Graphitint + Ink
I started using my fountain pen with black ink to add some line work to this sketchbook. In some cases, I gave up on adding any color at all, preferring the dramatic effect that ink brings to white paper.
Category: Ink
A Grackle Tryptich
I’ve been enamored with Grackles, and I’ve finished four drawings in the past few weeks. Three of them are of the same Grackle, who sat patiently on a branch, calling repeatedly to warn away other males in the area. This is the third colored pencil drawing on Ampersand Artistbord, and I think they have a neat feeling when they’re all together. I enjoy drawing the branch as much as the bird.
I’ve been experimenting with using fixative on these with hopes they can be framed without glass.
Common Grackle
Probably best described as multimedia, I started with an Artist Bord by Ampersand and covered it with a coat of Golden Silverpoint Drawing Ground. My first thought was to use metalpoint, but after sketching in the birds on both, I switched to colored pencil. I used some blue ink for the backgrounds, and on the larger piece, I used an aluminum scrubber pad to place some blurry tree branches and a border.
Oo-ka-lee!
Red-winged blackbirds are back and singing like crazy.
I snapped about a dozen pictures of this guy way up into the treetops. I cropped the three picture I liked the best that showed a progression and then simplified them when I sketched them first in pencil, then in ink.
