Avatar Fanart: Katara and Sokka

[dutchoven]

Another future fanart! Yay for productivity; done with a black India ink brush pen, pencil for shading, and Staedtler technical pen for horizontal lines.

Comments

[rufftoon]

Shades of Final Fantasy. Once again, lovely lovely linework.

[rufftoon]

And when I say Shades of Final Fantasy, I mean it in the best possible way :D

[dutchoven]

Thanks!! I think the reason my lines look better than usual is because of the brushpen I was using to ink. :O It somehow keeps the flow and allows a natural looking line variation than I wouldn't be able to reproduce with a technical or dip pen.

It's awesome, but at the same time, I get a little frustrated because I want to develop gorgeously smooth lines using a dip pen since I tend to draw details too fine for a brush pen when I do comics. I was wondering, what do you use to ink? Or do you generally keep to digital?

[tammylee]

I want to develop gorgeously smooth lines using a dip pen
I find if you take a good breath and slowly release it as you draw a long line with a dip pen it comes out smoother.

[dutchoven]

Hmm..I'll have to try that out. But it doesn't really help when it's a series of curvy shorter lines, does it? =( I still keep doing the "multiple strokes == 1 line", like my hand is posssessed or something.

[rufftoon]

I tend to work with brush pens too, and then small tip markers: 0.05, O.1 to go and fix lines that look wonky. Also, most line done with a brush pen will be the contour lines. For finer details, I don't trust my agility with a brush pen that much, so I return to the small marker.
I must admit, I'm lazy using actual inks: all that cleanup afterwards. But the final results though would be worth it.
What's the brand of your brush pen? I'm always looking for good alternative to my Faber Castell Pitt Pen, just in case they stop making them.

[dutchoven]

D'oh, I keep misremembering the name. I thought the brush pens I used were winsor Newton, but it turns out they are faber castell pitt as well!

Cleanup isn't that bad for me--I just go at it with a big eraser. But half the time I am disappointed at the results, because I tend to stiffen up the picture after I ink. It's for that reason I love seeing sketch/progress work of other artists b/c more often than not, they stiffen up/add too much color detail/etc. as well!