Ink With Me: Tropical Fish

1. Intro: Hi, my name is Elizabeth Weglein and I am an Ink illustrator of mermaids and marine life. This is my sixth class in my Ink with Me series where I'm sharing the stippling techniques that I use in my inked illustrations. Throughout the series. I'm sharing these different techniques and how I apply them to my favorite flash sheet style illustration using marine life. Today, I am continuing this series by diving into our next group of subjects, which is Tropical Fish. This series of builds on itself and you have the option to stick around through the entire series to build your own full flash sheet of marine life. I've marked this course as intermediate, but if you're a beginner and you want to stick around and challenge yourself, you are more than welcome to. However, I do recommend going back to the beginning of this series so that you can start learning those Techniques and get an intro as we build up those techniques to where we are in this course, we are now building into more complicated illustrations as we do R2 tropical fish and a Seahorse today. But so far in this series and we have covered jellyfish, Orca, sharks and dolphins, stingrays, and seashells. In this course, I'm sharing where I find my reference images, my favorite materials to use. And we'll go through various different stippling techniques and styles that you can use for your illustrations. Don't forget to follow me here on Skillshare so you know when my next course is released, and let's dive in 2. Class Project: Your class project today is to upload the illustrations that you've inked in today's class. I've shared the reference images that I am using for my flash sheet. If you go to Projects and Resources on the right-hand side, you will find the links to each reference image as well as the sketch for the full flash sheet. If you want to continue following along with that project or want to start it. And now my reference images are all sourced from unsplash.com, which has an incredible royalty-free photo resource, can search for anything you might want to reference, and you can find tons of amazing images that you can use royalty-free in your artwork. So you don't have to pay for a license to include that in your work. You are more than welcome to find your own reference images to use for today's class. If you want to look up tropical fish and see what else you can find, and then simply apply the techniques that we're talking about in today's class to your own illustrations. Or you can use the images that I've provided today. If you want to create your own a full flash sheet of all of the same marine life that we're doing throughout this series. Here is the full list of all the marine life that I've included in my flash sheet. So you can create your own full project if you wanna go that route. So now that you know what will be illustrating in today's class, Let's start talking about materials 3. Materials: Alright, Before we get into illustrating today, let's talk about the materials that you need for today's class. First four papers. These are my two favorite papers to use for ink illustrations. I like either Bristol paper or marker paper. Both have really nice smooth surfaces for inking. Bristol paper is a little bit thicker and it's really nice to use for final illustrations. And it's what I'm using for my flash sheet illustration. Marker paper is really nice because also again, that really nice smooth surface. And it's great if you want to color in your artwork afterwards using markers, which is something I often like to do. I use the Strathmore brand because it's easy to find. So you should be able to find either one of these at your local Art supplies store. Next, of course, you will need a pencil and an eraser. I like to use really light pencils like a three H or 2H, so that it's really easy to erase once I've done my inking. And then I love these little clicker erasers because you can get a much more refined erasing then a big chunky one. I love also to grab a clean brush that has never been used for anything that I use to swipe eraser shavings off my paper so I don't get the oil from my hands or any dirt on my piece. And then probably the most important thing that you will need for today's class, of course, is some fine liner pens for your inking. This is a set of the Pigma Micron pens, which are my favorite. And they come in a ton of different sizes, and they also come in different colors. Although this set is all black. There are tons of brands out there that sell fine liner pens, so you have lots of options when you're shopping. I do recommend these, but like I said, there's lots of great options. The sizes that you want or need is totally up to you and your styles. Some people like to work in just one size and some people like to use a lot of different sizes in their work. Reits lot of different sizes. So I have this full set here which gives me tons of options. But you really only need one pen for today's class if you want. So that is totally up to you. Now that we've talked about materials, let's get into stippling techniques next. 4. Stippling Techniques: Okay, let's get into our stippling techniques. You'll need a plain piece of paper, pencil and eraser, your fine liner pens. And then right here I have gone ahead and done a little pen test. So I would recommend doing this if you have a new set of pens or if you're just not sure what sizes you're most comfortable working with yet. I have this little quick reference guide of some little squiggles, dots. And then I wrote the sizes of my Micron pens. Like I said, I have that as a quick reference guide as I'm doing some practice. Since I've marked this course is intermediate, I won't be starting at the beginning of stippling techniques. By now. You understand that with stippling, less dots, lighter areas, more dots, darker areas. And you understand that you can approach your process of stippling however you want. So you can work from dark to light or light to dark. That is totally up to you. So we're going to get more into specific techniques to create different textures. So the first thing that we want to practice is just creating some Line gradients. So what I mean is your DAS will either get further apart as you go down the line or they'll get closer together. So for the first one, we're just going to use one pen size. I just grabbed the 03. So creating these gradient lines be super important in either the outlining fees or to create whatever texture you might be doing in your piece. Just did a simple line, lighter to darker. We could go the other way and do dark to light. So starting really, really close together and then spreading those dots out more as we go down the line. And again ends up to you and your process. You could be doing your line with one size like I just did. Or you can vary the size of your dots with your pen size as you go. So let's try that. Let's start with the oh, one size. And since we're starting small will work from light to dark. Space out. Little tiny dots. Start to get a little bit closer together. And you could do this with as many different sizes you want. You could go down and add one size every few dots. I'm jumping up to the 03 size. And again, this has a longer line. It could be shorter. This is just to kinda shake off the cobwebs and get back into stippling. And then let's go with one more dot size or go up to the 08. And that will be our final few dots. You can see there's a big difference between using a one size like this to create your lines and then using a whole bunch of different sizes. So it's really up to you and your process and how you like to work. But think about that as we get into actually illustrating our different fish today. Alright, we've zoomed in quite a bit here so we can kinda go over that again a little bit closer. I'm going to start by doing a line in the one size here. Stark, dark, and spread that out to a lighter gradient. So we can do that again. I'll go the opposite way. Space out. And then we'll get progressively closer together as we go. This is such a great tool and creating textures and the first basis for what we'll be working on in the next few lessons. Okay, now let's get more into creating textures. So again, you have a lot of options with how you want to do your style of stippling. So as I've mentioned, some artists use one size pen for their whole illustration. And some artists like me, like to use a bunch of different sizes in your illustration. I find it easier to create textures by using different sizes. But let's go through some examples. So first let's just draw out some little boxes will use to create some textures inside In this first one, imagining and creating kind of a scaly texture. And then of course, any area you're going to need to shade. So what I like to do is create the texture first in whatever size or sizes that I want, and then go back and shade the illustration. But you can totally flip it the opposite way if you want, and shade the area first and then go back and add those textures so I can show you the difference in process of what that might be. For our first box here, Let's say we're creating just a, a dotted scaly texture. So there's these dark areas that are spaced out. Again, whatever pen sizes you use is totally up to you. We created some texture there. So then the next step is, let's pretend that we're going from dark in this corner to light in this corner. So then the next step would be to go in and shade. And again, you can use whatever pen size that you want. I'm going to use my very worn O2 and go in that way. So again, we're going to start in the corner. That's where we start with our dark dots close together because that is our dark area. But again, you could choose to work from the light area to the darker area if that's what you like to do. I'm just slowly dispersing those dots. You can see I kinda sweet back-and-forth. That's how I kinda try and keep it even. Otherwise, you're kind of like making it lighter this way and then this way and then this way, which I just don't usually like to do. But it definitely depends on the texture that you're creating. Alright, so that is a very simplified version. And zoom in, you can see we created these kind of darker patches with our larger pen tip then shaded in the background. So let's also try doing it with just one pen size so you can see the difference of what it creates. Okay, so in our next box are basically doing the same thing all over again, but we're going to just choose one pen size. So I'll grab the 04. And again, process wise, you could decide that you want to shade first and then add the texture. But I always just think that adding the texture first and then going back in with that shading is easier. But if you wanna do something else totally up to you. So first thing I'm going to create. So we have bunch of little darker areas. Okay? So you have your background texture and then again, you're gonna go back in and shade the background. I'm going to follow the same kind of idea. Darker in this corner, lighter in the other. I find the challenge of using the same pen size is that then sometimes you lose the texture. So sometimes you have to go back and do some alterations to really make sure that your texture is giving the effect that you want. Alright, and then gotten, these are some really rough though illustrations, but this gives you a good idea of how different have a look at is to be using different pen sizes than using the same. And you could use a bunch of different ones if you wanted to instead of just two. Okay, and I'm kinda keeping this technique video short because a lot of this is just makes so much more sense when you're actually using it in practice. But the last little bit that I want to go into is using different sizes to represent different colors or different areas. So we can just kinda do some shading side-by-side with different pen sizes, which I think is the best way to show that difference. So I am going to Just sketch out this box here. And then keeping it simple, just draw two lines. So we'll use this as three different areas. Then you can choose again however you want. I guess I'll go from dark at the bottom to light at the top. And just shade all three of them differently. So you can get that effect of how it pretty clearly creates a divide in different areas. Hard for me to find the best angle to show what I'm actually doing. Alright, So that was the size and one of my largest pen sizes. And then this is the o5. And depending on the texture that you're creating, you might want to create more of an exact a line along the edge. But again, that can be dependent on the subject matter that you're doing or your style. You guys know by now probably that I am a huge outline person. So I really like to outline different areas before I start filling them in with dots, but you don't have to use any outlines if you don't want to. It creates a really different look with no outlines. And there's a lot of really amazing artists that work that way. A subtler difference between these two, because they are both on the larger end of the pen sizes. But then I'm gonna go down to the O2 on this side. Alright, so that creates a pretty clear difference between these three areas. And again, this is just a box that we've divided up, so it doesn't really mean anything, but if you're applying it to a subject matter, it'll give you pretty clear different areas. So those are the basic foundations that will be using in our illustrations today. So first we are going to go into illustrating our Clownfish 5. Inking: Clownfish: Okay, So the first fish that we are going to be illustrating in today's class is going to be our Clownfish here. This one is the simplest one because mostly Clownfish are just orange, white, and black. So it's a little bit simpler. So we will start there. So we have the reference image in the Projects and Resources tab, so you can grab that. Or again, you can always find your own. So first thing that I wanna do with my Clownfish is do my outline. So again, this is totally optional up to your style. If you don't like to outline, that is okay, but I do. So that is what I am going to start with. I am going to outline just the outside. All right, so there is my bold outline and then it is up to you what other details you want to go in and outline. So I'm going to outline this other fin and then the eye as well. And then we will get into some shading. So I am outlining this thin. And then I'm going to use a smaller size for the eye. All right, then first thing I'm going to color in the eye because it is black. Then my next step after doing the outline is actually to do all of the black areas on the Clownfish is such a dark area than I am going to end up just color it in and creating those outlines before I go in and shade the orange and white areas. So you could decide to do some stippling and the dark areas. But I just to me, it's not really necessary and I am just going to color them in black. You can use whatever size you like for that. Will speed this up here. You don't have to watch me color all of us in, in real time. Okay. So I colored in all of the black areas and let that dry for a second to make sure that I don't smudge it when I get to working on the next part. So it is up to you if you want to work on the orange areas or the white areas first, but I am going to go with the orange. And then this is where those kind of gradient lines really come into play with creating the effects on the different thins. We will start there and again, totally up to you what size pen you want. So I'm going to start with the 03 and then shift down to a smaller size. So I'm going to start with this fin here. I'm going to work from the outer edge towards the middle, just creating the lines of those fins. And as you're doing this, remember you can add as much or as little detail as you want that is totally up to you. It's kinda going back over and creating that gradient and then adding a little bit of an outline to the fin. We got kinda Darker stripe where it attaches to the fish's body. So there we have the basics. And now I'm going to go in with a smaller size to shade in the fin a bit. I'm going to have it darker at the top here. I'm using the smaller 005 size, having it dark at the black tip of the fin and then getting a little bit later. Then softening around this area where we shaded before. And we'll kinda leave that there for now and then work on some other areas and then we'll come back and shade in. So next let's go up to the top fan here. So this has some pretty clear lines. Again, I'm back with the zero A3 size, but you can use whatever size you want. Eating a little borders here. Actually, I'm going to shade a little bit with the same size before I add in a smaller size Dot. All right, so there is that top fin. And now let's go down here to the bottom. Doing the same thing that we've been doing. Reading or little gradient lines. And going back in and shading. Right? And, and we bought, just keep moving on down the line. So two more spots to go. Right? And I'll bring this in closer as we do the last area for the tail Alright, and we will finish up this tail area since it's kind of self-contained in there. So I will add dots for the darker areas down here, and then blend that in a bit. So again, stylistically you have the choice. I mean, we created little gradient dotted lines for all of these fins, but you could just do pen strokes if you wanted to and then just shade around them. So you have lots of options on what you wanna do with your personal style. Alright, the next part is to go in and shade the body. So this is pretty much back to basics, and we're just creating those Dot gradients. So the fish is darker right along the fins here at the top and the bottom, and generally lighter in the middle with a darker stripe here. Since I like to start in the darker areas, that is what I'm going to do. I'm going to work from the top down. So let's start by creating border along the top. So that gives us a reference point. And then I will just start dispersing my dots from there. And then bring this up just a little bit. And then again, since I'd like to do those darker areas, now I'm going to go down here to the bottom and repeat the same process. All right. And then like I mentioned, there's kind of a darker area in the middle, so I will add that as well. I think I'm going to disperse that out just a little bit more. Again, you could decide to shade this whole area with this one pen size or you can go in with a smaller size. I for this, I'll keep it the same size just to show you guys what that looks like. So just keeping the dots dispersed so that we don't lose the detail of the darker areas that we've added. Then I see another slightly darker stripe up here, some kind of adding that in a little bit more I'm just adding a few more dots to darken up this lower area. Alright, so that is that part finished. So I'm gonna do the same thing sticking with this zero A3 size and kind of work on the next section of the body here, pretty much following the same thing. It is darker at the top here and around the fin. So I'm going to start at the top, creating my little dot border. That is what I like to do. And then working dark to light. Great. A little bit darker in this corner. Again, I like to go and do all the darker areas first before I will fill in where it's a little bit lighter and darker behind the fin as well. And also don't be afraid to make your own artistic choices when you're looking at a reference image, you by no means have to follow exactly what that reference photo looks like. Add your own details or simplify, however works for you. I think it's taken me so many years to realize that things that are complicated, I can just make the choice to simplify them makes life a lot easier. Now I am filling in the lighter areas, right? And then just add a little bit more detail here with little stripe. Little more shading down here. Also so important with stippling to take a second and step back a little bit from your work when you're looking at it so closely, I can just start to look crazy. So sometimes you need that step back to really see how it's looking. Alright, and then the last part here is the face. So again, starting with the darker areas around the eye here, you can add as much or as little detail as you want around the mouth. And then I had just a little bit of detail here. And then to the eye as well. Again, you could choose to use a different size for this if you want. Right there we have all of the orange areas. So now we just need to do some really light shading to the white areas and then add just a touch of detail to the last bit of the fins here. So I'm going to switch back down to the 005 size so that I can keep the dots really tiny. I'm just going to go in and start shading. Again. As I mentioned in the Techniques video, I think that using a different size, especially this dramatically, really emphasizes that these areas are different colors. So that is why I like doing that. But you could shade with the exact same size that we were using before if you want. And just using less dots to show that the area is a lot later. Have a lot of shadow here where it's kind of under the chin. As our first section. Again, I like doing the darker areas first because the lighter areas are so quick, It's just such a good feeling to all of a sudden makes so much progress. Whereas the darker areas take a lot longer because you have to do a lot more dots. But you could do it in the totally reverse order. That is up to you. Alright, so that's kinda the bigger white areas. And now let's add some little detail here. So I'm doing the same thing in extending the lines for the fins, but I am just making my lines with really, really tiny dots. Just for that last touch of detail. All right, so our Clownfish is pretty much finished. I'm going to let all of this dry for a second and then I'm going to go through with my eraser to clean up the pencil areas and see if there's anything I need to adjust. And then I might add a little bit of a boulder outline as well. All right, so got rid of all of the pencil marks and actually decided, I think I liked the outline how it is. So we are all finished with our Clownfish and next we are moving on to our next fish for today. 6. Inking: Butterflyfish: Time for our next fish in the Class, which is going to be our Butterflyfish here. So similar to our Clownfish. And then it has the different colors, stripes, and some other details. But it does have a little bit more texture that we're going to work with versus the Clownfish, which is pretty smooth. So I'll be working on some of that on this guy. So again, just like what the Clownfish, I'm going to start by doing my outline. I am going to do the zero A5 size for my outline. Actually, just kidding. I'm to zero for starting with that. Again, how much and what you outline is totally up to you and your style. Fins down here. And then just like what the Clownfish are gonna do, the eye color that. Alright, so that is the basics for our outline. And then, oh, wait, just kidding. Totally forgot this fin. There we go. Okay. Now there are the basics for our outline. And then I have all of its scraped stripes sketched out so we are ready to start working on that. The first thing I'm gonna do though, is it's kinda black spot up here again because that's a darker area. Easy to pretty much knock out right away. I'm just going to dive in and outline that. For me this is too big of a spot to just color in all black because it'll just kinda look like a whole. So I am going to color it a bit on the edges. Then I'm going to do dots really, really close together in the center. Just because I think that's going to look better for our final piece. There is our darkest area out of the way. The first thing that I want to work on is these two stripes near its head have a darker outline around them versus the rest of them, which are pretty much just yellow stripes. So I'm gonna be adding that first with a little bit of thicker Dot. So many go with the 03. And just add that around the width of just a couple of dots around this whole stripe. And it does extend onto the eye as well. A little bit of a curve to account for. The eye is 3D. And I kinda trails off. Right? So that is the first stripe. Bring this down a little bit lower again. We will get working on the second stripe here. Pretty much the same principle. Then I'm just repeating it on the other side here. Alright, and that gives us a pretty good darker border. And then I'm also going to make the decision to do that. Little Joel Line or gills as an outline here, added that. And then let's fill in in the middle of these stripes, the yellow parts. I forgot to do this. Okay, so since I'm using the 03 right now, I'm going to move down to the zero to just kidding, 01. I do want to think about adding some more texture to these stripes instead of just shading them. So I'm going to start with a darker areas and just create some dark clusters that give a little bit more, more texture. Alright, so I've added a little bit of texture to those stripes. But again, if you want to simplify, you could totally just shade them a little bit. Or you could use the same pen size. You can use different pen sizes. It is all a personal decision for you. So since this size is what I used to create these stripes, I'm now gonna go ahead and do that to work on the rest of the yellow stripes here. So first I'm going to start with this one. I am still kinda starting with an outline just because I always like to just give myself that boundary so I know what I'm working within. But that's again, just a process decision for you. You could just fully outline it like I've outlined the fins and things if you wanna do that. Totally, totally up to you. Alright, so that's one more strike finished. Going to move on to the next one, which is sort of 2N1 at the same time. And then as it gets up around the spot up here, it gets kind of stripy where it's kinda body moves into becoming a thin. So definitely think about that when you are working on the texture. I am just creating this outline since it's such a large area. For I get started. Alright, so I've kinda outline the top half here. And actually I'm going to use a bit of a larger size to get some of the detail of the fins in here. And then also I'm going to create, there is a little bit of a purple area around this spot. So I am outlining that to keep it out of a way that's had some of that thin detail. Before we go in and shade Okay, that's enough. Initial detail. Let's go back in with our smaller size. Then. I don't think I've talked about this in this class yet. But also how quickly or slowly you do your dots is completely up to you. And for me sometimes it depends on how much energy I have or what I'm working on. But you can do them really quick and kind of randomly placed. Or you could be really, really slow and meticulous with how you do them. It's really up to you what you feel comfortable with, what you enjoy. I would definitely say, I think in these classes I do the dots a little bit quicker than I would normally foremost subject matter. But not too to dramatically. Unless I'm doing a really, really small meticulous illustration, I tend to be a little bit random with my dots. But it all adds up to determining your style and everything. So once again, everyone's process will look different. Finishing the outlines down here towards the bottom. Just continuing to work on the texture. Which again is optional. How much or how little you want to include different textures. Adding some darker shading here I know usually say I add the texture first and then shade. Doing a little bit of the opposite for a moment. Again, the texture I'm trying to create is the scaly texture of the fish. And then since we are down at the bottom again, it is moving into the thin area. So I picked up my 03, add some of that detail before I go back in my smaller pen. Right? And switching back to the smaller size I'm so excited that we're going to be almost finished our flashy after today's class, we just have the octopus and the sea turtle left to do after today. Right? There is our next stripe as well. And then there is a little bit of yellow on its tail. So let's fill that in real quick. Easy, and then it has a darker stripe as well. So I'm gonna go in the bigger size. Fill in that. Alright, that is all of the darker areas. So then the next step is to go in and add texture to all of the areas that are white. For me, I'm going to alternate between this O1 size and e005 to create the texture and shade the details for the rest of the fish. So first, I'm going to start with the 01 and add all of our little lines to its tail fin. I will say I'm definitely simplifying this reference photo to some degree. And you are welcome to simplify it way more than I have. But this fish has this purple hue to it from the shadows, I guess if the tank that it's in and I'm just ignoring that I won't be shading it quite so dark or anything. I'm going to keep all of the white areas pretty nice and light. Because I just kinda feel like that vibe goes better with the rest of the flash sheet as well. Started with that, I'm going to add a little bit of shading here around the tail, but mostly going to come back in with a smaller size. Let's add some texture to finish out these fins. We're just keeping a very clear delineation between the areas that are yellow and then the areas on the edge here that are white. That's why I'm keeping the shading super, super simple, right? And then it's kind of darker up in this triangle. And then under the gill here, down at the bottom and around the eye. So I'm gonna go in and shade those areas with this size. But then I'm going to go in and add more detail with the even smaller size. Again, just like I said in the last video, don't be afraid to take a step back from your work and just see how it's looking. Again, it just gets so easy to be wrapped up staring so close to your drawing that you're not seeing the bigger picture. Books a lot better when you take a step back. Or maybe it doesn't look good when you take a step back and need to make some adjustments. So just do that as often as possible. And then also once we finish shading on the body, we will finish the last few fins rate and grabbed the 005 so I can continue shading. And I'm going to create a little bit of scaly texture with this size. But I don't think I'm gonna get to too crazy with it. And again, always, if you are expanding a shaded area with a smaller pen size, makes sure to integrate some of those smaller dots into the original dots. For a more seamless blend. Darken up just the edge of the tail here. Alright, so that is pretty much all the shading for the white areas. And then we are just gonna go in and add the last bit of details to the fence. Pretty much the same thing that we did with the tail. I'm going to do with this fin here. And then having the same thing down here. And then we'll go back in and add just a touch more detail. I've decided I'm not going to bother making this one see-through on the fin just because I think it's just too much work and little too complicated to where we're at today. We are pretty much finished. Just like a dude with the Clownfish. I wanted to let the ink dry for a second and then I will erase off all of the pencil marks. Alright, now we have erased all of those pencil marks. And you can kind of take a step back and decide if you want to change anything or add anything. And then we are finished. Or Butterflyfish 7. Inking: Seahorse: All right, it is now time for our third and final illustration for today's class, which is our Seahorse here. So grab your reference photo and just like our last two, Let's start with an outline. All right. So this Seahorse is a complicated one and has lots of details to it, which is why I left it for the third lesson today after we'd gotten warmed up, the other two. But I promise I will show you some ways to simplify it. Quite as intimidating as it looks. I will say that this one though, is one where you definitely want to have a pretty detailed sketch. Some pieces or some animals. You can have a pretty loose sketch and fill in the details later. But because this one has so much detail, it's good to have all of that figure it out from the beginning. All right, There is our outline. And again, just like the other fish, I'm gonna do the eye. Alright, so there is our outline and we can start to think about shading. The way that I would divide up this illustration would be one area is the fin we have here that's very similar to the other fish that we've done with just creating those lines. And then we have the area around its mouth and everything with the stripy pattern that it has. And then third area would just be the whole body, the texture that it has and filling all of that in with shading up to you where you want to start. But I am going to start up at its head, filling in some of those darker stripes. I think that's just the easiest place to start. And then we'll move on to the thin and filling in the rest of the body. So because the stripes on its face are so dark, I'm going to be approaching it kinda like I approached the Clownfish by just adding those stripes just in black. If you want to stipple them instead, that is totally a choice that you can make. But I am just going to follow the reference image by adding some different stripes. In a little bit here. A little plant out of the way does have some white stripes that are mixed in with these darker stripes here, but we will add that later when we are doing some more shading. Alright, there are are darker stripes, so that is one thing checked off the list. And then the next part that is pretty easy since it's what we've been doing on our other illustrations, would be to fill in the thin here. So that is what I'm going to do next. Alright, so added those lines and I will go back and add a little bit of shading later, but I'm just gonna kinda leave that there for now. Alright, for the next part, I'm gonna be working on the tail. I mentioned the importance of a good sketch, and I'm actually going to go in and sketch a little bit more. Now. I am sketching. Has these bars over body that are raised and that's how you doing a lot of the texture. I'm just really lightly marking that across like that. Then. Now it is time to decide what size pen you want to use for the majority of your shading. I think I think I'm gonna go with my very well loved O2 size. So I'm going to start in the smallest area of the tail and work my way out as I get comfortable with working on this piece, the parts that we outlined here, or where it's lighter. And then in-between It's a little bit darker and it's especially lighter on the outer edge here. So we are going to keep that in mind and just start shading. I think pieces like this, like the Seahorse in particular can be really intimidating to get started. But I think then you just like really have to just force yourself to just dive in. And if you don't like it, That's our starting in a small area. So we kinda time to figure that out. I got an F. This reference image is too much for you or you can simplify as much as you want. Or you're welcome to find other reference images for seahorses. Or you can do another fish if you want to. Whatever you wanna do to kinda practice in advancing your stippling Techniques. And I am going to come back through and add some more shading with a smaller pen size. So keep that in mind. Not that it's a requirement for you or anything, but you have that option. And again, just like the other pieces, making sure you keep stepping back to see what it looks like. I think the, one of the things about stippling is, even though it can be intimidating to get started. If you feel like it's not looking right, you know, it's just a couple of dots out of place and you can lay down as many more dots as you need to fix it up. It's not like A marker drawing where you used too much of the wrong color. And now there isn't really a way to layer over that. Obviously you can't take dots away, but I don't think that limits you too harshly on correcting little mistakes as you go. Because just thinking about the amount of dots that go into just one piece can be kind of mind-blowing. There's a way I could count the dots in a piece. I really am curious sometimes. I mean, I've done some really large stippled illustration before. So to know the number of dots that I inked on those would be insane. I've also reached the point in this style where I'm starting to, if I work for 20 h to ink dots my hand and my arm, really start to feel it. So I am trying to take more breaks and make sure I'm staying relaxed and not being super tense. But it could definitely be harsh on you if you are two-tenths Hard doing it for too long. So we have simplified from our reference image a little bit, but we have created the tail. So the next step is going to be working. The rest of the body here have some of the lines drawn out, but it has a grid pattern on the rest of its body. So I'm gonna go in and sketch that now. As I mentioned in the supply video, I suggest using a really, really light pencil for something like this. I am using a little bit of a darker one that I normally would so that you guys can see what I'm sketching. But normally I use like a crazy, crazy light pencil and really light strokes. Just makes it easier to erase when you're at that stage. And cleaning up the eraser marks or the pencil marks make my life easier when I go and scan this and pull it into Photoshop and start editing it for Art Licensing. Having to contend with pencil marks that are left behind just adds a little bit more to my workload. I try and keep it really nice and light so I don't have to do that. Alright, so we have gridded out the rest of the body of our seahorse. So we're gonna be treating the lines of the grid as the lighter areas and darkening around the edges and inside of the boxes. So again, there's just a really nice way to break down what looks like a really complicated and textured creature. We are going to start from the bottom here, or we've already done the tail and move our way up. So this is really where those Dot lines come in handy. Because each time I do a box, I'm going to do an outline first. And I'm going to darken up the corners first. Then fill in the middle. Again up to you. If you want to use different sizes for that, you are welcome to see if I can pull this in just a little bit closer and onto the next block. And again, make sure you're not going all the way to the edge of your pencil lines. Otherwise you won't have any room left for the lighter areas. Just keep eating these little boxes, like I said, darkening the corners, creating the little boundary. And then shading in the middle I just kinda every box that you do step back, see how it looks. And then again, just stepping back already noticed that I left a big space here that I don't like. Not even about the reference photo or anything when I'm just gonna kinda add this little stripe here. Kinda break that up a little bit. Perfect. And then this is going to be a great one where when we erase the pencil lines, it's really gonna give the effect that we've been working towards with the lighter areas in-between these grids. I actually really like doing things like this because it's kinda very methodical. Once you've, we've kinda figured out how we're creating this texture. So it is just a matter of going through and repeating it until we filled in the full area. Alright, and I'm going to majorly in each release feed up villa next part so that we can move on to the head. Alright, so we have pretty much finished the texture of the body. So now we just have a little bit more to finish up at its head up here. That is mostly a little bit simpler. But let's first go in and shade in-between these stripes. As I mentioned, there are some white stripes in-between. So we are going to keep it pretty light just to in a few dots here and there. Shooting where it's darker along the bottom. And it's definitely a bit darker up here by the eye. And then around this shape that I've drawn in here as well, I'm just going to do a quick Dot outline of that, so I keep that as a reference. Shading down here. It's kinda darker, like I said, under the shape that I outlined. Right. And then they aren't like black stripes like we created on the face, but there are some darker areas here that kinda follow the same patterns and do that with dots. Do some more shading. Which again, you can choose to do in a different size pen if you want. Feel like it's kinda unlike me, but I've been more into keeping it the same size today. Again, stepping back and I think that looks pretty good. So again, I'm going to take a second, let the ink dry, will erase out all those pencil lines and see what we think. All right, I have cleaned up those pencil lines and I think I just want to add a little bit of shading to the fin here with the 005. Just means a touch, more depth, just darkening it up along the back edge. Alright, and then I do want a little bit more of an outline on this. One. Thing is just looking a little bit thinner than the other ones. I'm to go in and add that. I will also say sometimes when you erase, it does lift up a little bit of the ink, so it just makes it a touch lighter. So I do often like to go back and do a darker outline after I've erased. But that's also why typically in my drawings when I'm not teaching, I will erase as I go. And that way I'm not erasing some of the Ink after the fact, especially for pieces where I want to sell the original. Alright, so added that little bit bolder outline, and I think it looks great. So we have finished our tropical fish and made a ton of progress on our flash sheet. A little bit of the eraser shavings off and it is looking good. 8. Final Thoughts: Thank you so much for following along with today's series, and I hope you have FUN inking the tropical fish in today's class. Don't forget to snap a picture of what you inked and upload it to the project gallery so that we can all take a look at what you've created. Also, don't forget to follow me here on Skillshare so that you know when the next course and the series will be released, which should hopefully be very soon. The next class for this series will be the octopus. And then we just have the sea turtle after that until we have our completed flash sheet. Also, it is super important to leave our view here on Skillshare classes are now subject to removal if they do not have reviews. So please leave. Review really means a lot and I'm really happy to hear that you guys have really seem to be enjoying this series sum. So grateful for that. And hopefully I will have the next class out very soon.