Ink with Me: Stingrays

1. Intro: Hi, my name is Elizabeth tagline and I am an illustrator of mostly mermaids and marine life. Today I'm continuing my ink with Me series where I'm sharing the stippling techniques that I use to illustrate different marine life. So far in this series we've aimed jellyfish. Orca has sharks and dolphins. And today I'm kicking off my fourth class in the series, which is going to be aqueous me, stingrays. I love illustrating using fine liner pens and stippling techniques and creating these flash sheet style illustrations. If you want to follow along with the full series, you will end up with a completed flash sheet of all different marine life as we explore these different techniques. If you don't want to follow along with the full series, that is totally fine to each class is also designed to be enjoyed one-off, so you can just enjoy inking it some stingrays today, I've marked this course as an intermediate level. But if you're a beginner, don't want that totally stop you. I do recommend going back and starting with the jellyfish course and then proceeding through the courses in order because we dive a little bit deeper into the techniques and build on that as we go in the series. So if you're a complete beginner, maybe start with that class and then work your way up to the stingrays here. Otherwise, if you have some experience with sibling and fine liners, this is totally the class for you. In this course, you're going to learn about where to find great reference images, the best materials to use. We'll go through some various stippling techniques and different styles that you can apply to your work. And then we will explore inking a couple of different stingrays in the course. And then of course, if you're following along and we will finish by adding a stingray to your flash sheet. If you're following along with the full series, we'll be making great progress towards that final illustration. If you stay until the end, I'll also be including some tips about how you can monetize the work that you created in today's class. So don't forget to follow me on Skillshare so that you know when the next classes in this series and just future classes in general are released. And let's dive into today's topic. 2. Class Project: Alright, let's talk about our class project today. In today's class, we're gonna be going through various sibling techniques and then inking three different stingrays. I've provided three different reference images that I found on one of my favorite resources, which is unsplash.com. They have a huge database of royalty-free photos they are able to use for your artwork. And it is an awesome resource, pretty much no matter what you're looking for. Great place to go. If you want to find other reference photos, you want to look her photos for your own artwork. Definitely a great place to check out. You are totally free to use different reference images than the ones I've provided. I just like these three thought would be a good variety to do for today's class. So we're going to be doing two of them. We're just going to ink them for fun, for practice. And then the last one we are going to be adding to our fact sheets. So I have my little stingray right here. And I've also provided a sketch of the layout of my flash sheet. So if you wanted to go back and follow along with the full thing, you can sketch it out exactly as I have it, so that you can finish the whole project. I totally encourage you to be creative. You can come up with your own flashy design. You could use different animals if you want. Totally up to you. Once you enter jellyfish or you added it to your flash sheet or both, I want you to upload a picture of what you've inked in the class to the class project gallery so that we can all check out what you've created. Can't wait to see what you create today. 3. Materials: All right, Let's talk materials for today's class. So you don't need anything too crazy to do this class, but here are my recommendations for what you should be using. So first up, for papers, my favorite papers to ink with our Strathmore brand because it's easy to find. And I like to either use marker paper or Bristol paper. Marker paper is great because it has a really smooth surface. And if you want to, after you ink, you can maybe color with marker or do something like that, which I sometimes do. So that's a great option for that Bristol paper I love and it's what I typically use for my final flashy illustrations. Love it because it's a little bit thicker. So it feels really nice, has a great weight and it's also just super great to ink on and is what my final flash sheet for this course is on today. In terms of markers and pencils and everything, I recommend getting some light lead pencils to use. So I typically use a for-each pencil because you can sketch lightly. But for this class today, I'm going to use a to H so that you guys can see it on camera a little bit better. And it's still a great option. You of course want an eraser. You can either use just a regular eraser like this or I love these little clips erasers that gave you a little bit more control on your erasing. Then last most important one is to grab some fine liners. My favorite is the Micron pens, and they come in a bunch of different sizes. They hold up pretty well. And they come with some different colors as well. So you don't have to ink in black if you don't want to, you could do it in blue or green or any of the other colors that they have. So definitely be creative with that. But I highly recommend picking up a variety pack of sizes for these until you're finding out what style and what techniques you use, then you might have some different size favorites, but it's good to have a selection of sizes at the beginning. There's also tons of other brands and make fine liner. These can be a little bit expensive, so there's definitely tons of cheaper options out there, other brands that make them. So you should definitely be able to find some great options at your local art supply store. 4. Stippling Techniques: Okay, Now that we've talked about materials and everything, I have my pencil and erasers and all of my fine liner is laid out and we're going to get into practicing some stippling techniques. So stippling is just using dots to create your dark and light areas instead of different colors or pencil shading or something like that. And there are lots of different styles you can do with stippling. Here are some examples from my favorite artists. There are tons of different ways you can go about it. And just really great ways you can explore the style that you might wanna do. In this video, we're going to practice some of those different techniques and kinda give you a warm up into using some of them. So the first thing I always recommend doing if you're new to your pens is doing a little pen test. Because an element to your stippling style is going to be using different pen sizes. So you might have some that you like. You might like to do a bigger dot, you might like to do smaller dots totally up to you. I'm just going to take a bit to go through the different sizes that I have with me today. And the size that you have might vary based on the brand that you're using. I start off by doing just some dots with it, drawing some lines, see how that feels. And then this is the 00 A5 size. So starting with the smallest, working up to the next one. Oh, one. And just kinda work through here and you'll see how the dots and the lines get bigger. Have a different feel to them. You might get an idea about what sizes you feel more comfortable with. And then we'll go through and use different sizes as we practice some techniques as well. I'm someone that usually likes to do the really, really tiny dots, but I like the idea of using bigger dots. So I'm kinda challenging myself to try that out more. 05 up to the eight. And then I also have one of these graphic ones which has a much bigger kinda bullet tip. And I really like to use this if I want to do a bold outline on my work, or maybe if an area is really black, I will color it in a little bit before I start doing the dots to shade it out. So that's why I definitely like to have one of these any thicker bolder marker would work. But I recommend having that in your little toolkit for the class today. To practice our techniques, we are going to draw some different boxes that we're going to use to practice. So grab your pencil and then I am just going to draw different boxes. These do not have to be any sort of perfect. Exactly sure how many we need. You can also draw as many as you want if you want to do more practice than we'll do in this video. So totally up to you. We'll start with that. So for the first two boxes here, we're going to practice. You can either stipple from light to dark or dark to light. It's totally up to you and your process. But we'll experiment both ways. I typically like to go dark to light because you put more work and more dots into the darker areas. And then as you kind of spread out the dots into those lighter areas, it's a lot faster. So that's just the way I like to work. You might be the opposite, totally up to you. So I'm going to start with the O3 size because why not? We are going to go from dark to light to start. So to start with a darker area, you are going to put more dots closer together in your box. You can start with them as close together as you want. You can make it almost black. I'm just going to make them that far apart. No too crazy shading. I'm just gonna kinda go along this edge here. Filling this certain area with dots, the same distance apart. Then as we go up, you're going to spread them out a little bit more. To give the illusion that it's lightening up. Again, it's going to depend on your subject matter, but we're just treating this as like a flat. Kinda Almere. You can choose at what points your dots are going to spread out more. Sense, depending on what objects are. Drawing is not going to happen in a linear fashion, but keeping it simple here. Spreading out my dots again. And also think about too, you can always go back in and add more dots, but you can't really take them away. So keep that in mind when you are inking final piece. Alright, so super simple. That is just inking from dark to light. You can play around with that with different sizes if you want. But we'll move on to the next square here. We're gonna go from light to dark. And I'm just going to change up to use a different pen size just for fun. Do the OA, make it nice and bold y-naught. So for this one, we're just going to do the opposite. I'll actually start at the bottom with the light and then move up to the darks to do something different. With this, you're going to randomly place your dots far apart. And how meticulously and carefully you want to place your dots is up to you. That's also something that goes into stylistic choice for you as an artist. We're starting to make them a little bit closer together. You can also go absolutely as fast or as slowly as you want. Some of that is just going to come with time. Sometimes the more you practice something that fast you get and sometimes that's just not your style and you want to take it slow. That is totally fine. I don't focus too heavily on having perfectly placed dots or doing it super slowly. I also definitely don't rush through it too badly. So as you can see, I'm kinda slowing down with the area that I am covering and I'm putting those dots much closer together. We'll do a little bit more of them really close. And that is how if you want, you can go from light to dark. Okay, the next thing that we're going to practice or kind of stylistic choice that you have is you can choose to outline your artwork or your objects, whatever. Inking, in our case, marine animals. You can outline them or not. And that can make a really big impact on the look of your final piece. So for our next two boxes, we're gonna kinda play around with that. For the first one here, I am going to do an outline around it. And I do like to do outlines, but I, there's tons of artists I love that don't do them and their work is amazing. I find it more challenging that way. So I like to do an outline, but totally up to you. So I'm going to take my bold marker here and just outline my box. And for this one, I'm going to pretend that the middle of the box is the lighter area and then it's dark around the edges. But keep in mind, you can outline even if this is the highlighted area. So it doesn't mean that you only outlined in the darkest areas, but or you could only outline darker series totally up to you. So since I like to go from dark to light, I'm going to start with the outside edges, which I'm going to treat as the darkest areas. The first thing I'm gonna do is just go around the box, laying down. As many dots as I want to create that darkest area. I'm using the O5 size here to change it up again. I'm just going to keep going around the edge. Definitely a lot of dots, but worth it. Hopefully my hand survives a full day of filming today. Sibling definitely can be exhausting for your hand, especially if you're not used to it. So do keep that in mind. There was one time I was working on a drawing for probably like almost 12 hours straight because I was just trying to finish it. And I think by the end of it, I couldn't even write because my hand was just so dead. Definitely keep that in mind and take a break if you need to. Okay, so we've created our dark edge here and then we're just gonna be kinda dispersing those dots towards the lighter center. So there you have it. So it gives you an idea of working with an outline. And then for our next box here, we're going to practice doing without an outline. So what I like to do if I am going to ink without an outline, you definitely want to have a good pencil sketch to follow. But then I still start with a border, but instead of a solid outline, you're just gonna kinda do a dot border, keeping in mind where your light and dark areas are. So for this one, I'm going to do this corner is dark to light, kinda going across the box here. So what I'm gonna do is start with this over here, keep them close together where it's going to be darker. And then you can spread them out. You also don't have to do this dot board or you could just start inking and kinda create those borders as you go. This is how I'm going to go about it. So then once you have that border established, why switch to switch pen size as well. So we'll start with our dark area down here. And you can kinda match the distance of the dots around the border. Or you can always go into the border and add more dots depending on on how you want it to look. Okay, so there's an idea of inking without the border. And then I do feel like it gets the best effect when you've actually erase the pencil lines and just see what you've created. So we're gonna give it a second to let it dry. And then I will go ahead and erase the pencil mark there just to give you an idea of what it looks like when that sketch is gone. So hopefully I don't smear or anything. What if I do at least this is just practice. A little bit. Again, just a reminder that all marker paper things take longer to dry. So be patient. I'm not being patient. But there you get the idea of where you can still kinda see where that box was, but it has such a different look. I mean, obviously we shaded them differently, but it has such a different look between having a bold outline, although you can always do a thin outline versus having no outline at all. Okay, next up for stippling technique practice. So far everything we've created has been pretty smooth. But realistically, the subject matters that you're going to be inking are going to have texture. So I'm going to talk about some of the different ways that I like to create texture in my work. So the first one, what we're gonna do in this square here is just by using different size pens in the same area. So again, this is a stylistic choice. Some artists use the same pen size throughout their whole piece, and they do it that way. Totally beautiful. Or you can vary your pen size is create different textures, different sizes. And that's typically what I like to do. So this first one, we're still actually going to just shade it like normal, like dark to light. But we're going to start with a bolder pen size and then work towards something that's a little bit lighter. It just gives it a little bit of a different look. And I feel like that's an easy place to start and practice. So I am going to start with the O4 size. And I think since I like to outline, I'm also going to outline a quick outline on here. Let's get started. So I'm gonna start dark at the top. These pretty close together. Okay? And then I'm going to disperse some of these dots. And then we're going to size it down a little bit. So I am wine to go down from o for two O2 here. And then start by sprinkling some dots in. I'm going to go down again. This 05 or 005, sorry. Again, this is still that plane shading, but you do get a much different look using three different pen sizes than using just one like we have here. Then the next one, I'm going to show you how you can do different areas in different sizes. So do this or the outline. Okay, Then thinking ahead, like the mantra ray that we're going to ink in the next lesson has areas that are pretty much black and then some that are white. So what I'm gonna do in that case is I'm going to use a boulder pen to ink that darker area. And then I'm going to use a much lighter one for the area where it's white. So what I'm going to do is create a border, arbitrary border. You can make whatever shape you want. And then I'm going to start so areas that are next to each other, I'm actually going to start here. This is the lighter area. But I want to create that border first. And then I'm going to switch to the other side and dewar, I'm going to put darker area. Okay, So this is gonna be our black and white. This is where you're gonna put in where it's really dark. Again, I think some of this practice can be hard to visualize until you actually get into working on whatever your subject matter is. So just go along and just practice and then we'll get into actually applying these a little bit more. And I think some of it will make more sense. How does you can see I'm getting a little bit lazy with this, but that's fine. Kinda get the idea. So we're treating this as kind of our darker area. And then even in the lighter area, of course, there's still shading. So I'm gonna go in with this one and do some shading here. So there might still be some shading along that same edge. Make it darker in the corners. I just feel like using different sizes creates more contrast between different areas with the dot size. So I just like to do it that way. What we will explore more in the next lesson. 5. Sketching & Outlining: Alright, let's get into sketching and outlining our stingrays. So as you can see, this is the final flash sheet, so I already have it all sketched out. So I do have the one that is gonna be our final one, all sketched out and ready to go, but I am gonna go ahead and sketch the other two on a separate piece of paper. So I am going to grab my two H pencil. As I said, I recommend you guys use something like a foreach that's super light and easy to erase. But I'm used this so you guys can see it a little bit easier on camera. And just a reminder, these are the two reference images that we're gonna be using for our practice stingray. So we have a mantra ray and a blue spotted Ray as well. The great thing about stingrays is they're pretty simple shapes, so it's pretty easy to sketch. I kinda do my mantra ray up here. Figuring out the basic shapes here. Hopefully, I don't regret drawing this too big. Then we have more to do when we're inking. And you can sketch in as much or as little detail as you want. It's kind of a tail there. I'm just going to lightly put in some of the areas where the color changes are black and white. But this is more for later inking purposes versus outlining purposes. We got our mantra ray, and now let's do our spotted ray. This is where I'm overthinking the back that it is basically a circle. This one has a thicker tail. Hi guys, are uninteresting. So alright, I think we kinda got the idea. They're not too complicated of shapes. And then next is to grab our microns so we can start outlining. Grab some microns. I grabbed the O4 and the O3. So I'm going to use those to outline. I'm going to use the O4 on these two. And then we will outline the one on our flash sheet with the O3. With outlining. It's again up to you stylistically, you can start wherever you want and you can outline as much or as little as you want to. It's just up to your own artistic style. I mostly keep my outline's pretty simple. And just do the outer edge of my subject matter. Again, this is where you can make stylistic choices or experiment with doing either really bold outlines. You can do really thin outlines. You can choose to do no outlines at all. And it can really make a big difference in the final piece. And your style and everything. Alright, so that's as simple as I'm going to keep that one for the mantra ray. And then pretty much same thing with this one. All right, That is my outline. And then I think I'm gonna do the. 6. Inking: Manta Ray: All ready, it's time to get into doing some actual inking of some stingrays today. For our first practice, we are going to do the mantra ray here. So up to you where you want to start. Personally, I'm going to start up here because these areas are separate from the rest of the body. So I'm going to get those out of the way and then I'm gonna deal with this whole area here. So I am going to use the 01 size to start shading up here. So the great thing about stippling is you can just dive in. There's going to be tons of dots on your page. So if the first one that you place you feel like isn't right, It's totally fine. It's eventually going to blend in with the other dots. So it makes it for me a lot easier to get started knowing that I don't know, it feels like less pressure. If that makes any sense. For this, there's sort of like a lighter edge and then It's darker. So I'm going to work, like I said, from that dark to light. And then same thing over here. I can continue this line with some dots. Again, this is just really about practicing all of the new techniques that you've learned. Don't focus on something being perfect the first time around. There's a reason that we're practicing. I've been doing this for years and sometimes it's still challenge, so no, no pressure today. Alright, simple enough, those parts are finished. Then for the rest of the body here, focus is gonna be the black areas first. And then you can kinda see where I've outlined where the lighter areas are. So I am going to choose the O5 size to start the dark areas. And what I'm actually going to do. So I'm going to start with these two parts here that are below where this white is. And it isn't a super crisp border like it is on, say, the Orca that we've done in the previous courses. But I'm still gonna kinda throw in some dots to start just to give me a boundary of where I'm inking. And again, we can always move the boundary out and add more dots so we can't really take them away. So just keep that in mind. And then this all kinda ends kinda going into the tail here. And then on the other side first. So I don't drag my hand through the wet ink. I will try not to do that. Okay. So now that we have those boundaries set up, we are going to start inking. Then to me it looks like it's kinda really dark like right here and right here. And then it gets a little bit lighter in the middle and then dark again at the border. You can kind of start inking over you want, I think I'm going to go in a circle if that makes sense. So I am going to start down here keeping them very close together where those darker areas are. Just going along creating a dark edge here. And again, you could totally make this a lot darker than I'm making it. You could pretty much you mean you could color areas of this just completely black if you wanted to. But for the sake of today's class, I am doing more dots than just filling in areas. Again, dark up this way. And a reference photo is a reference photo. You don't need to copy it exactly. You can simplify it however you want to. For your practice, It's totally up to you. I know I'm someone who sometimes gets like, really caught up in the details of if I'm using a reference photo and sometimes it's a lot easier if you just let some of that go and simplify it for yourself. Alright, lighter area in the middle of that photo at all. This is the part where I again, as usual realize I should have drawn this mantra ray, so much smaller. And that would have made my life a lot easier. Alright, that is the first site here. And then I'm gonna just kinda do a time-lapse and fill in the other side so you don't have to watch me do every single dot. Now that we have these two large areas finished, I'm actually going to go back up to the dark area on the head here. I kinda like to chop my drawing into smaller bits that seem more manageable when I'm working on something that's a little bit bigger, like this, even though this isn't really that big, but for siblings sometimes it can feel very large. So again, I'm gonna go in with my O5 for the darker areas. I'm going to start creating a border along the top because there is a light edge up there. I'm going to start with a little dot border. And then I will create a border along or these lighter areas are. And that kinda gives me my boundary. And it is darker up at the top here. So that is where I'm going to starch brains. We have our darkest areas. I'm going to spread it out a little bit more. Also saw outside of my comfort zone using a pen to do dots this big. I normally use like the O2 or O1. So using an L5 is such a different challenge for me and it's fun. But definitely feeling a bit outside my comfort zone. Okay, So there is a darker area on the head. Take this over a little bit. Now, create some more of those waters around where the lighter areas are. Then I'm going to leave the area for these lighter bits, kinda big because even know they're kinda patchy in the reference image. I'm gonna go in with a smaller pen to create that. So that's why I'm making a wider border with the larger pen. Again, I'm just doing this to have some sort of boundary. I know that I'm shading within now this middle area with my darker pen before I get into the lighter areas. So then it's time to shave the darker areas. So it looks like it's darkest along here and here. And then in the middle and along here. And there's a highlight along its back right there. I am going to start with this side so that I don't do the wrong thing and drag my hand through it. Let's start over here and work my way over to this side. So again, first thing is working with those dots really close together, creating the darkest area. I'm going to raise are just so cool. I would love to swim with them or see them at some point. Hopefully. Now that all of the darker areas are complete, we're going to go in with a smaller pen size to do some shading on all of these lighter areas. First, I do have some pencil marks that I do want to go ahead and erase. I always feel like erasing your pencil marks sooner rather than later is better. So to me the second that you are finished needing them, it's a good idea to just get rid of them so that you don't forget and have them stuck in there. Okay. So I had used the O5 XYZ to do almost all of these darker areas. So I want to use a smaller size to do some of the rest of the shading. So first I'm just going to move down to I think the O2. So this is going to be, since it's not a hard edge of black and white, we need to do some shading in-between for these areas. So that is what I'm going to work on first. And I'm just going to start with the top up here. So you're just going to go in from this edge. Use that reference photo to figure out where those darker areas are. I can start filling it in. Again, I like to use a different size pen for texture, and that's just the way I like to do things. But you could choose one pen size that you used for the whole drawing. And that would give it another really cool look as well. And you'll see this part is going by so much faster than the darker areas, which is why I mentioned that I like to do the dark areas first because then it just feels so quick when you're going back to do this. And again, I'm just kinda getting a basic feel for this. If I was creating this as some grand final piece of art that I wanted to sell. I might do it slightly differently, but I would say for today, take the pressure off and just use this as a sketch that there's necessarily anything stopping me from. If I decide I want to sell this or put it into a repeat pattern or something like that. Option is certainly there. Okay, So we've shaded in that area and now I'm going to move to this side. There is a darker edge out here. So I'm gonna start with that real quick. Then it's still kinda dark along this edge. So I'm gonna do that first. And I'm pulling some of the shadow from the outline edge. Just kinda pulling it down. Okay. Then down here is where it's the lightest, so I'm pretty much just going to leave that white. And then this area, I'm going to fill in a little bit. And then the rest of this is kinda just a matter of pulling that edge and a little bit. But you still get that differentiation between the areas by using this smaller pen size. While I'm at it, the tail here does have a darker area on the one side. So I'm just gonna kinda carry a line of dots along here for some shading. And now we pretty much have this side finished. And now I'm just going to go up this side and through here. Again, starting at the bottom. And just kinda pulling that edge out. Creating some textures. Again, finish this little tip here. This is pretty dark. I'm pulling that shadow. This is kind of a boundary for where the lightest area is. We will just kinda finish up shading right here. There we have it. We are finished our first practice and our mantra ray. 7. Inking: Spotted Ray: Okay, now let's get into inking our second practice that'll stingray here. So this is a blue spotted stingray, a little bit different texture than the mantra ray here and different coloring as well. So first thing I want to do actually is finish where I had thought about the eyes but hadn't really finished them. So I'm going to start with that. And I'm going to use this O2 size. Basically from this angle, the stingray just has like I slipped. I'm just gonna kinda ink that in here. Alright, so I think that's good and pretty much the rest of it is just gonna be executed through shading. The next thing that I wanna do is that I've decided that I want to actually outline all of the dots because that's going to make it easier so that I can kind of ink around them since we'll treat those kinda like a lighter color. So I'm going to grab my 005 size and go through and add some dots. Now that we have all of our dots ink to n, we're gonna get into doing our shading. So I'm actually going to start with the tail here. I'm just, that's just an easy place to kinda chop it off and finish before we go into the rest of the body. And unlike the mantra ray that we did before where I was using mostly an A5 size fine liner. I'm going to use much finer dots on this one because it is a little bit smaller and might as well just do something different. I am going to use the O3 as my biggest dot size that I'm going to use. So starting with that, there's kind of two lines where it's darker down its tail here. So I'm going to start with that. Just laying down those dots, creating those darker areas. And then we're gonna go in with a finer size after this to finish the shading. Okay, so we have that finish. So now I'm gonna go down to the oh, one size so that we can complete some of our shading here. And that is our tail. So what I'm going to do now is work where the body is raised in the middle here. So I'm gonna kinda work around this area. And then probably go to the outer edge and then we'll fill in the middle. So I'm going to go back to the O3 size and just start doing some dots here. Since we already have the blue, they won't be blue, but the blue spots outlined, we can stay away from that and create a nice edge around them. It's kinda dark over here and then we do get it kinda has a lighter edge right at the tip there. So we'll create a little outline so that we preserve that area. If you do want to ink in two different sizes, It's kinda up to you where you create that line of where you want to switch to a different size. So that is going to be up to your style, up to what feels comfortable for you. So this is the darkest area in this corner. So I'm going to stick to mostly this O3 size before I drop it down for a little bit. Finer shading. As you can see here, I'm going in to add more dots because like I mentioned before, you can always add more dots if you want to make something darker, but can't really take them away. If you go too dark, so don't be too heavy handed if you aren't sure. Easy enough to go back and make some changes. Alright, and as we work around here, I'll speed up a little bit for you guys. Let's get into it. Okay, So we've made some progress. So it's going to slow things back down. We've got another big area of shadow, kinda all Amy here, which is kinda started. But I'm going to pull in some more shadow, still using my O3 pen. And then I think I'm going to switch down to a smaller size to finish the shading. And you definitely to be mindful of the borders are where these dots are. Kinda keep it looking. Nice. You certainly could have chosen not to outline the dots and just do dots around them instead. But that is just such a challenge for me. So I went with an outline. Some artists do that so well though, it's incredible. I think I'm going to pull this a little bit further along. And I think I am ready to switch to a smaller size. And then I'm still just going to continue on the outside here. I'm not gonna get too much into the middle yet because I think I might have to go back to the O3 before we finish it up. Right grabbed my 01. And I'm going to start on this side again. So first thing is just to trace around where that light edge is, a little bit of shadow and then just disperse it. I don't know how easy it is to tell where there's a pretty big difference in the size of these dots. And I just think it makes it more gradual shading, which is how I like to do it. And blending some dots in. With that larger size of dots. We sort of lose that lighter edge around here. Really filling in. And we'll go back to over here. Okay, now let's work on the rest of the body here. So I'm going to switch back to my O3 size a bit because it is a little bit darker, kinda overhear and kind of around this eye. So that's where I'm gonna start doing some shading back over here. And then I kind of continues from the darker areas. Tail, bring that up through the metal rain and then extend some of the shading up here, making good progress. And then round this IS well, all right. I think I'm pretty much good on using this size pen. I'm going to blend out a couple areas. And then, yeah, we gotta switch to the 01 size. Firstly, I'm going to do is going to finish up these. I's definitely a tough angle to do their eyes because they don't really look like eyes. But either way, we will, we will practice. Now I'm just moving all along the rest of the body. Like I said, it kinda makes sure that you blend. If you're using a smaller size pen, blend some dots into where those larger dots are to give it more seamless and gradual shading. But I think that looks pretty good. I'm just going to leave the spots as white like this. An option that you could do is if you want, you could go in and add a more bold outline to them so that they pop a little bit more. So you could do something like that. I'm just kinda makes him jump off the page a little bit more, but otherwise, I think our little spotted stingray is all finished. 8. Inking: Adding to your flash sheet: Okay, so now it is time to get into inking our final sting right here. So if you're following along with the full project, this is where we're gonna be adding it to our full flash sheet. If not, it's just an opportunity to practice another one and play around. I have mine all outlined and ready to go here. Just like the previous one, I am going to start with the eyes and the tail. Just too great areas to kinda get out of the way. And then we'll move into filling in the rest of it. Similar to the stigma that we just inked. I'm going to stick to smaller pen sizes for this one. So you can do that or you can totally do something else that's totally up to you. But I am going to start with the o to size and work on the eyes. The eyes in this one or at a little bit of a different angle than the other one. So instead of being slits, we get the actual eyes. Just kinda gonna go ahead and fill in. I'm also going to do a quick outline around the eye for some of the areas. Then we'll move on to this one over here. Alright, so that gives us an idea. And then I'm going to move into working on the tail here. So first thing is kind of the part under right here is much darker. So I'm going to start with that and then I'm actually going to extend out this outline and then make this little dark border. So under this line is where it's much darker. Starting with that, I think I'm gonna go ahead and solidify this outline a little bit more. There we have that. Then for the tail looks like this stingray has some kind of spotted details along its back here. So I'm actually going to start with that. I'm going to continue with this small pen but just drawing some bigger dots and then some darker areas to the side. And again, don't forget you are not bound to including every single detail that's on these reference photos. Or you could be using totally different reference photos. This is just about putting into practice and trying new techniques. Okay, So after that, I'm going to go down to the, oh, one size. Isn't a huge difference between these two. But I'm going to use this to fill in the rest of the shading. I'm definitely already feeling like I want to add a boulder outline to the stingray, but I'm gonna go ahead and do that at the end. Now, unlike the last one where we kind of did the outer edge first and then we went back into more of the body area. What I'm gonna do the opposite, and I'm actually going to start with the head area and then work outward. So I'm first going to start again with my O2 size and continue working around the eyes to get that area define. And that'll work down the back a little bit before we spread out into the, I guess wings you could call them. I'm not an expert on stingray biology. I don't know if there's a better word for that. So just going in and creating those darkest areas. And just like the last video, I'm going to go and kind of do most of the areas that I want in this size. And then I will go back later and work in the smaller dots. It's funny. I feel like in a lot of ways I may be picked to do these in the wrong order. I think the stingray that I ended up choosing to put on my flash sheet is actually the simplest of all the ones we've practiced today. Since this one doesn't have spots or different colored areas. But oh, well, I'm gonna kinda move forward here. I always thought stingrays are so fascinating, is just so cool to watch them in the water. I grew up in the Baltimore area and going to the aquarium was always such a favorite activity. They have a huge tank that you can see from above and from below. You can see it on a bunch of different levels that has tons of stingrays. You can just watch them on glide around and this is so cool. One of my favorite spots. Now we've got the head area down. I'm going to move back here to its back. So now we've made some good progress shading on the back here. Start pulling some of the shooting from the tail forward. Ready? Now that we've done some of the kind of inner body, I'm actually going to start on the outer edge since it kind of has like some darker areas versus the overhear. It kind of has like a lip to it, I guess where it's. Wings are fins are kind of turned up. So I'm going to start this way and work my way around. So some have more defined edges, I guess you could say than others. So you can work a little dot border if you want to. And then I always be mindful of, I guess kinda doing your dots in the direction. That makes sense. Like if you were painting, you wouldn't pay grass horizontally. Grass grows vertically. So when you're looking at these shadows and the direction that something is facing, kind of do the dots in that way even though dots are 2D. But it helps bring it to life. Over here is where some of the darkest part is. Also don't forget to take breaks if you need it, especially working on darker areas when we're doing more really tight dots. It definitely can take a toll. I do find that if you're trying to do like very meticulous dots, if you get too tired and don't take a break, that's when you start rushing and things don't look quite as good. So definitely take breaks when you need it. Alright, I'll do a quick time lapse while I finish this edge, and then we will get back to filling in the rest. Now that we've kind of done the head and the body and the edge here in our, with our larger dots. There's a little bit more shading then I want to do on the sides here. And then we're going to move down to our O1 size to fill in the rest of the details. So here we just need a little bit more dark shading in this area. Alright, and then I'm going to extend it this way a little bit. And then over here as well, kinda sweeps over from where the tail is, is some more shadow. All right, and then again, understand this a little bit. Now, I think I am ready to go in with our smaller pen. Again, keep in mind you could be using larger pen sizes. You could shade this way darker than I have. I've kept a little bit light on this one. So just totally up to you. Keep in mind, Do whatever feels natural to you. Or just experiment and make sure you're having fun with it. So again, with this O1 size, It's not a super obvious difference in pen size, but still makes sure that you're spreading some dots in with everything, smoothing everything out. King about where those highlights are. I'm just so excited to finish this whole series and have this whole flash sheet finished. I had so much fun working on it. Alright, I think I am going to call that finished. So super happy with the way it looks. I think the only thing is, as you can see on most of my other elements, they have a little bit of a thicker outline. So I think I'm gonna go in with the O4 size and just do a little bit bolder outline to see if I can match the other ones. Might have to go with thicker after that, but I'm going to see how this looks. This is the part where I get super nervous that I'm going to mess it all up. But hopefully not. I think that is much more the look that I want. Small change, but I think it makes a pretty big difference. But that is our third stingray. 9. Final Thoughts: Thank you so much for joining me for today's class. I hope you had just as much fun as I did inking some different stingrays today. We have made a lot of progress on our overarching project of creating this flash sheet here. So I'm super excited with the progress that we've made. And I wanted to go into a little bit sharing tips to monetize what you've created in today's class. First, I want to say, it is totally fine to just use this as a practice. I do think that the idea that we have to monetize every single hobby that we have can totally be toxic in its own way. But if you're already an artist, already monetizing things, just want to share a few tips. So first thing is when you're creating wirklich this, whether it's a full flash sheet like this or maybe you just illustrated some individuals, stingrays today. Of course, the first easiest option is you have the option to sell the original work. You of course, can also make prints of it. And then one of my favorite products in my shop that is still so popular is always stickers. I don't know why. I mean, I also love stickers, but they're just always such a popular product and a great way to take these individual elements and create secrets from them. Great thing to sell in your shop if you have one. Another, really great way to monetize what you've created is to sell on print, on-demand stores like Society six, red bubble tea, public, Spoonflower, and there's tons more. On these sites. You upload your work, you set it on different products, and then the company prints it for you when someone orders it and then you collect a royalty on that sale. So it's a great way to get your artwork on a ton of different products. Be able to offer lots of different things to your customers without the commitment of having to create, ship and do all of that yourself. And then along with these print-on-demand shops, one of the most important things to have is repeat prints. So one of the things once we get to the end of this series and we've completed our full flashy. I'm gonna be creating a whole class going into more detail about all of this. But you can create things like this print here, the seashell print that I created is my all-time best-selling pattern that I've ever created. And it's a seamless pattern, so don't know where it repeats, but you can repeat it on any scale, different product that you want to. For example, this wallpaper behind me is actually a peel and stick wallpaper that I ordered from Spoonflower. It's not my own design, but I loved the poem tree prints and it is so fun. This little accent wall in my dining room. I've created tons of different products. This is a bathing suit I've also created in this same print. I had tons of other different prints and I have some in the works at the moment, but I want to add to my store. So definitely keep in mind all of those different things. If you're inking are just practicing and want to see what you can create on your computer. There are tons of other Skillshare classes that you can check out, but you can learn more about it. And I have a class all about how to get started on societies 60 will everything. If you want to check that out and learn more. I hope I see you in the next aqueous me class. It will be coming soon. Can't wait to dive into it.