King Kong Plays Ping Pong With A Ping Pong Paddle

Of course he does. What else would he use? Anyway, we washed some giant monkeys with ink in our latest video. With any luck, we learned a little more about the medium and improved our skills. Baseline, we have a companion piece to January’s Godzilla.

Since the Godzilla piece was done in very stark line work, hatching, and large spots of solid black, I thought it would be fun to try rendering King Kong in a softer, gentler ink wash method. The giant nuclear lizard we drew was inspired by the monster from Godzilla Minus One. And since Legendary Pictures’ Kong is genuinely softer and gentler than that Toho Studios city-stomper, I figured the ink wash suited him just fine.

As usual, I used Dr.Ph Martin’s Black Star inks mixed with distilled water. There’s a particular warmth to that ink that you can see on the page. Whereas my Godzilla piece looks a little colder (makes sense), the Kong piece has a soft warmth to the tone that falls right in step with the more organic inking method. Keep in mind, it’s the same ink. But when you add the water, you start seeing those warm tones. So, unless Michelle has replaced my distilled water with the stuff that drips into the rusty rainwater bucket in the back yard, we can only assume Dr. Martin’s Black Star has a hidden warmth to it.

In addition to my Kong piece, Michelle played another round of Ink It or Stink It where she tried her hand at ink washing The Skar King, a giant ape who wears the spinal column from a fallen foe over his shoulder like a bandolier. From what I gather, he’s only one of the villains Kong has to grapple with in Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire when the movie opens this month.

I feel it’s important to point out Ink It or Stink It was always Michelle’s idea. She genuinely thought it’d be interesting to see if an untrained inker could improve over time. I have to say, despite minimal practice, she really has gotten better.

If you want to see us ink these monkeys, the link is down below. But now, if you’ll excuse us, Michelle and I are going to play a rousing game of ping pong.