Drawing with pens, Rotring, Lamy, ballpoint, Sharpie and Tombow

Sketches with a variety of pens, Rotring and Lamy fountain pens, a Tombow double ended brush pen, a Sharpie and a Parker ballpoint pen. In S&B Zeta A4 sketchbook, ideal for ink as it's smooth, heavy paper lets the pen flow.

Examples are for a forthcoming class, showing some of the marks each pen can make, alone or with a water brush to create washes of tone with the water soluble inks.  I simply drew items from my pencil case.

The last sketch, of scissors, uses a mix of fountain pen, Sharpie and Tombow. The grey Tombow giving varied washes of tone, the fountain pen with black ink for fine lines and the Sharpie for flat, even, intense black.



These are the pens I keep in my pencil case.  The Rotring pen I bought many years ago nd I've never had any problems with it.  I'm giving the Lamy a second chance, the first one started off ok but the the ink just refused to flow no matter how much I cleaned it.  It did not impress me.  Friends like theirs so I bought another to try ... so far so good but the jury is out until it stands the test of time.

The Tombow pens are a favourite, especially the grey as you can build up washes of tone and the dual ends give a good range of marks.

The Sharpie for me has a more limited use but when I want large areas of dense non-streaky black, it's perfect.

Biro (ballpoint pen)is another I like.  It flows across the paper and can be used to create delicate, pale marks as well as bolder line.  Here I've stuck purely to ink but biro is great with coloured pencil for a line and wash effect.

Of course all of these can be combined with other media, as I frequently do, charcoal, watercolour, acrylic .... anything.

Work in ink:

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXMRQfKrngMzjL2vxin6qMmGTeYudHkVw4Cv3s-Be7UFZoSpop531LQDuJpgCqKCwXT9Tiah90lnRZ4gB_DS2h4vXbJ3MOeLcgKbp9Lk9YMrd_O7R_g_UqQo49_Cc1qZtAku-GFQ/s1600/e++evening+against+the+light+from+rose+cottage.jpg

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipkNBnvzCU7GwP8l1WqSUnFp4XSmR0d1S-5qItu1J6aWEUnIG6Wecuoiic982FyX7iKIWgBO1B1ExGqLxvfI4_Irp5I3alg0h_gxJ-YJGXW4GmokLUrcQSQx2MUk1ZkzPMzLOi/s1600/e++peacock+feather+and+random+stuff.jpg

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSbHxB0r-8mwSn8YYkV6HG4n_PcC4FkhImS84iRvsUBtC3ZYXfB-CFfF-_TF5gNT0ElovzjAIiOVdDRtFS6daw12UDx0c9MKGVL6IAb5e_Z26JnsrAbxn6lsYB1ZH11u4DGgh4PA/s1600/e++inks+in+derwent+landscape+book.jpg



I don't particularly enjoy metal dip pens though I have a couple somewhere, not sure where though!  I prefer the lively organic marks of twigs, bamboo pens, brushes and sticks with bottled ink but that's for another day ....


Comments

Anonymous said…
Silly I know, but somehow for me items of stationery are objets worthy of treatment by the artist. I very much enjoy these sketches of yours.
3:11 pm
vivien said…
not silly at all :>)

thank you
9:59 am
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Eye, Urban/Rural exhibition

Image
Vivien Blackburn's work in the Urban/Rural show We've just hung a group show at the The Eye Project, Urban/Rural show.  If you want to come and see it it's on for a month - well worth seeing, 11 lovely artists and some fabulous work. Those large canvasses are 40 inches square. There are rural landscapes, flowerscapes, intriguing textile work including a large knitted building, abstracts .... something for everyone. It's in the gallery below the cafe in the Adult Education Centre at the top of Wellington street, Leicester, opposite Fenwicks.  Meet the Arttists day is Saturday 1st April 10-2.  Come and have a chat with us?
Read more

paint or sketch trees: challenge

Image
Close up of tree bark, Marqueyssac, France. photo: Vivien Blackburn Another challenge Rather than another update on the seascapes I've decided to run another challenge in response to feedback from the trees post. Feedback from people said they got a lot out of the skies challenge and I'm sure you will out of this one :>) click the image on the left to link to the original post on trees and you can check all posts with the tag 'trees' here The challenge is to produce sketches of trees done from life. These can be: close ups, extreme close ups, whole tree, part of tree, distant views - whatever you want. Style: anything goes - photorealism to impressionism but with underlying observation Medium: your choice, anything goes :>) oil paints, acrylics, watercolours, mixed media, charcoal, graphite, coloured pencils, pen, oil pastels, pastels, pastel pencils ....... etc etc etc Timescale: we'll finish at the end of July and I'll post links to your blogs t
Read more

playing with watercolours and coloured pencils

Image
This is a page of watercolour studies of pansies, not intended to be 'a painting', I did a while ago that I came across. It's a grey rainy day and the light isn't good to get on with the canvasses so I decided to try to pull it together as a composition. I used a bit more watercolour and coloured pencils and cropped it and added the soft blue green background to cool it down a little - the colours felt too hot. The deep dark pansies were really velvety and intense and maybe not the colour scheme I would have set out to use with the orange and pale yellows - but the background helps to knit them together. Bringing the soft mauves into the darker flowers also helped. I also took another look at a mixed media woodland that was unfinished and worked a little more on that. It has a little oil pastel in the early stages, watercolour and then coloured pencils.
Read more