Monday, November 21, 2022




 

I guess I'm kinda mad at myself.  I did this drawing a while back and forgot about it, then re-discovered it.  I intended to post it and temporarily put it on my work table.  Unfortunately, I didn't keep the the pad cover over it.  Bad move.  Somehow I splashed 3 drops of water on the water soluble ink drawing.  I scanned the damaged drawing into my laptop and used 'Paint' software to try and erase the 3 blotches.  It helped, but I am not happy with the result.  I do have a scan of the original without any blotches, but the original is now forever changed or ruined.  Lesson learned. I knew better, but maybe I was just too lazy to close the cover over the drawing.  The top drawing shows the original, the 2nd (middle) drawing shows the blotches, and the 3rd (bottom) drawing shows my attempt to erase the blotches.  

Other thoughts:

I did the drawing with my beloved Pelikan 120 pen.  I love this pen; it is a classic.  I hope I'm not repeating myself, but I bought this during my art school days.  Money was tight and art supplies were expensive-for me-even back then, maybe especially back then.  I don't remember what I paid for it ($15 maybe), but it was an investment.  I love the flexibility of the nib.  It gives character to the line.  The drawback is that it uses only water soluble ink (with different colors available, like sepia for example).  I use Rapidograph pens of different line widths to do my calendar art, and it uses only waterproof technical ink (as in non-viscous consistency), with no room for error, which I believe I have mentioned in the past.  

A tip I learned is that if you are drawing with whatever implement (pencil, pen, charcoal, whatever) and you find yourself in a rut, or nothing is going 'right', try switching the implement or media.  You may find you are suddenly 'free' and creating.  

Happy creating to all.  Russ