Paints Pens-N-Pencils

While on a walk through my neighborhood, I look down to see the remnents of this past fall when the air was crisp and the leaves crunched under your feet. Now, all soggy and squished from the weight of winter snow, the Honey Locust seed pod emerges. The leaves all shades of brown and gray laying in wait, as if to declare " hey, time for spring clean up!"

I came home from work to a beautiful sunny day 72 degrees. I went out on our deck and decided to sketch the tree in from of me. Although it is still "winter" and the tree is bare, it has the buds starting on it, showing signs of spring, YEAH!!!. This is a red maple. It has bright red/orange leaves in the fall. I used my new Noodler's Ahab flex pen and DeAtramentis black ink. I went straight to ink and love the expressive lines I can get with the pen. Normally I would do a minimal setup but, today I went straight to pen. Enjoyed the process!!!

I got a collection of DeAtramentis Document Inks from The Goulet Pen Company and decided to test them out. Here I tested the DeAtramentis Document Inks for sketching and painting. In my Noodler's Ahab pens, the ink flows very nicely and dries quickly. This in important since I use them with watercolors. The inks mixed very well together allowing you to make custom colors like I did for the purple and brown. I am using my Sillman & Birn Beta sketchbook. Painting with the inks worked out very well in that they flow smoothly from the brush and you can add water to thin or feather the color while it is still wet on the paper. The inks are permanent when dry on paper. The only water colors use in the sketch above are in the colors of the Ahab pens and the shadows. All the rest of the colors are the Inks. I also used the inks with a dip pen and love the flow from the tip. Using a dip pen makes it super easy change colors.  Getting these Inks is a challenge since they a

So after going through the Sketchbook Skool classes, Liz Steel's Sketching Now course, and recently reading Danny Gregory's new book, Art Before Breakfast, I have finally embraced letting go of perfection and just have fun drawing. It is hard to let go of wanting to include every detail accurately and paint the colors perfectly when I sketch. So today, I brave ignoring "the monkey" and sketch my breakfast. I forged on quickly creating this sketch as fast as I could not concerning myself with perfection. And then have the nerve to post it. Liberating to say the least! I will be embracing this new way of working and see where my art with the "a" goes. I also got to try out my new M. Graham watercolors and De Atrementis document black ink. Both were fabulous and I will have to play around some more with these as Liz teaches "getting to know your materials"

EDM #242 - draw a figurine or tzatche This talking stick sits on my desk at work. A momento from a training class The 7 Habits - by Franklin Covey. not much talkin' goin' on, just drawin'!