A chicken, getting ready to turn, and two snoozing ducks. Plus, I bought a goofy pen, the Majohn Q1 with a bent (fude) nib because of its unusual size and the large ink capacity. So far, I really like it. I also picked up this little Lamy mechanical pencil, which is designed for children. Works for me.
I’m still enjoying my new mineral paper sketchbook, mostly choosing ink and pencils this past week.
I used ink with some sprinkles of salt to create this moody background, and then I used Faber-Castell Pitt matt graphite pencils for the Junco and branches. I never get tired of drawing a little bird in a tree.
More ink for this cup plant leaf.
And colored pencil for these Goldfinches with a few ink dried plants.
I bought an 8”x10” Gelli plate to play around with. You know how it goes… one day I spotted a video on making monotypes on a Gelli plate, and the next day I’m researching small printing presses! Luckily, common sense, limited space, and a total lack of the understanding of print making brought me right back to buying an inexpensive Gelli plate.
Monotypes are weird because you have to ask yourself, why am I not painting this on a piece of paper? A monotype is a one-shot deal. You can get ghost (second) prints but they’re only that, a ghostly image. I purchased this specifically to be able to create a moody and somewhat unpredictable background that I’d draw or paint over. Honestly, so far that hasn’t really happened. I think it will take a lot of practice to achieve what’s in my imagination.
So far, I’ve practiced with block printing ink and an old brayer, with Neocolors and drops of ink. I’ve had some fun with stencils and filling in the open areas with crosshatching, which is very freeing and gets me to loosen up and embrace stylizing.
I started using mineral paper over four years ago, and I was immediately intrigued. I first purchased a Terraskin sketchbook, which was awesome because the paper was thicker than another brand I purchased later, after Terraskin disappeared. I also purchased ten single sheets of 14 pt paper, very thick and impossible to find any more.
When Etched started promoting this new sketchbook a few months ago, I bought one right away. I already knew about the pluses and minuses of stone paper (eco/water-free production, waterproof, and takes most mediums, but not archival so use a UV spray and/or frame behind museum glass), so I put in my order without thinking too hard about the price tag of $50.
The sketchbook is nice, the paper thick enough to be far better than other stone paper notebooks, and I like it so far. The only thing I was surprised by is that my sketchbook was shipped from China and took several weeks to get through customs. It would have been much appreciated to have been given information about where the book was shipping from.