Daily Report: Snow and inking

A freak Spring snow storm aside, the day seems to be going well thus far. After doing an editing check-in with the last chapter I edited yesterday, I proceeded on to inking work on the newest book illustration. As you can see, things are happening in the piece now. Textures are key at this point. I love the idea of showing a variety of textures in these drawings, the more the better. The world around us is chock full of textures of all sorts and I feel that adding a variety of textural lines can really enhance a pen & ink piece. When I first started using pen and ink I really only used hatching and cross-hatching marks. Those were the only one I knew how to do well. Now I find that by increasing the variety of textural marks used, you can really enhance the interest of a piece. Besides it’s fun!

WIP - book illustration
Copyright, Sara Light-Waller, 2013

Can you see the post-it note in the upper right? That's my reminder of the direction of light in the piece, in other words, where the sun is located. If I don't do that, it's way too easy for me to get carried away making marks and forgetting to keep the contrast as crisp as I can. Since pen & ink is all about contrast, it's really important to keep your light sources straight.

Nearly forgot, I need to amend the list of pens I am currently using in my inking. I forgot to mention that I'm also using a Pilot Pocket Brush  (Hard) pen. Woops, that's a critical one.