Learning To Draw With Pen & Ink

[daniellem]

 

Great! And that grey squirrel is so cute and huggable

 

Funny squirrel story... I've never been much of a fan of squirrels. They are cute and all, but for the most part they are pests (and noisy ones at that). I feed peanuts to a family of three crows that visit my house every day. One day I was throwing them their nuts, and a squirrel popped out of the bushes and started stealing them. I ran after it intending to chase it off, and the little thing stood its ground, and I swear it all but put its hands on its hips and told me what to do with myself. I had to have respect for that kind of nerve. It now comes to the house once or twice a week and will run right up to me to see if I have any peanuts for it (which I often do, and which he will often take right from my hand when he can work up the nerve). Off topic, I know, but that's all I could think about while doing that Lohan exercise!

[daniellem]

 

Great! And that grey squirrel is so cute and huggable

 

Funny squirrel story... I've never been much of a fan of squirrels. They are cute and all, but for the most part they are pests (and noisy ones at that). I feed peanuts to a family of three crows that visit my house every day. One day I was throwing them their nuts, and a squirrel popped out of the bushes and started stealing them. I ran after it intending to chase it off, and the little thing stood its ground, and I swear it all but put its hands on its hips and told me what to do with myself. I had to have respect for that kind of nerve. It now comes to the house once or twice a week and will run right up to me to see if I have any peanuts for it (which I often do, and which he will often take right from my hand when he can work up the nerve). Off topic, I know, but that's all I could think about while doing that Lohan exercise!

[kmart_security]

FINALLY! Book just came in the mail today after a long shipment, though I was warned.., ANYWAYS...,

First try, only did straight pen with no pencil. Used a cheap hero pen with an extra fine nib for smaller lines and did rest with my new ferrari sheaffer : P

 

Hope you all like and enjoy. I plan on doing the whole book so get ready!!

 

http://i770.photobucket.com/albums/xx346/km4rt_secur1ty/014-1.jpg

 

http://i770.photobucket.com/albums/xx346/km4rt_secur1ty/015.jpg

 

I know it's not the best but it's been forever since I've done any true drawing ( senior year in '07 with drafting). Any feedback welcomed.

[daniellem]

Nice job, kmart -- especially given that you didn't do a pencil sketch beforehand. Great textures and sense of depth. Glad to hear you are enjoying the book so much, looking forward to seeing more!

[cybaea]

Lovely, kmart! Looking forward to seeing them all.

[Sailor Kenshin]

Funny squirrel story... I've never been much of a fan of squirrels. They are cute and all, but for the most part they are pests (and noisy ones at that). I feed peanuts to a family of three crows that visit my house every day. One day I was throwing them their nuts, and a squirrel popped out of the bushes and started stealing them. I ran after it intending to chase it off, and the little thing stood its ground, and I swear it all but put its hands on its hips and told me what to do with myself. I had to have respect for that kind of nerve. It now comes to the house once or twice a week and will run right up to me to see if I have any peanuts for it (which I often do, and which he will often take right from my hand when he can work up the nerve). Off topic, I know, but that's all I could think about while doing that Lohan exercise!

Squirrels crack me up, when they're not chewing their way into my attic. Thanks for the story. i can just see it! And I like the brown and blue-black of your drawings.

 

Long time no sketch.

 

PS: Nice job, Kmart! Especially with no 'underpinnings!' Is the paper actually yellow or does it just photograph that way?

Edited September 25, 2013 by Sailor Kenshin

[kmart_security]

appears yellow. I will start using my nice camera for photos since my ipod seems to not do well. Its just a sketchbook I purchased at Meijer (walmart to you southern folk). Cheap and it seems to write well in.

 

And I shall post the next exercise tomorrow, though it not going to turn out as well as I'd like but oh well. Kind of rushed it a bit.

Edited September 25, 2013 by kmart_security

[Sailor Kenshin]

appears yellow. I will start using my nice camera for photos since my ipod seems to not do well. Its just a sketchbook I purchased at Meijer (walmart to you southern folk). Cheap and it seems to write well in.

 

And I shall post the next exercise tomorrow, though it not going to turn out as well as I'd like but oh well. Kind of rushed it a bit.

In any case it's a nice effect!

 

I'm looking for a carry pen and sketchbook myself. Auditioning a Field Notes, a Moleskine, and a Hero 330. Which I hated when I first inked up with MB Black but has since really grown on me.

[daniellem]

Squirrels crack me up, when they're not chewing their way into my attic. Thanks for the story. i can just see it! And I like the brown and blue-black of your drawings.

 

 

Thanks, Sailor!

 

 

 

 

I'm looking for a carry pen and sketchbook myself.

 

 

I have a cheap good small notebook "find" to recommend. My local art store carries these little $4.95 sketchbooks that are the same size and reporter-orientation of the small Moleskine watercolor books. They are made by a company called "Montana". The "Plain" paper variant is filled with smooth, thick paper that is fabulous for pen and ink work. I haven't had a bleedthrough problem once, no matter the pen or ink. If you can find them, they are a great value for the money.

[Sailor Kenshin]

Thanks, Sailor!

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have a cheap good small notebook "find" to recommend. My local art store carries these little $4.95 sketchbooks that are the same size and reporter-orientation of the small Moleskine watercolor books. They are made by a company called "Montana". The "Plain" paper variant is filled with smooth, thick paper that is fabulous for pen and ink work. I haven't had a bleedthrough problem once, no matter the pen or ink. If you can find them, they are a great value for the money.

Thankee kindly! I'll look it up.

[daniellem]

Had time for one more this week! The usual, "Step by Step Pen & Ink Sketching" by Lohan, Excercise 31: Birds. I really enjoyed this one:

 

 

 

Stillman & Birn Epsilon sketchbook, Sheaffer Craftsman with #3 nib, Skrip Black.

[weltyj]

Nice! There is a "life" to this one. Hard to describe it any other way. I like it.

[notbob]

dang! ....yer starting to get pretty darn good at this P&E thing, daniellem. I may hafta buy that book and see if it can help me.

 

Right now I'm pretty much stuck on my brush pen and am trying to master it. I really love how it works in 3 different dimensions and can go from xxxf to bbbb almost instantly. Very different than a hard nib.

[Sailor Kenshin]

I've been going through my old sketchbooks and scanning in various drawings.

 

Turns out I was way better back then.

 

Love the bird! Love how so many different fountain pens produce good work as sketching tools!

[daniellem]

weltyj, notbob, & sailor, thanks for the kind words!

 

Sailor, I often find that once I distance myself from work that I do and come back to it later, I like it much better than I did at the time I was doing it. Perhaps it is that distance that makes you feel like you were better in the past than you are now?

 

It is amazing how different each pen is for drawing. I recently tried a study from an old Arthur Guptill book, and it just wasn't working for me with the pen I was using. Then I did a different version with a different pen, and wow -- what a difference! Both in the "feel" of drawing the lines that the study required, and in the finished product. But that first pen that I tried is working perfectly for the Lohan study I'm working on right now. I've also been surprised to find that some pens that I never thought were great writers are excellent sketching pens.

[Sailor Kenshin]

weltyj, notbob, & sailor, thanks for the kind words!

 

Sailor, I often find that once I distance myself from work that I do and come back to it later, I like it much better than I did at the time I was doing it. Perhaps it is that distance that makes you feel like you were better in the past than you are now?

 

It is amazing how different each pen is for drawing. I recently tried a study from an old Arthur Guptill book, and it just wasn't working for me with the pen I was using. Then I did a different version with a different pen, and wow -- what a difference! Both in the "feel" of drawing the lines that the study required, and in the finished product. But that first pen that I tried is working perfectly for the Lohan study I'm working on right now. I've also been surprised to find that some pens that I never thought were great writers are excellent sketching pens.

 

Thats a good point to ponder, but no.

 

I am so far out of practice that I actually WAS better at it years ago.

[chud]

I don't know the Lohan books, but I'm impressed with your results from them. I bought "Rendering in Pen and Ink" by Arthur Guptill awhile ago but haven't really dug into it yet -- if anyone is familiar with both, how do they compare? Is it still worthwhile to pick up the Lohan book(s), or stick with what I have for awhile?

[Sailor Kenshin]

I THINK I have the Guptill book. If it's the same one (and I'd have to check), it is much thicker and more detailed (and seems more advanced) than the Lohan books.

[daniellem]

Hi chud,

"Rendering in Pen and Ink" by Guptill is a classic and probably the best complete book on Pen and Ink drawing out there. It is very old (I believe it was published in the early 20's if not earlier) and as such does not deal with modern materials, but the instruction on technique is timeless.

 

The writing style is very much that of a bygone era, so it may require a little more patience to read and digest everything. It includes a wealth of gorgeous examples from many expert pen and ink illustrators from that time (and earlier), so there are lots of images to study from and they have been reproduced relatively clearly (I wouldn't recommend an ebook version of this as the images just aren't scanned at a high enough resolution for study). Overall, there is a great deal of valuable instruction, but not a lot of practical"how to" if that makes any sense.

 

The Lohan books are excellent "how to" books for learning pen and ink drawing (in my opinion, I know others may strongly disagree!). They are more modern and are written in a more accessible and conversational style. In many cases Lohan guides you step-by-step from scratch through the process of completing his examples, and along the way he provides lots of tips and insights into choosing the right textures, lines, and marks for the subject you are working on. This can only take one so far of course, as in these cases you are just following along with instructions and suggestions that are provided. Ultimately, when doing original work you'll need to be able to make the decisions about what lines go where, and how to create the appropriate tonal values on your own. The Guptill book goes into MUCH more depth about that sort of thing. But if you are overwhelmed when starting out (as I certainly was), the Lohan books can really help to take a complicated medium and break it down so that you can get started right away with actual work and study.

 

Sorry, this may be a lot more than you wanted to know! But if you are serious about studying pen and ink drawing I'd highly recommend having both the Guptill book AND one or two of Lohan's books in your library...

[cybaea]

For more on Guptill and his work, I recommend http://www.gnsi.org/journal/multifaceted-life-and-books-arthur-guptill - it is a facinating read.