New Pen

My sister gave me a gorgeous book called The Boy, The Mole, The Fox, and The Horse for my birthday. It’s not only gorgeous and wise and kind (and about cake to a pretty good degree!), but the drawings are superb. Charlie Mackesy has a lovely IG feed with more drawings, small readings from the book that are kind of perfect for now, and also time lapse videos of his pen doing these drawings that vary from very thin lines to very thick ones. It reminded me of what I’d heard about fude pens, and I decided now was the time for a new toy. I can’t put it down. I got a Sailor fude (navy, 40 degree angle instead of 55) plus an ink converter, for right about $20 total, in case you’d also like a new toy.

The line variation is delicious. I’m still learning how to hold and vary it, but I’ve had such fun playing with it the last two days. In fact, I think I’m heading over to the forest now with my sketchbook. The forest is so beguiling for line drawings, and it’s a glorious day. I’ve had a ton of commissions lately, which is excellent, but it felt good to finish the last of them (for now) last night. So today I’m making art, but making the art that feels like fun because it isn’t due or required for anything.

I’ll probably come back with more, but here’s the total crop right now. I’m using a basic black, water soluble ink right now, but at some point I may try waterproof so it won’t run with paint. I’ve really enjoyed my waterproof marker and colored paint in the Quarantine Journal project lately.