Blog Archive

Wednesday, 28 May 2014

Drawing with a thin black pen

I have done a series of drawings using a thin black fine liner pen.  I am not a huge fan of drawing with pencil because I can't get enough contrast, it usually smudges and I am not a fan of grey.  I also dislike the fact you can rub out pencil which ruins the surface of the paper. With pen you have to focus, and not make mistakes!! 

So I have done some drawings using a good quality fine liner pen. I used Rotring pens for all of these drawings.

The only pencil used is simply to map out roughly where everything goes. This is a few basic outlines done very lightly. Absolutely no detail at all with pencil.

I build up the detail as I work around the drawing. I concentrate on one area, and then move along to the next bit. This is totally different to how I do a painting!!!  When I paint I tend to work across the whole design building it all up in layers.

My main focus is on texture and lighting contrasts. I use a series of different strokes for this. I use some cross hatching for shadows, but mostly I just use a variety of different mark making techniques, thick and thin lines, dots and broken lines.

I do not have any step by step examples for these works. They were done over a few years. Most were done from photographs or views out of windows. They are all about A4 size.

So here are a few of my pen drawings. Some I have added close up details to show you a variety of mark making styles.



A close up of the wall by the house.









This one, above, was done in a dark brown ink. and here is a close up by the open shutters





The crop below, from part of the door, shows a wide range of different mark making






The crop below shows a range of lines used  for the trees











So there they are!!  Some of my ink drawings. I have also done a selection where I have added thin washes of paint to enhance the drawing. However, that is a another blog post in the future I think.

Let me know what you think. I love to get comments!!!   



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