#Inktober2019, week two close-out

Here are the sketches to close out week 2 of the #Inktober2019 challenge. My goal is to focus on shading, sometimes as hatching, sometimes with broader lines.

#Inktober2019 number 9 Black and white inks.

Toned paper makes for interesting contrast with black, gray or white inks. The goodie box that came this week included two books with colored drawing paper. I can't bring myself to use the oh-so-precious Field Notes Sweet Tooth book with luscious red paper yet, reasoning that I have to get better at drawing before sullying its pages. But, I did use the blue papered notebook. The idea with toned paper is to use the color of the paper for one of the shading values, the mid-range in this case. The sketch is a blue glazed tea cup. Pens used were a Pentel pocket brush pen and a Sailor Fountain pen (blue) with a fude nib and the black cartridge ink that came with the pen. The white highlights were from a Sakura Gelly Roll pen.

#Inktober2019 number 10 grapes

I wanted more color for the grapes. The shading was done with waterbrushes using diluted Namiki blue ink and diluted Joy Sepia ink. The pens were a Kuretake #13 brush pen with Malachite green, a Pilot Metropolitan Fine nib with a mix of blue and purple ink, and two Wing Sung 6359 EF nibs with Vert Empire green and Chocolate brown inks.

#Inktober2019 number 11 The laughing pencil case

Day 11. I went back to shading with hatching. I mostly sketch for the #inktober challenge just before bed, using what is quick and handy. My new pen case, a gift from my sister, and the new Monteverde DC Supershow Teal ink from Goulet pens (on their discount shelf) seemed like a great match. The pen was a Wing Sung 6359, EF nib.

#Inktober2019 number 12. 2 minute poses

One of my sketching goals is to be able to quickly draw people in action. They don't have to be recognizable to anyone who knows them, in fact I think it's safer to publish pictures that are unrecognizable, but I do want to show the emotions and gestures. So I am reading several books on sketching people. Here is my nightly practice from poses rotated on a timed basis via a great website. The pen was a Jinhao x750 with fude nib. The Jinhao is thicker than the Sailor fude pen, and heavier as it is made of metal (probably brass?). I like the line capability, but all my Jinhao pens seem to dry up more quickly than my better pens. They are cheap and pretty, but I only use my less expensive inks in them.

Travel time

Last month I spent a week with my sister in the Sacramento area. She has a lovely yard and chickens. Although it was hot, in the 90s, I enjoyed sitting on her patio to sketch the yard and watch the Black Throated hummingbirds. The hummers were too quick for me to sketch, but the chickens were fun!

Sister's backyard. Watercolor pencils on Canson XL 140lb paper

Detail study of ornamental grass and yard art.
watercolor pencils and brush pen with green ink.

We are both enabling influences on each other. Her favorite store is Tuesday Morning, a discount store that has a craft supply area. We have found bargains on high end yarn and knitting needles in the past. This time it was colored pencils! I brought home two sets of Spectrum Noir pencils, a set of 12 metallics and a set of 24 Aquablend water color pencils for $7 and $12 respectively. What a deal! Spectrum Noir watercolor pencils are sold in sets of 24 with a color theme to each set. The set I got is the floral theme. So no greens, but a range of reds, oranges, blues and a couple yellows. The pencils are rich and creamy, easily activated with water, but a little crumbly. We also picked up some Canson black paper, which makes the metallics pop!

Yixing teapot
Spectrum Noir Metallic pencils
Canson Black Drawing paper.

Journals sketched with Spectrum Noir Aquablend pencils.
Badfish Coffee, fude pen and brush pen with green inks.

I drink only decaf coffee, so taste is critical. Starbucks and other large coffee vendors have increasingly limited decaf options. I am always looking for small batch roasted decaf at local coffee shops. We hit two in my sister's area and bought single varietal decaf beans. Cold-brew is all the rage but I've never seen decaf cold-brew. We tried cold-brewing the two different beans I had purchased at home. Wow!! It was so good, even my sister said she could switch to decaf. I took the opportunity to do some sketches at the coffee shop.

San Diego airport, Hero fude pen.

Sacramento Airport, Fude nib pen.

Last time I flew, I used the time in the airport to knit a pair of socks. This time, I did some quick gesture sketches of people sitting around me. One in San Diego, one in Sacramento. Quick people sketches that give the essence of their activity or attitude is one of the skills I would love to build. Practice, practice!

Tales from the Trails

The creek-side trail behind my house is walled for a little distance by a row of townhomes on one side. A few months ago, a wicker chair and footstool was placed outside one of the gates to a townhome.  That is a first, I wondered if someone decided to discard the chair, or if it was there for use. When I saw a stuffed dog (a life sized Old English Sheepdog) lying in the chair, it looked like an art installation, of sorts. I had to go back to sketch it. The shadows ended up too dark. I think I need to dilute the Noodler's Lexington Gray ink that I keep in my fude pen.

Stuffed dog in chair on creek-side trail.
Various inks and waterbrush.
Canson XL 140lb. paper

Mistletoe on Sycamore, Poway creek.
Inks, pens and brushpen.

Down the trail next to the bridge into my neighborhood is a sycamore tree leaning over the creek bed. It has a very healthy mistletoe plant parasite hanging from it. I had about 15 minutes left before I had to head home, so I decided to try to focus on the mistletoe (considering the dissatisfaction I'm feeling with my sketches of trees).

Green heron, Poway creek. Watercolour
pencils and inks. 

As I walked over the bridge to walk home, a Green Heron burst out from under my feet and flew a few yards down the creek before settling back into the cattails. I often see Great Blue herons, Snowy egrets, and Great (white) Egrets in the creek, but the Green herons are much more secretive. Of course, I had to try to sketch it to record the memory. I used Faber-Castell watercolour pencils because they are fast.

South Poway Hills trailhead with fog. Canson XL 140lb. paper with inks and pencils.

I am trying to get in the habit of taking a half hour hike in the morning when I'm not meeting someone at 7 am. We are still having an unusual percentage of foggy mornings. On my way to the other end of community park, I stopped to try to catch the last of the fog as it drifted along the tops of the hills around the South Poway Trailhead. I used inks and watercolour pencils. The fields here, that I have hiked for almost 20 years, are being choked in the past 8 years by the invasive wild artichoke plants. Just last year and this year they seems to go brown prematurely, I think someone is spraying them with something. A couple days after I sketched this, those brown stalks with the round seeds heads were being chopped and bagged by a crew. I wanted to cheer!

Cleaning vegetation out of the drainage in Community Park. Watercolour pencils and inks. Canson XL 140lb. paper.

Then I walked on through a small neighborhood west of my house to where there is another bridge over the creek. A long drainage runs through the park, it is concrete lined as it flows by dog park and drains into Poway creek. Ducks, crows, herons, killdeer and other birds frequent the shallow drainage and plants take root in the sediment. Once a year, the city scrapes up the sediment and plants. I wish they didn't. I once watched in horror as a female killdeer and two tiny killdeer babies ran just ahead of the skip loader. The next time I saw the mother, there was only one baby. So when I saw the men just starting to scrape up the vegetation, I had to stop for a quickie sketch. I think they are starting later so there were no nesting killdeer in the ditch, only the ubiquitous crows.

Tree Troubles

I love trees. As much as water and mountains. The path along the creek behind my house has been a favorite place to walk for over ten years. So, of course, I am eager to sketch the lushness of the greenery, especially the trees. But I am not happy with the squishy green mess that results.

Bridge on west end of Dog Park.
The wild Fennel has taken over the banks in the past decade.
Canson XL 140 lb paper various inks, waterbrush and ink washes.

King's Craft Coffee patio. Artist's Loft journal paper.
Inks: Noodler's Lexington Gray, Herbin Vert Empire,
Diamine Chocolate Brown

Some friends and I had a morning chat at a local coffee shop, King's Craft. They roast their own beans, the decaf is single origin Peruvian! Wonderful flavor. I had the time to sketch the greenery as we chatted for a couple hours. At least it looks like a tree, but I can't wash color into the leaves because of the thin Artist's Loft journal paper. 

East bridge and path to community park.
Various inks and watercolor pencils on Canson XL 140lb paper.

When I tried to represent the mass of trees on the east end of the path, it was overwhelming. And it was taking so long my feet were hurting! So back to the green ooze. At home I inked in suggestions of leaves, but I'm not sure it improved the effect.

Ficus tree at Poway Library. The guy on the bench
seemed to notice me sketching and moved elsewhere.
Artist's Loft journal paper, inks, watercolor pencils.

Finally. with a focus on one tree at the local library I could get the leaves instead of a mass of green ooze. But trying to sketch a forest with this many leaves is not practical. I have been reading enough books that I  hope to find the secret to sketching a mass of trees without taking half the day. The leaves in this sketch were started with Herbin Vert Empire ink (I like the green gray tone), which has a moderate level of water resistance. The trunk was inked in with Diamine Chocolate brown, that shades so beautifully when activated along one side with a thin water brush. After I got home, I added more leaves with different colors of watercolor pencil. Then my new Kuretake #8 brush pen came in the mail, so I inked it with a 50% dilution of Monteverde Malachite Green. What a lovely, leafy effect that pen and ink combo can give! Maybe I could have done without the pencils after using the brush pen. The texture doesn't match.

Rat wars and epistemology

This is the time of year that brings on the rat wars. The stream bed is drying up in places, vegetation is getting dry-weather tough and the rats descend on my gardens (such as they are). I have been unsuccessful in growing carrots the last two years, and this year they have actually done well in the tiny raised bed and in the large pot where I planted them. I have felt great joy in eating a couple every time I water the plants. The variety is Nantes, the carrots my grandmother always grew in our garden. They are crisper and sweeter than the varieties that are used for market. Tonight, they were all gone. All of them. The tops were chewed off and scattered around and the carrots were all dug out and taken away. That is behind the rabbit-proof fence that I keep around the raised bed. I also thought that the golden cherry tomatoes growing in the front garden bin were suddenly disappearing and tonight when I watered, a rat leaped out of the bin and ran off. They spring all the traps I set and leave them jumbled in a pile. I have seen rats run right by the two electronic traps, baited with chocolate and peanut butter. What is left? Maybe I should get a terrier...

Line sketches at Costco. Jinhao "Shark" pen, extra-fine with Noodler's Black ink.
Exceed 100gsm journal paper.

After seeing a reference to some training exercises for urban sketching from sketcher Marc Taro Holmes I was excited to find he authored a class on Bluprint, to which I have a year subscription. I watched lesson one of "Travel Sketching in Mixed Media", concerning single line sketching. The technique is to practice producing quick sketches by doing a single line contour sketch without lifting the pen. I admit, I couldn't quite do that, but I think it is a good exercise. I did two quick sketches while waiting for my tire rotation at Costco. I added gray and green shading to those sketches, but the two sketches I made tonight while eating with my granddaughter are simpler. Most of the details are omitted, which certainly makes them faster.  I plan to do more.

The conversation with my six year old granddaughter was especially surreal tonight. She said, "I often wonder if I'm living real life." What does that mean?? She says, "How do I know that I'm real? Maybe I'm just imaginary." I said, "What else could you be? A character in a story that some alien is telling his kid?" She laughed, "I just wonder how I know what is real sometimes." I haven't had this type of conversation since I took epistomology in college. And she is only six.

Simple line drawings of Sam and our teapot.
Jinhao fude nib pen, Noodler's Lexington Gray ink. Shading with
Kuretake brush pen and black ink. Artist's Loft journal paper.

Quick sketches with Tri-Tones

I am a sucker for new tools and techniques. So when I saw a post about Koh-I-Noor Tri-Tone colored pencils, I had to order a set off eBay. Tri-tones have 3 colors mixed in each lead, the set I bought has 11 different combinations. They have been really fun! The colors are creamy and lay down a beautiful, variable color line. I used them yesterday to make some quick sketches of my granddaughter at the library.

Sam is obsessed with playing games on her iPad and informed me that she hoped I would find a book to read so she would have time to play with the library iPads. (Her mother once sent me a text of a conversation: "Sam, go look at the books". "Mommy, I don't know where the books are."..."We're in the library...") When we got to the library, the first thing she saw was a baby, about 8 months old, playing in the kids section. All thought of the iPad was out the window. Apparently playing with a baby is even more interesting than technology! And I took the opportunity to practice quick gestural sketches with the Tri-Tones.

8/02/19 Sam and a baby at the library. Koh-I-Noor Tri-tone pencils. Kuretake brush pen, black ink.
Diamine Chocolate Brown ink and Monteverde Joy Sepia, diluted as a wash. Significant shadow coming through
from images on the reverse side of the Artist's Loft journal paper.

We had fun a while ago sketching "Weather animals", an animal cartoon meant to illustrate the weather. She asked me to sketch a weather frog of a stormy day. The day yesterday was breezy, but not stormy. Still, it was fun to use the multi-colored pencils to make a quick storm frog.

Sam also made some sketches of birds and worms using the Tri-tones. She asked me to get some for her, but I let her know she could use them any time at my house.

8/2/2019 Sam's sketch of a bird feeding a baby, using
Koh-I-Noor Tri-tone pencils. Canson XL 140 lb. paper

A worm evading a bird by escaping down
his tunnel into nursery chambers. By
Sam with Tri-Tone Pencils 8/2/19
Canson XL 140 lb. paper

I read about "activating" a journal with artistic borders. I sprayed a border using diluted food coloring and it does add interest to my sketches. I started the day with a sketch of my favorite coffee mug and ended with a hand sketch. Diamine November Rain ink in an Ohuhu brush pen made interesting practice in sketching little evergreen trees. Not an on the scene sketch, since they are imaginary trees!

8/2/19 Red food coloring spray, water colour pencils,
Sailor Fude Pen, Diamine November Rain ink.
Exceed 100gsm journal paper

My day as a journal sketch

I have been wildly utilizing the library links to request books on sketching that are not available locally. Which also means I have been madly reading and keeping notes as I go. One book, "Draw Your Day" by Samantha Dion Baker was loaded with lively and inspiring sketches, but not much how-to information (which is what I feel that I desperately need at this stage). But I was interested in the main premise of the book, which is that you can journal by making a two-page spread with sketches of the focal events of the day. So I decided to give it a try. 
I definitely need practice on this, but publishing my beginning attempts might encourage some others who, like me, feel that their sketches lack any artistic value. Bloggers who have posted their early attempts are the reason I took the plunge into sketching and publishing, so maybe someone will also be inspired by my sketches to overcome that insecurity obstacle.

Day 1: Technology Day. I resurrected a PDA and folding keyboard after 10 years of neglect. 
The batteries had split open and the inside of the keyboard was corroded badly.
After cleaning, it functioned! Briefly. The second time I opened it, it was unresponsive.
Oh well...

Various inks and pens on Artist's Loft journal paper.

Day 2: A Day of Birds. I guess if you look, you can always find a theme. Watching a Roadrunner follow the sidewalk is a rare treat. And the tiny bird that hit my kitchen window gave me a chance to see an Orange-crowned warbler up close. I hear them often in the willows behind my house, but rarely see them.

Orange-Crowned Warbler sitting on my porch after hitting the window.
He recovered and flew away after about 15 minutes (I actually can't tell the gender).

I swear the crows are just playing with the wind as they careen in between the houses in my neighborhood.

Crows sketched with Kuretake Brush Pen. The warbler was inked with Platinum Black and colored with pencils.
Other inks and pens were used, also diluted inks in water brushes. Artist's Loft journal paper.

I skipped sketch day that was just blah...  Day 4 includes a quick sketch of one of the local reservoirs that I visit frequently. What was up with the flies?? One of the blessings of SoCal is the scarcity of flies and mosquitoes so that I leave doors open when I am going in and out of the house. This day of the Flies was bizarre. Then I babysat my grands for the evening. Yeah, I need a lot of practice on people.

Various pens and inks, Faber-Castell watercolour pencils, pastels on Artist's Loft journal paper.

Another frequent location, my local library, has a perforated shade roof over the courtyard. A lovely arrangement with cut-outs in the shape of leaves that I failed to adequately capture. And perspective is a skill I am working on as well.

Library shade structure on top right. Personal present day! The colored pencils and inks that I ordered came in, Oh Happy Day!! Koh-I-Noor TriTone Pencils, Artist's Loft Journal Paper, Diamine Chocolate Brown and various inks, Kuretake Brush Pen

I added a Sailor Fude de Mannen pen to the pen herd and had to test it out. It was surprisingly fun to sketch my sling bag with it! I can't in any way explain my emotional attachment to my pens. It's almost as if they are like pets to me. I loved the Sailor Pen, thinking I preferred it over my Jinhao fude pen, until I wrote with the Jinhao to compare. They are different in the style of the nib, the Sailor is thinner and doesn't have noticeable tipping material. But, maybe I am getting more adept at making lines of different widths with a fude nib, I found that I liked each of them the same. The only downside to the Jinhao is that, being metal, it is heavier than I like in a pen. But the Sailor is made of a cheap feeling plastic that I don't really enjoy so that ends up being a balancing factor.

Sailor Fude de Mannen pen on top, with included Sailor Black cartridge ink.
Shading on backpack is Noodler's Lexington Gray in a brush pen.
Text and box on the bottom was a comparison with my Jinhao x750 fude nib pen.
Ink in that pen is Lexington Gray also. Pens colored with various inks and pencils.
Exceed 100gsm journal paper

Fountain pens for sketching

Three fountain pens came in the mail today that I have been wanting to try for sketching. All three of these pens have the capability to draw from thin to thick lines depending on the pressure, or the angle, at which the nib is used.

1. Kuretake Fountain Brush Pen - from eBay ($8.95). The plastic that the pen is made with has a cheap feel to it, but the real brush (as opposed to a felt tip that is used like a brush) lays down a rich, gushy line. I need some practice, but it is exciting to use this brush to get a quick sketch with fewer details.

7/16/19 Sydney hamster, gestural study. Kuretake Brush Pen with Kuretake black ink.

The black ink cartridge that was included was deep black, and appeared to be water resistant as it did not wash well even when fresh.

7/16/19 Hand #13 Kuretake brush pen, Kuretake black ink.

2. Jinhao X750 with a Fude nib installed - from eBay ($3.56) The eBay description is a calligraphy nib because this nib lays down a thick to thin variable line depending on the angle of the nib to paper. It is used in Chinese calligraphy. I need more practice with this nib also, but I was really happy with the results. The ink goes down very smoothly. Noodler's Lexington Gray ink is water resistant, but if I put a water wash down first, it makes acceptable shadows.

7/16/19 Hand # 14 Jinhao X750 -Fude nib; Noodler's Lexington Gray ink; Artist's Loft journal paper

I have several other Jinhao X450/750 pens. They are metal bodied (brass, I think) pens that I find to be pretty, but too heavy and unbalanced. The nibs are medium width, which is very wet and gushy, so I expected that the feed on a Jinhao X750 would be able to keep up with a fude type nib. I took pictures of the medium nib and the fude nib side by side. The tip of the fude is bent (which gives fude nibs the thick to thin line variability) and does not have the "iridium" tipping ball that I see on the medium nib. Otherwise it looks the same to my eye.

Jinhao fude nib on the left, Jinhao medium nib on the right. The style and lettering are the same.

Jinhao fude nib on the bottom, notice the bend upward and the lack of a balled tip when compared to the Jinhao medium nib on top.

3. Jinhao X750 with a Zebra G flex nib installed. eBay ($4.50) Zebra G dip nibs are popular for drawing Japanese Manga comics. They flex very widely and easily by putting light pressure downward on the nib. I have used these nibs as dip nibs with a holder, and found the spidery thin lines and the wide flex to be great for lettering, but I don't like how frequently I have to dip the nib when using fountain pen ink. There are YouTube videos on how to hack the nib to fit in a Jinhao pen, but my attempts to hack pens have not gone well for me. So I ordered this pen, hoping the wet feed would be able to keep up. The result was initially beautiful, but soon had major railroading (the two track lines) even though I went painfully slow. I will NOT be drawing Manga, or any other sketches, with this pen!

Comparison of Jinhao Fude nib pen with Jinhao Zebra G Nib pen. Noodler's Lexington Gray ink in fude, Diamine Oxblood ink in Zebra G. Notice the railroading in the word "Zebra". Rhodia #16 paper.