Tag: tel aviv

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: 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.

Postcards

When my brother and I visited The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando we bought a pack of postcards and some postage at Hogsmeade and posted some postcards home. They have a little “Owl Post” booth where you can get your postcard stamped with an owl post stamp, and it’s a charming experience. We ended up with a few postcards left over, so we posted them from our Disney hotel. A few weeks after we got home the postcards arrived and made out day.

I was just at a Shalom Sebba exhibition at the Tel-Aviv Museum of Art and after my visit I went to the museum store and bought some postcards there. Later that evening I spent some time writing postcards for my family, with little sketches inspired by Sebba’s work:

I had no idea where I would post them, as most of the post boxes in my area have been removed, but I wanted to at least try to post them before my dad’s surgery this week. With today’s postal service sending them would be a bit like tossing a message in a bottle into the sea and hoping it would eventually arrive at its destination. Yet there’s something about not just the wonderful experience of receiving snail mail which I wanted to give to my family, but something particular about postcards that made me want make the effort to post these cards that I could more easily hand deliver myself.

More than letter postcards evoke some things to me – a break from routine, a holiday, exotic places, better days. There’s something creative about the selection you make, and they make me want to sketch in them, write in their margins, be creative in the tiny space I’m given to work with. The limited space, zero privacy and the need to withstand the elements at least somewhat makes them a creative challenge we rarely encounter in days where everyone is an instant message away.

Yet that’s what made them appeal to me, because more than anything postcards speak of hope, and these days I need all the hope I can get.

Two Traveler’s Notebook sketches.

I’m still working my way through the Inkvent inks (9 pens left to write dry), and I’m trying to sketch more even on busy weeks. So I dusted off an old Traveler’s Notebook that I set up years ago and didn’t fill, and I started playing with fountain pens.

Quick Update

Happy fountain pen day to all who celebrate. I purchased a Leonardo Momento Zero Nuvola rose gold fine flex nib from Fontoplumo with the hopes that it will arrive at some point in the future (deliveries are still severely delayed).

Unlike past years I’ve started working on my Inkvent reviews now instead of in real time, as a way to make them less stressful. I decided to theme my sketches this year around my teddy bear collection.

My PTSD has been kicking my ass since Tuesday, when I got caught in a crowded shelter (small room, no windows, closed door, large rocket barrage. Couldn’t have been more triggering if I’d designed it). I’m taking some time off daily posting to take care of myself.