Thank you for your report!
We have received your report and it is currently under investigation by a forum moderator.
Pens, pencils, brushes and Anno Domini.
Welcome to the forum.
Here you can discuss all things art with like-minded artists, join regular painting challenges, ask questions, buy and sell art materials and much more.
Make sure you sign in or register to join the discussions.
Hang on Studio Wall
This is a Studio member-only feature!
Join our Studio membership and save your favourite Painters Online content, from gallery artwork to step-by-step guides, to your own online mood boards. Create your go-to place for inspiration and learning. Plus, members can also enjoy a range of exciting features including monthly art videos and a digital magazine library.
If you are already a Studio member, simply login to your account.
Not a Studio member? Why not try our free 30-day trial - no commitment, no credit card required
Message
Posted
I've just filled two more sketchbooks, and some of my drawing materials were running low. Luckily my birthday gives me a guilt free reason to restock. On checking through the completed sketchbooks I found the odd page or space to experiment a little. I've several ideas for big drawings/paintings but preferred to fiddle about.
Another reason to fiddle (fiddle= procrastinate) is the fact that Anno Domini is taking its toll as it must. I know a few others have mentioned wobbly hands etc...Jim and Dixie, I think. I've never had steady hands, but it seems worse now. My drawing hand has to be firmly plonked down or I've had it. What I'd like to do is draw with a brush, I used to do it, but not for some time. So I thought I'd have a go. Ink loaded brush, hand unsupported, and off I went...
Yuk....
...started with the rat-like creature on the left. All over the place. No sense of control. Moved on to the other figure, slightly better with the emphasis on 'slight.' I was using an A3 sketchbook so I could work large. The man's upper nose line was me using the brush to carefully shape the nose. No good. The rest was done quicker, slightly better lines but still slapdash.
Work bigger still I thought....
...still A3, but a larger subject, hand still unsupported. Pleased with the face, then lost it with the hair. Conclusion...keep your hand on the page, or some other support. Must admit it was fun doing this drawing, which literally took moments. Maybe in the summer I'll get a roll of old wallpaper, pin it to my shed wall, and draw on the back.
While I was at it, I thought I'd confirm a few thoughts about pencils and pens.
I'm thinking my way forward is with coloured pencils, ordinary pencils and pens. (With my hand resting on the paper).
Did some rapid comparisons...
I'd found an old fountain pen from back in the day when we 'wrote' letters. Remember that? No? It's a Parker pen, not an art pen. I got some black refills and drew the man on the left. Ok. Better than I thought...I'd remembered it didn't dry like disposable pens, and I couldn't put a wash on it. The nib not that flexible, but I probably could get used to it.
The face marked 'scp' is a black Faber soluble coloured pencil used dry...good to draw with. The colour face was done with a Faber Polychromous - not water soluble- I draw with these and like them. Oddly I've never tried putting a colour wash over them. Did it here. OK. Must try that on a decent drawing. (These sketches were done very rapidly.)
The face marked '4B' is an ordinary pencil...still one of the best drawing tools. In the past, I've put colour washes over pencil drawings. Not bad but the water picks up graphite and it can get grubby.
The last drawing is a waterproof disposable pen...don't know why I drew that...probably because there was a space. Drawing with pens is slower than with pencils. For me anyway. Not that that's a major consideration.
The drawing on the left is a disposable pen drawing, shaded with a water soluble coloured pencil...using a damp brush. This is probably my way forward if my hands get worse. On the right I had another go with an inked brush, resting my hand to draw the facial features, hand unsupported to draw headgear. Back in wobbyville.
Fun messing about. As time goes on I may well have invented a new genre.
WOBBLYISM.
How are you doing?
...started with the rat-like creature on the left. All over the place. No sense of control. Moved on to the other figure, slightly better with the emphasis on 'slight.' I was using an A3 sketchbook so I could work large. The man's upper nose line was me using the brush to carefully shape the nose. No good. The rest was done quicker, slightly better lines but still slapdash.
Work bigger still I thought....
...still A3, but a larger subject, hand still unsupported. Pleased with the face, then lost it with the hair. Conclusion...keep your hand on the page, or some other support. Must admit it was fun doing this drawing, which literally took moments. Maybe in the summer I'll get a roll of old wallpaper, pin it to my shed wall, and draw on the back.
While I was at it, I thought I'd confirm a few thoughts about pencils and pens.
I'm thinking my way forward is with coloured pencils, ordinary pencils and pens. (With my hand resting on the paper).
Did some rapid comparisons...
I'd found an old fountain pen from back in the day when we 'wrote' letters. Remember that? No? It's a Parker pen, not an art pen. I got some black refills and drew the man on the left. Ok. Better than I thought...I'd remembered it didn't dry like disposable pens, and I couldn't put a wash on it. The nib not that flexible, but I probably could get used to it.
The face marked 'scp' is a black Faber soluble coloured pencil used dry...good to draw with. The colour face was done with a Faber Polychromous - not water soluble- I draw with these and like them. Oddly I've never tried putting a colour wash over them. Did it here. OK. Must try that on a decent drawing. (These sketches were done very rapidly.)
The face marked '4B' is an ordinary pencil...still one of the best drawing tools. In the past, I've put colour washes over pencil drawings. Not bad but the water picks up graphite and it can get grubby.
The last drawing is a waterproof disposable pen...don't know why I drew that...probably because there was a space. Drawing with pens is slower than with pencils. For me anyway. Not that that's a major consideration.
The drawing on the left is a disposable pen drawing, shaded with a water soluble coloured pencil...using a damp brush. This is probably my way forward if my hands get worse. On the right I had another go with an inked brush, resting my hand to draw the facial features, hand unsupported to draw headgear. Back in wobbyville.
Fun messing about. As time goes on I may well have invented a new genre.
WOBBLYISM.
How are you doing?
Posted
I like you wobblyism Lew and will subscribe to that . I found this really interesting reading and looking at the different sketches etc . Yes I have wobbly hands and quite painful too, my solution is the wear pressure glove they certainly help and are relatively thin, do soon get used to them . I keep my hand supported as much as possible , it’s a nuisance at time but better than not drawing or painting. I used to be embarrassed about the wobbly line but to be honest I don’t give a s- - - now, as to the future well I will just continue doing what I can , if it pleases me that will do, if it pleases others well thats a bonus .
Please keep, producing your excellent artwork Lew it’s always a pleasure to see.
Posted
Lewis, of course only you can judge the full effect that your wobblyism is having on you and your sketches (ie how you feel and how the outcome differs from the intended) but as an observer, it all looks bluddy* good to me. The wobbles add more than they take away.
Polychromos plus wash - what an interesting idea.
Incidentally, when I had my first fountain pen (at primary school C1960) we were told on no account should we draw with it! Can't recall the reason, so I didn't.
*PS: I wasn't sure if I could use the word 'bloody' here as there are ladies present.
Edited
by Colin Berwick
Posted
A pressure glove is new to me Dixie, something to bear in mind if things get worse.
Colin, I have to admit that on occasion a few wobbles are OK, even helpful...when I'm drawing a beard for example. When I'm using watercolour and trying to lay on a wash for the sky, it becomes a pain, and I frequently have to revert to gouche clouds to hide the worst. For the moment, with my hand supported on the paper I'm ok. I really envy those people who can stand back holding a brush at the end of its handle, and paint. Drawing may not help my old Parker pen, but I haven't used it in years, if it dies on me that's OK.
Posted
Well, I don't know, Lewis. With my (mildly) bozzy eye sight all of your sketches look super. My problem is more of increasingly fuzzy vision, and yours of increasingly fuzzy hands. That we can still create things however frustrated we get with wearing-out body parts, is to be cherished. I'll still be brush in hand when I'm almost blind, I hope.
Edited
by Helen Martell
Posted
Hi Lewis I suffer with wobblism as I have Parkinson’s it’s sometimes a pain in the butt and other times can be a strange advantage whe I am doing a little fine detail. However I have better control with support and close to or on the paper. It does hold me back as I question my abilities. I think all your experiments are great! I intend to keep at it!
Posted
Thanks to all for your interesting response.
Colin, I tried a mahl stick for the few times I've used oil, couldn't really get on with it. I also made a support...a flat strip of wood with two slivers of wood at either end to keep it a fraction above the paper surface. This was OK, especially on those occasions when I was able to work in my shed. Most of my stuff is done indoors...less room...a big length of wood becomes impractical. That video looked interesting, but I prefer to work on the flat. But it might still work.
Yes Helen, we have to keep at it. In my case wobbly drawings are better than not drawing. At the moment it's not too bad. I'm posting small pics, on the larger actual drawings the wobbles are more noticeable.
So for now resting my hand on the work surface gets the job done, but anything that requires me to use my hand unsupported, like laying on a large wash, is problematical. Also, long sweeping lines where you use your whole arm are out. Like Gillian I get better control with my hand on the working surface.
Posted
Had to say that I love your falconer and his utterly uninterested bird.
I'm not much good at line drawing, because I too wobble - in rather jerky ways. that also make my handwriting a touch weird: a line can suddenly take off, like a twitch: hard to describe, but disconcerting to see. I still use a fountain pen to write letters with - mine are Sheaffer, Platignum, Parker, another Parker, and a heavy foreign one with a name beautifully engraved on a gold band which I can't read; and I could also write with my Rotring Artpen, a gift from Sylvia Evans. Fountain pen nibs are said to suit themselves to your style of writing - I'm not at all sure they do - but that I think was the reason we were told at school not to draw with them. I freely ignored this, and even now do draw with them occasionally.
If anyone remembers Ian Seraillier - spelling could be off - a novelist, he wrote his works in longhand, using dip pens and Indian ink: quote "I don't mean the stuff they call Quink: I mean REAL ink!"
Maybe if we wrote more with fountain pens, rather than with biros of various levels of sophistication, drawing with real ink would be a more natural thing for us to do and we'd get better at it. Personally, I tend to stick to carbon pencils for drawing: an artist told me, 50 or so years ago, that "they do flatter your technique": Good! I thought - that's just what I want them to do. And you can combine them with coloured pencil, and with ink. I've even added washes of colour, but then the problem Lew describes with ordinary pencils comes into play - any wash picks up the graphite or carbon: even that can be used to advantage though - perhaps not for the way that Lew works: keep it clean!
I don't know if this is a path you'd want to pursue, but an artist known to us found his hands were shaking so much that drawing a line became very difficult. In his case, various personal issues and health problems were causing this - he got his doctor to change medication, and that helped greatly. I wouldn't want to suggest that there might be a medical answer here to everyone's wobbly problem - I think much of this is just part of getting older, and you can't really medicate that - but it's a thought, if you have a good relationship with your GP: many of them are very sympathetic to artists' issues - an awful lot of GPs are part-time artists; relieves the pressure. It could be worth asking - if you can get an appointment, of course.
Posted
Good point about checking with your doc, Robert. It's certain things I struggle with. Anything requiring a careful regular line can be difficult...elipses and circles for example. I've been drawing clock bits today...no good. Thus far I've resisted getting drawing aids for these. I'm not too fussed, my drawings will have some dodgy bits. I've never had particularly steady hands, but I used to be able to do most of the things I've mentioned. It's old age, no good kidding myself, it affects us all differently. Just had a birthday...I'll never see 81 again. But I'll draw until I can't hold a pencil, I guess.
Just filled the last free page on the 2nd of the two sketchbooks I've just finished....
...it's the cowboy on the left. Pen outline. Shading with water soluble black pencil. Blended with damp brush. Hand firmly on the paper all the way through. Some of the gun handle shapes, and his spurs needed a few goes, but you probably wouldn't know if I hadn't mentioned it. But I won't be drawing any 16 wheel trucks any time soon.
Just got two new A3 sketchbooks to replace those filled. Yippee!!
...it's the cowboy on the left. Pen outline. Shading with water soluble black pencil. Blended with damp brush. Hand firmly on the paper all the way through. Some of the gun handle shapes, and his spurs needed a few goes, but you probably wouldn't know if I hadn't mentioned it. But I won't be drawing any 16 wheel trucks any time soon.
Just got two new A3 sketchbooks to replace those filled. Yippee!!