I began this week by ordering a large quantity of reference books (on pen and ink drawing) from my local library system and by collecting my starting materials.
Pens Collected (so far):
Staedtler Pigment Liners (0.3, 0.5) I like how these flow and feel in my hand, may need to get more.
Millennium Zig Pigment (08) Not as much of a fan, I think I'll replace this with a staedtler.
Faber Castell: Pitt Manga set (Small, medium, brush) I've had these a while and my black brush has gone a bit dry, I'm going to try rewetting with some rubbing alcohol. Hopefully that will work with the india ink pigment. The kit has a few other gray-scale brushes and none of them are dried out, just the black. I like the action of the nib pens, but the feel of the staedtler pens is still superior.
Sharpie (
Fine,
Standard) the classic, utilitarian sharpie. I think these guys will be confined to inking out larger areas of pigment because they bleed, a lot. Good concentration of color, plentiful and cheap, but it lacks the precision of more refined pens.
Tombo (Brush/felt tip combo pen) I picked up a handful of these over break in primary, secondary, fleshtone, and black (as well as a blender pen). So far I'm liking these quite a bit. I can't wait to work with them more. They offer a slightly more versatile and larger scale ink-pattern than the smaller technical pens.
Bic: Mark It (Fine point) Though toted as "fine" this permanent marker is the biggest of my bunch so far (until I pull out the
prismacolor markers here soon). Despite the banality of the company (Bic, known for stick pens and disposable razors) the pen performs rather well. Significantly less bleeding than the more popular
Sharpie and good intensity.
I have a few different types of multi-tip drawing markers that are packed away still, but I'll get to them later as they are almost exclusively for color use.
Resources
Drawing in Pen & Ink, Claudia Nice:
I'm not particularly far into this book, but what I've looked at so far has seem well rounded, and a good basic place to start. She seems to do a good job of helping to build the basic skills and then show how to apply them to more complex projects.
Pen & Ink Sketching, Peter Caldwell:
This book heavily features landscapes and architecture. While it is less organized and methodical than Ms. Nice's book, there is a nice contrast in subject as Nice typically does human and animal studies, with rural landscapes.
Exercises: Control
I started by cataloging my pens visually by drawing lines and dotted lines with them and labeling the marks. These exercises focus on hand control, stroke variation, and attention to stroke direction.
Scans of the exercises to follow.
A final thought from the sketch book:
One are I definitely notice control issues in is the stroke direction. The muscles in the hand are stronger and steadier when performing a down stroke (versus an upstroke). In the horizontal lines, the right-to-left pattern shows greater control and accuracy (contrary to my preconception). Westerners write from left-to-right and I assumed that the left-to-right pattern would be stronger and more regular.
