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.