June and July were great months for live sketching backyard visitors from the comfort of our air conditioned home! August is starting strong as well : )

To dissuade the squirrels from Tarzan-like flights through the air onto the bird feeders, I brought out the old wrought iron corn holder hoops and gave the little rascals there own feeding station. Now they have to share their corn with crows and bunnies! And all just about 15 feet from the dinette window.

Art Tip:

I’ve sketched with Pitt brush tip markers, a Platinum Carbon Ink pen, micron pens, ball point pens and a Lamy Safari fountain pen with water soluble ink. The three horizontal images above are in a Stillman & Birn Delta Journal. The two sandwiched verticals of crows on the left and bunnies on the right are in a Canson Mixed Media Sketchbook.

For years I hesitated to purchase a fountain pen. They can require a lot of cleaning and fuss. I’m here to testify that both pens mentioned are made for those that don’t want a lot of muss and fuss! I’m not getting paid to tout these writing instruments. I’m just sharing the love : )

The Platinum Carbon pen is a desk model. It comes with cartridges filled with ink that is highly water resistant. I work with this pen a lot on many different types of paper and haven’t had any issues yet when I immediately apply watercolor to an ink sketch. Do test all your favorite papers first, though. What I also like about this pen is that the only time I clean it is when I pop a new cartridge in. The pen does not get used everyday. It can sometimes sit for weeks. I’ve yet to experience a time when it wouldn’t make a mark. (Hope I didn’t just jinx the pen!)

The Lamy Safari fountain pen is know to be user friendly for beginner fountain pen users. I agree! Same ease of use as above. The one difference is that its cartridges hold ink that is water soluble. This translates to… With just a few lines (in my case, gestural lines for bird poses), and a water brush, you can touch these lines and build form. When a bird that doesn’t sit still long can be sketched with just a few marks, I’m there. You can then fill in shapes by moving ink around with water, after the bird moves. Just remember where the highlights were and try to leave the paper white. Easier said than done! Especially when working small in a sketchbook.

You can read another post about water soluble ink sketches here.

The magic of white…

When working with watercolor, leaving the white of the paper is truly the most perfect highlight. Ya but, when you are learning to paint it can be difficult to remember to do just that. One can get very caught up when adding pigment to paper and forget to leave intended whites. I’ve been there soooooo many times. In fact, I can still stand in that line. However…

… Art Tip #2

Stayed tuned for my next blog post. There’s lots of info to share!

In the meantime, there is another great source for pens… Goulet Pen Company. You can find the Lamy Safari pens here. While they don’t offer the Platinum Carbon Desk Pen, they have such a collection of pens and inks, not to mention helpful videos on how to clean pens. Trust me, you’ll want to watch the cleaning videos if you purchase a fountain pen. They are excellent tutorials. You can also signup for their newsletters. I always try to support the Goulet’s. It’s a family business, that you can read about here.

Until next time, stay well and make time for sketching. It’s good for your soul : )