Mata Mash-Up: From Line Art to Finished Piece

I finished an ink/graphite drawing last week after three pretty intense sessions. It was like solving a puzzle that kept producing new pieces as more progress was being made. Throughout the process, I took pictures of the drawing at various stages. The first stage is the line art, which consisted of enlarged and traced sketches I made while riding the 50 Mata bus.



From there, I started blocking in areas with ink wash. The ink is Walnut ink, which is REALLY good for transparent washes, and the tones are SOOOO rich! While I was at this point, it also seemed like a good idea to start doing a bit more pencil work, to get a little contrast going.

I took a short break from it to get a refreshed view, and the consensus was that there was too much open space that needed to be taken care of. Not to mention I had been really meticulous up to this point, so an element of spontaneity was needed. ENTER THE LEFTOVER COFFEE MUG (as seen in the far right of the next image)!

Much better...

From here, I just keep trucking along, carefully applying more washes, rendering in graphite, and adding elements as needed until I come to a stopping point.

Here are some details of the finished 15"x22" drawing.