Learning To Draw With Pen & Ink

[inkstainedruth]

Okay, I've been totally inspired by this thread. So much so that I went to the library today to see about taking out the Lohan book on pen sketching mentioned. Sadly, it wasn't available (in transit for a hold at another branch) for the time being, but I did take out another Lohan book, on pen and ink techniques.

I also was in a bookstore last night and bought the _Drawing on the Right Side of Your Brain_ workbook (I have the original DotRSoYB, but haven't ever really looked at it -- it was one of those "in my copious amount of free time" purchases a couple of years ago). I still don't have the time, really, but I'm going to try and carve some out of my day. Only not tomorrow -- tomorrow is combing wool and spinning, mostly. And possibly flushing out a pen or two. And there are these "Evil-bay" auctions I'm following. Plus having to send someone information on a class I'm teaching next month, and making hotel reservations for a thing I have to go to with my choir in a couple of weeks, and getting a couple of non-FP related drawings done.... And maybe getting a cake baked for my husband's birthday, which was Thursday.

Sigh. I have way too many hobbies.... Oh yeah, and there's also dishes and laundry and tax paperwork, and dealing with contractor estimates for work done on the house, and bills, and....

So what am I doing? Cranking through 18 pages of new posts on FPN....http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/smiley-confused005.gif

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Rita_K]

Wow!

 

What an awesome interplay between light/heavy lines and blank space. You can feel the turmoil. Like the drawing, I'm blown away.

 

Thanks notbob. There certainly was a lot of turmoil going on that night. Glad you think the drawing captured it.

 

 

Rita, your sketches are gorgeous! I have always been drawn to bold, graphic linework, and the tree is a great example of that. The lake scene is just lovely. Are the color washes ink, or watercolor?

 

Thank you . It was the first time I had ever attempted line-work like that. I couldn't see very well with the candlelight so details were not an option. The lake scene was done entirely with fountain pen ink. The washes are a great way to use up the last few drops of my ink samples.

[ethernautrix]

The way I've been teaching myself is by copying photos of buildings from a book called EGON SCHIELE LANDSCAPES and copying from others' art, such as Subramaniyam's cathedral and, just now, one of Schiele's drawings:

 

Rita, I really like your Hurricane Sandy-inspired drawing, too.

 

I love these drawing threads.

 

EDIT: So awkward uploading and such on this smaaahtphone. Anyway, daniellem, plistumi has at least two notebooks -- who knows how many she has now? :-)

Edited April 7, 2013 by ethernautrix

[suexilin]

 

 

 

:thumbup:

 

Oooo, shinyyyy. 'Red' looks like a Miyazaki character!

 

What color inks did you use?

 

I had to google Miyazaki

 

Thanks, on behalf of my Red

 

I have seen Howl's Moving Castle, and Spirited Away, now they are connected with a name and I shall track down his other movies

 

The inks used are - for Red Riding hood - Burgundy colour, made from penbbs.com members, and for the the other - i believe it was Platinum blue black. If not, then Dux blue black.

[daniellem]

inkstainedruth: You do indeed have many hobbies -- sounds wonderful! :-) How do you find time for it all?

 

suexilin: Your "Red" does look like a Miyazaki heroine! Be sure to check out "My Neighbor Totoro" when you see his other films. The art (and music) in it is amazing, and it's a really sweet story, too.

 

ethernautrix: I will have to check out Egon Schiele, I had never heard of him before. The drawing of the child covered in flowers (both the original and your version) is fantastic.

[Rita_K]

 

 

Rita, I really like your Hurricane Sandy-inspired drawing, too.

 

I love these drawing threads.

 

 

Thanks Lisa. It certainly was a departure from my pencil work.

I love these drawing threads too. They're very inspiring.

 

Talk about being inspired, I just had a look at your Cathedral Variations. What a great idea for a sketching project and your drawings are just wonderful. What size are they ? Loved your version of Schiele's child in the flower meadow as well.

[Paddler]

The books arrived, finally, and I am starting work.

 

Oh, and while waiting for the USPS, I found a couple of tricks you might be interested in:

 

1.) If you are working from a photograph, you can scan it into your computer and use Photoshop (or about any other graphics program) to size it properly and print it onto thin paper. Then coat the back of the paper with graphite and trace outlines onto your Bristol board or whatever.

 

2.) Then have the computer convert the picture to black-and-white. You can then play with the brightness and contrast controls to find shadow shapes and densities. This could take the guesswork out of it until your eye gets educated.

[Sailor Kenshin]

Im back, and I got my new book!

 

Here's a sketch probably done on vellum. He is also my avvy.

 

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8533/8628004975_8d53c7eae8_z.jpg

 

Does anyone have sketchbook recommendations for me? The teeny thing I'm stubbornly using up is both too thick and fp-hostile. And did I mention teeny?

 

I would like something perhaps spiral-bound, no bigger than 9x12 but waay bigger than my postcard-sized current book. Heh.

 

Wonderful to see everyone's work!

[subramaniyam]

Im back, and I got my new book!

 

Here's a sketch probably done on vellum. He is also my avvy.

 

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8533/8628004975_8d53c7eae8_z.jpg

 

Does anyone have sketchbook recommendations for me? The teeny thing I'm stubbornly using up is both too thick and fp-hostile. And did I mention teeny?

 

I would like something perhaps spiral-bound, no bigger than 9x12 but waay bigger than my postcard-sized current book. Heh.

 

Wonderful to see everyone's work!

 

I actually prefer drawing in smaller books. I bound my own sketchbook using cartridge paper, 8X5 inches. I find that cartridge paper is more resilient to washes and is FP friendly (almost). :-)

 

Nice sketch, BTW.

 

Regards,

Subramaniyam

[Rita_K]

Paddler, I look forward to hearing about your experiences with the Lohan book and seeing your sketches.

 

Sailor Kenshin, great sketch !

 

Pen Sketcher's notebooks by Bee Paper Company are very good. They are spiral bound and come in either 5.5 X 8.5 or 8.5 X 11 . The paper is smooth .. almost feels like Bristol Smooth paper and is sturdy enough to handle a light ink wash without too much buckling. It is very reasonably priced at Dick Blick .

[daniellem]

Great to have so many folks joining in with the pen&ink study -- looking forward to seeing everyone's sketches!

 

The books arrived, finally, and I am starting work.

 

Oh, and while waiting for the USPS, I found a couple of tricks you might be interested in:

 

1.) If you are working from a photograph, you can scan it into your computer and use Photoshop (or about any other graphics program) to size it properly and print it onto thin paper. Then coat the back of the paper with graphite and trace outlines onto your Bristol board or whatever.

 

2.) Then have the computer convert the picture to black-and-white. You can then play with the brightness and contrast controls to find shadow shapes and densities. This could take the guesswork out of it until your eye gets educated.

 

 

Paddler, thanks so much for these tips. I've used the method of tracing onto tracing paper, then coating the back with graphite and retracing onto Bristol. But this is so much easier, and I like the idea of using Photoshop to adjust the contrast to help with separating values. I want to try this with a photo of my son -- so far any attempts to draw him freehand have failed miserably, and I bet this will help.

 

 

 

Does anyone have sketchbook recommendations for me? The teeny thing I'm stubbornly using up is both too thick and fp-hostile. And did I mention teeny?

 

I would like something perhaps spiral-bound, no bigger than 9x12 but waay bigger than my postcard-sized current book. Heh.

 

Wonderful to see everyone's work!

 

Sailor, I really like your avatar sketch, the lines are very confident and still loose -- I hope I can get to that point during this process. So far when I try to loosen up all the detail gets lost, I really want to work to figure out that balance between slow, precise work and free, looser work.

 

I'm with Subramaniyam in thinking a smaller sketchbook is better for pen & ink work -- especially the Lohan studies because they would take forever to execute at a large size! In fact, he recommends keeping the studies pretty small in the book I've been working from. Of course, you could always put multiple studies on the same page in a bigger sketchbook!

 

I've been using the Stillman&Birn Epsilon series spiral sketchbook (vellum surface) and highly recommend it -- the paper is made for pen and ink work and is very thick and smooth. I'm using both sides of the pages and have not had any problems with bleedthrough at all, even in the heavy black sections. Probably wouldn't be the best choice if you'll be doing any heavy washes, though. Light washes might be ok. S&B just came out with a new range of sketchbooks called "Zeta" which have heavier-weight pages with the smooth surface that might be better for pen&ink washes if you aren't working the paper too hard. I haven't tried it yet myself, but I read a great review of it online here: Drawn to Life Zeta Review

[subramaniyam]

Great to have so many folks joining in with the pen&ink study -- looking forward to seeing everyone's sketches!

 

The books arrived, finally, and I am starting work.

 

Oh, and while waiting for the USPS, I found a couple of tricks you might be interested in:

 

1.) If you are working from a photograph, you can scan it into your computer and use Photoshop (or about any other graphics program) to size it properly and print it onto thin paper. Then coat the back of the paper with graphite and trace outlines onto your Bristol board or whatever.

 

2.) Then have the computer convert the picture to black-and-white. You can then play with the brightness and contrast controls to find shadow shapes and densities. This could take the guesswork out of it until your eye gets educated.

 

 

Paddler, thanks so much for these tips. I've used the method of tracing onto tracing paper, then coating the back with graphite and retracing onto Bristol. But this is so much easier, and I like the idea of using Photoshop to adjust the contrast to help with separating values. I want to try this with a photo of my son -- so far any attempts to draw him freehand have failed miserably, and I bet this will help.

 

 

 

Does anyone have sketchbook recommendations for me? The teeny thing I'm stubbornly using up is both too thick and fp-hostile. And did I mention teeny?

 

I would like something perhaps spiral-bound, no bigger than 9x12 but waay bigger than my postcard-sized current book. Heh.

 

Wonderful to see everyone's work!

 

I'm with Subramaniyam in thinking a smaller sketchbook is better for pen & ink work -- especially the Lohan studies because they would take forever to execute at a large size! In fact, he recommends keeping the studies pretty small in the book I've been working from. Of course, you could always put multiple studies on the same page in a bigger sketchbook!

 

 

Another reason is that the larger the paper, more the number of strokes you need, which could (in my experience)

a. Smoothen the nib and make it better

b. Damage the nib if it picks up too paper many fibres, especially if the paper soaks up ink. I had this problem with my camlin ED pen. Initially, it seemed to be fine, but later I had occasional splotches of thick lines. On examination under the loupe, I found several fibres between the tines and had to remove them.

 

YMMV, though.

 

Regards,

Subramaniyam

[Sailor Kenshin]

Paddler, I look forward to hearing about your experiences with the Lohan book and seeing your sketches.

 

Sailor Kenshin, great sketch !

 

Pen Sketcher's notebooks by Bee Paper Company are very good. They are spiral bound and come in either 5.5 X 8.5 or 8.5 X 11 . The paper is smooth .. almost feels like Bristol Smooth paper and is sturdy enough to handle a light ink wash without too much buckling. It is very reasonably priced at Dick Blick .

 

Thanks! Isn't it weird that I was going to place an order with Blick's this week? I'll add in one of those books. And thanks everyone. I WILL finish that teeny sketchbook 'cause I'm stubborn like that. About ten pages to go.

[Rita_K]

Thanks! Isn't it weird that I was going to place an order with Blick's this week? I'll add in one of those books. And thanks everyone. I WILL finish that teeny sketchbook 'cause I'm stubborn like that. About ten pages to go.

Let me know how you like it. I use the 5.5 X 8.5 size and find it to be very convenient. At the price it's certainly worth a try.

[notbob]

S&B just came out with a new range of sketchbooks called "Zeta" which have heavier-weight pages with the smooth surface that might be better for pen&ink washes if you aren't working the paper too hard. I haven't tried it yet myself, but I read a great review of it online here: Drawn to Life Zeta Review

 

This thread jes keeps getting better and better. Great notebook/paper review and awesome blog link. Thanks again, dani.

[camoandconcrete]

Thanks! Isn't it weird that I was going to place an order with Blick's this week? I'll add in one of those books. And thanks everyone. I WILL finish that teeny sketchbook 'cause I'm stubborn like that. About ten pages to go.

Let me know how you like it. I use the 5.5 X 8.5 size and find it to be very convenient. At the price it's certainly worth a try.

 

I use the 5.5 x 8.5 Handbook brand sketchbook for smaller pencil and/or ink sketches. For larger perspectives and drawings I use 11 x 14 Stillman and Birn Beta Sketchbooks. I like having a mixture of sizes to work with.

[daniellem]

Paddler, I look forward to hearing about your experiences with the Lohan book and seeing your sketches.

 

Sailor Kenshin, great sketch !

 

Pen Sketcher's notebooks by Bee Paper Company are very good. They are spiral bound and come in either 5.5 X 8.5 or 8.5 X 11 . The paper is smooth .. almost feels like Bristol Smooth paper and is sturdy enough to handle a light ink wash without too much buckling. It is very reasonably priced at Dick Blick .

 

Rita, I just had a look at your website. Oh my -- your pencil drawings are exquisite! HOW do you do that???? Amazing....

 

[subramaniyam]

Any new sketches, Danielle?

[daniellem]

Any new sketches, Danielle?

 

Work has kept me too busy this week to get much sketching time in, so not much to show I'm afraid. However I'm still trying to get some pen practice in every day -- value/tone studies, textures, etc. That way I feel like I'm still making some progress! Keeping to the new mantra of "Not a day without a line..."

 

Stuff like this:

 

 

The blue patches on the right were done with an old Waterman eyedropper that's been in a desk drawer for years. I finally got it working a few weeks ago and have been having a lot of fun with the flexible nib! It's kind of scratchy and wiggles around in the feed a bit, but it sure puts down a nice line...

 

And in the meantime I'm certainly enjoying seeing everyone else's sketches!

[Paddler]

I have a question: how does one know when his drawing is finished?

 

I used to be heavily into B&W photography. In that medium, for most general subjects, the image should contain at least one place, however small, that is completely white (or at least as white as the backing paper). There should also be a place, however small, that is completely black (as black as a given emulsion can make it). When you get that right, the image will just pop.

 

When I look at Lohan's demonstrations, it seems that, by the above criteria, there is too much white space and too much black space. That means the contrast is too high and some things are blocked up and others are burned out. How does one judge a pen and ink drawing in this respect?