Inking away with Keri Luiz

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Keri Luiz was the guest artist for our February meeting - she shared her art, sources of inspiration, and also her product recommendations for drawing and inking, then she spent time demonstrating for us with different tools.

After working for several years as a graphic designer (she's an Academy of Art graduate), writer and photo editor for local news media, Keri is now an independent working artist. In addition to graphics services, she also makes jewelry and does custom pinstriping on cars. 

Keri has drawn inking inspiration from comics and pop culture, such as the popular Rat Fink cartoons, hot rod art from the 1960s and Japanese manga.


Keri made this chart that shows the variation in lines and strokes using different kinds of pens (clockwise from top left - dip pen, paint brush, Sharpie marker, Micron). She brought her portfolio and a few art journals - including many of her works from the annual Inktober challenge. She often works on bristol board, which she buys at comic book stores.


She talked about different kinds of inks - walnut, acrylic, india - and the various tools she loves to use, including Micron pens, Sharpie markers and pointed round paintbrushes. Keri also uses dip pens and she discussed the different kinds of nibs, from those that allow you to soften and vary the width of your lines to the sharper tips for fine detail work.


Keri recommended a couple good books on the subject, including The Speedball Textbook by Joanne Fink and Drawing with Pen and Ink by Arthur Guptill.