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Acrylic Pens
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Message
Posted
I don't use pens for landscapes or portraits Robert but for something like a railway track or a ship's mast that has to be thin and straight they are very useful. It all depends on the picture.
You do have to get the line right first time though as it's very difficult to alter it - as I know from experience!
Posted
Agree! The brush gives a freedom that pens, however great they are, yield only grudgingly. Though - each to their own: managing either takes skill and confidence.I agree with you both (Robert and Alan), about brush lines over pen lines when they’re part of the finished picture, but I only need an outline of parts of the drawing, so that I can see it when I cover the canvas in a wash colour. The drawn lines themselves won’t show at all in the painting - I just need to know where critical points of the picture are. For now I’ll stick to sketching it in paint, though fiddly for this particular picture.
Posted
This subject of lines is of particular interest at the moment . Norrette - I made a copy of a work by Robert Polhill Bevan , in oils , and after it was finished I decided in my infinite wisdom that parts would benefit from some " outlining " lines - I was very pleased with the work , the colours , tones etc , but even with a very narrow rigger those lines were in places too fat and every time I look at it ( its hanging in our stairs ) I'm thinking I wish I had used a pen .
Please see my separate post re lines .
Stephen Weight
Posted
I've no problem at all with using pens with watercolour or even acrylic - and yes, I wish I'd used (or achieved) a finer line in one of my pieces - but it's sold and done now, so probably for the best I won't get the chance. In oil though pen-lines don't belong and I can't see how they'd work. One thing I have against pens in all media is that there's a tendency to be too exact - half the time, the eye doesn't really take in, say, power lines, or even rigging, in their entirety - to paint or draw them all away along, as it were, draws a lot of attention to them - a broken effect is easier to achieve with a brush, and easier on the eye.
Riggers - I have a fair selection of those: and I've practised painting fine lines with them, with plenty of water or medium as appropriate: even quite a large rigger can produce very fine lines, but a really fine one, with properly long bristles, makes this easier. The secret to using them probably lies in both the thickness of the paint, and the speed with which you apply it: lingering over fine lines invites tremor in the steadiest hand: and lumpy paint, not mixed to the right consistency, can give you a very nasty squelch right where you least want it. Practice is the key - lots of studies, on scraps of paper or canvas. And lightness of touch. If fine lines are going to feature in your work, practise hundreds of them, going every which-way. The Rosemary & Co Evergreen riggers are just about perfect in all media - well worth the modest investment required.
Posted
You’ve hit the nail on the head here Robert, the secret of success with riggers is indeed speed!
Speed requires confidence in your ability, you need a one stroke sweep, and this doesn’t happen overnight as well we all know!
With practice, you should be able to draw a line thinner than a human hair, much thinner in fact!