ink-wash Archives

Knocking Out Inktober: A Boxer’s Swing in Ink Wash

A Boxer’s Swing Ink Illustration by Ralph Contreras

The Power of Grey: Enhancing Swing with Ink Wash for Inktober

Every day working on an Inktober drawing is both fun and a challenge. For this day’s prompt of Swing, I knew I wanted to do something with movement. Then it hit me, comics can have action, which is usually a fight. In fights, characters take swings at each other. So I decided to draw a boxer throwing a punch in mid-swing.

For this ink drawing, I approached it very loosely. No sketch, just inks. I’ve drawn so many figure characters that I felt confident I would be able to draw an action pose without the sketch.

I used a pentel brush pen to give the illustration thick ink lines. I really like the energy I was able to get from this. I wanted to give the boxer a determined face caught in the moment. I added action lines off the glove to show the swing.

I’ve been trying to ink with an ink wash this year. So I added a gray ink wash to the boxing figure to try to bring out highlights and show shadows. I also used the ink wash in the background. I think it helps to show the movement of the swing jumping right out to us the views.

I’m pleased with the way this ink illustration of Swing came out. And I feel like I’m getting much better at using ink washes.

Embracing the Imperfections of My Ink Wash Illustration

Freeze Ink Illustration by Ralph Contreras

From Captain America to Cosmic Horror: Diving into an Ink Wash Illustration

Here’s my Inktober illustration for the prompt “Freeze”. This one is kinda all over the place, lol. Approaching this illustration I knew I wanted to try the ink wash technique. I’ve seen so many great Inktober illustrations done with ink wash I knew I wanted to do one too. It’s a cool technique that adds different tones of grey by adding more or less water to the ink.

I’ve done a few ink-wash illustrations in the past. But for this illustration, I kinda feel like I lost myself in it. I tried to compensate by adding a solid black background and foreground. I added hatching with both thin and thick brush strokes.

The illustration was done with a pentel brush pen and a LePen Technical pen. For the subject of Freeze, I illustrated a figure frozen in ice and discovered by a mountain climber. I was trying to evoke a cosmic horror feel to the piece. like something out of At the Mountains of Madness being discovered in the ice, but I think it might actually look like Captain America when he frozen in ice.

The ink illustration is a bit of a mess, but I did have fun with it and the inking does have a lot of energy. So I feel like it’s a success in my inking progress.

245 Trioxin: The Poisonous Gas That Started It All

Tarman One Creepy Zombie: My Inktober Day 1 Drawing

For Inktober Day 1 the prompt was “Poisonous.”, I decided to draw and ink Tarman from the classic horror-comedy film “The Return of the Living Dead” with the title 245 Trioxin. This toxic gas is what creates the zombies in the film, and it’s a key element of the story.

I have a personal connection to this movie because I saw it in the theater when it was released, and it really influenced my joy of zombie movies (even though it also kind of traumatized me!). For this ink illustration, I tried a few different techniques, including an ink-wash background and a solid black figure. I also used a white gel pen to bring out the details of Tarman’s bones, skull, teeth, and eyes, and I tried to give him the creepy grin that he’s famously known for.

Even though my ink drawing doesn’t look exactly like the movie version of Tarman, I’m still happy with how it turned out. It’s creepy and unsettling, just like a good zombie should be. I usually don’t draw scary or horror subjects but I had fun with this Inktober prompt.