The Art of Letting Loose: Finding Inspiration on Inktober day 3
So I really struggled with Inktober’s third day prompt of Bait. I think it actually shows in the inking too. I had no real idea what I wanted to ink. Then it came to me, if there’s bait then that equals a trap. So I illustrated a box trap with a bushel of carrots as the bait.
I went straight into the inking with this illustration, no pencil sketch to start with. I think you can tell with the unevenness of the line work. But I think that really worked for this ink drawing. There’s an energy that I would have lost if I had over worked it. I used a Pentel brush pen and I feel it created really nice organic ink strokes.
I really wanted to focus on the composition of shadows and light in this illustration. The the box is bright with light against a very dark background. Then the inside of the box is also dark with a deep shadow. I tried to use the rope as an eye leading element to the bushel of carrots bait.
Even though I originally had a hard time with the prompt concept of Bait, I had fun just letting loose on this illustration. You can really see and feel the energy in the brush strokes on the background and in the box. I’ll need to remember to bring this energy to my future ink illustrations.