridge paper. It's decently thick and holds up well against a lot of things, it will still buckle if wet enough though. But it's still sturdy enough for practice and not too expensive in my opinion.
A 110gsm(or above) sketch book might be able to take a bit of practice ink, Though I once got a beautiful hard cover sketch book with perforated pages from barnes and noble. It took ink from pens and copics wonderfully, and would probably handle a pigment ink pretty well too. Though my water colour brush pens did a lot better on water colour paper. I had a cheap sketchbook made of that stuff, the water colour did bleed a little but the colour stayed much more vibrant and smoothly blended.

Actually, if anything, I'd recommend you experiment with a few different types of paper and discover the differences for yourself. Don't have to go nuts getting expensive stuff of course, around here discount stores sell cheap sketch books with different types of paper for different types of mediums. If any of those books don't work with your ink, there will always be other mediums to try.

[YCobb]

Hm, I took a nib pen to my sketchbook (Strathmore Sketch 400?) and it's not bleeding nearly as much as the brush. I think the issue might just be application, so I'm gonna give the brush some more practice before I give up on these sheets. Thanks for the advice though, y'all.

[Riku]

Any suggestions?

[Barabba]

Something to fill in the gap on the stone like a design or something would be nice.

[TheStranger]

Like a set of scales or something

[Riku]

kay. Thanks!