You Know The Name of King Kong

Back in January, we inked Godzilla as a way to celebrate our love of Godzilla Minus One. This month, Godzilla X Kong:The New Empire hits theatres. And while we’re not sure whether we’ll love it or not, Michelle and I thought it was only fair to ink up a King Kong in anticipation of the release.

The difference between the two should be obvious. I inked Godzilla with pens, using hatching to achieve my grey tones. With Kong, I decided to use ink wash. It’s a softer look, but I think it works well for the composition and subject (a giant gorilla stomping through a misty forest on an uncharted island).

In addition to my own ape inks, we have once again conned Michelle into playing a game of “Ink It or Stink It” where she’ll take a run at inking my drawing of Kong’s apparent nemesis, Skar King.

We both learned a little about technique and materials while working on these, which is our constant goal. But if you want to see how they turned out, you can check out the video at the link below:

Beware, Spider-Villains…I got new brushes!

During our month-long summer break, Michelle and I hit a few different art stores in a quest to find some new, decent brushes for inking and watercolor. I decided to try Princeton Velvetouch brushes, and I thought we’d test them out inking and coloring some scary Spider-Man villains.

The Green Goblin was inked entirely with a number one round. Even the smallest detail lines where I’d normally use a fine liner, I inked with that brush.

I liked the way this brush handled. It has a great point, and the bristles held plenty of ink for me to draw long, variable-width lines without going back to the ink jar too often.

The inks went down smooth and dark on this hot press watercolor paper. And after getting used to the feel of the brush with the Goblin, inking the Lizard was a breeze. However, we wanted to color these villains. But unlike our reptile friend above, hot press paper does not have a lot of tooth. And we knew that watercolor was not going to lay down as nicely on a paper with so little tooth.

There’s a bit of a trick to it, but if you’re careful, you can get decent results with watercolor even on the hot press paper. I imagine the colors would look even nicer on cold press, but then I’d have to sacrifice that smooth surface I love so much for inking.

And I wasn’t the only one trying to get watercolors to work on hot press. Michelle, once again, took the Ink It or Stink It challenge with a Spider-Ham I sketched for her. However, there was a new twist: Sure, she doesn’t ink and yet is forced to ink during this game. But to balance that out, she has also never worked with watercolors. So I threw my palette in front of her and had her color the image she inked. Did she get an Ink or a Stink from the judges? Did I enjoy the Princeton brushes enough to start using them on a regular basis? Am I way off base with my choices for scariest Spidey-villains? You can find the answer to these questions (and a whole lot of art tips) in the video below.

Two Hellboys for the Price of One!

And since nobody’s charging an admission fee, that price is free. Free to watch me ink this Hellboy.

I used traditional, brushed ink on watercolor paper, something I’ve been trying to get better at.

But that’s not all — I said two Hellboys and I meant it. In an episode of Ink It or Stink It, Run Red Run also took a shot at inking a Li’l Hellboy drawing I did!

How did she do? You’ll have to watch the video to find out. Hope you like it! -v

Inking Grogu (Baby Yoda) Plus: Ink It or Stink It!

I know. I inked a Baby Yoda last year. But this one’s better. And it’s all done with brush, no pens (not even brush pens)!

The primary reason I drew this little cutie again is because Run Red Run and I both got Disney Plus (finally) and we’re really enjoying The Mandalorian.

In this week’s video I ink Grogu but, as a special bonus, Run Red Run also plays a round of “Ink It or Stink It” and inks her own Grogu. How’d she do? Gotta watch the video.

This is the way: