Tag: indian ink

art, Subscription Boxes

Illustration inspired by Artful Box: a hoopoe

rhubarbandburble
A Green Wood Hoopoe

This illustration was inspired by the Artful box theme: a hoopoe from Saturday 9th January 2021.

Most people are probably familiar with the orange coloured hoopoe with the amazing crown of feathers. I thought I’d find out if there were any other types of hoopoe and discovered the green wood hoopoe. I loved the rich greens and blues in the plumage, so plumped for this as my subject.

I used some of the inks from my Artful Box along with the chinagraph pencil and fineliner pen. Thanks to a very constructive suggestion on my post Illustration inspired by Artful Box: lighthouse, I had subsequently purchased some blue masking fluid and blocked out some areas including the white parts of the tail feathers. This worked really well, and I’m glad I didn’t risk painting around the negative space, because as sure as eggs is eggs, I would have made a mistake! I would highly recommend this product: Set of three Frisk Masking Fluid Brushes with 60ml Blue Masking Fluid (affiliate link). This is the one I purchased and the brushes are very good quality too.

I took a bit of time to map out the proportions of the bird before painting. My favourite part was using the fineliner to define the plumage and tree branches.

Here is a larger image:

Green Wood Hoopoe

You can see my unboxing of the December 2020 – February 2021 Artful Box here:

ARTFUL BOX UNBOXING | December 2020 – February 2021 | Ink | Art Supplies | Rhubarb & Burble | 📦🎨🖋🖌

What do you think? Please comment below.

Louisa

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art, Subscription Boxes

Illustration inspired by Artful Box: lighthouse

rhubarbandburble
Lighthouse

This illustration was inspired by the Artful box theme: Lighthouse from Wednesday 6th January 2021. The photo I used as my source was an Unsplash photo I found via a Google search. It is Cape Nelson Lighthouse, Portland, Australia by Joshua Hibbert and you can see it among his collection of photos.

I was keen to use the fountain pen ink and bleach technique again and this night sky had lots of stars! The bleach is hard to control and often bleeds into the ink more than I would like. To achieve as small a point as I could, I cut off all but a couple of hairs from a fine paintbrush, but it’s still tricky. If anybody has found a more precise way of dotting the bleach on, I would be grateful if you could let me know in the comments below.

I enjoyed creating the gradient in the sky and using the Indian ink to create the black rocks in the foreground. I used a chinagraph pencil to create some light and shade on the rocks.

The light and shade on the main part of the lighthouse was really hard to achieve because the previous colour would dry down and then leave a hard line, so I had to make it really wet in order for the colours to blend a little.

I didn’t really want to use the fineliner, but it gave me a crisp line especially down the lighthouse and on the railings near the top.

Overall I’m pretty happy with it, but I need to work on my arcs, as they aren’t all in the same plane.

Here is a larger image:

Cape Nelson Lighthouse, Portland, Australia

Here’s the original photo I sourced.

Photo by Joshua Hibbert on Unsplash

You can see my unboxing of the December 2020 – February 2021 Artful Box here:

ARTFUL BOX UNBOXING | December 2020 – February 2021 | Ink | Art Supplies | Rhubarb & Burble | 📦🎨🖋🖌

What do you think? Please comment below.

Louisa

By clicking submit, you agree to share your e-mail address with Rhubarb and Burble via MailChimp to receive marketing, updates, and other e-mails from Rhubarb and Burble. Use the unsubscribe link in those e-mails to opt out at any time.

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art, Subscription Boxes

Illustration inspired by Artful Box: a pocket with personality

rhubarbandburble
Pocket Rocket 2021

This illustration was inspired by the Artful Box theme A pocket with personality from Saturday 26th December 2020. I sketched the design with a pencil and drew the black lines using a fineliner. The watercolours are acrylic inks and the smoke is indian ink. I know that the phrase pocket rocket can have sexual connotations, but this interpretation is along the lines of a small feisty girl. My first thought was Minnie Mouse for some reason(!), as well as a pocket being a literal rocket!

I am disappointed with the scan actually, because the pinstripe pocket and Minnie’s dress were coloured with a very light wash of pink. Unfortunately, my scanner has not picked it up well and it appears grey with a faint line of pink around the edges in some places. The orangey-red tones in the flames are also washed out. It was scanned using the highest setting of 300dpi. Nevermind. I’m sure you get the idea.

Here is a larger image:

Pocket Rocket 2021

You can see my unboxing of the December 2020 – February 2021 Artful Box here:

ARTFUL BOX UNBOXING | December 2020 – February 2021 | Ink | Art Supplies | Rhubarb & Burble | 📦🎨🖋🖌

What do you think? Please comment below.

Louisa

By clicking submit, you agree to share your e-mail address with Rhubarb and Burble via MailChimp to receive marketing, updates, and other e-mails from Rhubarb and Burble. Use the unsubscribe link in those e-mails to opt out at any time.

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art, Subscription Boxes

Illustration inspired by Artful Box: fireworks

rhubarbandburble
Firework and smoke

This illustration was inspired by the Artful Box theme Fireworks from Friday 1st January 2021. It was made using Indian ink and acrylic ink. I used a chinagraph pencil and a fineliner.

Unfortunately, the bleaching technique which worked with the fountain pen ink, did not work with the indian ink. I decided to start again and this time around I tried the wax resist technique. However, that it didn’t really work because my firework was a bit pathetic! (I couldn’t really see where I had laid down the clear wax crayon.)

I went back to my original backgound and used the chinagraph pencil instead. It worked fairly well over top, but is quite dull in comparison to the star and shooting star effect I achieved using bleach on An inky night sky. To compensate, I used some yellow acrylic ink to make it more golden in colour. I used the fineliner to extend the light burst and drew around the edges of the clouds where the pooled ink had dried, then highlighted them with the chinagraph pencil. I am actually quite pleased with the final result, albeit the firework is not very bright.

Here is a larger image:

Firework and smoke

You can see my unboxing of the December 2020 – February 2021 Artful Box here:

ARTFUL BOX UNBOXING | December 2020 – February 2021 | Ink | Art Supplies | Rhubarb & Burble | 📦🎨🖋🖌

What do you think? Please comment below.

Louisa

By clicking submit, you agree to share your e-mail address with Rhubarb and Burble via MailChimp to receive marketing, updates, and other e-mails from Rhubarb and Burble. Use the unsubscribe link in those e-mails to opt out at any time.

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