Experimental Portraiture with Ink, Tea and Alcohol

Experimental Portraiture with Ink, Tea and Alcohol

“Thank you so much for following this course. I really hope you find the techniques and materials I've shown you as inspiring as I do! It is now time to start working on your final project if you haven’t already. You really shouldn’t try to copy the painting I've made for this course. Add your own style of drawing into each piece and combine elements that have meaning to you. To help you, I will sum up here the main steps you need to follow to complete your project. Make sure to keep track of your progress with different pictures of each step. I would very much like to see that as part of your presentation. That would help me understand your creative process and guide you better if you need advice. The Reference Find a great reference image that has a strong contrast with light and shade. Try to avoid a flat portrait where you can only see the details of the features. Side-lighting and overexposed pictures work best, and pictures with movement can add lots of interest. Sketching When drawing out your portrait, begin carefully, but as things start to establish themselves on the page, approach your drawing with feeling and energy – try to instil some emotion in the piece. Drawing is an intense process for me and it is where I form a real connection with the work. Colours Add colour areas to your piece. Hopefully, this is a new approach for you. Use your excitement to see where the colour goes and don’t try and control it too much. Start with small amounts of ink line-drawing and see how this is affected in the next stage. You can always build these layers later.

Liquids Once dry, begin to add your liquids, starting with hot water and tea. Try not to scrub the surface of the paper too much and allow the colours to run. Sometimes pausing and standing back helps slow the process down. As your brewed materials get stronger, try dropping them in at the sides to create soft gradients. Add tiny drops of ink with a pen or by flicking as the piece dries. You will get different effects depending on the speed of the drying. The penwork stage for me is all about drifting away and just enjoying drawing – combine elements that you love and be playful, turn on your favourite music and lose yourself in the process. You will be surprised how far you can deviate from the initial drawing whilst still keeping this as a portrait piece. Most of all have fun! Effects Create abstract shapes and glass effects to add depth and tone to your painting. Embellishments If you want to, you can also play with drips and runs in gold leaf. Tear Once you are done, remove the painting from the frame. If you like the hand-torn effect I've shown you, try it! I am excited to see what you have created! Don’t forget to post your project on the forum. It is a great way to share your work with others. I encourage you to take a look at what others have created for this project and comment on their posts, too. I will try to drop by from time to time in between projects to see your creations and comment where I can. Thank you for joining me. See you on the forum!”

Partial transcription of the video

“Final Project We've come to the end of the course. I hope it's brought something different to your work that you'd take forward and include in your process. I'd like to hear what you thought about the techniques and how you used them within your work. We started off looking at the materials for the course and learned to prepare and stretch the paper ready to keep everything flat. Then we moved on to looking at calligraphy inks and teas to see how they mix in advance of making your painting. Next, we moved to some preparatory drawing and looked at different drawing styles. Then we moved to b...”

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Course summary for: Experimental Portraiture with Ink, Tea and Alcohol

• Level: Beginner
• 100% positive reviews (476)
• 10863 students
• 4 units
• 17 lessons (3h 53m)
• 2 downloads

• Category

  Illustration

• Areas

  Drawing, Fine Arts, Ink Illustration, Painting