Inking Techniques: Hatching, Stippling, Scumbling Tutorial

In this short video, I'm going to demonstrate five commonly used inking techniques. All of the pens and markers seen here work well for inking. Ultrafine Sharpie markers, Sharpie pens, and Micron pens are all excellent and are my go-to materials. But if I can't get my hands on any of those, a black ballpoint pen will do the job as The purpose of using inking techniques is to add value, tone, and texture to a drawing. First, let's look at linear hatching, which is the most basic of all of the inking techniques. It involves using straight parallel lines. Try to vary the distance between your lines because the closer together you place your lines, the darker an area will look. Also, keep in mind your lines do not have to all be the same length, so add more lines where you want more darkness. Also, it is my recommendation to not use a ruler when inking because you're going to be making so many lines you want to trust your own capabilities. Next, I'm going to demonstrate cross hatching, which is straight parallel lines that intersect. Usually, cross hatching is best to use on flat surfaces, so surfaces that you want to appear to be two-dimensional like a ground or a shadow on a flat surface. I'll demonstrate cross-contour hatching next, which is what is preferable for round objects like a pumpkin here. When cross hatching, you would want to first begin with your basic straight lines that are all parallel to each other, again varying the distance just like linear hatching, but then cross over them with lines in a different direction. And as you layer these sets of parallel lines, you're going to build up more darkness, more value. Cross-contour hatching is very similar, except that the lines are slightly curved. It is perfect for conveying form. A contour line travels along the edge of the form. Cross-contour hatching is going to have lines that are curved in a variety of different directions. Follow the outline of your object with curved lines to build volume, and then overlap your curved lines with criss-crossing curved lines that are also following the contour edges of your form. Your lines can be short or long. Again, listen to your object and what would work best for you. Sometimes shorter lines can give you more control when building up layers of value. Take a moment to look here at the three examples I've demonstrated so far with linear hatching, cross hatching, and cross-contour hatching, and just think about where you could see these different techniques being used in your own art. The next inking technique I'm going to demonstrate for you is stippling, which is just a series of small dots. This is definitely the most time-consuming of all of the inking techniques, but it is very rewarding and can give you nice subtle variations of values. When stippling, you want to build up value by placing more dots close to each other when you're trying to achieve darkness, and dots further apart when you want it to be more of a medium or light value. Finally, I'm going to demonstrate scumbling, which is loose, scribbly lines used to create value. Scumbling is definitely the quickest of all the inking techniques that I'm showing you. However, to make it not look like a scribble, you have to scumble with control. Build up layers of your loose scribbly lines and stay within the guidelines that you provide yourself so that you're using these loose lines to build up layers of value for your drawing. After watching me demonstrate these five basic inking techniques, I hope you feel inspired to try them yourself. Have fun, and thanks for watching. Bye!