Robert Martel | Illustrator

originally posted September 20, 2016

I’ve explained elsewhere on my site that one of my approaches to drawing involves foregoing the use of pencil layouts or sketching before introducing ink or paint into the piece.

Drawing with ink is a risk as it affords little room for correcting any glaring mistakes but it’s also very satisfying. It not only reduces the time I spend on a piece (therefore keeping it fresh), but it also forces me to commit fully to the first lines I put on paper.

The ink drawing above of a young boy, wearing his life jacket and leaning on a railing, has a few mistakes I tried to obscure under hatching and crosshatching lines: note how far down my original line for the chin extends onto the life jacket. You can also make out the mess made with the elbow not to mention the confusion in the hands.

For the most part I was able draw the viewer’s eye up to the boy’s face and take emphasis off the mistakes by creating an illustration that is recognizable as a whole and, for myself, satisfying in that same respect.