INKtober 2026 - Miniature
I’m a bit at a loss with the word ‘miniature’. I know what it means, but I keep thinking of ‘miniscule’ instead. And when I think of ‘miniscule’, I think of those animations about insects.
I’d like to make something a bit simpler, but it looks as though this is going to be a long-term project and I don’t really have the time for that. So I’ve spent a while thinking about how to proceed.
I’m not really keen on flowers or floral still lifes, so I’m going for a carnivorous plant to add a bit of action.
What went wrong
I was interrupted and the phone call went on for a couple of hours. I decided to carry on painting. The brush made a mess of it. I replaced it with a Van Eijck #10.
I sketched the carnivorous plant’s meal first. That was quite a nice little job, but the pen bled and smudged. I should have used Chinese ink and a dip pen instead.
I did the red part of the flower with a watercolour pencil and it turned out a hideous, garish pink colour, yuck!
Now the question is how to change that. Actually, I wanted most of the flowers to be faint, but the brush didn't work and the paper also started to dissolve because of the water.
I carried on using the Van Eijck brush. That went much better.
How to fix that mess?
I can’t carry on and add details until the paper is dry. This creates the time to think about my next step. I’m wondering whether I should use a ballpoint pen.
The Process
It looks terrible.
That pink is watercolour pencil, once wet way too much.
Bad choice: the liquidly free ink roller leaks!
Materials:
- bamboo paper - A4 - sketchbook
- pencil HB we
- watercolour pencil: green + pink (magenta?)
- watercolour cubes (Action)
- watercolour white (tube) - Van Gogh
- pencil for fine white lines: nail pencil
- round brush - Van Bleiswijck #? + van Eijck #10
- Liquidly free ink roller
3.10.26
Prompt: miniature
#artonsteemit #art #inktober #painting #inktober2026 #steemexclusive
Creo que este trabajo es muy hermoso. Si no me equivoco es una planta carnívora y por allí hay una mosca que cayó en la trampa. Saludos.
#s34engegement
That’s right, you’ve spotted it. It’s a bit of a change from a bunch of tulips or daisies. It was a hell of a job, but I’m glad I didn’t start all over again.
Sí, lo has visto bien. Es algo diferente a un ramillete de tulipanes o margaritas. La verdad es que fue un trabajo de locos, pero me alegro de no haber vuelto a empezar.
Please, paint a marine landscape, about Netherland, with ships and birds...
I’ve actually only painted two seascapes in acrylic on canvas, and one of them has remained empty so far, whilst the other features sailing boats; but I don’t think this is or was typically Dutch, unlike, for example, some of the ships in Amsterdam during Sail.
It would be a very long project for me to start drawing or painting the ships I really like – the old ones like ‘the Batavia’. Who knows, maybe I’ll get round to it one day. Or perhaps I’ll one day draw the river with its Rhine barges (which are used to transport goods), the meadows with the few remaining cows and some pollarded willows. But so far, I think I’ve only ever created one landscape using pastels. I’m not really into landscapes, so I stick to still lifes, and I’m not very good at portraits either – all that is still in the realm of things I’m learning.
Thank you for supporting art/INKtober and creativity.
It is highly appreciated and about time.
Do you join yourself @adeljose?
I had planned to join this week, but some masonry work got in the way of my availability a bit. I'll try to participate.
That would be super, you can also join in with one drawing capturing more prompts. No rules, just drawing fun.
The best with your work and an enjoyable week.
You are incredibly talented; I honestly can't believe someone can draw like this—it looks just like a printout. I am truly amazed by your talent. 🥺
You can do it too. It’s not that difficult, especially if you use watercolours.
You can make a small sketch with a pencil or pen, or if you have them, just use watercolour pencils to draw some light outlines. Then you can loosely colour in some areas with diluted watercolour paint – just a wash, so don’t use too much paint. If you’re actually painting flowers, you can also wet the paper first and drip some paint onto it; it will then bleed into the wet areas of the paper. I’m always rather in a hurry myself, so I often work wet-on-wet, but I’ve had to stop doing that here because otherwise it simply doesn’t turn out nicely and you can’t add any highlights either. Traditionally, white paint isn’t actually used in watercolour; you’re supposed to use the white of the paper instead. With fiddly work, that’s obviously much harder, and in this case I used white watercolour paint from a tube – it’s much more concentrated – but you could, of course, also use a white marker or watercolour paint. I’m not sure if there are any fine white fineliners? Officially, with watercolour you’re supposed to work from light to dark, so it’s quite difficult to add white over another colour, and that was my biggest problem here. How do I depict those little tentacles of the carnivorous plant? This would probably be much easier using just a pen, watercolour or oil paint. I’d initially done it with a pen, but I just didn’t think it looked good enough because I’d already coloured in some parts. A few weeks ago, I bought a pack of fine-tipped brushes intended for painting artificial nails, so that I could add a signature if needed, as I can’t manage this with a standard fine brush. These brushes are actually very good, so I’m quite happy with them and I’m gutted I don’t have any more, haha. Perhaps the effect would have been a bit nicer if I’d waited a bit longer and not faffed about like that before seeing the final result. Starting again might have been easier, but I actually thought the little fly had turned out quite well and didn’t feel like doing it, quite apart from the fact that I didn’t want to waste something I’d already put so much time into. It’s not quite what I’d had in mind, but I’m happy with it, and in my version the pen drawing is underneath and partly on top. I’d say give it a go – even with a set of watercolours meant for children, you can achieve really nice effects just by adding a few splashes of colour here and there to the pen drawing.
Wow, the detailed way you explained everything is truly praiseworthy; I used to see my sister doing things like this, though she doesn't anymore. Since I don't have much knowledge about drawing, I found that while you were explaining everything in detail, I would forget one point as soon as I tried to remember another! 😂
Just write the steps doen and better simply try it out and see what happens.
I cannot draw either and never do if I paint. I do not like to colour, I never liked colouring books either.
nice drawing ,its pretty.
Thank you. You can do this too. Make a sketch with a pen and add some watercolour.