Line Variety with India Ink

#1 Drawing with pure ink

Use india ink and a round brush to get varied, interesting lines from the beginning of your drawing.
People are not mechanically perfect. Individuals are different from each other. Small and big differences are what make individuals unique, so why draw with lines that are even, symetrical and boring?



1. Using undiluted ink, start with the gesture of the skeleton, which lays out proportion, movement, and a sense of weight/gravity.
2. Be sure to put some indicators of the rib cage and pelvis.
3. Start to draw the flesh around the skeleton, looking at outline shapes AND feeling some contours and shadows to help define the shape of each part.
4. Continue creating more volume, getting the entire figure defined.
5. Make the darkest shadows pure black, leaving the lightest areas alone, creating a high contrast image.

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#2 Drawing with diluted ink

Below, you see the same image created with diluted ink and undiluted ink.
Start by filling a small container with water. Add a few drops of india ink to the water, mix it together, and test the shade on a piece of scrap paper. Add more ink if you prefer a slightly darker shade of mid-tone gray.

1. Using the diluted ink solution, draw the gesture of the skeleton.
2. Fill in the mass of the flesh on top of the skeleton gesture, leaving the highlights alone.
3. After letting the ink dry for a minute, use the diluted ink solution to figure out some details and refine the contours and outlines of the figure. Notice that the second layer of diluted ink solution will make a darker mark over the first layer. Keep this in mind so you can avoid making light areas dark, and so that you can use the layers to make the dark areas darker.
4. Using the undiluted ink, finish defining the outline of the figure, and start defining the most extreme dark areas.
5. Finish filling in the darkest shadows with undiluted ink. You'll have a drawing with pure black, pure white, and at least two mid-tone grays.
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#3 Drawing with an ink wash



1. Using a diluted ink solution (water and ink mixed), draw the skeleton. Pay particular attention to proportion. Don't worry about making skinny lines. Just get in on the paper and mark out proportion.
2. Fill in the mass of the flesh, from the center, outward. Don't worry about outlines. See the figure as a mass, a silhouette, a singulr object.
3. After letting the ink dry for a minute, use the ink solution to find some details, but focus more on the shadows.
4. Using the water/ink solution, fill in more shadow variations, more dteail, and get the final shape down.
5. Using UNdiluted ink, add small details, outlines on the shadow side, and fill in some of the darkest shadows in the figure.