Loosen Up!

Want to make loose artwork, instead of just sloppy?

Want to work with the ink to create your drawings rather than trying to force it in ways it doesn't want to go? 

If you're a fan of loose artwork and want to master it, or are just looking to lighten your touch, then this course will help you

You can learn to look, do and see.

In this class you'll learn to see what loose lines look like, and how to craft a drawing before you ink it loosely.

You'll be practicing with toothpicks and bamboo skewers and more to make energetic, emotional drawings that exude power and grace both.

Learn to loosen up!

Justine's Inking Classes

Justine has plotted out your course so you can internalize and master all you've learned! In these advanced inking courses we'll spend less time learning and more time DOING, but doing what? We'll dig in and keep those brushed moving by practicing and working on Justine's famous "Inking worksheets." We'll experiment with non-traditional tools and have fun! We'll dig into the finer points of inking and talk about and work on more esoteric lessons and activities like seeing and learning the difference between tight and loose, and just as importantly between loose and sloppy. We'll develop a more sophisticated eye that will not only notice the highly personal language of line the great inkers and artists have developed... we'll learn how to become consciously aware of the language of line you, the student, are choosing to use! So let's dig in, work hard, have fun, learn, develop our eyes, and learn to think and breathe in line!
Justine's Inking Classes

Course curriculum

  • 01
    1: Lessons in Loosening Up
    Show details
    • Inking Community Link
    • On Loosening Up
    • Loosen Up! Lecture
    • Line Quality Video : The Wild Turkey: Bolder, Looser Lines.
    • Line Quality Video : Longer Lines and Loose Lines
    • Homework for loosening up!
    • Option 1
    • Option 2
    • Option 3
    • Option 4
  • 02
    2: Inspiration from Japan
    Show details
    • On The Laws of Japanese Painting Book and Presentation
    • Lines In Asian Art 1
    • Lines In Asian Art 2
    • Homework - Practice Techniques
    • Homework - Draw 3 subjects in that style
  • 03
    3. Loose, Lively Lines and Intro to Toothpicks
    Show details
    • CIFAE Elephant Video
    • Inking with Toothpicks and Skewers - Video
  • 04
    4: "Nontraditional Inks"
    Show details
    • What are "nontraditional inks?"
    • "Nontraditional Inks" (Whatever That Means...))
    • Homework
  • 05
    5: Thanks and What's Next!
    Show details
    • What's Next!

What others have said

“Next to finally getting to grips with using the Windsor-Newton, I have seen a huge improvement in my inking, and I am really enjoying exploring it more, studying the line art of master artists... It changed how I draw, how I look at inking, trying to design each line as a beautiful stroke. This has been a big game-changer/life-changer for me, Justine, THANK YOU!”

Student

Ayal Pinkus

“This class got me thinking about things like texture, spotting blacks, visual storytelling and composition in ways I never have before and if these drawings are successful I truly owe a lot of that success to you and these classes... I feel creatively energized, like I'm armed with a box of new tools to make my ideas come to life on a blank page and I can't thank you enough Miss Justine. ”

Student

Dave Hotstream

Price for permanent access

  • Justine Mara Andersen

    Instructor Bio:

    SURPASS YOUR LIMITS.

    Hey, I'm Justine, and I've been with SAW from the beginning. Before SAW I was a veteran pro... but before that, I, presumably, like you, had no idea where to begin. I had ambition, hunger, desire, but no focus, no discipline, no chops, and worse, no mentors. I knew what I wanted, but I also knew how lousy I was and how little I knew, and worse, that no one at college was qualified to help me learn what I really needed to know.

    The worst part was, I was so ignorant when it came not only to art, but to comics, that I was drowning in my own naivete. I didn't know where to begin...

    Then I met my mentors, P. Craig Russell, Val Mayerik, Dan Adkins, Jim Steranko, Frank Thorne, John Workman, and Jeff Jones. At first it was brutal, I was immediately confronted with the shameful realization that I didn't know a damn thing bout drawing, nor about comics, and I suddenly felt an urgent need to get it together and get down to the hard work of learning the hard stuff, of learning the discipline of setting aside the fun stuff to focus on fundamentals.

    Then, for decades, I worked 60 hours a week, I made a lot of sacrifices, and did every damn thing my mentors told me to do. In that time, I completed 4 published graphic novels for Fantagraphics, inked for DC Comics, Image Comics, and created hundreds of illustrations for WOTC/Dungeons & Dragons, as well as for Lucasfilm, and countless more images for numerous clients in a wide range of projects from ballet stage design to animation.

    It's my philosophy that most of my students have set the bar too low for themselves, that they have no idea just how good and how BIG they can become as artists, if only they make wise conscious choices.

    What I excel at is saving my students time and suffering. I learned it the hard way so my students don't have to. Of all the gifts I have, perhaps the one I am most proud of is my ability to take complicated concepts and distill them into something I can pass along to my students. My students not only learn from my successes, but my failures, and if you learn from me, you are not only learning from me, but you will be learning all my mentors taught me.

    Through me, they and my own life lessons will all be teaching you together, and not just how to draw good comics, but about how to prioritize, set achievable goals, and how to avoid temptation and learn the discipline it takes to become great rather than merely good.

    My website is barefootjustine.com

    Justine Mara Andersen

    Drawing and Inking Maven

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