Week 24: Jean & MP

 Two more Final Inktober Prompts

Yay! I have a new laptop! Still sussing it out, but lots of fun. Two excellent additions to the final Inktober lists:

Jean: Shoe 

Jean chose 'Shoe' as her prompt subject this week and decided to create a work of her niece's ballet shoes. This is a great subject and really extended Jean's experience in creating the shine of material and ribbons.  She quickly learned that to give the impression of shine you need to keep white highlights and deep blacks - how the values are used generates the effect of shine. Jean has done this quite well with the curing ribbons. I think some light tone is needed inside the shoe, but overall as a first trial the shoes are pretty good and look like satin material.

The floor/background is not quite right - a little too dark. As Jean said, once you put that down in ink you are stuck with it! I think a little more thought first on what a polished wood floor would look like would have helped Jean understand how to approach this. Remember the reflections in a polished floor.
But a good try.

'Ballet Shoes #1' by Jean

So, not happy with that first attempt, Jean went online and found an image that informed her better on the floor effect and I think this works much better. Also, having done the first work I can see that Jean gained confidence in handling the ink washes needed for the satin effect. A bit of black outline on the instep also helps to give the edge a crisp look. Nice use of lost and found edge as well. This work is fresh and states simply the subject.

Both drawings are good studies - and it is great to see the development of technique from the first to the second.

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'Shoes #2' by Jean

MP: Ominous

And a very ominous sky it is! MP has also been growing in confidence with her ink work and this week she has experimented with further techniques very successfully. Using Art Spectrum 300gsm cold press paper to give her a textural effect she has started with an under drawing in HB graphite. Next, using Amsterdam acrylic ink she has applied different tonal strengths of wash with a sponge and a brush creating a cloudy sky. With different Derwent Graphitint pencils used wet and dry she has defined the sky, trees and hillside. Then a black Unipin fine line 0.1 pen was used to emphasize the trees and foreground - and wisely MP decided not to use it in the sky. This was a great decision as I think pen in the sky would have ruined the lovely textural effect she achieved with the sponge work. Finally, a few highlights were added to the sky using Signo white pigment ink pen.

What can I say? I think it is a fantastic result! I love how MP has captured the ominous and threatening nature of the sky. The more detailed linework on the trees and foreground works very well and brings them forward. A fine work MP.

'Ominous' by MP