---
title: 'Drawing week 03 - Fineliners and texture'
date: '2017-03-12'
subtitle: The fine discovery of Skillshare
tags:
- Learning yourself to draw
published: true
---

Also read [Learning yourself to draw](/post/learning-yourself-to-draw/).

I wanted to continue my quest of finding my own style within ink and watercolor boundaries. After the amazing discovery of [Skillshare.com](https://www.skillshare.com), I switched to using Artline fineliners. I also have some Steadlers but hardly notice any difference between different felt tip pens if they have the same thickness. I found a short course by Shirish Deshpande on drawing with ink and creating some contrast and texture. The drawings in the videos are amazing and I tried to copy them to my best abilities:

{{< pin "308707749443973054" >}}
{{< pin "308707749443973073" >}}
{{< pin "308707749443973094" >}}

The ink flowing from a technical pen is much more intense than a standard ballpoint pen as seen in [week 2](/post/drawing-week-02). I like that a lot. It also enables me to be much more precise and that is something that I tend to do a lot. I usually draw (too) small and try to cram in as much details as possible. The thinner the felt tip pen, the better for me. (Although I borked a 005 one, those guys are very sensitive!). 

During the snow & rose course, the lesson with the fineliners suited me the most, and now I have that same feeling. I finally give (cross-)hatching a shot and it really looks a lot better. Thanks Shirish, for building up my confidence in drawing with ink! 

So, what did I learn this week:

1. Intensity of ink matters.
2. Contrast is extermely important and gives your drawing an "oomph"
3. I learned the "hatching", "stipling", and "random" technique. 
4. Fineliners > ballpoint pens > pencils (sensing a trend here, fountain pen coming up)

Let's take a look at what Shirish does with his pens (and added colored ink):

{{< pin "394698354817739793" >}}
{{< pin "364299057333088725" >}}

He usually doesn't color with watercolor but with (diluted) colored ink. I have yet to try that.