Pen & Ink Drawing, Rollerball Pens

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More Drawing Materials

You may be wondering by now just how big the drawer is that I've been referring to in the last few blogs. It's the top drawer, and it's just your average size plastic bin drawer. It is very full, but I can find what I need with minimal rummaging. (We'll save the discussion on housekeeping for a future blog.)

So what else is in there?

• Rollerball or Roller Ball Pens for pen & ink drawings (no consensus,I guess, on correct naming) -In the blog on July 16, I told you about my admiration for line drawings since the 1970s. Line drawings are rendered using only lines. All forms, along with light, shadow, perspective etc. are expressed only with lines. The can be hatched, cross-hatched, circles, squares, dots, or whatever, but only lines. No tone. In the ensuing 30+ years, I'm happy to report that advances in science for this medium are nothing less than profound (my opinion). Pen technology is a wonderful thing. I have two different brands both black ink. One package says, "quick drying, fade resistant, conforms to ASTM D-4236," (which I looked up and is an art safety standard, how nice). The other brand is a little more upscale; its package says, "advanced liquid ink system writes longer, pigmented ink is fade-proof & waterproof, 0.7 mm Fine Point." I estimate that what cost approximately US$20+ for a pen-and-ink drawing tool in the 1970s, you can today get a reasonably good quality Rollerball/Roller Ball pen for US$.33 (that's 33 cents!). Mind you, these are in no way the professional ones from your art supply store. And you can render something similar on your computer with graphic software and print it out (digital art will make a good topic someday). But 33 cents people-come on! And they last a long time, too. There's no excuse not to pick up a pack of these and start drawing. You can't beat it.

Just writing about this has renewed my interest in line drawings with Rollerball/Roller Ball pens. Last year I did relatively few line drawings because, as I began to explore all kinds of art that were available, I moved on to other mediums and got interested in color. I've included one of my line drawings at the top of this blog for your viewing pleasure. It's a drawing of a cathedral, which I referenced from a photo in a brochure.

In the Studio

The acrylic of a view of the Grand Canyon I've been talking about is moving right along. I finished painting most of the foreground. Next I will work on the shadows in the foreground rock formations, which are a key ingrediant of the piece. I'll keep you updated on progress.

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