Dancing Lines, Part 1: Ch'ng Kiah Kiean

7/14/17 KK giving a presentation on his tools and methods.

Seattle-area sketchers – and, as it turned out, many people who came from out of town, including as far as Costa Rica – had a fantastic opportunity this past weekend in the Dancing Lines workshop. Sponsored by Urban Sketchers Seattle, the workshop brought in Penang, Malaysia, artist Ch'ng Kiah Kiean (better known as KK) and New York City artist Melanie Reim. I’m very grateful to USk Seattle for making this opportunity possible. It was like having a mini symposium in our own backyard!

The two-day workshop kicked off Friday night with a meet-and-greet and presentations by the instructors at Daniel Smith’s Seattle store. To give all 30 workshop participants time with each instructor in each of two locations, the students were divided in half, and both groups met with both instructors each day. For better continuity in helping me document what I learned, my blog posts will cover each instructor’s curriculum instead of the chronology of the workshop days. Today’s post will focus on KK; the next will cover Melanie.

On Saturday morning at the Seattle Center, my group met with KK, who started off with an introduction to his simple tools. Well-known in the USk community for creating amazing paintings with nothing more than a twig and Chinese ink, KK generously provided each of us with a stick. These were no ordinary twigs from a jasmine tree; they were hand-prepped by his own father, who has helped prep hundreds of such twigs for KK’s workshops. He also gave us a small sponge in a plastic box for “dry ink” toning and a small jar with gauze to hold ink for his primary drawing method.

Carving jasmine twigs into drawing instruments.

Demonstrating various lines he is able to get with a single twig.

Here's the way KK carves his twig "nibs."

KK coached us in carving the ends of our sticks into a nib shape. Surprisingly, he usually re-carves his own twigs before beginning each sketch to customize the size of the “nibs” for the subject matter and to freshen the points. He also demonstrated how he uses inexpensive commercial stencil brushes to scumble tone on drawings. Seated at shady picnic tables behind the Museum of Popular Culture building, we practiced using our humble tools. He advised us not to hold the twig like a pencil but more like a piece of charcoal or upright like a brush.

After that bit of practice, we walked around to the front of MoPOP in the shadow of the Space Needle. KK gave us a full demo by sketching those two Seattle icons, and then it was our turn. 

Demo at the Seattle Center.

KK's finished sketch of the Space Needle and MoPOP.

Although I wasn’t new to KK’s twiggy methods (I saw his demo at the Paraty symposium three years ago but haven’t practiced twig sketching in quite a while), scumbling with a stencil brush was new to me. I like the soft, charcoal-like tones I can get from it, and if the stencil brush is small enough, it can also be used to help form the shapes (as in the rounding of the crazy, organic MoPOP building façade).

7/15/17 My humble attempt at the same
subject matter with Chinese ink, twig, stencil brush

The second day my group spent the afternoon with KK at the Pike Place Market. In a similar format to the first day, he began with a full demo of his drawing and painting methods. Sheltered in a quiet, windowed spot inside the new MarketFront (our temps in the high 60s were a bit chilly for this Malaysian!), he made a magnificent panorama of the waterfront view. This time he added subtle color with watercolors. I tried to learn as much as I could from observing his process, but honestly, I simply enjoyed watching him the way I enjoy a magician’s performance: Even if I don’t know what’s going on, it’s sheer pleasure seeing how he wields his simple materials.

Sketching the waterfront through the window at the Pike Place Market's MarketFront.

KK adds touches of watercolor to his finished drawing.

His completed masterpiece.

Our exercise for the rest of the afternoon was to again practice using our tools and techniques learned the previous day and add color if desired. I picked a scene similar to the one I sketched a couple weeks ago when I visited the MarketFront with USk, but this time I focused on the skyscrapers to the east instead of the viaduct and waterfront. Although I felt cramped by the 5 ½-by-8 ½-inch sketchbook I had brought to the workshop with a twig “nib” much fatter than my usual fountain pens and even markers, I was happy with the tones I achieved using nothing more than the twig, stencil brush and Chinese ink. (I used my usual water-soluble colored pencils to add spots of color.)

7/16/17 Chinese ink, twig, stencil brush

As a segue to my report of the sessions with Melanie Reim in the next blog post, I want to show you a couple of photos from the end of our first workshop day: A sketch made by KK and Melanie simultaneously! Right-handed Melanie and lefty KK sat side by side on the ground in front of the huge glass flowers marking Chihuly’s Garden and Glass museum. I applaud their courage for taking on this challenge that was as much performance art as urban sketching! The fabulous collaborative sketch will be auctioned at the Chicago symposium next week, so if you like it, place your bid!

KK and Melanie: dueling pens and sticks!

This uniquely executed sketch will be auctioned at the Chicago symposium!

Sketchbook Review: Two Favorites for Life Drawing

1/25/16 Sailor Nagomi brush pen, Canson All-Media Book (5-min. pose)

In the past few of years since I started attending life-drawing sessions somewhat regularly (at least during the wet-weather months), I’ve tried various sketchbook types and formats. I needed something larger than my usual 6-by-9-inch “Stefano” size, and since I burn through a lot of pages in a typical three-hour session, I wanted the paper to be relatively inexpensive yet friendly to a variety of media. The book had to be bound in a way that would make flipping quickly from page to page easy (during the very short poses that change without a break, it’s critical not to lose time fussing with materials).

A tall order? As usual, yes, but I’m really happy with the two favorites I’ve stuck with the past couple of years.

Canson Drawing Book and All-Media Book

During the one- and two-minute poses, I like using fast-moving non-hairy brush pens and markers, so the Canson Field Drawing Book’s smooth, cream-colored sheets are ideal. (Dickblick.com describes the paper as 80 pound, so the product must have changed over time, as the label on the ones I’ve been using says it’s 90 pound.) I’ve also used some traditional life-drawing media like Conte pencil and sanguine, and it’s a nice surface for those, too.

1/18/16 Zebra brush pen, Canson
Field Drawing Book (2-min. pose)

When the model starts doing longer poses, I enjoy using water-soluble media for shading, so I switch to the Canson Montval Field All-Media Book. The 90-pound sheets have a cold-press texture that feels a little toothier than the CansonXL 140-pound watercolor and Canson XL 98-pound mixed-media paper I’ve been using in my day-to-day sketchbook, and I like it for that reason. My hairy brush pens pick up the relatively coarse texture in a pleasing way. The paper weight is probably too light for a full-wash watercolor (which I’d be unlikely to do in life drawing anyway), but the sizing on it is ideal for washing water-soluble brush pen and fountain pen inks to subtly shade the human form. I’ve also used ink-filled waterbrushes and applied India ink to it with a twig, and the paper holds up well to both.

1/23/14 Conte pencil, Canson Drawing
Book 

In both cases, I use the 9-by-12-inch, hardcover, spiral-bound format. If I were sketching on-location, that size would be too big and heavy to carry around or use when standing. But in life drawing, where I always have a chair, the format works well: I prop one edge on my lap and hold it up like a self-easel, and the spiral binding makes it easy to flip the page quickly and turn the book over when a pose changes.

Carrying the two large sketchbooks (plus a case full of pens and pencils) in a tote is a bit heavier than my usual daily bag, but it’s a lot easier than the 18-by-24 portfolio bags I see the other figure-drawing participants hauling around! Compared to them, I’m always traveling light.

1/15/15 water-soluble colored pencil,
ink, Canson All-Media Book
(10-min. pose)

11/21/14 India ink, Canson All-Media
Book (20-min. pose)

11/21/14 fountain pen, Canson All-
Media Book (25-min. pose)

Silhouette

10/29/15 India ink, Zig marker

The sun was up, but the thick cloud cover darkened the morning like it was already late afternoon. On my way back from an early errand in Shoreline, I saw these trees and power poles silhouetted against the sky.

(It’s difficult to see in the photo below, but the twig I used to sketch is in my hand. I like showing the drawing instrument in the photos I’ve been taking for Inktober. I might continue to do it, as long as I remember!) 

Gratitude

10/15/15 India ink, twig

This curving, lamp-lit street is my favorite on Queen Anne Hill. I’ve sketched it at least a couple of times before, most recently last year, and that curved perspective never ceases to be challenging, yet I still haven’t tired of sketching it. When I lived close by, I walked along Highland Drive often, so the street brings back fond memories. Greg and I even had some wedding photos taken there.

Today I was in the Queen Anne neighborhood to visit someone dear who is now in hospice care. It’s likely to be the last time I’ll see her. On this beautiful fall afternoon, the breeze chilly despite the sunshine, I was filled with grief as well as gratitude to be alive to sketch this scene.

Three Maples Revisited

10/14/15 India ink, watercolor

Almost a month ago, I sketched this same traffic circle with three slender maples in the Greenwood neighborhood. The two on the left were still completely green, while the third was turning beautifully. I had made a note on my calendar to visit again after a few weeks to see if the green ones had turned yet. Today I saw traces of orange, but not as much as I had expected. It was obvious, though, that the strong wind we had a few days ago had taken a lot of leaves down from the one on the right. It might be bald the next time I visit.

As you can see, I’ve forgotten all about my self-imposed rule to use only ink in sketches I post with the #inktober hashtag. However, to keep the emphasis on the ink, I used that most basic yet also the most challenging ink-application tool I know of: the lowly twig. 

Same Pose, This Time With Ink Washes

6/16/15 India ink washes, Zebra Comic G dip pen,
Fabriano 113 lb. drawing/watercolor paper

Today was the last session of the ink-drawing class I took at Gage, and I’m sad to see it end. I learned so much about seeing and building up values with either pen and ink hatching or brush washes. Instructor Eric Elliott gives excellent feedback. (He has an uncanny knack for anticipating the grave error I’m about to make – and then suggests another tact just before I make it!) I also enjoyed the sustained continuity of taking a 10-week course. I’m used to doing weekend or one-day workshops, where it’s more like an overview or an intensive crash course. Meeting weekly over an academic quarter gives me time to think about what I learned the previous weeks and apply them to later lessons.

For our final class, Danielle, our model from last week, returned and resumed the same pose for students who wanted to continue the same drawing. I decided to start a fresh drawing – this time with washes of ink plus a little detail work with my Zebra Comic G dip pen. Although I enjoy hatching, using ink washes is probably a better way to learn to see and apply values more accurately. I’m not inclined to use India ink washes for urban sketching, but diluted India ink will layer just like watercolor glazes, so I can apply the same principles to color.

6/16/15 India ink washes

After I finished my main drawing, I had some time left, so I did a few quick ink wash drawings using a large sumi brush, including one portrait.

Although I’m going to miss having this weekly class to look forward to, I can’t say I’ll miss sitting in a Gage classroom on warm and sunny afternoons. The Gage catalog for summer quarter just came out, and while I was tempted by a number of interesting course descriptions, I’m not signing up again until fall. In the summer, this girl just wants to have fun – sketching outdoors!

Toga Party

6/9/15 India ink, graphite, Canson 98 lb. mixed-media paper

The ink-drawing class I’m taking this quarter is coming to a close. Yesterday and at next week’s final class, we are using our choice of all the techniques we’ve learned in hatching and shading using pen and ink, ink washes and sumi-e to render a model. To make it more “interesting,” the model was draped in fabric, toga-style.

Rendering all that draped fabric was definitely challenging, but even as I grumbled through today’s exercise, I realized the draping was a good move. All the hatching techniques I learned from Van Gogh, Raphael and other masters seemed to have escaped me when presented with a live model. Bare skin would have been even more challenging, at least in pen and ink, which was my choice today. I decided I couldn’t bear to shade the delicate contours of Danielle’s face with hatching, so I did that part with graphite.

Next week I think I’ll give myself a break and use ink washes instead!

Sumi Paintings

6/2/15 India ink, sumi brush, Fabriano hot press paper

I’m working on a couple of travel follow-up posts (a teaser: one is on what I bought in Paris, and the other is about my travel sketch kit successes and failures), but before I get to those, I’m going to interrupt our regular programming with a few paintings from my ongoing ink-drawing class at Gage. While I was in France, I regretting missing two classes on a topic I really love: sumi painting. The instructor had given me the handouts for the classes I would miss, and I practiced some traditional sumi-e painting strokes on my own the day before I left for France, but it was difficult without demos.

Yesterday in class, I felt a little behind since I hadn’t practiced copying the masters first, but I tried my best on these sumi paintings (we actually used India ink, not traditional sumi), which were copied from photos. Even though I need a lot of practice to master using a sumi brush, which behaves very differently from a traditional paint brush (or the waterbrush I’m more used to!), I do love the elegance of defining a form as simply as possible and with as few brush strokes as possible.

More Values

5/12/15 India ink wash, Zebra Comic G dip pen, Fabriano 140 lb. hot press paper

Original drawing by Rembrandt

Remember the values lesson I talked about last month when I took the intro to ink drawing workshop? Yesterday’s class was another reminder of that all-important concept as we again copied masters, this time with varying dilutions of India ink.

Although it was somewhat of a relief to get away from all that hatching, halfway through my first exercise (below, copied from a master whose name I’ve forgotten) I actually found myself missing all those tiny ink marks. Without the structure of initial lines, painting in shapes with nothing but ink washes can be almost as tedious. I had a fairly wide range of brush sizes in my arsenal, but somehow none seemed small enough for some of the tiny details apparent in the masterwork. But I tried my best to at least capture the range of values correctly.

The second exercise, a drawing of a lion by Rembrandt (above), was somewhat easier because we could use both line and wash, taking the best parts of both hatching and washes. 

5/12/15 India ink washes, Strathmore 400 140 lb. cold press paper

Original masterwork

Channeling Van Gogh

5/5/15 India ink, dip pen, Bristol board

While I found last week’s ink drawing class exercise of copying Van Gogh more liberating than previous masters we copied, I would certainly not say it was easy. Today’s class exercise kicked it up yet another notch: using Van Gogh’s hatching techniques to draw a subject of our choosing. Instructor Eric Elliott gave us the option of drawing from a photo, a still life or through the window. Of course you know which I chose.

Our second-floor classroom windows look out on the neighboring elementary school’s playground and some of the many large trees that the Capitol Hill neighborhood is known for (see below). If I had been wearing MiataGrrl’s normal urban sketcher’s hat, I probably would have focused more closely on the playground and the kids, and I might have included part of the tree to the left for context, but I definitely would have left out that mass of trees in the background. Today, however, I had to channel my inner Vincent and ask, What would he have sketched? Based on the drawings I’ve been studying, he most certainly would have included all the trees, and what’s more, he would have found a way to distinguish one tree from another by differentiating the types of hatch marks used.

I hatched and hatched and hatched some more, and nearly three hours later, I probably wasn’t done, but the class was over, and I was tired, so I called it good. In addition to marveling at Van Gogh’s remarkable and beautiful work, the other thought in my mind is this: Why the heck did I use the entire sheet of 11-by-14-inch paper to make this sketch? (Sorry about the dark image; it wouldn’t fit on my scanner so I had to use my phone to photograph it.)

Emulating Vincent

4/28/15 India ink, Zebra Comic G dip pen, Bristol board (from image of
Van Gogh drawing, below)

Unlike wood cut prints or the fine hatch marks of some of the other masters we’ve been copying, Van Gogh’s lines are more organic and irregular – a huge bonus for me in this week’s class. Although copying his drawings is just as labor-intensive and time-consuming as the previous assignments, I find it somewhat easier to make his curvy line strokes rather than straight ones. It is fascinating to study the originals and see the wide variety of strokes he used to convey light/dark or foreground/distance.

As my classmates and I silently scratched away with our dip pens trying to emulate the master, our instructor Eric Elliott read a bit to us from a book containing a large collection of Van Gogh’s drawings. Apparently Van Gogh used a reed quill – essentially a finer version of the twig I use when I emulate KK! – to do his drawings, which makes me appreciate his drawings all the more; he probably had to re-dip his reed with every stroke (unlike my delightful Zebra Comic G nib, which holds a fair amount of ink per dip).

Ink sketch by Vincent Van Gogh

I haven’t studied Van Gogh much, so I was surprised to see how many drawings he had produced (as opposed to paintings). When I said this to Eric, he told me that Van Gogh had periods when he made drawings because he couldn’t afford paint. I thought about how easily I place an order at JetPens.com or DickBlick.com whenever I “need” an art supply (or just feel like I want something new), and it broke my heart.

P.S. Speaking of JetPens, I just got a Tachikawa nib holder for my G nib, and it’s terrific! The rubbery grip makes it so much easier and more comfortable to hold for long periods, hatching away. I’d give one to Vincent if I could.

Product Review: Zebra Comic G Nib

4/21/15 India ink, Zebra Comic G dip pen nib,
Bristol board

In Part 10 of my Epic Pen Search and Discovery series, I mentioned briefly the Zebra Comic G nib, which was intended to be a Frankenpen but never got off the ground. I tried it on a Jinhao X450 and then a Nemosine, but neither worked. As is, it clearly doesn’t fit properly onto the feed of a No. 6 nib fountain pen as had been heavily rumored in the blogosphere. With more investigation, it turned out that the people who had gotten their G nibs to work with fountain pens had done substantial modification to the feeds. At that point I lost interest.

Fast-forward to this week. I’m taking an ink drawing class at Gage this quarter, and our primary drawing tool is the dip pen. The class supply list had suggested the ubiquitous Speedball sketching set of nibs and holders, which I already had and used last week. But then I remembered that I had a whole box of unused Zebra Comic G nibs that I had purchased with the sole intention of using them with a fountain pen body – but why not use them on a dip pen as they were designed? (Use something for its intended purpose? What a concept!)

Using India ink and Bristol board, I started a master copy of the angel yesterday. In class today, I finished the angel and also did the class assignment, which was the rollerskate (my first dip pen drawing from life). Those two drawings convinced me that the G nib is unlike any dip pen nib I’ve used – and I love it! I now see why so many sketchers have experimented with making it work with a fountain pen body, and I’m now more motivated than ever to find a way to make it work. (I’m even willing to do some feed hacking if that’s what it takes.)

4/21/15 India ink, Zebra Comic G dip pen nib

Apparently a favorite among manga cartoonists, the Zebra Comic G nib is just a bit flexier than my Pilot Falcon nib but has a much finer tip – probably the equivalent of a Japanese extra-fine nib. (I had tried using the Pilot Falcon for part of my Raphael copy from a couple of weeks ago, but I found it too broad to match the lines of the master.)

When flexed, the G puts out a wide range of line variation. It does railroad quickly if pushed too hard, but I find the chrome nib to have enough spring that the flex is relatively easy to control – easier than the Falcon, in fact. It’s also springier than the nibs of equivalent size in my Speedball set.

Compared to copying masters from photos, sketching the rollerskate from life was much more challenging – and also that much more fun. Imagine using that Zebra Comic G for urban sketching! But for that, it’s got to be on a fountain pen.

You guessed it: I’m on a mission. 

Line samples made with Zebra Comic G nib and
India ink on Bristol board

2/26/15 Private Reserve Velvet Black ink,
Pilot Petit1 pen, Canson XL 140 lb. paper

Lots of Lines

4/14/15 India ink, dip pen

This is as far as I got on yesterday’s ink drawing class assignment. The image I was copying (below) is actually a woodcut print, not a drawing – which makes all those lines even more amazing. As before, I really started getting into a meditative state making lots and lots of tiny hatched lines. At one point, the dip pen nib (or quill) I was using seemed too wide for the wood cut lines, so I switched to an even finer quill. That’s about the time my neck got sore, and I had to take a break!

Speaking of which, I see lots of blue sky and fluffy white clouds out there today – a nice break from our recent run of gray and rain. Time for some outdoor sketching!

Woodcut print

Once Again, it’s All About Values

4/8/15 India ink, dip pen, Bristol paper

Value, value, value: Just about every art class I’ve taken or technique book I’ve read has emphasized the importance of seeing and accurately conveying values. Yesterday afternoon I took a three-hour “Drawing in Ink” class at Gage Academy, and its focus was no different.

Mixing varying dilutions of India ink, we first used a medium-sized sumi brush to apply washes of ink to the paper, attempting to reproduce the values in photocopied works by masters. Instructor Eric Elliott advised us to squint and look only at the large shapes – not the details. (That’s advice I’ve heard in every watercolor sketching class I’ve taken!) Once all the values were sufficiently reproduced, we used a dip pen with India ink to draw in details. The point of the fine ink work was to help define the forms – not to outline the shapes already put in with washes.

Sketch of the David by Raphael

My first exercise was a Rembrandt painting, which I found relatively easy to reproduce because it had only a few values. The second was a portion of another painting (by some other long-dead master whom I’ve now forgotten. . . sorry) that I found more challenging because it had a wider range of values.

The third exercise was practicing hatching techniques by copying a sketch of Michelangelo’s David by Raphael (I started the exercise in class and finished today at home). Examining Raphael’s work, it was fascinating to see how the hatch marks were not random scratches; to the contrary, the lengths and curvature of the marks identified and shaped the forms. Eric warned us that if we got carried away with hatching, David’s smooth form would end up looking too hairy! (Unfortunately, he did start getting a bit hairy in my rendition, so I quickly decided it was time to stop.)

Some students seemed to find the hatching exercise tedious and tiring, but it was my favorite. Although I’m not a huge fan of traditional dip pens (gimme a fountain pen over a dip pen any day!), I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed the class – both the ink washes to create values and the tedious pen hatching.

Although I can’t see myself using dip pens with bottled ink while sketching on location, I’ve heard the value-value-value mantra often enough to know that whatever I learn from these sink techniques can be applied to any medium, and my sketches will be better for it.

Gage offers a variety of three-hour “quick start” classes like this one to give students an opportunity to try a small tasting of a particular medium or technique before committing to a full course. (Another one I took was “The Quick Sketch” in January.) I guess the strategy works: I immediately signed up for the full 10-week course, which begins next week!

4/7/15 India ink, dip pen, sumi brush, Bristol

Original painting by Rembrandt

4/7/15 India ink, dip pen, sumi brush, Bristol

Original painting