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Bark texture is ideally suited for drawing with pen and ink and one of really fun drawings in this regards is drawing an old tree stump with deep crevices and grooved bark. Here I will show how with simple stroke and technique you can draw one. There are limitless variations on this and one can be drawn from imagination anytime. Step 1: Draw the Outline. Notice the irregular edges used to draw the outline. Step 2: Draw Main CrevicesMain aspect of an old stump are deep grooves and crevices in it's body with age. Draw them as shown below with bigger towards the centre and smaller towards the edge. Use the irregular outline and taper them. Also add them irregularly to avoid any pattern. Step 3: Darken CrevicesDarken the crevices using parallel lines or you can even use a brush. Step 4: Add Bark StrokeAdd bark stroke to bring out the feel of bark on the stump. Bark stroke is discussed in detail in drawing tree trunk tutorial. Step 5: Add Small Tapered Crevices and Edge IrregularitiesAdd small tapered crevices by darkening the bark lines as shown below. Make it irregular. This starts to bring out the feel of rough bark texture on the stump. Step 6: Darken One Side MoreDarken one side more to bring out the feel of roundness for the stump. Light doesn't fall uniformly on a curved surface and such tonal differences are needed to bring out the form of a curved object. This is discussed in detail in vol 1-2 of my pen and ink drawing workbooks. Rough bark texture with deep grooves and rounded feel of stump is now established. Step 7: Texture RootsUse curved parallel lines as shown below to give a curved form to the roots. Step 8: FinishFinish by adding small tapered crevices and darkening one side of roots to bring out their form as well. This completes this drawing. As you can see above the technique and stroke used are very simple and and by using different shape of outline and size and placement of crevices different variations on this can be easily drawn from your imagination. Following is another example. In yet another variation, holes in the stump can be indicated to indicate further decay. Following are 2 additional examples. In the following examples, grass is added to ground the stump as well. This completes this post. Hopefully you found it useful and motivated you to try doing such pen and ink drawings. If so, you can further check out my FREE pen and ink drawing tutorials and pen and ink drawing workbooks to learn to draw pen and ink landscapes in step by step illustrated manner. Happy Drawing, Rahul Subscribe Older Step by Step Drawing Posts

It’s taken a while, but at long last, the mission has been accomplished. Multi-purpose fountain pen inks. Inks that one can write with and inks that one can use for painting and illustration. The perfect limited palette that one can take ‘on the road’ and use however one wishes, whether its writing down one’s thoughts or recording what’s going on around you. What I didn’t want to do, was label up 4 pure off the shelf colours and call it a job done. No. I wanted to create 4 unique colours that would stand up as four beautiful unique fountain pen inks each with their own personality and chromatic behaviours BUT also have the ability to blend with each other and create secondary and tertiary colours. Not as easy as it sounds and as always, there have been compromises along the way. So how do they shape up? Well at this moment in time they don’t have any names, but the recipes are finalised and I’m very happy with them. And they all react with bleach. Blue – this is a deep blue colour that reacts easily with water bleeding out bright turquoise, cyan with a hint of pink. There is also evidence of a delicate red sheen at the edges when dry. As a writing ink, it flows well with evidence of some shading. Red – this is a deep magenta that reacts easily with water bleeding out rose reds but also with yellows at the very edges. This took a long while to get right. As a writing ink, it flows well with some shading. Yellow – I needed to darken this, to give it a darker tone, otherwise it would be difficult to write with it as it wouldn’t read. The ink reacts easily with water bleeding out mottled ambers and lemon at the edges. Because of the deeper tone one needs to add plenty water when wishing to achieve those lighter greens and oranges. This took a long while to get right. As a writing ink, it flows well with great shading. Black – My favourite of them all. This a dark black that reacts easily with water bleeding out greys, blues and reddish browns. For some ochre brown colours this mixes with the yellow superbly. This also took a long while to get right. As a writing ink, it flows well with a hint of shading. So how do they mix? Please see the colour wheel below: The inner ring is a light wash of the black showing the tertiary colour possibilities. And below are some very quick secondary and tertiary colour mixing experiments: I’m confident that these inks can produce most of the colours that a traveller would need without taking up much space in the rucksack. These are now going to be put into production. The food on table image is rendered in the style of John Minton. A simple and graphic example to demonstrate how these vibrant inks can be utilised as well as the wet in wet watercolour techniques. I used 2 Da Vinci travel brushes – an 8 and 5 – as well as a Serendipity dip pen. The palette plate was a cheap plastic 10 dimple dish. Paper used was heavy cartridge, Bockingford 200lb rough and Rhodia dot matrix. For more info, check out my profile page. Thanks. Nick

Hi! I'm Jocelyn, but I've also dubbed myself Miss Inky Fingers. I'm a 42 year old woman from Connecticut, in the US. I was introduced to fountain pens 5 moths ago, starting with disposables, a month later moving to Metropolitans, and now I've got a pretty hearty pen collection including one Pilot Falcon and a couple more mid range pens, plus a healthy allotment of workhorses (those cheap pens that deal with my crazy needs and inks well, like my Lamy Safary's, which don't clog from shimmering inks!). When current orders arrive, my collection will number 11 fountain pens, 2 glass dipping pens, and two calligraphy dip pens (just learning!). I'm just about to buy a nice vintage pen with a fine flex nib... I don't have one picked out yet (I have to wait to get my new credit card in a week or so to shop), but I'm crazy for flex writing and even the Falcon can't quiet pull it off, so vintage it will be. I REALLY want a "Ladies'" pen with a loop on the cap, but I'm not picky about cosmetics, I just want an excellent writer. I'm VERY excited that I got that credit approved because I'll get, in addition to the vintage, another falcon (this time F instead of B nib (oops!)), another stub (either a Conklin Duragraph or a Monteverde Intima, and one more Ahab. So, yah,, maxing that right out! My FAVORITE thing about fountain pens is INKSSSSS! When my current orders come in I'll have amassed about 35 bottles and I'm out of room but show now signs of stopping. There's always an exciting new hue or shade, or a feature I never imagined ink could have! My favorites of the moment are kosumosu (iroshizuku, a bubblegum pink) and Solferino (in the purple family, super vibrant!). **I'm going nuts for shading ink right now and also waterproof (but not bullet proof) non-black and non-blue inks... recommendations welcome!** My spare time is spent writing a lot of letters to pen-pals and friends I like to keep in touch with.. its replaced Facebook as my primary social communication. I'm always looking for new snail mail pen-pals if anyone is interested, leave me your mailing address and I'll send you a letter if you promise to write back! Well, that's me! Ready to participate instead of just checking here when I have questions! Bye! Miss Inky Fingers aka Jocelyn