Chapter 3: Pen and ink drawing – part 1

6.3.1 Mark making with pens
Pens used:

• fountain pens and a sketching pen (Rotring Art Pen F)
• dip pens with a metal nib and a glass nib
• markers: Pitt Artist Pen, Stabilo point 88, a ballpoint pen (blue)
• Rotring rapidograph
• biro

Inks and colours:

• water soluble inks in the fountain pens
• Schmincke acrylic ink in primary colours
• walnut stain
• shellac ink, black and bistre
• watercolour

Marks:
First I used my pens and inks on universal cartridge paper, 160 g/square meter, in boxes made with the template from Module 4.
The scans with the drawings are on the left, the washes on the right.

P 1: The Art Pen leaves a very strong line (below left).	Washing over it gives a dramatic effect. The washes are done with walnut stain (brownish) and acrylic ink in yellow and red, partly layered. The water washes are in the middle.
P 2: Usually I find felt tips too scratchy, but the Pitt Artist Pen is very smooth and lovely to draw with.
	P 3a: I like the muted, even dirty shades here. The shellac ink is not entirely waterproof.
P 4: The stippling below right reminds of signs on maps for wood and moorland.	P 4a: Bistre and walnut stain give a very similar colour. The orange wash is watercolour.
P 7: Upper  row right: the grid is also a kind of cross hatch – a very regular one.
	In between I scribbled on thick cartridge paper I had used as a desk cover. P 9 is Pitt Artist Pen over thick blobs of acrylic. P 11 is Rapidograph over a wash, P 10 is shellac ink drawn with a metal nib.
P 17: In the left box I used the walnut stain as ink with the metal nib and the newly bought black Pitt Artist pen on the right.	The lower boxes are waiting  to be filled.
P 14 and 15, below: Samples on brown Kraft paper.	The colours turn out even more muted and warmer than on the white paper.
P 16 and 16a: This sample is done on pages from an engineer’s sketchbook, from around 1910. The paper is a little stronger than ordinary copy paper.	It is slightly discoloured but has kept well. I like it a lot for its aged quality, and I love the old writing and the swirls the engineer put in between his numbers. The paper is not too thick, so I have to go easy on the washes.

This was fun! I feel I started a collection of reference material. This activity also seems to loosen the hand as a warm up for drawing. So I hope the weather improves enough for me to be able to draw outside around the garden shed.