Ink Wash - Process

 Beginning ink was quite exciting, as I love to paint, and I love to draw portraits. I have worked a small amount with ink in the past, but it was quite new territory. The ink with the newsprints was an entirely new medium, and required a lot of patience. I will say, I struggled with my motivation as this project continued. I did learn a lot from it, as towards the end I could almost effortlessly get a very similar shape with tones as my references. However, the size and amount became very daunting. I also think it just landed at an interesting time for me. I have had so much big art projects all at once this semester, and my art block crept up on me. I don’t think I fully burned out however, just need a bit of recharge period for my creativity to grow. 

The ink was stubborn, differing entirely from my farmillar watery medium of gauche paints, which slide with little effort. The newsprint would instantly suck up any ink placed, forcing me to unlearn habits. I learned that placing water first made the ink for manageable and I could move it around prior to it drying. I found it quite amusing to see the before, wet, and dry, after, of each page as I  continued to work on them. I loved how they looked after, even though it usually signaled me to work on them more… and more… and more… and more…

The top left is a good example of how a wet one
looks, sometimes a bit scary before dry!

I can tend to get lost in the details of my work, which this archive project forced me to unlearn. I just didn’t have enough time to do so, despite how badly I wanted to. I honestly could’ve worked at each one for countless more hours, getting things just right. I kind of kills me to hand it in with multiple far from my standard of finished, but that’s just how this project went from me, and it still taught me much about the medium, tonal value, and human anatomy. As well as an understanding of how much I need to work on my time management