Category: Drawing

Sketching with Iron Gall Fountain Pen Ink: Rohrer and Kilngner Ebony

I have recently purchased the Rohrer and Klingner limited edition Ebony iron gall ink, and I’ve filled one of my Lamy Safaris with it. While iron gall fountain pen ink can be corrosive to pens, and it does change colour over time, it does have a pretty nifty trait: it’s waterproof when dry.

So I made this quick sketch with my Lamy Safari extra fine nibbed fountain pen on a Cass Art recycled paper sketchbook:

And then I added some watercolour to the sketches (note that although this isn’t watercolour paper, the paper in this sketchbook does take light watercolour washes):

As expected, it worked pretty well. Note two things about the combination of iron gall ink and watercolour:

1. The ink must be dry before applying the watercolour.

2. As the water causes the paper fibers to expand, your ink lines may “spread” or display soft edges if you apply watercolour over them. You can see this in both sketches. Different paper will lead to different results, of course.

This was a fun little experiment, and a great way to test out this ink a bit more.

Full sketching kit.

Have you ever used iron gall ink with watercolour in your sketches?

Quick sketch: Joe

I want to live like him if I ever get to live to my 90s.

Uni-ball pin 0.8 fineliner

Quick sketch: New sculpture

Am I starting a new sketch journaling habit? Too early to tell. Meanwhile, I’m having fun teaching myself to sketch fast and loose.

Cheap Cass Art sketchbook, Uniball Pin 0.8 and watercolours
The original

Quick sketch: Guided architecture walk

Used a Uniball pin 0.8 fineliner and three Stabilo Boss highlighters in their new colour range on a Cass Art recycled paper sketchbook.

Yes the paper is ivory and the highlighters are weird.

London sketches

These two sketches were both done on the soft covered vegan Italian made Cass Art sketchbook. It has recycled paper inside which doesn’t look like or behave like recycled paper.

I sketched this in 3-4 minutes while sitting in the Phoenix Community Garden in London, and then took a lot of reference photos with my phone.

Later on I added watercolour to the sketch:

This is a 5-7 minute sketch of the stalls in Spitalfield market done with a sepia Faber Castell Pitt pen on the same Cass Art notebook.

I bought this sketchbook on a complete whim, because it was relatively inexpensive and I liked the look of it. I liked it so much I returned later on and bought a second sketchbook with a different cover colour.

What surprising and unexpectedly good products have you found lately?

Quick Greenwich Sketch

Still travelling. This one is a 10 minute sketch of the herb garden in Greenwich park, London. Paper is a Cass Art notebook with non watercolour paper that held up surprisingly well.

One Week 100 People 2024 Day 8 (Final Day)

So I was sick, which made sketching impossible for a few days. I’m still sick but I’m slightly better, so I sat down and powered through the rest of the missing sketches.

As I mentioned last time 61-68 were draw from life, the rest from earthsworld. This site is so much better for reference photos than the flickr gallery I used in previous years that it affected both my speed and my sketching quality. Also, I had a lot more fun sketching these portraits this year. The Leonardo Momento Zero Bohemian Twilight fine nibbed fountain pen was the perfect sketching companion, and Diamine fireside snug performed well on the Stillman and Birn Alpha paper. The larger landscape format also helped make these a joy.
Here are the previous days’ sketches: day 1, day 2, day 3, day 4, day 5, day 6, day 7.

This sketching challenge is always great to do, as it really pushes me outside my comfort zone. If you haven’t yet, I highly recommend giving it a try.

And as usual, which one is your favourite?

One Week 100 People 2024 Day 7

Had a packed day today so only a few minutes to sketch, but all of today’s sketches were done from live subjects.

I apologise for the potato quality photo

One Week 100 People 2024 Day 6

A long tiring day with two vet visits meant that I had precious little time to sketch. Got up to 60, and sort of them came out surprisingly well.

As expected, with my injury and the way this week is shaping up I likely will finish my sketches only on Tuesday or Wednesday, but I like the results so I’m not in a rush.

Which one is your favourite in this batch?