Summer of 2017, I did some ink studies as warm-ups to watercolor. Ink was a good way to ease myself back into watercolor because it is a water-y medium of only one color (in my case here) and only one brush. This kept me from feeling intimidated by too many colors or tools. With ink, I can dive right in, without having to think too much.
I completed four ink drawings of my bedroom by moving my desk around the room to face the various walls within it. My sunny, spacious room is somewhere I feel peaceful and happy, and I wanted to depict it. For each drawing, I drew the outlines of shapes using minimally-diluted ink, and then filled in walls and other dark areas. After that, I worked around the composition, honing in on the scale of light to dark, and filling in the spaces.
I didn’t worry about straight edges, but rather let my lines be free and wiggly. I trusted in myself to make a good end product. Once I started adding the shades of grey, the whole came together and the composition became more convincing and alive. From these studies of my room, I learned that pieces can be effective even if I do them in a quick, spontaneous way with instinctive mark-making. Relying on impulse. I spent the most time on the drawing of my bed, and the least time on the ones of my closets and door to my room. I enjoy working directly from life to capture interior spaces.
