Here are links to the most popular post categories (click on the ink drops!)
Articles about artistic techniques, tools and general advice
Drawing tutorials
The process of drawing (my case studies and art stories)
My artworks
Thoughts and emotions (inspirational posts)
You never know what a precious gift may be waiting for you… just make another step forward.
Go after your dreams and goals 🙂
This tutorial is all about drawing an owl from scratch, using a graphite pencil and ink liners. Quick and simple 😀 The principle of layering the hatches is explained and the process images are included! 
In this post, I’ll show you the step-by-step process of working on a complex texture with ink liners. We’ll create a beautiful drawing of a toad. 🙂
In today’s article, our theme is the contour hatching technique and the ways how to use it in your wonderful ink artworks.
This post is a part of the series “The Basics of Drawing with Ink.” I had to publish the articles of the series separately because there is just too much information for one.
In this series, we are exploring the pillars of ink drawing mastery: line, hatching, cross-hatching and contour hatching.
Everything starts with this background. You can build any texture in your ink drawing, and exactly the knowledge of basics gives you endless possibilities.
You may also find interesting these parts:
The Basics of Ink Techniques: How to Draw Beautiful, Expressive Lines
The Basics of Ink Techniques: Hatching and Cross-Hatching
Introduction to Dotwork (Stippling) Technique in Ink
The main difference between an ordinary hatch and a contour hatch is that the latter is deliberately repeating the shape (the contour) of an object, emphasizing its three-dimensional look.
By the way, you might have seen something similar in the 3d programs when a shape is formed by the lines.
The contour hatching is an excellent way to show that the depicted objects have volume – they are not just flat shapes. That’s why combining the contrast and the contour hatching makes some ink drawings really impressive.
The contour hatches can have a vertical or horizontal orientation. Which kind works best for your drawing, is up to you to decide; this flair evolves with experience and practice.
I’m rather silent these days. The weekends were so intense, I made 10 pencil underdrawings for the new artworks, and after that was writing new posts almost all the time.
I often feel like I should get a time-off and rest. It’s weird 🙂 Probably I work so much because I love what I do, and discipline is love in action. 🙂
So I’ll just leave this insightful quote here and get something done!
At the end of April, we with my husband were at the hunting and fishing themed exhibition. I like to visit such places because they spark my creativity and curiosity.
I was walking along the stands and gathered ideas that were rushing in my head. Plenty of ideas! 😀 Couldn’t wait for getting home and starting to draw.
And this is the first artwork made after that event.
I wanted it to look intricate and intertwined, but the depicted objects should still be distinct, with all the textural nuances on the spot.
The size of this drawing is a standard A3 paper size, the tools I used are ink pens numbers 0.5, 0.4, 0.2, 0.1 and 0.05.
But let’s keep the order 🙂 Let me show you the process.
In this part of the “Basics of the Ink Drawing Technique” series, we’ll talk about hatching and cross-hatching in ink artworks.
Basically saying, hatching is a body of hatches grouped together. The most important feature of hatching is similarity – we can see the unity and uniformity that is inherent to the lines as a whole.
Hatching is like a choir where every singer (hatch) makes a contribution on a piece of music.
So, let’s have a closer look at the hatching and cross-hatching techniques, and learn to apply them in your ink drawings!
This post is a part of the series “The Basics of Drawing with Ink.” I had to publish the articles of the series separately because there is just too much information for one.
Everything starts from those basics. You can build any texture in your ink drawing, and exactly the knowledge of the basics gives you endless possibilities.
You may also find interesting these parts:
The Basics of Ink Techniques: How to Draw Beautiful, Expressive Lines
Introduction to Dotwork (Stippling) Technique in Ink
You can create hatchings with almost any of the artistic supplies that are used in the traditional ink graphics. I prefer using ink liners (pens) because they give me the full control over the line behavior – this is great for achieving unity.
The choice of the brand of an ink liner is up to you; there are several well-known names that are associated with the high quality – Faber-Castell, Copic, Pigma Micron, UNI Pin, and others.
Some Faber-Castell ink pens from my artistic supply
You may also be interested in these articles:
Artistic Tools for the Ink Drawing
Learning How to Draw with Ink (there is a part about the art supplies)
The best way of living a great life, full of wonders, is to be curious, ready for action and busy with your interests.
Curiosity means courage and readiness to forget about yourself for the sake of learning and creating. It is amazing how much can be done if a person quits complaining, being envious and fearful. 😀
In today’s article, I’ll show you how to create expressive lines that will help to convey your thoughts and ideas and transform them into amazing ink art.
We’ll also discuss the difference between a line and a hatch, and observe how to make your line work better.
Lines in your drawing are very important. They are responsible for the overall look and feel of the artwork, and the clear distinction between all the objects you depicted.
This post is a part of the series “The Basics of Drawing with Ink.” I had to publish the articles of the series separately because there is just too much information for one.
In this series, we are exploring the pillars of ink drawing mastery: line, hatching, cross-hatching and contour hatching.
Everything starts from those basics. You can build any texture in your ink drawing, and exactly the knowledge of the basics gives you endless possibilities.
You may also find interesting these parts:
Introduction to Dotwork (Stippling) Technique in Ink
The Basics of Ink Techniques: Hatching and Cross-Hatching
So let’s begin with the lines and everything that relates to them!
Let’s settle on the terms – to be sure that we’ll understand each other. 🙂
A line, in contrast to a hatch, is an all-sufficient unit in the drawing that has a distinctive feature and expressiveness (it may be perceived emotionally in some way – an aggressive line, a gentle line, etc.).
Lines usually vary in width, while hatches are uniform. That’s why groups of hatches work together so greatly – they don’t distract the viewer’s attention one from another.
Another difference is not a strict rule, but it is quite common: lines are, on average, longer than hatches – just because the lengthiness helps to tell a story. And a hatch is rather a small screw of the drawing system; grouped in hatching, they create an appropriate background.
Lines often serve as contours in the ink drawings (I usually use lines exactly this way). They can be found in drawings of any kind, but where lines happen to be a core technique, is doodle art and coloring pages art.
You can use a nib, an ink liner (ink pen), a brush pen or a brush. Any tool has distinctive features; for example, to get control over brush pens or brushes you probably will need more time and experience.
Note: this article explains the main features and differences of named art supplies.
I personally love using pointed nibs and brush pens, because they allow me to vary the width of my lines – from very thin to broad – depending on how hard I press on the tool while drawing a line.
It’s hard to achieve a proper line variation with an ink liner (pen) because the width of the tip of your tool remains the same, no matter how hard you press. However, you get the best control with ink liner, this means – no surprises in the line quality.
You can also vary the angle of your tool towards the paper sheet and the speed of drawing – everything has an effect on the line’s appearance.
