Sketching with just ink

I have always liked to think of myself as one who sketches mainly in color. I love color; color is exciting!

But it's time for me to face the facts.

In the morning when I go to work on the train, I have watercolor sketch pads in my bag along with paints and waterbrushes, and every evening I take them out untouched.

My daily routine doesn't allow for sketching in color unless it's actually a day set aside for sketching.

During the week, those magical moments where I need to have my watercolors simply don't happen.

On the other hand, If I just put a small sketchbook in my pocket (such as a Moleskine) with a brush pen, there's a good chance that sketching will happen.

I need to acknowledge that practically all of my daily sketches are black and white.

Of course, I can color my black and white sketches in the evening at home, but I prefer to do all my sketching and painting away from home.

So now I leave my watercolors at home and save them for actual sketch days, and concentrate on sketching with just ink.

I had to recognize ink sketching as a worthy pursuit, and not a second class form of art, and now see myself as primarily an ink sketcher who occasionally dabbles in color.

In concrete terms, since I have been sketching in ink all along, nothing has actually changed, except now my conscience is lighter, and so is my bag.

Also, I am even more excited about ink sketching than before.

On this page are some recent quick sketches of fellow train passengers done with Kuretake brush pens.

One was filled with Platinum Carbon black ink, and the other with Private Reserve Gray Flannel ink.

Like all of my train passenger sketches, these were mostly done within 2 minutes, before the model got off the train or a new passenger blocked my view.

If I'm lucky, I'll get a time extension, and continue adding details.

If I am unlucky, I will get too many extensions and overwork my sketch, ruining it completely.