Pen and ink

Sheltering in Place, Part 6

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Prompt: “Green”- hope we see at least one this year

Sheltering in place continues with no drama other than Peregrin, one of our rough collies, getting skunked right in the face a few evenings ago, so his temporary nickname is Stinky. I got the deskunker on him right away but here’s still a whiff of it up if we get close.

Peregrin, age 3, aka Stinky Dog

This afternoon I’ll start making a few masks for us to wear when we go out. Did a lot of research and dug through my fabrics for tight-weave cottons. We’ve got coffee filters and some old vacuum cleaner bags for filtration. The local grocery stores seem to be doing their part to keep carts and conveyers sanitized. We’ve also got almost an entire box of disposable gloves that my husband bought for his airplane modeling. There will be a trip to the store tomorrow.

We had one last corker of a wintry storm come through over the past couple of days with good, heavy rain. Nippy this morning, but yesterday afternoon really felt like spring has sprung. Which means plenty of exercise in the garden coming up. Daffodils are almost done. Roses are leafing out nicely. Apple trees have flower buds on them. Tulips are in full bloom.

Here’s an update on the international online art event I’m participating in called Inktober52. The original event called for doing a pen and ink drawing a day for the month of….October. This time it’s one a week for the whole year. So far I’ve had no problem doing my weekly piece. My intention had been to post them in one month batches here on the blog, but that kinda got lost in all the pandemic news and prep. Things have settled down into a routine now, so in this post I’ll get caught up. You can see the first batch here. And I posted a few last time here. The one at the top is the latest, just done yesterday and posted on Instagram and elsewhere this morning. If you want to follow me on Instagram I’m here. There’s a board for them on Pinterest here.

Prompt: Spider- a visitor to our backyard
Prompt: “Wave” – reference from local beaches
Prompt: “Elf”- the bole of a very old red alder tree on our property
Prompt: “Tower”- me in front of a redwood tree in Prairie Creek State Park, just north of us
Prompt: “Elephant”- an elephant I saw in Kenya

Inktober52 Art So Far…

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“Rooks, Mongolia” – Prompt: Flight
Esterbrook #825EF nib, Noodler’s American Eel ink, Strathmore 300 vellum bristol

I got an email last month from Jake Parker, the founder of Inktober, announcing in new event! During the original Inktober artists do a pen and ink drawing a week for the month of October. Tens of thousands of artists from all over the world partipate, but it’s only for one month. Inktober52 spreads the love out over the entire year…one drawing a week at a time. Jake sends out a “prompt” on Thursday to set the theme for the following week. How could I resist? I couldn’t. Five weeks in and here are my contributions. I’ll post the new ones a month at a time. I usually do my piece on Friday and post it same day on Instagram at #foxartist if you’re already there or here, which will take you to my feed. I’m also posting them in my FoxStudio Facebook group here. You can see what other folks are doing at #inktober52 here.

If you think this would be fun, it’s never too late. Pen, ink and paper, that’s all you need. Any pen, any ink, any paper. Send me a message and I’ll send you Jake’s email address to get on the mailing list. I don’t want to post it publicly.

I posted the first two drawings previously but wanted to show everything so far in one post. From now on it will be the new ones at the end of each month. Follow me so you don’t miss any of them!

“Patio Chair” – Prompt: Shadow
Perry & Co. #120EF nib, Noodler’s American Eel ink, Canson Vidalon Vellum
“Brick”– Prompt: Brick
Hinks Wells ‘Rob Roy’ #2687 M nib, Noodler’s American Eel ink, Strathmore 300 vellum bristol
(the back story: we found this brick in a wall when we were renovating a 1901 Victorian back in the 1990s, complete with paw prints. I took it with me when we moved)
“Snake”- Prompt: Snake
Gillott #659 crowquill nib, PopelPen walnut inks from Russia, Stillman & Birn Delta paper
“Balloon Aquarium”- Prompt: Balloon
Esterbrook Art&Drafting 357 nib (very rare), Platinum Carbon ink,
Strathmore 300 vellum bristol

I’m Participating In “Inktober52”!

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I’m excited about doing this new event from the folks who also created Inktober. It’s called Inktober52. As in a drawing a week for a year. Due to upcoming travel I’m pretty sure I won’t manage the full year but I’m going to do my best. They’re emailing us each week with a prompt. I missed last week but did a “make up” drawing yesterday and this week’s drawing this morning.

The prompt:: “Flight” (above)
I’m planning to mostly use dip pens. “Rooks, Mongolia” A big flock of rooks (related to crows) flew over me on one of my trips to Mongolia. They were all black except one, which was white, very unusual. Esterbrook Drafting #825 nib on Canson Vidalon
vellum.

The prompt: “Shadow” (below)
“Patio Chair”- I’d been wanting to do something with the photo for awhile and there will probably be a painting at some point since the chair is a nice lavender, but this taught me how to draw it and work out basic values. Noodler’s Black on Canson Vidalon Vellum with a Perry & Co. #120EF nib.⁣

Now on SketchWild…Charles Dana Gibson (First In A Series)

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The first post in my new series “Great Pen and Ink Artists”, a look at the work of Charles Dana Gibson in which I comment and analyse a variety of his fabulous pen and ink drawings, is now live at SketchWild, my sketching website. Click on over and read it here. Let me know what you think in the comments!

Announcing A New On-going Series: Great Pen & Ink Artists Of The World

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Long before I was an oil painter I worked in pen and ink. I used it in my graphic design and illustration business, for medieval and celtic calligraphy and illumination and for sketching. In the last year I’ve kind of gone full-circle back to my beloved black and white work. I’ll still be painting in oil and watercolor, but I’ve taken up my dip pens again and now, fountain pens also.

I’ve always been inspired by the great pen and ink artists of the past and, over the years, have built up a personal library of books that include their art, both instructional and for illustrated books and magazines. It’s time to share them with all of you.

I’ll particularly be searching out and posting location sketching and drawing, as that is the theme of SketchWild, since many of them considered it a prerequisite for their studio work. Here’s what Frank Brangwyn had to say about that (from my upcoming “A Beginner’s Guide to Sketching” pdf tutorial. “. He mentions a pencil but what he says holds true for pen and ink, too.

“Get some paper and a pencil. Not a beautifully bound sketch book – they’ll be afraid to spoil the paper! I often sketch on the back of an old envelope. Fear is the first thing they must conquer. Go for sketching with courage. Regard it as fun – as a natural thing to do – not as a task. Suppose you do muck up a few bits of paper? Think how cheap the pleasure is compared to other amusements…You’re out on your own, facing nature with a few bits of cheap paper and a pencil.” “From “Come Sketching” by Percy V. Bradshaw: He had asked Brangwyn “How would you advise them to start?” 

This series will cover artists both famous and not so well known, but in either case, superb at what they did. There will be American, British, French, German and Spanish artists, partly thanks to this incredible leatherbound book “Pen Drawing and Pen Draughtsmen” by Joseph Pennell, in his time a famous pen and ink artist (also etcher) in his own right. It’s 11×14″ and weighs 8.8 lbs.

Next week, we’ll begin with a quintessential American artist, Charles Dana Gibson. It will include images from two of his “coffee table” books that I found in an antique shop many years ago. Here’s the cover of one of them, called simply “London”.

There will be short biographies of the artists and, when I’ve been able to find it, information on how they worked, sometimes including the model of pen nib, ink and paper they used. And of course examples of their work.

At the top: An illustration from Gibson’s “London”.

Note: This is cross-posted from my nature sketching site “SketchWild”. The series will only run on that site. I’ll still be posting my fine art news here. You can find SketchWild here.

I’m Now Selling Downloadable Coloring Pages In My Etsy Shop!

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“African Elephants”

Come check them out! The originals are dip pen and ink drawings on Clearprint Heavy Vellum. All of the images are from photos I’ve taken myself on my travels over the years. You can buy them here:

“Cheetah”
“Assateague Pony”
“Yellow-headed Blackbird”

New Pen and Ink Studies

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“Golden Gate Park” Esterbrook #354 nib on 6×4″ Strathmore 300 vellum bristol

I’ll have some paintings to show soon, but lately I’ve been mostly diving into dip pen and ink sketch studies, trying out various nibs I’ve been accumulating for the last year. I used dip pens for calligraphy and drawing back in the 1970s/1980s, but moved away from pen and ink for color illustration and then, for the last 20 years, oil painting.

Life moves on, changes are made and now I’m going to be painting somewhat less, but still entering a selection of good juried shows and doing subjects that I’ve wanted to get to for quite awhile. I’ve also realized that I don’t really enjoy painting on location. It’s always felt like, well, Work. But sketching? Never anything but a joy and a pleasure. So I’ll be doing my oil painting in the studio from now on and working on location in pen and ink, sometimes watercolor and maybe some other dry media like Berol color sticks.

“Masai Mara Acacia” Esterbrook #358 EF on approx. 4×6″ Strathmore 300 vellum bristol

I’ve done these three landscape and tree studies in the last couple of days, trying out what are considered to be some of the finest nibs made specifically for artists.

I’ve also added handlettering back to the mix, something I’ve also did back in the last century. You can learn more about that and see three sketches that also use pen lettering over at my SketchWild site. Check it out and let me know what you think in the comments!

“Near Goose Lake” Hunt 100 nib on 4×6″ Strathmore 300 vellum bristol

Check out “SketchWild”…My New Nature Sketching Site!

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SketchWild is the new place to go for information, tutorials on sketching the natural world, including animals, in pen and ink and also watercolor. And sometimes both! Please click HERE to check it out and let me know what you’d like to learn about.
I’ve been sketching on location since 1989, including Mongolia, England, Germany, Portugal, Romania and, in the USA, many states including Hawaii and a variety of national parks and wildlife refuges. And now I want to offer what I’ve learned and encourage people to pick up a sketchbook and pen or pencil to experience nature in a new way.
(Note: Fox Studio, foxstudio.biz, isn’t going anywhere. I’ll still be posting my oil paintings, exhibition news and stories of my travels there, along with tips and techniques and the work of artists I admire.)

Recent Pen And Ink Work

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“Little Owl, Mongolia” 6×4″ pen and ink on paper

As I did last year, I’ve donated two pen and ink originals for the Explorers Club Annual Dinner auction. This year I decided to do birds that I’ve watched and photographed in Mongolia.
I’ve seen little owls a number of times in a variety of locations…perched on a herder’s storage box near the shore of Orog Nuur, a remote lake in the Gobi, peeking out from behind a rock at Ikh Nartiin Chuluu Nature Reserve and a number of them sitting out by their burrows, which they’d dug into the ruined ramparts of an ancient Turkic settlement, Khar Balgas. Unlike the owls most of us are familiar with in every case it was full daylight.

“Hoopoe, Mongolia” 6×4″ pen and ink on paper

Hoopoes have a very large range…from Mongolia to Africa to Europe. I have found them to be one of the most challenging birds to get decent photos of. It’s almost like they tease you, letting you get…almost…there and then flying off to the next tree. But persistence has paid off at Ikh Nartiin Chuluu Nature Reserve in the valley where the research camp is located. My subject was one of a family group of three I spotted up on the top of the rocks in the late afternoon. I was able to approach just close enough by working my way towards them behind large rocks at the edge of the valley floor to get a number of photos with my 80-400 lens at maximum range.