Learning To Draw With Pen & Ink

[physicsgirl]

I ordered the book to use after I finish my You Can Draw In 30 Days book by Mark Kistler. I'm on lesson 14 of 30 and I've already seen a great improvement.

[candidvn]

I like it. What's the pen?

It's a Hero 331.

[candidvn]

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7375/12715086495_82d5779bf0_z.jpg

[Johan.Witt]

Excellent thread. Very inspirational. Thank you to everyone for sharing experiences and showing their art. Great stuff!

 

For those who enjoy learning from books, I recommend the two-book set by Bert Dodson:

-- Keys to Drawing, by Bert Dodson (1985)

-- Keys to Drawing with Imagination: Strategies and Exercises for Gaining Confidence and Enhancing Your Creativity, by Bert Dodson (2007)

 

These two are the best that I've found so far. By far. More how-to-draw book recs here: http://jan777.blogspot.com/2012/08/dr-awings-5-favorite-learn-how-to-draw.html

[Johan.Witt]

Enormous list of educational links on How to Draw with Pen and Ink : http://makingamark.squidoo.com/pen-and-ink

[tylchick]

Enormous list of educational links on How to Draw with Pen and Ink : http://makingamark.squidoo.com/pen-and-ink

 

Thanks so much for sharing this!

[Inkydinkydog]

Yes a great site. Thanks.

[candidvn]

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7441/12945591055_be08555f6e_z.jpg

[Finalist]

I've been soaking up Leigh Reyes youtube videos the past few days. I wanted to jump right into her style which is a really cool use of standing water on the page and then in a sort of organic fashion let the art take shape as the ink flows into the water. Also, adding standard line definition and other details. I filmed my first attempt, but ran out of memory half way through! The finished job has various colors and more detail... But then the water ran all over and turned the whole page into a wet blob! It's a start though...

 

 

Let me know if you know of anybody besides Leigh Reyes who uses the water drip style stuff.

Edited March 7, 2014 by Finalist

[Finalist]

Wasn't it national doodle day recently?

 

 

[Finalist]

I promise the pic is roght side up on my phone!?!

[weltyj]

FINALLY! Finished the drawing of the lumberjack. It was an experiment in a number of ways:

. First, I used vellum and traced general outlines.

. Second, vellum really does different thinks with ink -- ink likes to spread on it, but, the ink doesn't feather.

. Third, I used 3 pens, 3 inks.

 

The lumberjack is done using a Carbon Desk Pen, SF nib with carbon black ink. BTW, I *LOVE* this pen. It can sit idle for 6 weeks, and then I pick it up and it just starts. Never skips. Fabulous for making detailed lines.

 

The axe handle, the handle on the saw and the drawing of the two trees was done using a Nemosine Singularity pen, EF nib with Pilot Iroshizuku Yama Guri ink. I love the color it gives with the vellum paper, the sepia qualities of the ink really shine.

 

The foliage on the tree is done with a Hero 616 jumbo, using Noodler's Bad Green Gator ink.

 

I chose the Yama-Guri and the Bad Green Gator because I think they might fade over time to something compatible with each other.

---

 

Second drawing is a quickie -- one of my goals has been to be able to draw what I see, no pencil, no tracing, just start drawing with the pen. I was really happy with the way the rendering of my pant legs turned out. The table and the drawing of my daughter was done in about 30 seconds -- I was under orders to get in the kitchen and start cooking :-)

 

---

Third drawing is from Lohan -- #35. Here again I did not attempt to trace anything, simply looked at the picture and started drawing with the pen. If you look close, you'll see some major distortions compared to Lohan's. But part of the education for me is how to recover a drawing. When I was only 20% done with this I was thinking, uggh, this is awful, I'd give myself a "D" if I was grading it. But by the time I finished I was really pleased how it turned out.

 

---

Keep your drawings coming, I'm really enjoying seeing all the variations showing up here!

 

Cheers,

Jeff

[Sailor Kenshin]

Like!

[tylchick]

I am very much inspired by this thread (thanks daniellem for starting it) and the beautiful works of everyone. Have borrowed the Step by Step book from the library and then was very busy with work and life.

 

Finally got some time to breathe and draw a little - Exercise 1: the barn door, I had so much fun!!!

 

Thanks everyone!

 

Tracy

[Sailor Kenshin]

Nice! Materials used?

[daniellem]

Wow, really nice sketches being posted here lately!

 

Tracy, the Lohan barn door sketch is excellent -- your shading is especially good, I really get the feeling of a bright sunny day with the strong shadows on the door giving it such a real sense of depth. Love the brown ink -- what did you use?

[akohtz]

Nice work Tracy!

[tylchick]

Nice! Materials used?

 

 

Love the brown ink -- what did you use?

Hi Sailor and daniellem,

 

Too much of a rush that I forgot to put down the material used:

 

1. A set of black Pelikan 140 that I acquired lately. The fountain pen is of XF/F nib with semi-flex. It's my favorite Pelikan so far, I have to put some pressure to render a broad line, it helps me to slow down and draw a more steady line. But I can draw the very fine lines easily by using the back of the nib. A great pen with a very versatile nib. I used the pencil to draft and did the rest of the ink work with the fountain pen.

 

2. The ink is Iroshizuku's tsukushi. The only brown ink I have - a very nice warm brown.

 

3. For the paper, it's just some ordinary Maruman blank note paper. This paper is good to write, shows shading very well, but may be it's not strong enough for drawing. The area when I had to put heavy hatching became a bit worn...

[tylchick]

Nice! Materials used?

 

Wow, really nice sketches being posted here lately!

 

Tracy, the Lohan barn door sketch is excellent -- your shading is especially good, I really get the feeling of a bright sunny day with the strong shadows on the door giving it such a real sense of depth.

 

Nice work Tracy!

 

Thanks so much for your kind words and sharing!

 

daniellem: Thanks for pointing out that it's so important to go slow in your previous feedback so that we wouldn't miss the detail. I didn't finish the drawing at one go and took time to enjoy it.

 

Andrew: I followed your advice to read carefully the explanation of Lohan and went slowly step by step.

Edited March 19, 2014 by tylchick

[candidvn]