Okay, and my next step is to do clean ink lines, with a micron inking pen. I prefer microns as they are waterproof and easy to find at any art store.

Before inking, I looked over the sketch a final time and adjusted any angles or proportions that looked off to me (sometimes it takes stepping away from a drawing for a while and coming back to it to realize errors). I located an error in the angle of the right side of the pool table, and the hole seemed too big, so I adjusted them, and once I was pleased, I inked them.

I had an idea in mind as to what I wanted for the distant background - but the complex part of it was that I wanted to do something I haven't done much of, but have been wanting to practice - and that is depth of field - having one section of a piece in focus, usually a closeup of a character - and having the background recede visually because it is out of focus. Painting an out of focus setting is difficult for me to contemplate, as I normally hyperfocus on details, and this would require the blurring of virtually all detail by softening and rounding the edges of everything - but that will come later. The point I am trying to make here is that I did not want anything that would be blurred inked, so I left it rough in pencil.

As I will be painting the piece in acrylics, the ink lines are not as 'set in stone' as they might be in a marker, colored pencil, or watercolor piece. One of the beauties of acrylics is that they are very flexible and layerable - so you can actually change your drawing while you are painting - changing the forms as you create them. In this sense, my ink lines here are only a non-smudgeable guideline. As I paint, therefore, I wont worry so much about painting over the lines, as I can always add layers to smooth out any rough edges later on.

I may or may not have any or many visible ink lines when this is finished. In fact, I've already realized that the nearest billiard balls should be out of focus as well as the background, to add to the believability to the depth of field, so those are some ink lines that are sure to go bye-bye.

When painting, never be afraid to experiment, as you can always paint over it. Such is the beauty of illustration board - you paint muchly and it warps very little, if at all. Those who have tried to do lots of painting on Bristol board will know how trying that can be.

Next step is beginning to paint - see next scrap =).