#InkTober2018 Check-in: I Get the Bic

10/5/18 Day 5 at Zoka Coffee: Using different "grades" of ballpoint

Usually my InkTober insights don’t come until later in the month, but less than a week into it, I’m already learning.

As mentioned on Day 1, I am once again committed to exploring ballpoint during InkTober. I’ve tried in previous years, but I always gave up after a few days because the material annoyed me, and I didn’t like the clunky results. This year, though, I’m determined to stick it out. My first couple of days with a Bic Cristal were as clunky as ever because my hatching is rusty, and I questioned why I so masochistically insist on struggling with ballpoint.

10/1/18 Days 1 and 2: clunky as ever

10/2/18

On Day 3, however, I remembered that Bic ballpoint ink can be built up gradually in layers, almost like graphite. It’s also pressure-sensitive the way graphite is. Since pencils and I have a good relationship, I wondered if I’d have a better time with ballpoint if I treated it more like graphite. I still used hatching for this sketch of my hand, but I also varied the pressure, and I was pleased with how faint a mark I could make when I applied very light pressure. It really is the “pencil of pens”! It was a gratifying discovery that encouraged me to plunge forward with ballpoint.

10/3/18 Day 3: I discover the "pencil of pens"

The next day, however, was a setback. I had been using a fat 1.6mm Bic Cristal, which has a bad habit of leaving unintended blobs of ink, so I dug through a kitchen drawer for a Bic Stic pen (the ubiquitous kind we all find in hotel rooms), which has a finer point. The mistake was taking it to life drawing. Even during a 20-minute pose, I didn’t have enough time to hatch it properly, and my results were less than satisfying. That experience reminded me that ballpoint is like pencil in another way: I have to allow enough time to use it well.

10/4/18 Day 4: Ballpoint and life drawing don't mix.

Day 5 dawned wet and cold, so I went to Zoka, my favorite coffee shop for sketching. This time I tried something different again. Although I’m not a fan of writing with ballpoint in general, I always carry a Uni Jetstream 4 & 1 in my bag for times when I need an implement to grab quickly, like when I’m signing a credit card slip or jotting a note to myself. Its 0.7 mm tip is much finer than the Cristal’s 1.6mm, so as long as I was thinking of ballpoint as graphite, I decided to use the Jetstream as an “HB” and the Cristal as a “4B.” Sketching a woman reading next to the windows, I found the hatching process to be meditative and relaxing (top of post). Using “grades” of ballpoint seemed to help me adjust values better and stay in a (happier) pencil frame of mind.

The biggest discovery came yesterday, Day 6. Continuing to think of my Jetstream as an HB grade pencil, I used it to draw the contour line of my hand holding a Blackwing (from a photo this time – how else would I get to draw my left hand? 😉), and that’s when I realized that it’s not possible to get a pale mark with it as I can with the Bics. (see my test hatch marks shown to the left of the sketch.) With the Bic, I can make the initial contour line light and darken it along with the tone as the drawing progresses (see the previous hand sketch). The Jetstream’s ink formulation is smoother and flows more consistently than Bic’s, which makes it pleasant to write with. But that same characteristic makes it harder to apply in varying densities by changing the pressure on the point. I abandoned it after finishing the too-dark contour line and switched to the Bic Cristal for toning.

10/6/18 Day 6: I get it now.

 I get it now: This is why so many ballpoint artists seem to favor the lowly Bic. It’s a pressure-sensitive medium that can be applied gradually in layers of tone. The more I think of a Bic as a pencil, the more I like it. I think the rest of InkTober is going to be more fun, now that I’ve figured out how to approach ballpoint.

How’s your InkTober going?

Life-Drawing Weather

10/4/18 Shauna, brush pen (5-min. poses)

I skipped life drawing last week because we had a streak of weather that was too beautiful to spend sketching indoors. We’re back to “normal” now, however, and I think I must sadly concede that outdoor-sketching weather is over for the year.

The return to normal weather means that I’ll be going back to life drawing practice more regularly again. On Thursday Shauna, one of my favorite models, was in fine form with expressive, fluid poses. My sketches were less so, but I’m slowly getting my joints re-oiled. Brush pens are still my favorite for very short poses, and I’m enjoying using soft colored pencils when the poses are at least 10 minutes long. (Here’s a post showing all my current life-drawing materials.) Masochist that I am, to fulfill my InkTober self-commitment, I even drew a 20-minute pose with a ballpoint pen, but I’ll wait until my first InkTober report to show you that one.

10/4/18 Shauna; brush pen (5-min. poses)

10/4/18 Shauna; colored pencil (10-min. poses)

Blazing

10/3/18 Metropolitan Market parking lot, Wedgwood neighborhood

Every fall I wait with anticipation for the maples at Metropolitan Market to blaze. Sometimes I drive by even when I don’t have shopping to do, just to see how they’re doing. The last time I shopped there a week or so ago, they were only just beginning to turn, but on Wednesday afternoon they were on fire.

See my sketches of these same trees last year and the year before.

From Thumbnail to Color at Japanese Garden

10/2/18 Seattle Japanese Garden

This week my sketching-as-thinking class (my title for it, not my instructor’s) met at Seattle Japanese Garden, where the Japanese maples are beginning to turn. Although a few trees are ahead of the pack, most are showing just a blush of pale orange with the more brilliant hues yet to come.

The purpose of our visit to the Japanese Garden was to study how different our compositions might be in a formal garden where every planting has been designed by a landscaper’s vision compared to a more natural (and messy) location like the Arboretum. As before, I tried to make thumbnail sketches that would help inform me later “back at the studio” as to how to develop a full drawing based on photos (which is the intention of this type of sketching).

10/2/18 thumbnail

Spotting a lovely young maple with a large rock in the pond in front of it, I made a thumbnail of that composition (at right). When I thought about how to make the maple stand out from the wall of green behind it, I realized I’d have to darken the background behind the lighter colored maple. You can see in the photo (below) that the background is somewhat darker than the tree, but Suzanne concurred that I would have to really exaggerate the darkness to make the tree stand out. Likewise, I noted that in my thumbnail sketch.

After two-and-a-half hours in the garden, where the temps were in the mid-50s, and the sun darted in and out of clouds, we were all chilled. I was relieved that the class was over so that I could warm up, but I kept thinking about how that little maple glowed in the fleeting sunshine.

The others left, but I went back to the maple by the pond and decided that I would do my “back at the studio” sketch right away! It really helped to have done the “thinking” thumbnail while discussing the background with Suzanne because I knew how to approach the tree.

As I sketched, I remembered sketching the same maple just about a year ago (see below) from a slightly different angle. It’s gratifying to see that both my technique and composition have improved since then.

10/5/17 The same tree sketched a year ago.

Product Review: Viking Verso Pencil

9/26/18 Wedgwood neighborhood (Viking Verso with a touch of Caran d'Ache Museum Aquarelle on Strathmore Bristol smooth paper)

You already know my love for double-sided colored pencils, both contemporary and vintage (especially when they are also beautifully useable). Imagine my surprise and delight to discover the new Viking Verso pencil – a two-sided graphite pencil!

Viking Verso double-sided graphite pencil

It turns out that the Verso concept is not new at all. With HB grade on the gray half and 4B on the black half, the Danish pencil is apparently based on a design that was introduced at the Paris Expo in 1867 by a Bavarian company. As soon as I saw it, I started wondering . . . bicolor pencils have been around a long time; why aren’t there more dual-grade graphite pencils? According to information provided by Viking and found at CW Pencils where I bought the Verso, the answer is that producing such a pencil is trickier than it seems:

“The challenge comes down to the simple fact that, unlike a double colour pencil, it is impossible to tell two graphite grades from each other in the production process where the ends of the pencils are often mixed up in the various stages of formation, lacquering, etc.”

I admit that production complications had never crossed my mind. Viking, however, was up for the challenge, and the Verso was born.

I pulled out a number of HB and 4B pencils on my desk to make this comparison chart. Spoiled by the buttery smoothness of the Palomino Blackwing, Mitsubishi Hi-Uni and other Japanese favorites, I find the Verso a bit scratchier, but it’s certainly acceptable. The HB side is slightly lighter than the Japanese pencils (which are typically darker than most pencils of comparable grades), but the 4B side compares favorably with all the other 4Bs I tested against it.

 

Pencil tests done in Baron Fig notebook

In my sketch of the foggy morning in Wedgwood, I used the HB side for the initial toning, where I especially noticed the scratchier laydown (compared to a Blackwing, which I typically use for this step) on Strathmore Bristol smooth paper. However, after smudging the toning layers with a tissue, I was pleased with the result. I continued to use the HB side for most of the sketch, then finished with the 4B side to emphasize the darks. The two grades are a useful, versatile pair – exactly the two grades I would have chosen if I were designing the Verso.

According to the information from Viking, the Verso is handmade (I assume they mean hand-managed to ensure that the two grades are correctly identified on each pencil). At three bucks a pop (that’s like buying two half-pencils for $1.50 each), it’s not exactly an economical pencil. But I always appreciate two sketching implements that fit into the space of one. The Verso is going into my bag when I put my sketch kit on an extreme minimizing diet again. And it’s an ideal pencil for a trip to Gilligan’s Island (which I think about often and am amply prepared for).

Given the complexity of manufacturing the Verso, it seems unlikely that we’ll see too many competitors. I like the concept of a double-grade pencil so much that I am once again thinking about the Tsunago device, which ostensibly can be used to make my own double-sided pencils (unfortunately, it works only with graphite, not colored pencils). I’ve heard it’s a finicky mechanism that requires a lot of practice to finesse. Hmmm – sounds like a good challenge for a pencil geek like me.

Updated 6/28/19: I finally gave the Tsunago a try and made my own version of the Verso!

Green Lake Color Show

9/27/18 Green Lake

The autumn color show is well under way in these parts. We probably won’t see the peak for another month yet, but last week we had such phenomenal weather that the early trees got a chance to show off. Every year, I notice the same interesting pattern at Green Lake: Identical maples (they look identical to my uneducated eye, anyway) will be standing in a row, receiving the same light, yet some will start turning way ahead of the others. That dark red one near the center of the sketch is always the leader. Several next to it are still bright green.

Something else I’ve noticed this year isn’t typical, but I’m afraid it will become more common in the years to come: Instead of stepping through the color changes from yellow to orange to red, some maples are going directly from green to brownish, and the leaves are already curling. I think they’re distressed from the record-breaking hot, dry summer we had.

It’s That #InkTober Time of Year Again!

9/23/18 Bic Cristal, Baron Fig notebook

For the fourth consecutive year, I’m taking part in InkTober, Jake Parker’s annual initiative to encourage drawing with ink. The rules are simple: Make a drawing in ink; post it on social media with the hashtags #inktober and #inktober2018; repeat throughout the month of October.

Optional prompts are offered each year, but I don’t follow them. Instead, I try to take up the spirit of the event by giving myself a personal challenge. In 2016 I wanted to focus on drawing more from imagination, which was particularly difficult for me, but by the end of the month, my ongoing weather-reporting bunny had been born! Last year I decided to practice hatching, another challenge for me, and by month’s end I saw improvement.

Another focus I started with last year was working in ballpoint pen. I’ve seen so many examples of amazing art created with the lowly Bic (or other such cheap pens), such as those I saw in the book The Art of Ballpoint by Matt Rota, that I wanted to try the medium myself. But after a week or so, I got fed up and switched back to the fountain pens and brush pens I’m more comfortable with.

It always bothered me, though, that I didn’t stick with it – after all, it’s only 31 days. So for InkTober 2018, I’m going to stick with ballpoint for the entire month, come hell or high water. Subject matter will be wide open – urban sketches, still lives, from imagination, from photos, whatever.

9/20/18 Bic Cristal, Field Notes Signature

I saw on social media that some people started gearing up early, so I did, too. Shown here are a couple of practice sketches I made a week ago or so. Both were done with ubiquitous Bic Cristals – a traditional favorite of ballpoint artists. The pen’s plastic body feels like it’s worth less than the 25 cents I paid for one, and the ink is blobby, especially in the 1.6mm tip size that I prefer. I’m not sure I’m going to make it through the month if I stick with these Cristals; I may switch to the Uni Jetstream I used a couple years ago on Ballpoint Pen Day.

I don’t plan to blog daily about my InkTober sketches; instead, I’ll report in every week or so as I did last year. I’ll also be posting sketches daily on Instagram.

Tell me what you are doing for InkTober 2018!