Black Ink | Various Ink Drawings

Ink is arguably my favorite physical medium. Whether I’m using markers, pens, or an ink wash, I just love the feel and look. You can get it thick and juicy or coarse and dry. A dying marker is one of my favorite tools.

Drawing with ink is so many things at once for me. It’s freeing because I’m relying purely on what I know to guide the ink. It’s stressful because there’s no going back once the mark is made. And it’s therapeutic because I’m just dumping what’s in my mind onto paper a lot of times.

Sometimes I put down pencils first. Sometimes I don’t. Either way, putting down ink brings exciting anticipation with it. I find that when I’m looking at the final piece, it is just so satisfying.

I challenged myself on this project to do one face each day for one month using Sumi ink and a brush. Using ink in this fashion is very much a test of patience at times because I need to build up the values, similar to graphite before I get my final image.

Some of these images used reference, some didn’t. Some were family members. Others were references to pop culture. Each face was illustrated at 2 x 2 inches.