Soooo stoked to start Inktober for my 3rd year in a row!!
Last year I decided to do a horror theme, this made planning and illustrating much easier! This year’s theme is going to be *insert drum roll here* Super Heros!!
My focus this inktober is to work on figure drawing with these dynamic characters. This is also the first time I am using the inktober prompt list.
I am super (no pun intended) excited and will be posting them here and to all my social media pages, so be sure to follow me on instagram or twitter for live updates!
This year was the first year I participated in Inktober (LINK) and am very proud of myself for competing the challenge; I was talking to my friend about how exciting it was for me to start, participate and complete and while she was on her Tumblr she saw a post about Huevember!
This is another challenge similar to Inktober but with Hues: 30 hue pieces in 30 days, you can add other colours as long as that hue of the day is the focal point.
I was very excited to hear about this challenge as well, this is something that would be more challenging for me as I feel like colour theory is a department I should work on to improve. I do not think I will participate in this challenge this year but will next year…or later in the year as another month’s project 😛 we will see how she goes. I have some plans to make some creative pieces to sell for the Holiday Season this year and need to focus on these ideas before taking on another challenge, more on this to come later this month.
If you choose to participate in Huevember post it on your social and tag me, I would love to see what you come up with for this challenge!
Whenever you are working on a project for a client, it is very important to keep it as professional as possible. One way to achieve this is to have clean borders, depending on what you are working on of course, not everything is going be boxed in; some elements may break the border, while others might reach the end of the page or canvas.
Some helpful tips on keeping your border sharp & clean:
1. Masking Fluid: Great for small or awkward shapes. Though I do not recommend this for airbrushing as it can peel the surrounding paint. It is a white, goop like consistency during application that hardens to yellow-ish rubber. There is an eye dropper attached to the lid, you can use this but I would recommend using an old paintbrush for more detailed areas.
I use Dr. Ph. Martin’s Masking Fluid, don’t let the aroma fool you, it is a great masking tool!
2. Transfer Tape by EM Plastic (4″ roll): This tape is ‘semi-transparent’ so it is easier to see what shapes you need to cut out once applied. Take an x-acto knife & lightly (emphasis on the lightly! as if you are scoring the tape, you do NOT want to slice your illustration underneath) slice the tape, masking the areas you do not want contaminated.
It is excellent for protecting certain areas of a project while airbrushing.
3. Good Ole Fashion Tape! Masking or Painter’s Tape To Be Precise: This is excellent for taping off borders, but be sure to stick the tape to your pants or shirt before applying to some surfaces – it can tear the top surface texture (i.e. illustration board) if it is too sticky.
Masking & painter’s tape is the easiest material to find anywhere!
4. Removing Techniques:Once your illustration is complete (and dry!) slowly peel off the tape; it is best to not rip off or lift the tape vertically when peeling but to slowly peel horizontally or at an angle, protecting your surface from tearing. As for the masking fluid, just rub it off with your fingers or an eraser.
Clean lines make for a beautiful presentation while keeping the illustration professional. Keep you client in mind, would you want to invest in a piece that is sloppily put together? Craftsmanship is key, show that you take pride in your work!
For further information about the materials used for the featured illustration check out my last post Water Colour Pencils you can follow me on Instagram and Twitter for instant illustration updates.
Noelle Fontaine Design & Illustration 