Day 141 - Smudging my pen

All sketches are done in my 5x8 moleskine.  

Honey, My Lab Mix Rescue aka Black Dawg

All the darks and shadows are made by smudging my medium nib Lamy with Noodlers permanent black ink but I have done it with my fine nib Lamy Vista and the black Noodlers eelskin ink. It's just faster with the medium nib pen.

So how did I do it?!

First I try to look carefully at my dog Honey, remembering what Charles Reid said...each line is deliberate and counts. As he says not a searching scratchy line but a contour line drawing is done of the dog. Hard to unlearn all those years of scratchy searching line drawing but I think I am getting there. 

After you get a contour drawing of the dog which isnt always easy because they love to move.  Honey was cleaning herself from being forced out into the rain to do her business by her mean mother!!  

Next draw the darks where they should be with slanted lines. LOOK CAREFULLY!!  Then IMMEDIATELY I smear the ink with my middle finger has a black dot on it. The darker the area the more times I go over the area smudging and re smudging.

While I realize the big sketch is off a little...my model moved...I do like the overall look of it.  I especially like the two small ones on the right...maybe I should just do headshots!! 

I did go back into the darkest areas with a straight pen line over and over to darken it.  I didnt smudge it. I just left them alone.

This is a tiny 2x2 sketch.

Smudging works great for hair...just streak it in and smudge it with your finger...then go over it again with more lines.  

One last important WARNING about smudging...sometimes it gets you into trouble.....I have small fingers so I can have a little accuracy in smudging but its NEVER accurate...I messed up a nice drawing of a guy loosely based on David Tennant by smearing his beard the wrong way....the smear to the right of his mustache!!  OOPS!!

Thanks for looking!