Brian Morris Blog

Birds. : April 2, 2008

Birds - 12 x 9.5

As some of you know, 95% of my drawings are inked with Sharpies. I love dem damn markers... bold, black and solid as fuck. But as things go, sometimes you need to change it up. The above illo was inked with Faber-Castell pens on Bristol. Sure the inking took a little longer than usual, but I'm diggin the results. The F-C's give me a shitload more control over the Sharpies. I was amazed while inking - the pen actually went where I wanted it too... err more to the point, the ink went where I wanted it to.

Also new for me is using reference material. I typically avoid having anything in front of me when drawing. I always felt that the object would taint my mind's eye too much. But, I'm really beginning to think that if I want to grow I need to learn to use reference correctly. The birds are my first attempt at it. I used them fro the basic shape/modeling - but invented the featherwork and texture/tone of the bodies/heads. I think it worked out aight.

Cheers.