The Inkspired Life - Sketching & Painting : Inking Out Loud

Hey everyone, hope you're having an awesome Sunday. It's 4:42 here and I'm just doing some quick painting. I wanted to add some clouds or some— actually some foggy kind of effects on this ink wash painting here. So I'm just using— what am I using? Where did it go? Losing my mind. I'm just using a sepia watercolor marker, Winsor Newton watercolor marker. And you'll see I'm just putting some down on my board and I'm just mixing it with water. Diluting it, and it dries and has a nice brown-gray tint to it, which I like. I've never tried to make this effect before, so I'm learning, but I think it's looking pretty cool. So we have some kind of a fortress or a castle, or, or someone said this looked like a, maybe an ice castle or something rising out of The fog. Anyway, I hope you are having an awesome day no matter where you are and what time it is. I like this piece of music. It's kind of, uh, feels like the holidays a little bit. Hey, Patty, good to see you. Hope all is well. Thanks for tuning in. I like your atmosphere. Hey, thanks, that is so cool. Yeah, this is, um, trying to do a really cool effect. I've been messing around with it a little bit last night, a little bit today. I think it's working pretty well. You know, I kind of like how this looks like it's rising coming out of the fog or the mist. Patty, it's always good to see you. Thank you for posting. I loved your pizza sketch. Thanks for doing the homework challenge. That was so awesome that you did that. And you got the bonus of getting more pizza. So I'm glad I could help you get more pizza and do some artwork for your art challenge. How cool is that? So you can see I'm not really brushing, not really brushing this on there. I'm just taking the sepia marker, again I'm diluting it with a lot of water, and I'm just picking it up off the board. I'm kind of dabbing it, kind of dabbing. See if I can do a close-up so you can see what I'm talking about here. "Patties at BJ's, but you're not shopping, you're finding a geocache." Ooh, that sounds fun! Geocaching at BJ's, how awesome is that? I've only geocached once and it was a lot of fun. So here's what I'm doing. I'm just taking a brush here, I'm just kind of dabbing and doing almost a small kind of circular or half-circle motion. Put some more ink down. I am also blending, sometimes I'm blending this with a little bit of graphite just to give it more grayness. Like my hair is getting a little more gray as the days and months go on. Um, here. So I'm just kind of dabbing and just kind of doing this. And this is, uh, probably the third layer I've added on here. Just trying to build it up. Sometimes you'll see me blot some areas out just to soften up some of the edges, keep some of the white highlights coming through. So I kind of like the different, like, tones. There's some dark, there's some light going on. I have to be careful not to overdo do it, right? That's something— something we always as artists are worried about, overdoing it. Just go with your gut. So when my gut says stop, I will stop. You can always come back and add stuff later on if you want. Sometimes it's good to walk away and just come back. I'm gonna just throw down a little bit here. Just trying to create a layered effect going on here. So I like to put the colors down on my— this is just an artboard here— and lift the colors or the graphite off the board. Basically using the board as a palette. And have some graphite on here as well. Great, some areas up a little bit. You have some kind of a bird or something flying here. That was just a, uh, that was an accident when I first started this sketching this, the pen went crazy and so it turned out to be a bird. So I started sketching this while I was away outside one day. So it would be interesting to put like a time-lapse together of how this one has transformed. Didn't know where it was going to go and decided to kind of just take on its own character. I think it's pretty fun where it's headed. Sometimes I'll throw down the water first on here, just pick up some of the graphite or Sepia and just let it bleed with the water a little bit. Creates irregularity, which I like. Patty, I hope you found your— or you're finding your geocache. Love to know what it is. What is the reward of you are looking for. So let's throw down a little bit more sepia. I think I like the way this is looking. I don't— I'm getting to the point where I think I'm going to start overdoing the background. Let me zoom out and take a look. Sometimes it's good to look at it from further away. I don't think I'm gonna add— I was tempted to add some red on here, or you guys know I like to use fluorescent pink a lot. I was thinking about popping out— this is some kind of a roof structure here, or this kind of curved area. I was thinking about popping that out with the pink. There's another roof area happening here. I think I'm just gonna leave it this way for now. I love the effects of the blue pen. The blue is just a Varsity Pilot Varsity fountain pen. They're disposable fountain pens. First time I've used them, and I'm really loving the way they bleed. And I love the different colors that are happening here with just the blue. Yeah, so maybe just some kind of ice castle. I think D-Ray had mentioned that. D-Ray mentioned that in one of the streams, live streams. I do want this castle a little bit of blue showing through in here, so I'm just gonna just take that blue. I just want to bleed it a little bit just so it looks like there's This ice castle is continuing down through the mist here a little bit. Isn't that a song? Through the Mist? Could be wrong. Love the song. This is really cool. I love the hard edge, the way this is drying here. Yeah, so right in here, I love that kind of hard edge that's forming here.

Also on this, I'm gonna let it stay that way.

This one might be almost done, guys. I've worked on this one I usually get these done pretty quick, but this one I kept coming back to. Actually, I kind of, I don't know, I think I'm freaking. So this is Inking Out Loud. If you're just joining me, thank you for watching Inking Out Loud. I just kind of pop on randomly, work on some sketching, some watercoloring, some ink washing. The cuffs for the moment, kind of stuff. So yeah, so just kind of get into my brain a little bit so you can hear what I'm thinking. That sounds dangerous, doesn't it? I don't know. But, uh, so yeah, right now just what am I thinking? I'm thinking, I don't know, I think I want a little more something happening here, here maybe. So I'm going to take out my Lamy pen, black Lamy ink in it. I like the way it bleeds. So I think I'm going to create some kind of— this is like a fortress or something, or a castle. I'm just going to create the idea of some openings or windows kind of in that area. And then here as well. Here's why I like to use Lamy ink. It usually does help if you take the cap off your aquabrush before you dip it in water. I could fill it with water. If you haven't already used an aquabrush, they're awesome. You can fill the reservoir here with water, just squeeze it water will come out. I just happen to have a little jar here with water in it, so I'm just dipping it in. I love the way these pens bleed, so I'm gonna bleed these windows I drew a little bit. This is just a medium tip Aqua Brush. They come in different tips. My go-to is just a medium tip one. I'm just barely touching it, letting the ink bleed a little bit. It softens it, it gives the windows a little more width. And I could also take it—

there we go.

So you can see how that— what the bleeding does there. You have to add in these windows, just add a little more detail. So, I'm purposely leaving this more unfinished here. I like to let the edges of scenes or cityscapes, I want the edges to be very kind of blank. Um, that way your eye kind of just goes off. Imagine, you know, let your imagination wonder what's happening outside the page. If I had this really defined with hard edges here and details, you know, we keep your view here, which is cool, but I like the idea of letting your mind and imagination wander, you becoming part of the artwork, your story, your imagination. Hey, I see Heather's in the house. Welcome, Heather, good to see you. Hope all is well. Happy Sunday, January 2nd, 2022.

How cool is that?

And I'm just adding a little bit of ink here and there, just give a little more shadow or shape in some areas here.

Here we go.

Sometimes I'll let— I'll kind of let the color dictate where I'm going to add ink.

If you look here—

zoom in— if you look here, kind of gonna let my pen just follow this edge just very loosely here. Just like that. I'm just gonna pull that ink down a little bit here. Just create another interest, point of interest there, a little bit of gray.

There you go.

Yes, this turned out to be a fun piece. Not sure what to call it.

This is cool.

I could almost imagine this being an illustration in a book. Maybe some kind of a fairy tale book or fantasy type of story. I don't know where this land is, where this is happening. Happening. I actually almost imagine this here as just— it's kind of a bridge happening here. So I have this little tiny bridge. I love sketching small. It's really weird. So this is, this is my Canson XL. This is a 7x10 sheet of paper, Canson XL watercolor pad, right? So that's the whole sheet, but if I zoom in, it's always fun just adding little details. I could get lost in these these little, little— when I say details, I'm not creating every single line stroke. I'm just suggesting things happening. I'm picturing this being a bridge here, crossing this chasm. But what I want to do is kind of make it look more like it's a bridge. So I'm going to finish, maybe give a top to this here so that this— bleed this ink down a little bit. So we're gonna bleed that down a little bit like this. So by doing that, this almost looks more like an opening right here underneath that bridge, which is cool because I was imagining that being a bridge, and I think I think that really helped to pull that out and make it work, look that way. I'll zoom out so you can see it. Heather, "I just love how it can be loose and so detailed at the same time." Yeah, Heather, that's a good way to put it. It's loose and detailed, right? I know it's like a, what do you call it, like an oxymoron, like a jumbo shrimp. You don't want to see me paint a jumbo shrimp, by the way. But yeah, it is very loose and detailed.

Detail.

I love— my imagination is kind of wondering what happens in this area when you cross this bridge. I might add a little bit of the gray that you see, or that sepia you see for the clouds and the mist, right in this opening here, ever so lightly. So let me just pull out— I'm going to just use some graphite for that. I take my graphite stick, put it down on my board, I'm gonna dilute it. My board has so much stuff on it sometimes I forget where I just put down my graphite. That's pretty funny, isn't it? Holy cow. I don't remember where I just put it down. Do it again. Let's try it right here. I also have scrap paper right here on these zoom out, you can see what I'm doing. This is just scrap paper here, so sometimes I'll just— here's where I put the graphite— just so it's not so dark, I might brush it off a little bit here, and I'll come over to my painting and add it. Am I wearing it yet? Ooh, yeah, it's not art unless what? Unless you wear it. I'll have to check that out. I might be wearing it. That's so funny you said that. So you can see I'm just adding a little bit of that gray in here, that graphite. It's really, really subtle. I am not wearing it yet today, can you believe that? I'm actually wearing yellow. I have some yellow paint on my palm. Does that count? Got some yellow paint going on. That's not from this piece, that's from something else. Unless it's mustard from lunch. No, no, I didn't have a hot dog or anything. Can't be lunch.

Cool.

Yeah, so I like this. I really— let's do the trick I love doing with paintings. Patti Hey Heather, Deborah is in the house. Deborah, I, I can't see names unless you guys put your— say something in the chat, but apparently Deborah is watching, so hello Deborah, good to see you. Yeah, I can't see who is watching unless you actually put something in the chat, but I always appreciate you guys watching. Let's do the frame trick. You guys know I love doing this, so I have my little frames, just a little mat here. And where's my 1-inch, 2-inch square I made? All right, so this is just a piece of paper. I cut a 1-inch square, 2-inch square out of it. And this is a, uh, just a small mat with a— what size opening is that? Can you guys guess at home what size opening do you think this mat has on it? That's my, that's my segue to Get my ruler up. 3 by 4 and a half. 3 by 4 and a half. So what I like to do with these mats is I like to just take them over sketches and paintings and just look at different areas. 4 by 6, good guess, You were so close, so close. So like, for example, this— I really like this here. Could be just a cool little painting or image within itself, right?

Or we can—

let's move it around, maybe capture a different composition here, you know. This could be kind of cool too. Maybe something like this, right? That could be cool if that was framed.

Let's move it.

Just let's try down here. This is a really cool, um, this is a really cool piece of artwork because it looks like there's a lot of possibilities if you don't like the whole image, you can crop out. There's a lot of options for cropping out different sections and getting a really cool piece of artwork here. Well, let's see, I don't know if horizontal is going to work on this. This is more vertical, but let's check it out. Actually, let's see, you know, if we captured it this way Actually, it's not bad horizontal. Kind of looks like a building or castle sitting on the ledge and the ledge kind of drops off. So horizontal actually works. Let's do the really fun part. Let's see what we can get in a 2-inch view here. I keep zooming to this area. This is my favorite area of the painting. So here I'm just looking— I'm looking in the 2-inch square here. It's fun just to slide around and see what you can get out of it. This looks like here. This is actually a cool composition. Kind of like this kind of very abstract-looking composition within the square. Horizontal on the bottom left maybe. Ooh, I'll try that. Let's try that horizontal on the bottom left. Yeah, Patty, that could work. There you go. Move this up.

Something like that, maybe. Patty, I love it.

Patty's giving me road directions where to put my grids. Oh yeah, matting. That's so cool. 2 inches over that spire to the bottom of left. Yeah, I mean, that could work also. I think my favorite composition for this would be to do something like this. If I had to crop any of this out, only because I'm partial to this I love this little bridge area. Do I want some of the ground? Maybe something like that would look cool. Right, you have kind of the big mass of the building here, balanced with kind of the sky area here as well. So they play off each other, which is really cool. Hey, if you're watching, be sure to say hello in the chat so I can say hi to you. I can't see who's watching unless you say something in the comments, but I can see eyeballs. I just see a picture of an eye and it says 5 next to it. You guys are awesome. Thanks for tuning in. So this turned out to be a cool piece. So Patty says that's her fave too. Yeah, Patty, this is my fave also. This is just a fun quirky piece. I like the wonkiness of the building. Wonky art. Is me. It's why I love doing wonky stuff, wonky architecture. If I was to actually build something that I designed, it would definitely be built wonky because I cannot build anything straight for my life. That's why I draw it. That's your favorite? Cam, even, sorry. So Cam's in the house. Hey Cam. "The whole thing is my fave," Heather says. Awesome. Yeah, guys, this is a great, this is a fun ink wash. And the technique that I learned is something I was messing around with yesterday and today. I love the technique from doing these kind of misty, cloudy look. Okay, now it's just done with sepia. I'm using a sepia watercolor marker, a little bit of graphite, water. So these things, 3 things, add them up, equals this. Pretty cool. What else do we have going on here? So I think this one might be a wrap. I can't think of anything else I want to add to it.

Awesome.

This will be out. This would be really cool to buy as a print, I think, or maybe a piece on canvas, a print on canvas. We'll have to see. I'll probably sell the original. And then this I was working on last night as well. Totally different vibe, right? This is more of a storefront kind of scene. I was just playing around. I wanted to see what I could do with like reflecting colors down here. I think it's gonna be next time. I gotta wrap this one up as well. Actually, let's wrap— we're gonna work on this for a minute or two. So I'm gonna add some more ink lines to it. I know Linda is eyeing this one up. So Linda, Linda, Linda, we'll have to talk. I know Linda is interested in this one. So, I like this one a lot. I like it's very loose, not a lot of detail, just kind of hearkening to the fact that there are buildings here. Is hearkening a word? But I kind of want to define, I think, this edge a little more. I'm going to just start— we do that with some graphite, I think. And why graphite? Graphite I like for creating kind of grungy city looks. I think I'm gonna lay down some water first. And I'm going to let the graphite kind of bleed onto the water. I just want to define this edge a little bit here. And I'm using graphite because it will dry lighter than if I was to use a Lamy pen. I could also dip this in water too. You can see how it kind of Not a very even line, it's kind of grungified a little bit.

Actually, I'm gonna dip it.

Well, I just went to dip it in water and look what happened. You guys know about bobbing for apples? So if you want to bob for graphite, let me know. This will be interesting to get out of here. Alright, well, now I have a nice wet piece of graphite. Which is cool. And what we'll do is pull out some scrap paper, lay on there for a second. Pull out some scrap, this is my scrap drawer.

And I'm just gonna—

there he is. Just gonna dry that off a smidge. And I'm sure I'll end up doing something with this eventually here as well. I'm just sketching a house on here. I know my brain's like jumping. Sorry, my brain jumps a lot when I'm doing this stuff. Cool. That's a quick little house sketch. That's kind of cool actually with the wet graphite. And I am, Heather, I am now wearing it. I have graphite all over my fingers, which is cool. This is actually a cool little house. Sketch going on. So yes, so just like that, I could snap. We went from a city scene to a wet piece of graphite that I dropped in here to sketching a house. That is sometimes how the creative mind works. It just jumps all over the place. Instead of fighting it, embrace it, keep going with it. Cool, I like that. It's a fun little quick sketch. Alright, so see, just pulled out a scrap paper, wanted to dry off the graphite stick.

Stick.

And then we do a little sketching on the phone. There we are. So I'm going to pull this out a little bit here. I'm going to bring an edge kind of across here a little bit. So this is a perspective here. It's not a perfectly constructed perspective by any means. It's very loose, very wonky. I just wanted to create the sense of depth that you're looking down an alley maybe towards this tree in the background. This kind of sky bridge happening. I didn't construct all the perspective points and the— I'm sorry, the vanishing point and horizon line and all that stuff. But you still get the sense of it. Depth happening here. And I'm just gonna wet that graphite a little bit. See what it does? It's just creating an edge and it's gonna dry lighter. And since I'm trying to create an idea of a reflection, I'm gonna just pull this down a little bit here. Just letting the brush kind of skim across the paper, pulling it down but letting it skim. Like the skimming technique, I guess. I don't know what it's called. So I think that kind of works to what I wanted to do. Put this down a little bit more. Holding the Aqua Brush very, very loose, kind of just doing this kind of motion with it. My wrist isn't locked tight, I'm not dragging it, kind of just flicking it down a little bit. I'm just gonna go horizontal a little bit here as well.

Cool.

And I think this one's done. I think that's all I wanted to do, was just to pull this area out a little bit more. Um, holding your vape? No, it's art. Yes, because I'm wearing it. Now that I'm wearing it, it's officially art. So I think this one's a wrap. I don't want to add any more to it. This is cool. So I'll take some pictures and post it up online. There were some suggestions for names for this one. I can't remember what they were. The other one, the first one in the series, Kat had called the "calling tree." Calling tree. Because that painting had a call to her. She now has it, so I hope she's enjoying it. This one, there were some names given, I can't remember what they were, so I have to go back. I know you guys had some suggestions for it. There was another one I was— I could still come back and develop. It was just a really loose idea, but I might come back and play with it. Transform it. This was like step one, just blocking out some areas.

Cool.

All right, let's see how the other one is drying. I'm gonna wrap up and go get some dinner going.

Here we are.

So this is the one we worked on today. I think this This one is also a wrap as well. Zoom in, you guys can check it out. Let me know if you have any final questions, comments, or thoughts. Let me know, what is a takeaway you had from watching me today? Takeaway either from me or takeaway from the chat. Maybe something that hit you while you were watching this. Not literally hit you. Um, and I hope— Patty, I hope you found your geocache. I always like to know, what is it— what is a takeaway that you have from inking out loud today? It's always helpful for me to know what you guys are getting out of this. I'm just gonna do a final look at some different— I think I like the whole image too. Do I have a bigger mat? I don't think I do. I'm gonna have to buy some mats just to have different sizes around here. Just go through my drawers over here, so pardon the noises. I was supposed to label these, sort through them over break, but I didn't do that. Oh, I have a really big amount here. This is too big. So I have Super Matt— Super Matts in the house.

This is too big.

That's too big. But yeah, I think, well, let's see. Let's mock it up. Yeah, this could look cool. This whole painting could look really cool framed. Hey, Heather says, I just love this piece. Awesome, Heather. I'm so glad you love it. That is so fun. I like when you guys see something about my sketches and paintings that you like. That's so cool. You guys are awesome. Alright, so I'm going to wrap on that. I'm glad the camera's working. I was having tech issues earlier. That's another reason I wanted to come on. The camera kept going on and off, but it looks like it stayed on this whole session. Right? Otherwise you would have seen a big version of me on the screen if the camera turned off, but it looks like it stayed on. You guys, thank you so much for watching. If you want, I haven't done the whistling cowboy. Do you guys want me to do a whistling cowboy outro? Let me know. Should I do the whistling cowboy outro sketch? You found the cache. It was an easy one. Love your Turquoise City. Yay, I'm glad you found the cache. Let me know what the cache was. I hope it was something fun and exciting. Ah, thank you. I'm glad you love Turquoise City. That's a cool name, Turquoise City. The feed was solid today. Awesome, I'm glad you got it. Yes, Silver Sun Cowboy, I'm glad this feed was solid. That's good to hear because I was having some issues earlier and had to do a lot of— not a lot, but do some tech stuff. All right, let's do a Whistling Cowboy outro song. I have to make this stuff in the oven. Wait, when we last saw the cowboy, he was here. Let's flip to a new page. And, um, someone give me a number from 1 to 15. 1 to 15, that'll be the song we'll play and we'll wrap up. And let's see.

Good.

Number 1 to 15. Put this over here, let it dry. This is kind of cool. I'm liking this little graphite thing. It's kind of fun. I like how rough and grungy it looks. This will be fun to add some color to. Maybe I'll do that after it dries. Ooh, this is scary music. We got to like creepy music. Alright, Whistling Cowboy, here we go. Let's play. Right here, I'm picking this one. Boom. Thank you guys so much. Have a great, great rest of your day, and if I'm not back on later, have an awesome start to your week and Yeah, thanks for watching. I always appreciate you guys. Keep paying it forward with positivity and creativity. Peace and live creatively. See you guys real soon. Take care.