I continue to sit on my couch with a cat and a spouse scribbling my grotesques into the night, but now I am adding some new tools into the mix. I have been playing with the terrific Sailor Fude De Mannen fountain pen loaded with waterproof Platinum Carbon Ink for drawing in conjunction with a Pentel water brush filled one part grey fountain pen ink to three parts water for ink washes.
I’m still getting a handle on these new art materials, but I am having fun. The Sailor pen is a pleasure, but my ink wash brush is a little tricky. I have been trying a couple different grey fountain pen inks pictured at the top of the post. The Mont Blanc Oyster Grey appears a little greenish at first but becomes more neutral as it dries. The Diamine Earl Grey looks purple. There may be a couple other inks I try in order to find that pleasant neutral grey I am seeking.
A page of doodles showing the terrific variety of line weights provided by one Sailor fountain pen. The gray tones are from Diamine and Mont Blanc grey inks cut with water.
I am working my way through two different mixed media pads of paper — a Canson and a Strathmore. They are brands typical to art supply stores and each company has a long history of making quality art supplies. They take the ink and washes a whole lot better than the discount sketchbooks did. The cheap paper bled and wrinkled with the application of medium. The Strathmore and Canson books are a lot more predictable which is fine. Chasing down cheap sketch pads looking for that elusive Sketchbook from Heaven has resulted in more misses than hits. I think I will stick with the nicer paper. It’s readily available, and you get what you pay for.
Click on an image below for a larger picture.
It seems some things never change as I am still scratching out monsters.
Interesting set of ‘mixes’ there. And the creativity is amazing!
Thanks. Digital gets old so it’s time to get my hands dirty.