I’ve wanted to do pen and ink drawings for .. well .. yonks. It’s one of those things that I was a bit to afraid to try because I was worried I’d be wasting my time and money. I’ve gone to the art store over and over and looked rather longingly at the various nibs and inks. In the end I’ve always put them back on the shelf. About 2 weeks ago I decided to take the plunge. I purchased a bottle of black ink and a couple of nibs and tried them out. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, no major catastrophes, but the sketches were very heavy. No delicacy or shading so I felt a bit discouraged. I read up on different types of inks and techniques and decided I needed one designed for drawing. A return to the art store was called for.

I love trips to the art store. All those pencils, inks and papers … I sometimes worry the staff think I’m some sort of a kook because I love running my fingers over different types of paper and mutter “ohhhhh” – it’s like porn for an artist. Anyway, I picked up 2 bottles of Winsor & Newton semi-transparent inks – Nut Brown and Peat Brown. I didn’t want plain black again. When I looked at my first attempts, the black looked so harsh. The browns have warmer, earthier tones that suit the little song birds I like to draw. The semi-transparent promised to be lighter and flow better which would make shading less onerous. I also picked up a few more nibs; something makes me think I’m going to be a bit brutal on them, so I will never have too many. I also grabbed more pencils, many, many pencils. Some women can never have enough shoes, I can never have enough pencils.

This evening, I sat at my desk scribbling on paper for about an hour, testing the nibs and how the ink flows. The ink was a revelation! It’s light, easy to use and lets you shade beautifully – from subtle outlines and shadows to darker edges. I kind of chewed on my lip for a bit debating about using the ink on one of my pencil sketches but was torn. What if I buggered up the picture? I really like pencil on paper and didn’t want to lose any of them. So I cheated a bit. I took one of the sketches I had scanned earlier, opened it in Photoshop and set the opacity to @ 25%. I grabbed a sheet of paper designed for pen and ink drawings, trimmed it to fit my printer and hit print. Worked like a charm! On the paper was a faint outline of the original pencil sketch which was a perfect guide. I propped the original up in front of my and put nib to paper and here you have my first complete pen and ink sketch, a lovely little chestnut warbler done in Peat Brown ink:

From Catpaw's Art work – birds

Printing a faint image onto specialty paper worked much better than I thought it would. Great way to practice and get the feel of pen and ink.
Here’s the original pencil sketch from ’09:

From Catpaw's Art work – birds

I want to run down to the store and pick up all the other colours, but I’ll have to contain myself. Practice with techniques and then reward myself later. But first, I need to solve the mystery of the missing black ink bottle. I forgot to put it away earlier in the week, something I don’t normally do because Cat loves to rustle around on my desk and take naps on it. Anything that doesn’t meet with his approval is summarily ejected from the desk. Damned if I haven’t seen the darned thing in 3 days now.

I was positively giddy with excitement when I heard all the birds singing their feathery hearts out earlier today.  Speaking of birds:

From Catpaw’s Art work – birds

I looked and didn’t see this little fellow posted, if he has been, well.. think of it as a spring repeat. I was testing out different types of pencils with him. Parts worked very well, other parts were a bit heavy handed. Initially I didn’t like him, but looking at him again, I rather like him. The head shape is just about correct.

I haven’t drawn much since I started feeling kind of ill. I’ll try again this week… I’m getting that itchy feeling when I get around pencils and paper. I’m going to take another stab at drawing cats again. Well… still a bit of daylight left to the day. I’m heading back out to enjoy it.

To make up for my whining here’s one of my latest little birds for you. I did this Tufted Titmouse during the holidays. I’m using both the classic Staedtler Mars Lumograph B 2B and 6B for the darkest parts of the birds. For the lighter softer downy feathers I’m using Cretacolor Fine Art Graphite pencils 2H HB Fine. The Cretacolor leads are terrific for creating a soft fluffy look and the leads are very durable. I tried some other brands but found the lead tips kept snapping off.  Staedtler and the Cretacolor hold a sharp point beautifully. I haven’t settled on either brand yet, but I’m enjoying a great deal of success in using them. The mechanical pencils were great but using a variety of pencils allows for more detailed and softer sketches. Well enjoy the bird, I’m off to the cafe for a latte and to draw a bit and dream of spring. Oh… spring… outdoor cafes, sunshine and warmth … sigh….

From Catpaw’s Art work – birds

To make amends for the endless snivelling about snow, cold and wind you are about to endure this winter, I present you with …. a bird:

From Catpaw’s Art work – birds

A Scrub Jay I drew back in the fall. I’ve been drawing a bit here and there this past month, but have been so busy with my new computer I’ve not spent a lot of time drawing. Well except for the unfortunate looking sparrows … but we won’t go any further with that short lived experiment. They are best left unseen. Let’s just say Frankenstein’s monster meets the Birdman comes to mind. See, I’m still struggling with new pencils and techniques so some of my pictures are a wee bit embarassing. Although the other day I did manage a passable attempt at a song bird. I haven’t hooked my scanner up yet, so I can’t load up anything new. I’ll stop being lazy today and hook it up so I can show you some of my newer birds.. or maybe tomorrow…is it spring yet?

And now the tweet:

From Catpaw’s Art work – birds
Rather striking little Flycatcher, isn’t he. I’ve been working on sketching leaves this week. On Sunday I went out and collected a load of them and then ironed them in wax-paper. I felt like I was 6 years old again! Cheap ass wax-paper company sure skimped on the wax though. Most of the leaves are extremely dry already because there was so little wax on the paper. So I’ve thrown some of the best leaves into a book to keep them.

Leaves are a lot harder to draw than you would think. You just know you are likely going to see a lot of leaves in the next few weeks as I practice getting them right.