Here’s a picture of me drawing a dog. If you want to see a close-up of the dog I’m drawing look for “Larry” on my dog portraits website page https://sueclancy.com/dog-portraits/. Yes, as you see in the photo, I use brush and Sumi ink to do my dog drawings.
The ink is quite permanent so it makes me really think before I make a mark. That’s one of the reasons I use this medium. Its a way for me to practice not being “too precious”, or anxious, about creating. Take a deep breath, relax, focus and let it flow. I figure if I really mess up all I’ve done is waste a bit of ink and paper. It’s not brain surgery. Nobody is going to die.
But yet there’s still a dare-devil-daring-do-risk-taking of it that I relish. I’ve committed to an idea. In ink. It can’t be erased or easily undone. It means I stood flat-footed said something and meant it.
For some reason doing a drawing in permanent ink feels more like I’m “really doing something” than when I’m manipulating pixels on a screen.
“Really doing something” is what I figure is meant by the phrases “living life with no regrets” or “living purposefully”.
So sometimes when I walk out of my studio to wash out my brush and Judy, my wife, asks me how I’m doing – I reply, with a big satisfactory smile on my face, “Living dangerously!”
Photo of Sue Clancy creating a dog portrait using a Sumi brush and ink. Photo by Judy Sullens
I hadn’t realized the petite scale of your dog sketches until seeing this photo. I’ve not got much experience with sumi ink but I liked it when I used it (at life drawing classes) and have been tempted to get some again. I also enjoy ink because I can’t erase it and have to commit to the marks I make with it. I’m a control freak so it’s definitely living dangerously for me.
Thanks Laura! Glad to hear that you understand what I mean! And that you live dangerously too! I do some larger scale sumi ink work too – but much of it, at least these dogs, are small scale “quickies”.