Inking Practice

I recently ordered a Pentel Brush Pen for myself – they don't sell them here, but the internet can breed discontent when you can see all the lovely art things other people in other countries can have... so I ordered one from cultpens.com, along with some extra cartridges. I've always liked the look of brush inking, but rarely do it myself as the set-up and clean-up is a pain, so I'm not as good at it as I would like. The brush pen precludes the need to decant ink, dip continually and wash brushes, so I'm happy. 

I've been pretty busy with work (not to mention the inevitable social engagements over the festive season) since I got it, but I've been putting in some sketchbook practice with the aim to do some new black and white portfolio work when I get some solid time:

Here's the first try-out I did. I was completely swamped with stuff to do, but if a new pen arrives in the mail you have to at least try it, right? So I snatched about 15 minutes and did a default I-don't-want-to-think Regency lady with boofy curls:

The next two were from screenshots of the Tamil movie Kandukondein Kndukondein, the first being Tabu:

(I tried hatching with the brush pen here)

And the second being Aishwarya Rai: 

(And here I tried having no shading at all)

And then I played around with Ann Miller in the 'From This Moment On' number in Kiss Me Kate:

By this time I was playing around with hatching using ordinary felt-tip pens. I think this one was a Uni Pin Fine Line 0.1.

I'm getting used to the pen more now. If I was less pressed for time I would be doing illustrations instead of working from screenshots, but what with a general lack of time and the fact that I'm still learning how to use the pen, I've just been having fun without having to think too hard. =)