Tree in India Ink
10″x14″, India ink on Khadi watercolor paper
Beach Chairs in India Ink
10″ x 14, India ink on Khadi watercolor paper
About six months ago I splurged and purchased a reusable fineliner/brush pen called the Lumos Pro by Tom’s Studio. I used it quite a bit, enjoying the fact that I could use fountain pen ink in a clever wick-filling pen, and I could interchange the nibs. However, I ran into some problems when using handmade paper. The ink would stop flowing. On a more hot-pressed or smooth paper, it worked just fine.
For my birthday, I again treated myself to another small company artist’s pen. This one is the Indigraph, a fountain pen made specifically for India ink with a small water reservoir in the cap that keeps the ink from drying out. It works great. This pen is more usable on handmade paper than the Lumos, but the nib does get paper fibers stuck in it, so I have to be a little careful.
Indigraph is on top, and the Lumos Pro is on the bottom.
Between the two, I’m a little more fond of the Indigraph. It’s a comfortable pen, and I find a fountain pen nib works well with a variety of paper types, and India ink is such a wonderful, permanent medium. I far prefer the Indigraph’s design because it’s so easy to twist off the cap. The Lumos is difficult–the threads are just too fine for me. However, they’re both lovely, and every pen and ink drawing I’ve done in recent months has used one or the other, with the exception of the recent ballpoint pen drawing.
Pine using Ballpoint Pen
10″ x 14″, ballpoint ink on Khadi watercolor paper
I completed a small pencil sketch of this same scene a few months ago, and I kept it in the back of my mind that I’d like to do a larger piece. So, I did. Although I really like using a simple ballpoint pen, I have some concerns about the ink fading, absorbing into the paper, or containing strange, acidic ingredients. I’ll probably call it a fad and return to fountain pens, but it was awfully nice to create such a nice, inky-dark drawing with one simple tool. Well, I also used a water brush to lightly dilute some of the ink, which was mildly water soluble. I like that little bit of shading it creates.
Ballpoint Pen Fun
Ballpoint pen is surprisingly fun but also a little messy as an art medium. Watch out for smearing!
Stalogy pen with black, low-viscosity ink on Canson multimedia paper
I based this off a photo I took at the precise moment a Great Blue Heron dove for a fish. My camera, a Canon PowerShot sx740 HS, is perfect for carrying around in my purse, but I haven’t mastered taking a really great photo, especially from a distance. That hasn’t stopped me from using it all the time, and nearly all my artwork is from my own reference photos.
In real life, the fish wasn’t as lucky as the one I drew. I added the fish and then decided to keep the theme of “almost” going by adding the little, tiny dragonfly above the fish.
