Notes: There is 1 assignment highlighted in blue on this page. The assignment consists of at least 1 full page of artwork but multiple pages are expected if a student finishes their first page while the assignment sessions continue.
Assignment: Ink & Color
Materials:
Card Stock Paper
Pencil
Ink Pen
Colored Pencils
Optional: Colored Markers, Colored Gel Pens, Etc.
Resources:
The videos and images in this post
Your World Building Mood Board for inspiration and ideas
Additional Resources in the Unit 3 Resource Folder in Schoology
Goal:
You will take some of your favorite character exploration sketches that you have made and create finished presentation level art in ink and color.
You will learn about the different ways an artist can take sketch work and use it to create ink and color presentation level work.
You will mix and blend your colored pencil work to create unique custom colors.
Instructions:
In class we will discuss at least two ways that you can take sketches you made during character exploration and transfer those drawings to a new piece of thick card stock paper:
Re-draw: You can use your original sketches as reference and lightly re-draw them on the new paper with pencil.
Light-board Trace: You can use one of the LED light panels we have in class to trace your original sketch directly to the new paper. This is a great method if you are very happy with your original sketch and want to recreate it with fidelity, but there can be some issues– scroll down to the examples section for details.
Inking: After you lightly redraw or trace your drawings in pencil, use whatever type of ink pen you prefer to draw over the pencil foundation and create your final line art. Notice that I do not refer to this step as tracing your pencil lines with ink. Think of the pencil lines as your loose foundation– your ink lines are an opportunity to draw details differently and add or subtract elements from your pencil drawing.
Coloring: After you create your final line art in ink, it’s time to color! Our primary coloring tools will be your own colored pencils, but if you have other coloring media, like markers or gel pens, I encourage you to use those with the colored pencils.
Example
Step 1: Pencil Drawing on Card Stock paper
For my ink & color work, I’m choosing the character line-up sketch I did during character exploration:
I’m going to use the light-board tracing method. The main problem with this in our classroom is that our inexpensive light panels are not very powerful and when we use thick card stock (often also called cover stock) it is difficult to see fine details as clearly:
In fact, these photos make it look clearer than it actually is. You might find it very difficult to see fine and/or small details using card stock.
However, what we are really trying to achieve when we trace our sketches is to make sure our inked and colored art matches with the sketches we made. The overall proportions and basic shapes should still be visible enough to trace.
When I traced my original sketch version of my character line-up, I focused on lightly tracing the basic shapes and stopped worrying about trying to capture every line with exact precision:
After I finished my tracing, I went back and lightly finished my drawing. This gave me opportunities to make slight changes to the characters as well:
After you finish your light penciling work, it will be time for the next step in our process of creating presentation level artwork: inking.
Step 2: Pen & Ink
You do not need any particular type of pen for inking. Choose a pen that makes the kind of lines that you like.
Make sure that you penciled relatively lightly as you will be erasing your pencil lines after inking. The pencil lines will only live on your paper for a short while.
Be prepared for there to be differences between your inked lines and your pencil lines! Ink pens are a different art medium than pencils.
Inking Video Clip
I did not film any of the inking I did for this assignment, so check out an inking demonstration clip from something we’ll be working on later on down the line:
Step 3: Coloring
When it comes to color, use whatever colors you have. Colored markers, gel pens, or even highlighters can be useful for this stage. Your primary coloring tools will most likely be colored pencils.
Coloring Video: Mixing & Blending Colors
In the video below, I am attempting to create a unique look by building up layers with different colors.
Coloring Process Examples
In the image below, you can see that I have used marker colors to lay down skin tones and some basic shadows on the inked figures:
Next I start building up layers of colored pencils in the same way as in the video above:
I continue to build up layers of color in an attempt to create unique colors. It’s good practice to keep a piece of scratch paper (like a piece of notebook paper) that you can try color combinations out on.
rm.132@WRMS 
Assignment: Ink & Color
Materials:
Resources:
Goal:
Instructions:
Example
Step 1: Pencil Drawing on Card Stock paper
For my ink & color work, I’m choosing the character line-up sketch I did during character exploration:
I’m going to use the light-board tracing method. The main problem with this in our classroom is that our inexpensive light panels are not very powerful and when we use thick card stock (often also called cover stock) it is difficult to see fine details as clearly:
In fact, these photos make it look clearer than it actually is. You might find it very difficult to see fine and/or small details using card stock.
However, what we are really trying to achieve when we trace our sketches is to make sure our inked and colored art matches with the sketches we made. The overall proportions and basic shapes should still be visible enough to trace.
When I traced my original sketch version of my character line-up, I focused on lightly tracing the basic shapes and stopped worrying about trying to capture every line with exact precision:
After I finished my tracing, I went back and lightly finished my drawing. This gave me opportunities to make slight changes to the characters as well:
After you finish your light penciling work, it will be time for the next step in our process of creating presentation level artwork: inking.
Step 2: Pen & Ink
You do not need any particular type of pen for inking. Choose a pen that makes the kind of lines that you like.
Make sure that you penciled relatively lightly as you will be erasing your pencil lines after inking. The pencil lines will only live on your paper for a short while.
Be prepared for there to be differences between your inked lines and your pencil lines! Ink pens are a different art medium than pencils.
Inking Video Clip
I did not film any of the inking I did for this assignment, so check out an inking demonstration clip from something we’ll be working on later on down the line:
Step 3: Coloring
When it comes to color, use whatever colors you have. Colored markers, gel pens, or even highlighters can be useful for this stage. Your primary coloring tools will most likely be colored pencils.
Coloring Video: Mixing & Blending Colors
In the video below, I am attempting to create a unique look by building up layers with different colors.
Coloring Process Examples
In the image below, you can see that I have used marker colors to lay down skin tones and some basic shadows on the inked figures:
Next I start building up layers of colored pencils in the same way as in the video above:
I continue to build up layers of color in an attempt to create unique colors. It’s good practice to keep a piece of scratch paper (like a piece of notebook paper) that you can try color combinations out on.
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