The Brush Pen Approach

2/7/13 Kuretake Fountain Brush Pen, Pitt Big Brush marker

A few weeks ago I did some brush pen portraits from old photos of my mother and father. The broad, relatively imprecise stroke of the brush pen forced me to look for the essence of the face and character of the person instead of obsessing about resemblance.

 

In the past when I’ve used brush markers in the field, it was usually to capture the essence of a landscape or eliminate the details from a wide open view that would otherwise overwhelm me. I decided to take out my brush pen again – this time to try for a few portraits from life. Interestingly, even though the brush still didn’t allow much detail, I think I captured the resemblance of some of these people better than I sometimes do with the fine point of a fountain pen.

2/7/13 Kuretake Fountain Brush Pen, Pitt Big Brush marker, Hand Book journal



2/7/13 Kuretake, Pitt Big Brush