Tuesday 20 November 2018

Brown Thornbill

Ink on board


A further exploration into ink this time using a different type of surface. This is an 8 x 8" Ampersand Artist Panel - the 'value series', Primed Smooth.These are pre-primed gesso ground boards. I purchased a few of these panels several years back and forgot I had them - digging around in my paper drawer for some offcuts of hot press paper I found them again and thought I would try them out. The boards weren't cheap at $6AUS for an 8 x 8" one though!
I found the surface texture smooth as silk to draw on with ink. No absorbtion so you must wait until the ink has dried. Difficult to get a very fine line even with my finest nib. I used Art spectrum Acrylic ink/black, nib pens as well as a Derwent Graphik line painter 05 #16 (light grey) pen (from the #4 palette of pens). Honestly, those Graphik pens are not my favourite - nice idea but I have yet to get a handle on them, they constantly 'blob' out on me. Luckily the Artist Panel is so smooth and non-absorbant I could wipe clean the blob before the grey ink dried! I have a couple of boards left and will try again. It is always fun to explore new mediums, surfaces and techniques.
Image used from my own photography of the resident thornbill dancing about in my winter crepe myrtle tree.



Sunday 18 November 2018

Honey Bee

Lavendar Buzz


Another ink demo using nib pens and wash - Art Spectrum black acrylic ink on Arches 300gsm Hot press - A5 size. Reference was personal photography from my garden

Tuesday 13 November 2018

Bumbling along in ink

The Humble Bumble



The assignment for my students this week was to draw an insect using dip (nib) pen and ink. These are the two demo drawings I did for them - 10 x 10 cm, Art Spectrum black ink on Arches Watercolour Hot Press A5 pad. I used photos that I had taken in the US as well as some I found online open commons images. 

Sunday 11 November 2018

Inktober development

Thunderstorm over Mansfield


This is a larger development of a work done for the Inktober series, (8, 9, 30). Using nib pen and ink on Lana 250gsm Bristol board. Size is 25 x 18cm. Took around 4 hours to complete.

Monday 5 November 2018

New Fav Review; Derwent Inktense Paint Pan Travel Set

All Hail Inktober!

Even though Inktober is now officially 'finished', I am still having fun playing with inks and experimenting with the different types. Yesterday I was in one of my local artshops, The Artshed, and saw this fabulous new product from Derwent - an Inktense Paint Pan Travel Set.


This is a great little product, containing 12 half pans of Inktense blocks, a water barrel travel water brush, a little spongey thing, and a reference chart all packaged in a neat little travel box. Price was reasonable for the item at $42.95 AUS (less artists' Art Shed discount) - not super cheap but worth the price IMO.


So the first thing I did was trials and test strips of the colours. This was done on some offcuts of 250gsm Bockingford Not Press watercolour paper.

 12 hues of the 72 colour range are in this set, but if you already own a 24 set of the pencils these would be an excellent back up to that set. Five of the colours match in number/hue to the 24 set of pencils: 0400 Poppy Red, 0200 Sun Yellow, 1000 Bright Blue, 1300 Teal Green, 2200 Ink Black. All the other colours are new numbering/hues to me - they are probably found in the set of 36 or 48 or 72 pencils, so if you own one of the expanded sets you will have a match.

The hues have the brilliance and intensity we have come to know with the pencils and blocks of the Inktense range. The colours wash very well, creating even gradations. I found doing tonal gradations easier with these pans than I have with the pencils. Some colours are more opaque than others (0400 Poppy Red for example).

A picky thing about the set - the brush does not come with a cap for the brush section - it does have a little black sealing cap for the water barrel. So, after use you must screw off the brush section and cap the remaining water with the cap. Not a big deal, but I know I am going to lose that little black cap very quickly. Obviously they couldn't fit a full capping brush into the brush section... but maybe they could have reduced the size of the sponge area and lengthened the brush area to accomodate this?  Not a big issue, just saying.


Then I played around with the pans more, creating a little painting of California poppies on a 300gm Daler-Rowney watercolour postcard. 

I really enjoyed working with these and found mixing and creating the brilliant hues of the poppies alot of fun. Building up the tonal range and hues over dried layers worked well, there was no movement of hue from layer to layer. A little sepia from an Adel .04 pen was added when dry for emphasis. As a first attempt with this product am reasonably happy with the result.  

This travel set will now be part of my reqular 'kit' I take for nature drawing and studies. Great product!