Video summary
In this video, the artist attempts to create a complex composition using a slanted arrangement of random ink blots, starting with a pile of ink and working outward despite feeling stressed, tired, and distracted by household noises. Initially, the resulting shapes are ambiguous and difficult to interpret, leading the creator to question whether they should keep the stark black ink or convert areas into grays. The process involves blowing on the wet ink to encourage new patterns to emerge, which eventually suggest forms that could be teeth or other undefined elements. The artist struggles with a sense of being lost, noting that this is an uncomfortable feeling they haven't experienced in a long time while staring at their work, yet they use this struggle as a lesson in trusting the creative process even when nothing seems visible.
As the session progresses, the blank page begins to reveal a narrative, transforming from an abstract mess into a specific image of a magical female creature resembling the "Queen of the Night." The artist describes the fear of drawing what is seen and the anxiety of potentially ruining the piece, but eventually finds hope in shaping the chaotic lines into a flowing dress with a cape and distinct anatomy. A key realization comes when the creator understands that technical perfection is not the goal; instead, they prefer art that retains an element of the primitive or crude, similar to cave paintings or underground comics, because it feels as if the image accidentally fell onto the paper. This desire for imperfection drives them to hint at anatomy and shapes poetically rather than rendering them with rigid precision.
To finalize the piece, the artist uses an X-Acto knife to connect broken shapes and adds loose, medieval-style silhouettes of houses in the background to create a night scene where it appears the city is falling off the figure's dress. They apply white gouache over the ink to add highlights and texture, carefully managing the risk that a single mistake could ruin the entire composition. The final result is titled "Queen of the Night" and stands as the fourteenth random ink drawing in the series, a project that was particularly nerve-wracking due to its length and complexity. The artist expresses relief upon completing the work and shares their excitement about an upcoming course on mastering ink through negative space, encouraging viewers to support their art by purchasing prints or merchandise while noting that all images are available for free use under a Creative Commons license with attribution.
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What will we find in today's ink blot?
And today
I wanted to
try again to make a composition that's
somehow
slanted.
So I thought I I just uh start with this
pile of ink. let's call it, and then
work out
from there.
A and to be honest, I'm not really
seeing anything at the moment.
I'm a bit stressed and a bit tired.
It's been uh
and I don't know if you can hear
anything but but but the the house is
full of noises.
I don't know if the background noises
make it through.
So that is
definitely
a potential problem.
But we work with what we have. And now I
have
this ink shape. It's growing out.
And I'm wondering
if I should
make it into grays or if I should keep
the black. And I
think I think I will blow on it some
more. See if something appears.
Oo,
now a lot more is happening.
What's happening? I I don't know. But a
lot more.
So, let's start by just playing around
with this.
Maybe we'll find something while playing
around seeing that these can be
teeth.
I don't think I'd want teeth up there.
Let's just play around a little.
make similar shapes
to
the ones that are already here.
which which is interesting because if
you mix the different qualities of line
work like the the brush line with the
blown line
then things start to mix and you start
to question how is this done?
You can see that this was blown. But
how is
this thing done? And this is fascinating
because
usually I have
something
and today
it couldn't be blanker.
Couldn't see less in this thing.
I'm trying to squint and I'm trying to
find anything.
And and hopefully some of you are are
screaming at the screen like, "Oh, it's
definitely a space cow.
But I'm not seeing it.
Strange, strange, strange.
My brain, brain, brain is not getting
anything.
Okay.
And I guess
this will be sort of a a good
lesson,
hopefully a lesson to trust the process.
But I don't know if it will be
because I'm still not
seeing anything.
I haven't felt this
lost staring at ink blotss for a long
time. A and I guess
the excuse is being stressed, is being
tired, is being overworked, is being
distracted by the background noises and
people running around the house.
But
it's still a very uncomfortable feeling.
And
I feel sympathy with
a lot of people who
look at my work and say, "No, no, no. I
can't do that. I don't have the
imagination." I think you do have the
imagination. I think I have the
imagination.
But but but um
it's not always easy to find a and
you start fearing doing it wrong
and
that's okay. We all fear doing it wrong.
And in a sense it's stupid to fear doing
it wrong because
there is no right and wrong.
There is only
what's happening on the paper
and
Right. Now the irony is that I I like
this in itself. I think that in itself
these patterns are fascinating,
but I don't like it as an image because
because I don't see the story. That's
always what I'm looking for is the
story. I I'm a story person. That's why
I draw monsters. Monsters
are a story. You
see a monster and you thinking,
"Where did it come from? What does it
want?
Why?"
All of those things.
Okay. So if I start
closing these shapes
around.
Ooh.
Okay. Suddenly, I'm I I'm
seeing something that makes sense, but
I'm at least seeing something.
Okay, this isn't making sense.
I saw some something. I might have lost
it. Let's go find it again.
Okay.
This is almost like a thriller.
Will I find it? Will
I
get where I need to go?
So now I'm
trying to start shaping these lines into
something more
specific.
So
I got to start imagining
the shape.
And this is the kind of stuff you can
work on like like for hours and hours
and just
Oh Jesus. This is going to be tough.
I I'm so afraid of drawing what I'm
seeing
that I'm afraid of saying it out loud.
But I'm seeing
this whole thing
as a dress.
a flowing
type of dress with a
sort of a cape.
And then the head should be
up here.
And
the arm should stick out here. And
another
should
be here. But there should be some drapes
here as well. Drapery from the dress.
And now I'm having to imagine
the anatomy of this
magical female
creature thingabob.
And I I'm thinking something like
Queen of the Night.
That's uh
Isn't that a nice enslaved song?
Okay. If it's Queen of the Night, let's
make
her pitch black as the night.
Now
getting these shapes in is what can mess
up everything.
Okay.
do a little more bit more shadows around
here.
And this will be
the one of the arms.
And maybe
get one more line quality in here.
these broken lines
like this
and
up like this.
Okay.
I'm not liking that at all. Not liking
it at all. Not liking
that at all. But it may be
fixed
and worst case scenario
I can just
delete this video. But I am a little bit
proud
that so far while drawing this is random
ink drawing number
14
and I haven't
thus far
gotten a single one of them
so bad that I had to stop recording.
So, every random ink drawing I've done
in this series
is every attempt at a random ink drawing
I've done in this series. That's pretty
cool.
But it might have stopped with number 13
because
I am not sure.
Where this is going?
Okay,
now I'm starting to
see some hope.
So the the one of them
silly things about me as an artist is
that I I I'm
obsessed by
perfection.
A and getting all the technical stuff
right like the anatomy, perspective,
all of that. and getting the flow
and creating beautiful flowing art. That
is truly an
obsession of mine.
But
the closer I get to creating something
very technically
sound
a and
beautiful
and right in every sense of the word.
were to create this beautiful flowing
brush strokes and things of that nature.
The closer I am to it, the less I like
my art. Also, I always want to push it
towards a more technically accomplished,
beautiful
level
and when I get close to it, I get dis
satisfied because I like
my art having an element of the
primitive of
the crude o of of
the things that gives art life
Cave painting or
uh um child's drawing
or um
comics by like like underground comics
by people who haven't quite
gotten to
the skill level to
tell the stories
of their ambition level.
That's
What I like in terms of,
you know,
I want my art to
Almost look
as if it fell out
by
accident.
like this person isn't really that good,
but just boom,
got this strike of brilliance.
That's why I like a lot of these
I like a lot of these. Um,
I have to think
how is
this person's
Okay.
Now I'm just uh silent because I'm
uh anxious
for what if I get it wrong?
Now I like it.
So now there's a possibility
of
loss
if I manage to
mess it up.
And I'm so close to messing it up.
That's okay.
Yeah.
I'm thinking how
the arm goes through this chaos of a
dress
and how
The hand should be
turned.
And it's almost like
not drawing anatomy, but
hinting
at it through
these shapes
and having the shapes look
poetic
in a sense.
The ships don't have to be right. They
have to be
poetic and readable.
So you have to understand that this is
a hand
somehow.
And
And it could be like uh almost like
Bayonetta who makes uh
Boneta from the Sega games, Platinum
games.
who ma is a witch who makes her clothes
out of her hair
by magic.
Could almost be something like that.
There's a twisting in this hand that I
want to
or in this arm.
that I want to hint at with
the shading on it
like this. Yeah.
Okay. I think I might be pulling this
off.
Dear God, I might be pulling this off.
I don't quite know what it is,
but I might be pulling it off. I might
be pulling it off.
these different textures. Sure.
I'm thinking having something like a
city
of
One of the most important things now is
that I need to make a connection
breaking this shape from one side to the
other. And I think I'll try to do that
with
this Xacto knife or razor blade.
And if we can
that helps a little bit.
And then some
implied houses at nighttime over here.
We we we'll just do sort of a
silly
medieval
silhouette of
buildings and
be really loose. It doesn't have to be
much of anything.
Just needs to be house houselike.
It It needs to be house like. It needs
to be houses like
some
like some windows here and there.
and some uh
yeah, some lights, some windows,
and just keep it a lot less
square
than than it really should be.
and also keep them in some strange
places to leave
the audience sort of almost guessing
at where these
how these silhouettes
hang
together and how they combine and how
And it just creates this nice shape
here.
Now, you know, everything from now on in
is going to be scary because
I think there's something here that
works. a and landing the plane.
I It's like a
Yeah, I think this works.
We'll see when I remove the tape, but I
think it works right now.
making it even scarier for myself.
One single of these drops going wrong
and it might be over.
And I want this feeling that that
these are
falling off her
in a sense.
This is the night in a sense falling
off.
We'll take these drops and and we'll
Again,
any small thing can mess this up.
this up.
I'm still liking it right now.
I'm getting some white gouache
which will go lovely on top of
the ink. And we're going to spread
and we're going to just touch
Oh, I
almost messed this up because I didn't
think about what I was doing.
Absolutely nerve-wracking.
Get these lines back.
Otherwise,
the effect is the opposite of what I
want.
Yeah, this works.
Okay,
again a few more.
here. Shoot and
here.
And I think
we have
a lovely little sketch,
a random ink drawing
called
Queen of the Night.
And now I can start breathing again.
It's been scary. I think I peeled it
off.
Queen
of
the
night
and that is Rand. Random ink drawing
number
14.
And it's done.
Yippee.
One of the longer ones I've done. Um
now when you are watching this
I'm very close to launching my ink
course or my drawing course rather
called
mastering ink through negative space. Uh
there is a waiting list. You can get
some percentages off and you can get the
news first when it's done. I'm very
excited about the progress on it. A a
and it's
it's sort of
based around how to get you to draw
insanity like this, but in your way and
in your style and uh yeah, make it your
own. That's the idea. So,
sign up for that if you want. And uh do
support art.
Uh I'm an artist, so support me by
buying my art or by
uh buying merch, prints,
uh or just sharing my art. All my art is
available for free use under a creative
comments attribution license. So you can
take this and you can use it as
your album cover for your
single, your EP of enslaved covers.
You can do what you want with it as long
as you attribute me because art is
art is meant to be shared.
But we also have to survive. So, so sign
up for the waiting list for the course
and buy some Yeah.