TENDRILS, ROOTS AND SEEDS – ABSTRACT INK DRAWINGS

The coloured version

The other day I felt like doing a bit of ink pen drawing, and got my small sketchbook out. I recently saw someone on YouTub showing her sketchbook which had plenty of delightful doodles in it, some of which were coloured. My favourite was of overlapping curving lines so I thought I’d draw something like that.

I drew this freehand, with various thicknesses of Faber Castel permanent fineliner black pens, starting with the shapes at the front and gradually working back into the depths. I coloured it with my fine-tipped Posca acrylic markers. The central one is gold, which doesn’t show up very well on the photo, unfortunately. I added shading with Faber Castell matte graphite pencils of varying hardness, begining light and gradually darkening the values to create depth.

The paper in this sketchbook isn’t the best, but adequate for testing things out.

The monochrome version

I then decided to do another version in my small Rhodia drawing book. This has off-white smooth paper of high quality, although it is not thick. It is a delight to draw on with the ink pens which glide across the surface.

Again I drew this freehand, using many of the same patterns in the first one.

Again, there’s a touch of gold in the centre, and this time I added a bit more detail, carrying some of the tendrils outside the frame, and adding some “seeds.” My hubby thought it looked like roots and seeds, with lots of life going on under the ground, so “Roots and Seeds” it is.

This particular idea would work well as seaweed, maybe with some fish swimming between the tendrils.

I am not sure which of the two drawings I prefer, now I see them together. I like the little pops of colour in the first one, but the second is perhaps more stylish.

I shall definitely be doing some more drawings along these lines. They are easy to pick up and relaxing to do, and don’t take long, requiring minimal equipment in the early stages. There is plenty of opportunity at the end to add further detailing, texture and colour if you want.