Drawing with Organic Materials: Sticks, Twigs, and Ink

Welcome to Draw Tip Tuesday - Drawing with Organic Materials: Sticks, Twigs, and Ink

This is the first instalment of a two-part series.

In today's Draw Tip Tuesday video, join me for the first part of a two-part series on drawing with organic materials. Learn how to create exciting drawings using sticks, twigs, and ink. We explore all kinds of wooden tools found in the forest. Wooden skewers, stirring sticks, disposable wooden forks and knives, and bamboo dip pens are very suitable too. If it's made of wood and you can dip it in ink, you can draw with it!

Today's exercise is about letting go of control. Twigs are flexible and bend as you put them on paper. Bamboo pens create bold and expressive lines, and it's hard to control the line.

Make use of that moment just before you need to dip your stick back into the ink well. That's when you can create softer grey tones and use a dry brush effect. This is an exciting, fun, messy and meditative exploration.

In today's video, I am sharing my process and learnings, and I discover a thing or two. Stay tuned for next week's video where we'll incorporate people into our drawings using the same tools.

Materials used in this video:
-Seawhite of Brighton Sketchbook, size A4
-dr Ph Martens India ink
-bamboo dip pen
-wooden disposable stirring stick from Starbucks
-wooden skewer
-sticks, twigs, pine cone and needles

Your assignment for this week:
-Find some sticks or twigs, and see of you maybe have a bamboo dip pen. You might find a wooden skewer or a disposable wooden knife or fork  in the kitchen too. Ice popsicle sticks are great too.
-Explore your materials (you can use any kind/color of ink) by drawing a view or from a reference photo. Trees and leaves and organic shapes are very suitable to draw with your organic materials.
-Let go of control and expectations. Let the material surpriose you.
-Have fun

I mentioned Marina Grechanik, who reminded me how fun it is to use these materials, during the SwapMG workshop, in June 2023.

Patrons are getting to download the reference photo, and can watch the non-edited video on normal speed. You can JOIN ME ON PATREON too. You'll be doing yourself a favor, because I’ll keep you inspired and motivated with extra pieces of encouragement, sharing projects and processes, handing ideas, tips and tricks and much more on Patreon.

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