Street Colors

9/21/15 inks, watercolor, colored pencil, Zig marker

At right is the traffic circle in the Greenwood neighborhood that is one of my favorites. Instead of just one tree, it has three relatively slender maples growing in it. (Ironically, the trees are leafy enough that the yellow caution sign in the center is barely peeking through.) Last year at just about the same time, the tree on the northern side of the intersection was showing lots of color while the other two were still mostly green. This time I sketched the circle from the opposite side, facing west, and found that the trees are following the same coloring pattern. Last year I intended to return later to see what it looked like when all three trees had turned, but I forgot. This time I made a note on my calendar to go back in a few weeks.

A couple of miles due east in my own ‘hood is the traffic circle below. A dirty brush and some leftover yellow in my Cobalt made for a greenish streak in the sky that got worse when my tree bled into it. But I’m not that picky – color is color – and this is definitely the time of year for it.

9/22/15 inks, watercolor, colored pencil, Zig marker

Neighborhood Hatching

5/11/15 Iroshizuku Take-sumi and Fuyu-syogun inks, Pilot
Falcon fountain pen, Canson XL 140 lb. paper

I have to miss two ink-drawing classes while I’m traveling, so I wanted to practice one more hatched sketch before class tomorrow. Between errands, I stopped in my neighborhood where a very tall and graceful fir tree stands. I didn’t hatch quite as thoroughly as Van Gogh would have, but the size of the sketch (6 by 9 inches) was small enough that it took me only a little longer than my typical ink and wash/watercolor sketches do. The only place I couldn’t resist using a wash was the sky (which is dark gray and overcast today, on the verge of busting open), because I don’t like the way Van Gogh hatches clouds. (By the way, that car in the driveway isn’t mummified; it’s covered with a tarp.)

Hatching is really growing on me. It occurs to me that if I could get into shading with only hatching instead of having to wash the ink with a waterbrush, I could probably use just about any commercial notebook (as long as the paper didn’t bleed or feather too badly) and be liberated from making my own small catch-all notebooks. (Hmmm. . . can you hear my wheels turning?) 

Emulating Vincent, Part 2

5/3/15 Iroshizuku Take-sumi, Kiri-same and Platinum Carbon inks, Bristol Board

As ongoing practice of hatching with ink during last week’s class, I copied another sketch by Van Gogh over the course of a couple of days. I chose this sketch (shown below) to copy because it displays such an amazing range of mark-making – straight lines, curved lines, dots, dashes, curly-cues. The tree seems to be straight out of Dr. Seuss.

Instead of a dip pen, I used a variety of fountain pens and inks for this exercise – my Pilot Falcon (FA) and two Sailor fude pens. 

Sketch by Van Gogh

An Urban Sketching Event at the Burke

4/18/15 Sailor Doyou  and Iroshizuku Kiri-same inks,
Caran d'Ache Museum colored pencil, Canson XL

Urban Sketchers Seattle enjoyed sketching at the Burke Museum so much in March that we went back for more. This time we were invited by the Burke to create an event that would encourage other visitors to sketch at the museum, too. The Burke provided sketching materials and a clothespin line where participants could hang their work. It was tough competing with 65 degrees and sunshine outside, but the museum managed to entice a few visitors indoors.

As usual, I spent most of my time hanging out with the bones – a sabertooth cat, a polar bear skull, and my favorite, the Brazilian Terror Bird. I also captured a girl sketching at a table near our clothesline “exhibit.”

Thanks to all the sketchers who volunteered today, and many thanks to the Burke for inviting us to this event! (For more photos of the event, see my post on the USk Seattle blog.)

4/18/15 Diamine Chocolate Brown and Iroshizuku Kiri-same inks, Museum pencil

4/18/15 Iroshizuku Asa-gao and Iroshizuku Tsukushi inks, Museum pencils

4/18/15 Caran d'Ache Museum pencil,
mix of gray inks

4/18/15 Iroshizuku Take-sumi and Kiri-same inks, colored pencil, copier paper
(I left this sketch of a skull fragment hanging in our "exhibit"!)

Product Review: Canson XL Mix Media and Borden & Riley Vellum

My latest DIY sketchbooklet, this time made with 98-pound
Canson XL Mix Media paper.

I may have inadvertently discovered an ideal paper for making small sketchbooklets!

I wasn’t looking for it; after making my most recent DIY notebook, which was mostly an exercise in spite, I was planning to go back to the Canson Biggie 100-pound or Strathmore 100-pound watercolor papers that I had used originally. Those papers are great for the kind of sketching I do in small sketchbooklets because they take a light ink wash well. Unfortunately, they are also so heavy that I can fold only six sheets together (yielding a 24-page sketchbooklet). I was hoping to find something thinner, which led me to trying Rhodia paper, but it’s too transparent to sketch on both sides. Like I said, it was mostly an exercise in spite because I was so frustrated with all the small notebooks on the market (though obviously I accomplished nothing more than cutting off my nose).

Anyway, I was actually shopping for paper for the ink drawing class I’m taking at Gage. The instructor had recommended paper with a relatively smooth texture appropriate for dip pens and also heavy enough (around 100 pound) to withstand a wash of diluted India ink. For the one-time “quick start” class I took last week, I used 100-pound Bristol board, which I happened to have on hand, but it’s a bit pricey to be burning through during 10 weeks of class exercises, so I decided I needed something cheaper. (Not to mention that I’m always looking for an excuse to shop for art supplies.)

Borden & Riley Vellum

Canson XL Mix Media

I came home from the Blick store with two pads of paper: Canson XL Mix Media (98 pound), which the instructor had used last week, and Borden & Riley Vellum drawing paper (90 pound). In the back of my mind, I was thinking that the Borden & Riley could turn out to be appropriate for making sketchbooklets since it’s much thinner than 100-pound paper and also very smooth, making it pleasant to write and sketch on with fountain pens, and because the pad says “recommended for light washes, pen & ink” and dry media.

First I tested both papers with the types of pens and media I’m likely to use on them: a dip pen with India ink for class; three fountain pens with both waterproof and water-soluble inks; and a swipe of watercolor.

Borden & Riley tests

Canson XL Mix Media tests

Reverse side of Borden & Riley

The Borden & Riley vellum tested disappointingly poorly on all counts. My Pilot Falcon nib, which puts out a fire hose of ink to keep up with its extreme flexiness, feathered to high heaven. Even the fine dip nib feathered, and my Sailor fude pens, which almost never feather, showed a little feathering, too. But the most disappointing part was how poorly the paper took washes. Maybe it’s the sizing (or lack thereof), but inks apparently sink straight into the paper (and all the way to the reverse side, in the case of the fire-hose Falcon), leaving nothing on the surface to wash when swiped with a waterbrush. With an ordinary fountain pen, the paper is opaque enough that sketches could be made on both sides, but not if water is applied. This paper flunked out as both a classroom paper and a potential sketchbooklet paper. (The misleading labeling that indicates the paper is appropriate for all the media I tested it for is particularly annoying.)

4/12/15 Iroshizuku Take-sumi ink, Pilot Falcon
pen, Caran d'Ache Museum water-soluble
colored pencil, Canson XL 98 lb. Mix Media
(slightly leaning Eiffel sketched from photo)

The Canson XL Mix Media paper, on the other hand, performed well in all the ways that the Borden & Riley failed. First of all, I have to say that I’ll never understand paper weight poundage designations. This 98-pound “mix media” (my copyeditor’s eye is twitching! It should be “mixed media”!) paper is significantly thinner and lighter than 100-pound watercolor paper – way more than the 2-pound difference. In fact, it feels thinner and lighter than a couple of 90-pound watercolor papers I have!

I’ll forgive the confusing poundage, however, because its surface is wonderful. It has some tooth, which gives washes some character, but is smooth enough not to snag my flexy Falcon or dip nibs. None of the nibs and inks I tested feathered at all, and the water-soluble inks blurred to soft, lovely washes when water was applied. At 98 pounds, it’s fully opaque, as expected, and no bleed-through occurred, even where the ink was washed.

4/12/15 Platinum Carbon ink, Van Gogh watercolor,
Canson XL 98 lb. Mix Media paper

I got so excited about it that I made two sketches, one on either side of the same sheet – one with my wet Pilot Falcon, Iroshizuku Take-sumi ink and a little water-soluble colored pencil (above), all washed (these media are what I would typically use in a small sketchbooklet) and a second sketch with waterproof Platinum Carbon ink and watercolor (at left). As you can see, there’s no bleed-through at all (and barely visible ghosting), and only minor buckling – yet the paper is thin enough to fold eight sheets together (yielding a 32-page sketchbooklet). That’s not quite 48 pages (apparently the industry standard for pocket notebooks), but compared to my former 100-pound sketchbooklets, it’s 33 percent more bang for my handbinding buck!

Canson XL Mix Media gets an A+ for both my pen and ink class and my daily-carry sketchbooklets! (But not for editing.)

Eiffel Prep

4/11/15 Iroshizuku Take-sumi and Diamine Grey
inks, Stillman & Birn Epsilon sketchbook
(sketched from photo)

In a little over one month, I’ll be in France. I know some sketchers deliberately avoid iconic structures and landmarks, either fearing that their sketches will never live up to the image in their minds or the ones that have over-saturated the media or simply poo-pooing clichéd images that can easily be found on a postcard. I’m here to tell you right now that I have no problem with sketching the world-recognized, overly depicted, iconic Eiffel Tower! In fact, I have every intention of spending a significant portion of my four days in Paris doing nothing but sketching it. That doesn’t mean, however, that I’m not intimidated by its classically symmetrical form and its intricate pattern of iron latticework. Just the thought of standing in its shadow, sketchbook in hand, makes me a bit shaky!

Yesterday Peggy and I were chatting about our upcoming respective travel plans. In prep for travel sketching, she said she will sometimes look at photos of her destination and make sketches of challenging subjects or motifs ahead of time to “warm up” her sketchbook, making it less intimidating when she’s actually on location. I know that Liz Steel, too, with her keen interest in architecture, mentally prepares for travel by sketching from photos of the particular architectural styles she will encounter.

What a great idea! My conversation with Peggy was just what I needed to gear up for Paris in a more fun and productive way than, say, studying my Rick Steves French phrase book (I can always learn French on the flight out there, right?). Googling images of La tour Eiffel, I printed out a few to closely examine its form. Studying its proportions for even a few minutes was immensely helpful, and the criss-crossed ironwork isn’t nearly as complicated as it seems if you just break it down into components. After just one practice sketch, I already feel more confident about standing in the Champ de Mars next month, gazing up at that amazing structure.

Raphael Redux, This Time with Fountain Pens

4/8/15 Iroshizuku Take-sumi ink,
Pilot FA and Metropolitan pens,
Bristol paper

Sketch of the David by Raphael 

While I enjoy the meditative quality of pen hatching, dipping into the ink bottle every few strokes is the part that annoys me. Talk about tedious! The whole time I was working on the copy of Raphael’s David this morning, I longed for my fountain pens. This afternoon I gave it another shot, this time with my Pilot Falcon (FA) nib (plus some lines with a Pilot Metropolitan fine nib, which is finer than the FA). Although dip pens have an expressive flexiness that’s hard to beat, I think my Pilot FA is nearly as flexy – and certainly more convenient and more fun to use.

Ahhh – I do love fountain pens!

Conversations

3/26/15 Diamine Chocolate Brown, Grey and Iroshizuku Tsukushi inks,
Caran d'Ache Museum pencils, Canson XL 140 lb. paper

When I sketch at Zoka Coffee, my victims are most often deeply engrossed in their various devices and screens, oblivious to their surroundings. But every once in a while I’m able to catch a few actually engaged in conversation with other people. Socializing in a coffee shop – what a concept! (I’m not sure about the man in the brown chair . . . he seemed to be pressing on the Bluetooth device stuck to his ear, giving me the impression that he was on a phone call, but I think his conversation was with his laptop.)

Sketching people who are talking – usually with hand gestures and changing expressions – is more challenging than still-as-stone texters and typers. But the body language is definitely more interesting.

3/26/15 Diamine Grey and Iroshizuku Asa-gao inks, Museum pencil

3/26/15 Diamine Chocolate Brown ink

3/26/15 Iroshizuku Take-sumi ink, Museum pencils

Terrific Music and Foreshortened Limbs at Wintergrass

2/27/15 Diamine Sargasso Sea, Platinum music nib,
Canson XL 140 lb. paper

While sketching most of the day at Wintergrass, the annual multi-day bluegrass festival, I discovered a particular challenge of sketching jammin’ musicians: all those foreshortened limbs! But I love bluegrass, and there’s nothing more fun on a drizzly winter day than sketching to terrific music in a comfortable indoor venue. Last year, it was one of my favorite Friday ad hoc Urban Sketchers outings, and this year was even better.

In addition to scheduled concerts and lots of impromptu jamming, the festival offers lots of booths where vendors are selling various stringed instruments, including some lovely mandolins I sketched. Shoppers were encouraged to sit and try out instruments, and thankfully those players were slightly slower-moving sketching targets than jammers.

After sharing our sketchbooks, most of us took a break for lunch, and then Natalie and I stayed for more sketching in the afternoon. It’s a good thing we did, because we bumped into Michele, who couldn’t come in the morning. Since a group of three sketchers constitutes a sketchcrawl, we took a selfie.

2/27/15 Iroshizuku Take-sumi ink, Pilot Falcon nib, Caran d'Ache Museum pencils

2/27/15 Iroshizuku Take-sumi ink, Pilot Falcon, Caran d'Ache Museum pencils

2/27/15 Iroshizuku Take-sumi ink, Pilot Falcon, Museum pencil

2/27/15 Iroshizuku Asa-gao and Fuyu-syogun inks, Sailor fude pen, Museum pencils

2/27/15 Diamine Chocolate Brown ink, Sailor fude pen, Museum pencil

2/27/15 Diamine Chocolate Brown ink,
Museum pencil

2/27/15 Iroshizuku Asa-gao and Fuyu-syogun inks, Sailor fude pen,
Museum pencil

Natalie, Tina and Michele at the post-sketchcrawl mini-sketchcrawl.

Roastery Redux Plus Melrose Market

2/22/15 Diamine Chocolate Brown and Iroshizuku Tsukushi
inks, Caran d'Ache Museum water-soluble colored pencil,
Canson XL 140 lb. paper

After biting off way more of a composition than I could chew the last time I sketched at the Starbucks Reserve Roastery, today I took a smaller view. This time I think I managed to both chew and swallow – though barely.

In any case, it was an especially fun gathering of Urban Sketchers Seattle this morning with a huge turnout – at least 40 were counted! Sketchers were scattered all over the Roastery as well as on surrounding sidewalks. I didn’t have quite the fortitude to sketch outdoors like some brave souls, but I admire those who did.

After my sketch at the Roastery, I walked down the street to Melrose Market, a small collection of cafés and retail shops housed in a cool old building. It, too, was filled with sketchers! I climbed the stairs to the upper level, and when I looked down over a railing, I got a bird’s-eye view of Bob sketching.

2/22/15 Iroshizuku Take-sumi ink, Museum  pencils

A Quick Fix of Sunshine

2/15/15 Platinum Carbon ink, watercolor, Fabriano
Studio 140 lb. hot-press paper

In L.A. for the weekend visiting family, I didn’t have much time to sketch, but I couldn’t leave without capturing these quintessential palms. The temperature was in the 70s and low 80s without a drop of rain predicted for the foreseeable future. We should feel sorry for their drought-devastated landscape, but in mid-February, it was pure delight to sketch in the sun.

2/15/15 Platinum Carbon and Iroshizuku Fuyu-syogun inks, watercolor

2/14/15 Iroshizuku Take-sumi ink, Caran d'Ache Museum water-soluble colored
pencils

Epic Pen Search and Discovery, Part 4: Pilot Custom Heritage 912 with Falcon Nib

1/16/15 Platinum Carbon ink, Van Gogh watercolors, Stillman & Birn Alpha
sketchbook

(This is part of a multi-post series about my ongoing search for the ultimate variable-line-width fountain pen. To read other posts in the series, choose “Epic Pen Search” in the label cloud at right, below.) 

Long before my research of music and flexible nibs began, I had briefly tried a couple of different so-called semi-flexible nibs: the Noodler’s Ahab and the Platinum Cool. I found that I had to apply so much pressure to get either of those nibs to flex that my sketching line immediately lacked fluidity. Perhaps the degree of flex these nibs offer is enough for writing with a variable line, but I couldn’t get them to work for sketching.

1/14/15 Private Reserve Velvet Black ink, Pilot Petit1 pen,
Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook

The Pilot Custom Heritage 912’s Falcon (FA) nib is a whole different story. (If you missed last week’s post, it’s important to note here that the Pilot Falcon (FA) nib is different from the Namiki/Pilot Falcon pen, which has a much stiffer, less flexy nib. Yes, I know it’s confusing.) While still not as soft as a vintage “wet noodle,” the 14kt gold nib is certainly soft and flexible enough to produce variable widths without having to exert an unnatural degree of pressure for sketching. As soon as I got it, I filled it up with waterproof Platinum Carbon Black ink and took it out for its maiden flight.

Immediately I noticed that the nib puts out a ton of ink – the proverbial “fire hose,” I learned that it’s called – even without applying any pressure, and when I did apply pressure to make the line heavier, I could see that the ink flow was fast and heavy, which means it takes a significantly longer length of time to dry. (I didn’t know this at the time, but I learned shortly thereafter that flexible nibs require a generally heavy ink output to keep up with the sudden additional flow needed when flexed; otherwise, when the flexed tines split, they leave an uninked space in the middle, called “railroading”).

Writing samples done with Pilot Custom 912's Falcon nib.

I’ve been using Platinum Carbon consistently for the past couple years with various pens, so I’m very familiar with how long it needs to dry before I can apply watercolor. Generally, it’s only a minute or two, but it took several times longer with the Pilot Falcon nib – that’s how much ink is going down. My first few sketches with it, the Platinum Carbon kept smearing when I applied watercolor because I kept assuming it was dry when it wasn’t. (A sketcher with more patience or who typically waits until later to paint after drawing would have no problem using the Falcon nib with a waterproof ink.)

The next day I emptied the remaining Platinum Carbon from the Pilot’s converter (I was astounded to find that I had used up half the converter’s contents the day before on only a couple of sketches! I think it uses twice as much ink as an average pen) and filled it with water-soluble Pilot Iroshizuku Take-sumi, which I know to be a fast-drying ink. It was a good choice; even though I could see that the pen was still putting out a lot of ink, it dried relatively quickly. Since I usually wash the lines for shading anyway when using a water-soluble ink, it doesn’t matter if the line was still a little damp when I applied water. In fact, the additional ink put out by the pen made the wash richer than usual, which I like. (The Falcon nib might also be good to use with some of my wimpier inks, which I’ve avoided using for sketching because the washes are too pale.)

In addition, the Pilot Custom Heritage 912 flows beautifully, immediately and consistently. Even with that plentiful stream of ink, it never leaves a puddle. I love simply writing in my journal with it (but since it lives in my sketching bag, I rarely do).

1/5/15 Iroshizuku Take-sumi ink, Pilot Custom 912 with Falcon
nib, Clairefontaine notebook

As for the flexiness of the nib, how does it respond while sketching? When I want a medium-to-broad line, the flexy nib responds immediately, and that fire hose output of ink keeps up with me just fine. On the other hand, its finest line – which I get by turning the nib upside-down, because even the lightest of pressure produces a line that is a little too broad for my definition of a fine line – still isn’t as fine as the finest line I can get with my old trusty Sailor fude (note the fur around the baby cheetah’s head, below). And when I want broad areas of ink, such as on the cheetah’s spots, the old Sailor makes nice wide marks easily with single strokes, while the Pilot Falcon nib (at right) requires making circles and filling them in.

1/5/15 Private Reserve Velvet Black ink, Sailor fude pen,
Clairefontaine notebook

One issue that I discovered almost immediately is that the soft, flexible Falcon nib can snag on the toothy surface of cold press paper – splattering ink on the page. This happened a few times on early sketches, though not so badly that the sketches were ruined. The obvious solution would be to use a hot press paper or other paper with a smoother texture. Or I could decide that ink splatters give a sketch some organic character, which I’m not opposed to. I’ve decided that the nib’s potential for splattering is something to be aware of but not a deal breaker.

Aside from differences in line variation, I’d say the main difference between the Sailor fude and the Pilot Falcon is the hand movement requirement to get that variation. It took me quite a while to get used to the forward-and-back angle change of the fude nib, but now that I am used to it, the motion comes naturally to me. Though it seems like it should be intuitive (if I push harder on a crayon, I get a darker, broader stroke), the Falcon’s reliance on pressure to change the line width is still taking me a bit of time to learn, and it’s not quite second nature yet. I might have a different review after I’ve used the Falcon for a year or more.

But will I? The line variation I get from the Sailor is wider, and my trusty favorite uses considerably less ink. The jury is still out on the Falcon.

2/1/15 Iroshizuku Take-sumi ink, Pilot Custom
912 with Falcon nib, Clairefontaine notebook

But have you heard of the “calling the dog” concept? I’m hazy on its origin, but apparently it’s a story about two people who both claimed a dog as their own, so they both called to it, and let the dog choose. The concept (as applied to real-life situations, not a hypothetical dog) is that if you are trying to decide among a few things, and evaluating their various attributes objectively has caused confusion, one way to choose is to stop analyzing and just see which one you tend to go to intuitively. In other words, you are the dog, and you “choose” the one that calls to you in some way.

I have been carrying around the Pilot – along with the other pens I’ll be reviewing in this series – in my bag for the past couple of months, and I’m finding that, more often than not, the Pilot is the pen I grab first. Well, I have to condition that: I grab it first as long as my Sailor fude is not in my bag. (I’ve lately left it at home to give the other pens a fair trial.) But among the pens I’m testing, especially when I have limited time and need a pen I can count on quickly and with no nonsense, this dog often chooses the Pilot.

12/27/14 Iroshizuku Take-sumi and Fuyu-syogun inks, Pilot
Falcon pen, Caran d'Ache Museum water-soluble colored pencil,
Canson XL 140 lb. paper 

I’ll end this review with one comment about the Pilot Custom Heritage 912’s body, which is the more contemporary flat-top style (as opposed to the classic tapered cigar shape). I find the weight and shape very comfortable to hold and sketch with as well as more esthetically pleasing than the more commonly found cigar shape, which I characterize as “plain black fountain pen.” (Next week’s review of the Platinum 3776 will include more comments about my discovered preference in pen body size and weight.)

Now what about that music nib. . . ?  (stay tuned next week).

(Just in case it’s not obvious, unlike many blogs that review fountain pens, my blog has no sponsors or affiliates. Every pen I mention here was purchased by me at retail price.)

Year of the Ram and Bruce Lee

2/7/15 Iroshizuku Take-sumi ink, Zig
markers, Canson XL 140 lb. paper

After last night’s deluge, the Pineapple Express gave us a brief reprieve this morning. We took advantage of it by dashing out to the Chinatown-International District to see the Lunar New Year celebration outside the Wing Luke Museum. Unfortunately, we were a little late, so the firecrackers started blasting away just as we got there, and with a huge crowd in front of me, I could hardly see the lions dancing! I had a slightly better view of one of the drummers, but I had to sketch the lion mostly from memory of the tiny glimpses I was able to see by standing on my toes. (I’d had a slightly better view two years ago when I met up with a few Seattle Urban Sketchers there.)

2/7/15 Iroshizuku Take-sumi ink, Zig marker

After the lion dance, we went inside the museum, where more festivities were taking place in celebration of the Year of the Ram. We shied away from most of the hub-bub, though, and ducked into a quieter area of the museum showing an excellent exhibit of Bruce Lee’s life. I sketched a bronze bust of Bruce that was conveniently close to a corner, where I could stand without getting in the way. (“No Photography” signs were everywhere in the exhibit, so I felt somewhat smug being able to sketch it!) I know the classic bust form is usually armless, but I found it sad and ironic that a man whose arms and hands were such an important part of his martial art form would be portrayed armless. Maybe it was a metaphor of his life being tragically cut short (he was 32 when he died in 1973 of cerebral edema).

The rain was already starting again on the drive home, and now the deluge is back. As we like to say around here, at least we don’t have to shovel rain.

2/7/15 Diamine Chocolate Brown ink