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Bits and pieces.
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Message
Posted
I’ve got a couple of these art pens but hardly ever use them. I much prefer a dip pen for studio work, and the Edding 1800 profipens for outdoors.
My preferred choice in the studio is to use a rigger brush with Indian Ink, not easy to master, but I can create a lot of different strokes from thick to finer than a human hair.
I only use branded ink, W&N Indian Ink in the main, they are high up on the lightfast scale which is what I’m after - I don’t want my drawings fading after a few years.
Edited
by Alan Bickley
Posted
I make all my sketches using an Artpen but I bought a sort of reservoir in my artshop, so I can fill it with black Quink Ink. Although not lightfast, it is perfect for washes and I like the colour changes when adding water to the drawing. For the details, I also turn the pen back to front, so this gives me finer lines. My nib is a F nib, ideal for smooth sketches, no scratching on the paper. As I am not framing or exposing my work to sunlight, I think for me this is a very pleasant way of working and I enjoy it very much.
Posted
All this talk of dip and art pens has made me want to try them again. I've still got dip pens and ink, I'll try those first. Dip pens were all I used for a long time, I liked to vary the pressure and therefore the thickness of the line. Because I'm heavy handed it was mostly while doing that that I got my blots. I'm unlikely to change now, but it doesn't matter too much I guess.
Posted
Yes Alan, Gerald Scarfe's work is astonishing. In similar vein I like Ralph Steadman, another anarchic artist for whom blots seem to be a mainstay of his work.
I don't know where he's going with this image, but he seems to have started with blots.
Here's another of his wonderful pictures...
It seems to me that both he and Scarfe are not only unphased by blots, but actually encourage them. To great effect.
I've just finished a small project I was working on, and now intend to re-visit the dip pen.
On another matter, I've been sorting out my garden. Part of which involving removing a mass of ivy from the back of my garage. I like ivy, but it seems intent on taking over my world. The removal revealed a sculpture relief. I hadn't exactly forgotten about it, but it had long been covered by ivy...for a while I'd been trimming the ivy around it, but events took over and it became consumed by the green stuff. Here's the relief...
It's now on an ivy-free wall. I remember making this from odds and ends I had lying around. I had some plaster left over from a job, also some plasticine that my grandsons used to play with, plus oddments of wood from other jobs. I was about to take it up the tip, when I decided to do something with it. On a flat board I modelled the relief with the old plasticine, built a box around it, and then filled the box (and relief) with the plaster...I now had a mould. I made another box around the plaster mould, and filled it with mortar. I wasn't expecting much, but it came out better than I thought.
This was at least ten years ago, and the mortar used is showing signs of wear.
Odd what we get up to when we have a few 'left-overs' to play with.
Here's another of his wonderful pictures...
It seems to me that both he and Scarfe are not only unphased by blots, but actually encourage them. To great effect.
I've just finished a small project I was working on, and now intend to re-visit the dip pen.
On another matter, I've been sorting out my garden. Part of which involving removing a mass of ivy from the back of my garage. I like ivy, but it seems intent on taking over my world. The removal revealed a sculpture relief. I hadn't exactly forgotten about it, but it had long been covered by ivy...for a while I'd been trimming the ivy around it, but events took over and it became consumed by the green stuff. Here's the relief...
It's now on an ivy-free wall. I remember making this from odds and ends I had lying around. I had some plaster left over from a job, also some plasticine that my grandsons used to play with, plus oddments of wood from other jobs. I was about to take it up the tip, when I decided to do something with it. On a flat board I modelled the relief with the old plasticine, built a box around it, and then filled the box (and relief) with the plaster...I now had a mould. I made another box around the plaster mould, and filled it with mortar. I wasn't expecting much, but it came out better than I thought.
This was at least ten years ago, and the mortar used is showing signs of wear.
Odd what we get up to when we have a few 'left-overs' to play with. 
Posted
Thank you Sylvia.
Just to dot the 'i's' on this dip pen thing. I have tried them again, I had to get some new pens, my old ones were very ancient and in a poor way...however they'll take the new nibs so I can have an assorted of pens with different nibs ready to go. (No great expense).
Many years back I used dip pens all the time, so it's a case of renewing the acquaintance. It does feel different, but that will pass. Here's some random sketches I did with the dip pens...
I think it gives a more interesting line. The main thing to remember is drying time...fineliner pens are practically instant in this respect. My impatience enabled me to smudge here and there.
So I'll do something with a little more care.
I think it gives a more interesting line. The main thing to remember is drying time...fineliner pens are practically instant in this respect. My impatience enabled me to smudge here and there.
So I'll do something with a little more care.
Posted
One of the things I do each year is have my pictures made into a photobook. (There are plenty of photo websites offering this.) The aim is to have it finished around the Christmas period when the sites offer big discounts. Not wanting to leave the compilation of the photobook until the last minute, I do bits throughout the year...the photo-companies provide an app. Not everything goes in, things get changed as I go along...as my mind changes. You know the sort of thing...I don't like that one...2 months later, ohh...that's not so bad...another two months...ah yes, I really don't like that.
The photobooks have ready-made layouts if you want that, but I prefer to make up my own full-page layouts...like this....
I'm planning two books this year. One for jokes (as above), and another for the rest of my pictures. It was while I was sorting all this out that I came across a pic/limerick that wasn't working.
Here's the jokey pic I got stuck on. I use well known limericks sometimes, and sometimes I make up my own. This was done the wrong way round, usually I think of the limerick first, here I drew a pic of a woman dreaming of a swim in midwinter and then got stuck on coming up with a limerick...
This limerick is really naff, doesn't scan for a start. This was done in the bleak midwinter when we were all dreaming of sunny days and beaches. I still haven't come up with a limerick.
Any ideas?
I'm planning two books this year. One for jokes (as above), and another for the rest of my pictures. It was while I was sorting all this out that I came across a pic/limerick that wasn't working.
Here's the jokey pic I got stuck on. I use well known limericks sometimes, and sometimes I make up my own. This was done the wrong way round, usually I think of the limerick first, here I drew a pic of a woman dreaming of a swim in midwinter and then got stuck on coming up with a limerick...
This limerick is really naff, doesn't scan for a start. This was done in the bleak midwinter when we were all dreaming of sunny days and beaches. I still haven't come up with a limerick.
Any ideas? 