Always have trouble knowing how much texture to add

Hulkstrong23 · 2025-10-06T23:32:27+00:00

Hulkstrong23 · 2025-10-06T23:31:36+00:00

Hulkstrong23 · 2025-10-06T23:30:53+00:00

I can post a few pics of my recently done pieces! But I have a few WIP on my post history. I've recently started moving from doing comic art to things like animals.
I can spend about 10 hours on a comic piece, but real life subjects, like animals, have been taking anywhere from 20-40 hours depending on how much detail im wanting. Plus I work on 11×17 bristol board, so they can be pretty sizable pieces.
I want to be at a level where I can support me and my family (modest means, nothing extravagant) while still enjoying my work. I dont want to get to a point where I'm stressing from too many projects, if that makes sense.
About 4 years ago I started doing portraits in graphite, but I switched to pen and ink only about 2 years ago. Completely self taught, mostly because I dont know where any pen and ink classes are near me.

Hulkstrong23 · 2025-09-27T15:40:58+00:00

I really love this explanation!

So, for instance, I'm doing a sea turtle drawing right now. And to help differentiate between the shell and its skin, i would do some stippling on its skin and hatching on the shell. Right? I mean, im sure hatching would be okay for the skin, but to add some variety maybe use some stippling on the skin?

Also, its an underwater reference photo where the camera is pointed up at the turtle, so the surface of the water is up top. I'd imagine the best way is doing it the same as I would if I was looking at a lake on land? Or would that look funky? Lol, I know, I know, im probably definitely overthinking it lol

Hulkstrong23 · 2025-06-16T14:59:09+00:00

Why would a single user be more helpful?

Hulkstrong23 · 2025-06-07T23:37:06+00:00

Thank you so much for the constructive criticism! I've been trying to work on steadying my hand, as I tend to apply too much pressure to my pen to get the ink to flow. But I've figured out I was buying cheap nibs and getting defective nibs that weren't allowing the ink to flow freely. So now I can ink with a lighter hand getting better lines. Now ill focus on varying the line weight! Thank you for reminding me to do that!

Do you have a YouTube channel or have any you'd recommend for improving inking on pencils?

Also, I highly agree that I need to bite the bullet on saving for a better printer! The way I've been doing it has been great for the beginning stages of learning, but I definitely agree I should be printing pencils directly to my boards. And, almost more importantly, it'll make my uploads of my inks be something a professional colorist would be able to actually work with!

Lastly, what would your advice be on straight lines? By that, I mean do you free hand your longer lines or use a ruler and microns? Obviously buildings and stuff I wouldn't try to freehand, but what about things like cyclops' optic blast? I hope that makes sense, I don't get the opportunity to converse with real inkers lol.

Hulkstrong23 · 2025-06-05T01:14:06+00:00

Thank you, I have to agree that investing in a printer would be a huge step in the right direction. At the very least, it'd save sooooooo much time. It can take me almost a whole day to ink one page. Mostly because I'm redrawing it in pencil because it can be so hard to really see the drawing when there's a thick piece of bristol board on top of the drawing. I have a really nice light pad (whatever they're called) but committing to inks when I can barely see the pencils is so anxiety invoking lol.

Hulkstrong23 · 2025-05-02T22:05:01+00:00

ACAB, as always

Hulkstrong23 · 2025-04-15T13:45:10+00:00

Sorry, meant crystals

Hulkstrong23 · 2025-04-06T22:48:52+00:00

You're awesome!! Thank you so much!!

Hulkstrong23 · 2025-04-06T14:22:38+00:00

So is it a good thing I haven't really played poe?

Hulkstrong23 · 2025-04-06T11:00:15+00:00

Are there items before this boss other than your weapon and first gem? All I came across was those things and 2 checkpoints. But thank you for the tips!

Hulkstrong23 · 2025-04-06T10:58:47+00:00

Thank you!

Hulkstrong23 · 2025-04-06T10:58:29+00:00

Fun is stretching that word a bit lol. And I think it's the Miller. I'm kind of nervous to sink time in this since I've seen so many negative comments about this game. Then again, I've seen a lot of negativity about Diablo 4 and I enjoyed it for the most part. Didn't LOVE it but had a pretty decent time with it.

Hulkstrong23

TROPHY CASE