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Art Color For Sale Pen and Ink

Leaves II

Leaves I. Zig Fudebiyori Metallic and Uni-Ball Signo pens on Fabriano Black Black drawing paper. 8" x 8"
Leaves II. Zig Fudebiyori Metallic and Uni-Ball Signo pens on Fabriano Black Black drawing paper. 8″ x 8″ unframed. $240

This piece is the second in a series on the theme of leaves, which I mostly produced to test the Fudebiyori pens I acquired recently. This one was a lot of work to create, especially as I had to go over most of the white lines twice (and then do the typical back-and-forth cleanup), however I think the end results are solid. I really like the Black Black paper – It’s amazingly uniform in color, especially compared to the Strathmore, which is one of the reasons I left bits of it showing through. I also minimized over-use of the colored pens on this one, to try to preserve more of the sheen of the metallic additives in the ink; that was largely successful. I still haven’t gotten the time to set up high-quality photos of my work with truly accurate colors the way I’d like, but I’m hoping to get that issue resolved soon.

Categories
Art Color For Sale Pen and Ink

Leaves I

Leaves I. Zig Fudebiyori Metallic and Uniball Signo Broad pens on Strathmore 400 Series Black Artist Tile. 6" x 6"
Leaves I. Zig Fudebiyori Metallic and Uniball Signo Broad pens on Strathmore 400 Series Black Artist Tile. 6″ x 6″ unframed. $180

I finally got a chance to do more art! Since I took a position last fall as a consultant for Improving, my evenings have been almost entirely occupied with user’s group meetings and technical events, which has severely constrained my drawing time. My apologies that the blog has gotten stale as a result.

This was a piece I did to test my new Fudebiyori pens that I picked up at the Art Supply Depō last weekend. The title is Leaves I, because I’m planning on doing a conceptually similar piece on a bigger, blacker piece of paper next. I learned a few lessons that will help with the next one. For example, using multiple coats of the Fudebiyori makes the color more intense, but takes the shine out of the ink (I’m guessing that the mica particles, which is what’s usually in these things that’s responsible for the metal-like sheen, sink to the bottom layer, but I don’t have a microscope for a closer look.) And the Uniball ink will melt some of the Fudebiyori colors, which makes it surprisingly hard to maintain the integrity of the white border lines. Overall, though, I think this one is technically decent and has a good balance of colors. I also suspect it will look really snappy once it’s framed, which I intend to do.

Categories
Art For Sale Pen and Ink

Swamp Things

Swamp Things. Micron pens on Strathmore 300 Series Bristol paper. 14" x 14"
Swamp Things. Micron pens on Strathmore 300 Series Bristol paper. 16″ x 16″ framed. $560

This is the second piece in the Swamp Things Collection, which I created in response to a call for artists from the Art Supply Depō in Bowling Green, Ohio. All of the creatures pictured in the collection are native to the Great Black Swamp region, and are not drawn to scale relative to one another. I’d originally planned three pieces, but I ran out of time before the deadline, so only the first two were submitted. I’m still planning on creating the third for posterity.

I wasn’t initially happy with this piece. You wouldn’t necessarily know it just by looking at it, but it’s production fell well outside my normal approach. Aside from there being no abstract components, I (mostly) drew the frames to fit the flora and fauna, so I could draw the entire corpus. Usually, I start by creating a series of frames in arbitrary shapes and sizes, then fill them in with material (which is why, in other works of mine, many of the realism elements are trimmed to fit.) It was surprisingly disconcerting to work this way, and led me to make a number of substantial mistakes. They are disguised to the best of my ability, but aren’t completely invisible, and might require further work. There’s also far more unused white space in the frames than I’d normally like to leave available. And to be be candid, I added the title at the last second in an effort to meet the submission deadline, rather than draw another animal in the corner. I probably won’t take that approach again in the future, though it works reasonably well here.

However, on balance, I think it’s decent overall. The individual plants and animals (which were mostly chosen based on the delightfulness of their names) are about as good as I can make them, at least at this point in my drawing career, and that’s pleasing to me. It was exciting, if a bit nerve-wracking, to be creating pieces to submit to the judgement of artists for whom I have a great deal of respect. I don’t know if my submissions will get accepted, but I don’t have any regrets about putting in the effort.

About the Species Represented